Tenn. man sentenced to death for kidnapping, assaulting, killing woman, and leaving body in freezer

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (TCN) -- A jury determined that a man will die by lethal injection rather than spend life in prison without parole after they convicted him of murder and several other charges.

On Aug. 21, the Anderson County District Attorney General announced the jury’s decision to sentence Sean Finnegan to death for the kidnapping, rape, and murder of 36-year-old Jennifer Paxton. He had been found guilty of 11 of the 13 charges he stood trial for. The Oak Ridger reports those crimes were two counts of first-degree murder, criminally negligent homicide, attempted aggravated rape, aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping, especially aggravated kidnapping, conspiracy to commit aggravated rape, conspiracy to commit aggravated kidnapping, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence.

The jury reportedly acquitted him on charges of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and a second count of aggravated rape.

Finnegan’s girlfriend, Rebecca Dishman, pleaded guilty in September 2023 to first-degree murder and two counts of rape of a child. She was ordered to spend life in prison for the murder count and 50 years for the rape charges.

According to the district attorney general’s office, in August 2020, Oak Ridge Police and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation detectives executed a search warrant at Dishman and Finnegan’s home and discovered Paxton’s frozen body. The Oak Ridger reports Finnegan moved Paxton’s body from the freezer to under his bed when police arrived to search the residence.

According to the Oak Ridger, Finnegan reportedly chained Paxton to a bed, sexually assaulted her, hit her with a baseball bat, and strangled her to death with a string. He reportedly took smoke breaks during the torture. WBIR-TV reports he kept the freezer with her body in it in his bedroom closet. Law enforcement ultimately found out about Paxton after Dishman revealed the information to a neighbor.

Paxton had seven children who were no longer in her custody. The Oak Ridger reports Paxton was homeless, struggled with drugs and alcohol, and sometimes worked as a prostitute.

District Attorney General Dave Clark said following the sentencing decision, "Of course, it is the heaviest of decisions to seek to put someone to death. In concert with the victim’s family, I felt that it was important to ask an Anderson County jury to sentence Sean Finnegan to death based upon what he did to Jennifer Paxton. To do less may have sent the wrong message, dishonored Jennifer’s memory, failed to acknowledge her suffering or not acknowledged the degree of Finnegan’s conduct."

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