20 September 2024 :
August 21, 2024 - Tennessee. Sean Finnegan gets death penalty for murder of Jennifer Gail Paxton
An Anderson County jury returned Aug. 21 with the sentence for Sean Shannon Finnegan in the killing of Jennifer Gail Paxton of Knoxville: death by lethal injection.
Assistant District Attorneys Sarah Winningham Keith and Kevin Allen said Paxton’s body had been kept for about 8 months in a freezer in the bedroom, but was moved quickly by Finnegan to a place under his bed before police arrived to search for the body, which was found in early August 2020. They believe she was strangled to death in December 2019. Finnegan’s girlfriend or fiancee, 26-year-old Rebecca Dishman, told officers that Finnegan killed Paxton, strangling her with string over a lengthy period of time, taking breaks, and stopping to smoke.
Dishman reached a plea agreement with the district attorney general’s office last year, pleading guilty to 1st-degree murder and agreeing to testify against Finnegan in return for a life sentence. She testified against him last week. Finnegan turns 57 next month.
