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Murder trial against Jennifer Gail Paxton: Lawyers present their arguments

Lawyers paint verbal pictures of the couple’s lifestyle and sexual relationship

The first-degree murder trial of Sean Shannon Finnegan of Oak Ridge began Tuesday morning in Clinton. Attorneys for both sides told jurors that Jennifer Gail Paxton had been dead for eight or nine months before her mutilated body was found by Oak Ridge police in August 2020, hidden under Finnegan's bed, where it had been taken from the freezer.

According to attorney Christopher “Kit” Rodgers, the question in the case is who committed the crimes – Finnegan or his fiancée Rebecca Dishman, who is currently serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to first-degree murder last year as part of a deal with the Anderson County Attorney General's Office. He said she was the one who told Oak Ridge police about Paxton in 2020. As part of her deal, Dishman will testify against Finnegan, the man who Assistant District Attorney Sarah Winningham Keith said Dishman fell in love with on Facebook months after they met.

In Anderson County Criminal Court, Rodgers told the 16 jurors the trial would be difficult. He said Finnegan, Dishman and Paxton led lifestyles of drugs, alcohol and “weird sex” that were likely different from those facing the jury. But, he said, jurors would have to focus on the question of whether Finnegan is guilty and of what he is guilty. He said his closing argument would likely suggest Finnegan was guilty of crimes he committed after Paxton's death. He said Dishman was with Paxton all day most days because Finnegan worked full-time until the wee hours of the morning.

He said jurors would have to consider who had the motive to kill – Paxton or Finnegan.

“There is no denying that something terrible happened,” he said.

The state's indictment against Finnegan

Dishman met Finnegan in the fall of 2019, and in December Paxton was held captive at the home where the two lived with Finnegan's ailing mother, according to prosecutor Keith. Their relationship involved bondage and a “master-servant relationship,” Keith said.

Dishman was 22 and Finnegan was 52 when they were arrested in August 2020.

Paxton, 36, was a drug addict and homeless. She lived at times with other homeless people in Knoxville on Chapman Highway or Merchants Drive, Keith said. Finnegan worked at a bar on Merchants Drive and Paxton worked as a prostitute for drugs or money.

For that reason, Keith said, Finnegan took Paxton to his home on Fairview Road in Oak Ridge.

And she never left.

She said Paxton was chained to a bed in the house and strangled to death by Finnegan. The process may have taken hours as he repeatedly choked her for a while and then let go. After she died, he ordered a freezer and placed her body in it. After Paxton's death, her body was mutilated, she said.

Keith said Dishman went to a neighbor's house in August and told them she wanted to leave the house and Finnegan. While a neighbor drove her to Campbell County, she told the neighbor about Paxton and what happened. Police were contacted and a patrol was sent to the house.

Investigators made the connection and contacted Knox County police about the missing woman. Before dawn on August 6, Oak Ridge police obtained a search warrant for the home. Her body was not found in the freezer in the bedroom closet, but under a bed. Her body had freezer burn, Keith said, and had been wiped down with bleach.

Finnegan's lawyer responds in his opening statement

“This is a shock and fear campaign,” said attorney Rodger, who said the state's opening statements came “straight from Rebecca Dishman's mouth.”

“Just because they say it's true doesn't mean it's true,” he said.

Rodger said Finnegan's first reaction to police was to say he helped Dishman cover up the murder. He told jurors they would find that the timing in Finnegan's version of the story was more consistent than in Dishman's.

Finnegan worked full time and supported himself, his mother, Dishman and sometimes others who needed shelter or medication, Keith said.

He said jurors need to consider the power in the relationship between Finnegan and Dishman. He said the age difference plays a big role in people's perceptions and Finnegan is more in line with people's idea of ​​the kind of person who would commit these crimes.

“If he were Leonardo DiCaprio, we would say the 21-year-old took advantage of him for his money,” Keith said.

For some reason, he said, the state offered Dishman a deal.

“So who is in control?” he asked, and who had the motive to kill Paxton?

“She wasn't trapped in the house,” he said of Dishman. The lawyer described her as someone who was depressed and had learning difficulties, but none of those represented a lack of intelligence.

Rodgers claimed that Dishman had reversed roles in their relationship and that she could be behind the crimes because she knew all the details.

The jury and the trial

Sixteen people have been selected for the jury. At the end of the trial, which is expected to last at least two weeks, a decision will be made as to which 12 people will be on the jury and which will be alternates, said Judge Don Ash.

There are eight men and eight women. They will be isolated from the outside world for the duration of the trial.

The state demands the death penalty.

All charges against Finnegan in the trial

He is accused of:

  • Three counts of premeditated murder
  • Three cases of serious rape
  • Serious kidnapping
  • Particularly serious kidnapping
  • Conspiracy to commit premeditated murder
  • Conspiracy to commit aggravated rape
  • Conspiracy to commit aggravated kidnapping
  • Abuse of a corpse
  • Manipulation of evidence

Donna Smith, news editor for the Oak Ridger, covers news from the Oak Ridge area. You can email her at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter at @ridgernewsed.

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