The jury will again make its decision on Monday about the fate of Sean Finnegan, accused of murder

Testimony has concluded and a jury will decide whether 56-year-old Sean Shannon Finnegan of Oak Ridge will be found guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated rape and a number of other crimes in connection with the murder of 36-year-old Jennifer Gail Paxton. He is accused of killing the woman and placing her in a freezer for eight to nine months, mutilating her body and raping her.

The jury met Saturday in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton and deliberated for several hours before adjourned for further deliberations Monday. Jury work will begin at 8:30 a.m.

Judge Don Ash listens as defense attorney Kit Rodgers delivers his opening statement in the trial of Sean Finnegan in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton on August 13.

Judge Don Ash selected four jurors as alternates. The two men and two women are currently being held away from the other 12 jurors who make up the jury, but are available in case a juror becomes ill before a verdict is reached. The 12-person jury consists of six women and six men, all white, most of whom appear to be middle-aged or younger.

After jurors left the courtroom to begin deliberations on Saturday, Ash allowed three of Jennifer Gail Paxton's cousins to read their printed statements. Anderson County Assistant District Attorney Kevin Allen, who is prosecuting the case against Finnegan along with Assistant District Attorney Sarah Winningham Keith, said jurors would hear those statements if Finnegan is convicted of first-degree murder, and the jury would then have to decide whether he should receive the death penalty that the district attorney's office is seeking.

Each of the cousins became emotional as their statements were read, and at one point some family members decided to leave the courtroom as they themselves appeared emotional.

Beverly Jeffers recounted how family members searched for Paxton for months. Brittany Payne, who testified Aug. 13 that Paxton was like a sister to her growing up, said she last saw her around Thanksgiving 2019. Jeffers said Paxton's mother, Patty, received the call she never hoped to get on Aug. 6, 2020 – that her daughter was dead. Jeffers said Patty called her afterward, so devastated that Jeffers couldn't understand what Patty was saying.

Paxton's mother died earlier this year.

“She died heartbroken,” Jeffers said, adding that she and the other family members in court – all women – promised her they would be in court every day to show people that Paxton was loved.

Michelle McMahan, who described herself as Patty's cousin, said Paxton was kind and loving but that she had a hard life and was never able to “make peace and get over it.” As the middle child and only daughter, Paxton made a series of mistakes, she said. Those mistakes were described in testimony from family members and attorneys at the week-long trial: She lost custody of her seven children, she became addicted to drugs, particularly heroin, she was homeless and she prostituted herself to support herself and her drug habit.

“She trusted too much and too quickly,” McMahan said.

Patty would say she made a lot of mistakes in raising Paxton, McMahan said. The cousin said that was one of the reasons Paxton went to live with her grandmother.

“She had love for her grandmother,” McMahan said.

It was also the grandmother who visited the homeless Paxton every month and asked for money, Paxton's aunt Beverly Payne testified last week. It was the grandmother who called Jeffers almost every day to find out if anyone in the family had found her.

McMahan said she spent a lot of time with Paxton's mother before she died, and every night the woman had nightmares in which her daughter screamed in pain or begged for mercy.

Speaking to McMahan after her testimony, Judge Ash said, “Jennifer is doing much better (now).”

Closing remarks from both sides

In their closing arguments Friday, prosecutors asked jurors to find Finnegan guilty of murder, rape, kidnapping and all 13 crimes he is charged with in connection with Paxton's death.

But attorney Christopher “Kit” Rodgers, who is representing Finnegan along with attorney Forrest Wallace, said there are unknowns in the state's indictment, such as the exact dates the alleged crimes were committed, and yet “they are asking you to find him guilty of all of these crimes and execute him.”

Referring to Allen's closing argument, which began by urging jurors to use their common sense, Rodgers said prosecutors had equated common sense with saying, “There's a dead girl and a dead body. That's got to be that creepy guy over there (Finnegan).”

Rodgers, in his opening and closing arguments, blamed many of the crimes Finnegan is accused of on the woman attorneys described as Finnegan's fiancée or girlfriend – Rebecca Dishman, 26, who was sentenced to life in prison last year after pleading guilty to first-degree murder as part of a plea deal. Shortly after Dishman and Finnegan were arraigned, District Attorney Dave Clark said he would seek the death penalty for both. The two have been in the Anderson County Jail in Clinton since their arrests in early August 2020. The crimes, which occurred before Dec. 31, 2019, according to testimony and witness statements from assistant district attorneys, occurred before Dec. 31, 2019.

Keith spoke Friday of Dishman being “thrown under the bus” by Finnegan. Finnegan told authorities he did not kill Paxton but put her in a freezer to protect Dishman. Jurors on Friday watched an August 2020 video of Finnegan being questioned by two Oak Ridge police officers. In the video, whose sound quality was poor, Finnegan could still be heard defending his actions.

“I didn't know what to do, I was scared,” he said. “I didn't kill the girl.”

Finnegan told Oak Ridge Police Capt. Mike Uher, who has been retired since the August 2020 interview, and then-Sergeant Marvell Moore that he took Paxton to his home on Fairview Road in Oak Ridge for sex. He said after having sex in his upstairs bedroom, he wanted to use the bathroom and she wanted to take a shower. He said Paxton left the bathroom and went downstairs, and then he heard noises. He said he ran downstairs and found Dishman, who lived with him and his now-deceased mother, beating Paxton with a baseball bat.

“I don’t know what came over her that day,” he said of Dishman.

He said he asked her why she did it and she told him she didn't know, something had come over her.

Finnegan said Dishman cleaned up the blood from the attack and they all went upstairs. He said Dishman tied Paxton to the bed with chains.

Finnegan, who worked as a cook at a Knoxville bar, said he came home another day and found Paxton dead.

Assistant district attorneys talked about how Dishman, who testified against Finnegan on August 13, recounted how Finnegan slowly choked Paxton to death, taking breaks and stopping to smoke. Keith also recounted that Paxton's body had many cuts, including an “S” carved into her buttocks or hip area.

Allen said Paxton was assaulted, beaten, choked and raped by Finnegan.

But Finnegan's attorney said the jury would have to consider who might have had the intent, who needed or wanted Paxton's death, who spent most of the day at home with Paxton while Finnegan worked shifts of 12 hours or more, and that person was Dishman.

Lawyers for both sides spoke about how Dishman openly told the court that she practices Satanism, is Wiccan and cuts herself to cope. Keith also said of Dishman, “She was into kinky sex,” and Rodgers said she brought her own sex toys when she moved in with Finnegan after meeting him on Facebook.

Allen said Finnegan proved in his evidence that he was fraudulent and a liar. He said Finnegan could have thrown Paxton's body off the Solway Bridge, but instead he chose to keep it.

“That woman in his freezer was his trophy,” Allen said. “That's why he kept her there.”

Finnegan is accused of murder, aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping, desecration of a corpse, tampering with evidence and more. At the only hearing since the trial began, Finnegan told Judge Ash that he was waiving his right to testify.

The jury will again make its decision on Monday about the fate of Sean Finnegan, accused of murder

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