Jury returning Wednesday to decide on sentence for Oak Ridge resident Sean Finnegan

The jury will return at 9 a.m. Wednesday to decide on whether to give Sean Finnegan a sentence of death or life in prison for the murder of Jennifer Gail Paxton.

The sentencing hearing for Finnegan began Tuesday morning. Deliberations began shortly after the jury left the courtroom at 2:36 p.m. Jurors returned at nearly 5:30 p.m. and recessed for dinner at the hotel where they have been sequestered. Special Judge Don Ash said they would return to the Anderson County Courthouse in Clinton to continue deliberations at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

The sentencing hearing

Finnegan is never going to be free again, attorney Forrest Wallace assured Anderson County jurors on Tuesday morning. He said the minimum sentence they could give him for the first-degree murder of Jennifer Gail Paxton is 51 years. Finnegan turns 57 next month.

"Do the math," he said in explaining that their decison on Finnegan's sentence will never allow for him to be free again whether they choose life in prison or the death sentence.T

Arguing for the death sentence, Anderson County Assistant District Attorney General Kevin Allen said, "Sean Finnegan must be given the same amount of mercy they (he and Rebecca Dishman) gave Jennifer Paxton.

The sentencing hearing for Finnegan began Tuesday morning. Deliberations began shortly after the jury left the courtroom at 2:36 p.m. Special Judge Don Ash said he had court officials order dinner for them, anticipating the deliberations will extend at least until 5 or 5:30 p.m. He said jurors can then decide whether to continue working after dinner and into the night or recess and return to court at the Anderson County Courthouse in Clinton on Wednesday morning.

The early life of Sean Finnegan

Attorney Wallace brought two witnesses before the jurors as part of his work, which he described as showing Finnegan's humanity. The first was the manager who had worked with him at the bar in Knoxville, who testified during the trial that he worked most of the time and was reliable.

His former sister-in-law painted a darker picture of Finnegan's early life.

Roxanne Mundy of Indiana testified about his home life when she married into the family. Sean Finnegan was in his early to middle teens. He had two younger brothers and a sister, and two older brothers, including John Finnegan Jr., who Mundy married. They are divorced.

"I was terrified of the man," she said of her former father-in-law, Sean's father. She described the man known as John Sr. or "Big John" as an abusive alcoholic and gambler who frequently abused his wife Frances, Sean's mother, both verbally and physically, including at least once "beyond recognition," and causing the children to run for their rooms when he came home. The violence continued to the point that she got Frances to get an order of protection against him, she said, which he violated. She said she and John Jr. helped Frances get an apartment in their building for her, Sean and his younger brother and sister, the older brothers having moved out of the home in Florida by that time.

Mundy said before she met her husband, the family had fled Ohio, leaving behind their home and belongings, and were living in a car parked in a rest area in Florida until enough money could be earned for a home. Sean and one of the brothers were sent to live with uncles. She said she didn't know if they were actually relatives or not. The younger siblings stayed with their mother in the car.

The subject of the uncles came up later. She said when a truant officer showed up at the Finnegan home to report that Sean Finnegan and a brother weren't coming to school, it was discovered that the uncles were picking them up. She recalled Sean coming home one day in a "hot mess," very upset, and revealing he was being sexually and physically abused by the uncles and others.

As Mundy testified, Finnegan wiped tears from his eyes.

She said when the father found out Sean had been missing that much school he beat him so bad that he was unable to go to school for about a week because of the bruises. Attorney Williams presented school records which he said indicated Sean essentially only went to school through the eighth grade.

The former sister-in-law jumped forward in the timeline to tell of an adult Sean Finnegan getting a job at a restaurant in Fort Lauderdale where he was the master chef and general manager, enjoying the job that included dressing in the white coat and chef's hat and mingling with the guests and food critics.

"He was a great cook," she said.

That restaurant would eventually close and he'd go to another, she said. He moved to East Tennessee she said when the restaurant wanted to expand to Knoxville. When his siblings couldn't take care of his mother, she said, he offered to allow her to come stay with him. During the trial it came out that she had been in hospice at the time the offenses occurred and has since died.

Mundy said she hadn't seen him in about 34 years, but she had known the adult Sean Finnegan to be someone that no one would guess was different, with a beautiful wife, pet dogs he loved, nice homes and clothes, and cordial to people. In response to questions, she said she knew he drank alcohol at night and smoke pot, getting drunk a lot.

On the state's side, Paxton's cousins gave statements previously reported on about how her death had impacted their lives. A new statement was given from Paxton's grandmother, who relatives said she called her mom. It was read on the stand by Paxton's cousin Brittany Payne. In the printed statement, the grandmother said, "Losing her destroyed my heart. She was my everything." She added that the nightmares she had on earth would never end and that she knew she'd be with her granddaughter again in Heaven.

EARLIER STORY BELOW

The 12-member jury that convicted Sean Shannon Finnegan of first-degree murder, aggravated rape and aggravated kidnapping returned to Anderson County Criminal Court on Tuesday morning to begin the process of deciding whether to give him the death penalty or life in prison.

Special Judge Don Ash told the jury the process would be like the trial, but much shorter. He said they would probably leave the courtroom to decide on Finnegan's sentencing around 3 or 4 p.m. He said they could work past dinner time and into the night if needed, or return on Wednesday morning if that is needed.

As reported earlier, the jury found Finnegan guilty Monday of:

• Two counts of first-degree murder
• Criminally negligent homicide (instead of another count of first-degree murder charge)
• Attempted aggravated rape
• Aggravated rape
• Aggravated kidnapping
• Especially aggravated kidnapping
• Conspiracy to commit aggravated rape
• Conspiracy to commit aggravated kidnapping
• Abuse of a corpse
• Tampering with evidence

He was found not guilty of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and another count of aggravated rape.

In January 2022, Anderson County District Attorney General Dave Clark announced he would seek the death penalty against Finnegan and his girlfriend or fiance, Rebecca. As reported in The Oak Ridger, he issued a news release to the media announcing that he had filed the notice of intent to seek the death sentence with the court. In the release, he outlined the legal factors that allowed him to seek the death penalty.

Specifically, the release stated the murder was “especially heinous, atrocious or cruel in that it involved torture or serious physical abuse beyond what was necessary to produce death." The legal factors also included that Dishman and Finnegan had allegedly committed the murder for the purpose of avoiding or interfering with being arrested for aggravated kidnapping and rape; they had a “substantial role” in the alleged aggravated kidnapping and aggravated rape; and they “knowingly mutilated the body of the victim.”

In September 2023, Dishman pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was given a life sentence as part of a plea agreement with Clark's office. Dishman also entered a guilty plea to two counts of child rape in a separate case. Fifty years were added to her life sentence because of those two charges. As a condition of her plea, Dishman was required to cooperate with Clark's office in its death penalty case against Finnegan. She testified on Aug. 13 against him.

The Oak Ridger's News Editor Donna Smith covers Oak Ridge area news. Email her at dsmith@oakridger.com and follow her on Twitter@ridgernewsed.

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This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Jury returning Wednesday to decide on sentence for Oak Ridge resident Sean Finnegan