ANDERSON COUNTY, Tenn. — Day one of witness testimony has wrapped up, where the jury heard graphic details in the torture-killing of a Knoxville woman.
Sean Finnegan is accused of kidnapping, raping and murdering 35-year-old Jennifer Paxton in his home in Oak Ridge in 2019, then storing her body in a freezer for months.
Five witnesses took the stand, although there was one who spent most of the day on the stand: Rebecca Dishman.
Dishman was 21 years old at the time of the killing and was dating Finnegan. Now, she's a witness for the state after accepting a plea deal to avoid the death penalty for the murder.
“There’s no denying something horrible happened. Something horrible,” defense attorney Kit Rodgers said in his opening statement. “There’s a reason why there are cameras in the courtroom and the media’s here y'all. It’s because this is the kind of thing that people podcast about. I assume there are some podcasters here. This is the kind of thing people write books about right? Because it’s fantastic, it’s sensational, you’ve got a body in the freezer. I mean it’s got all the hallmarks of a movie, doesn’t it?”
The gruesome nature of the case is one element the defense and prosecution can both agree on. Where they differ is about what co-defendant Dishman’s role was in the killing.
“She has what is a BDSM relationship with Sean Finnegan,” Assistant District Attorney General Sarah Keith said in her opening. “If you’re not familiar with that term it is bondage, dominance, submission, sadomasochism. It is a master-servant sort of relationship.”
Keith called Dishman to the stand and asked questions about her relationship with Finnegan.
“I knew it would be kinky sex, but I didn’t think it’d be violent as it was,” Dishman testified.
Dishman says she was there when Finnegan brought home Paxton, who witnesses say was working in prostitution to fund a drug addiction.
She was also there when Finnegan tormented and abused her, she testified.
“As I walked in, [Finnegan] was straddled over [Paxton], strangling her with a shoestring and told me to help him,” Dishman said in answer to questioning from the state. “And I just shut down and sat on the bed and just gave up essentially.”
“How long did this go on?” Keith asked.
“For hours,” Dishman responded.
Before she was killed, Dishman testified that Finnegan hit Paxton with a baseball bat while she screamed. Then, she says the two took her up to the bedroom, where Finnegan zip-tied and handcuffed her to the bed and forced her to perform oral sex.
Dishman testified she was home alone with Paxton almost every day while she says Finnegan went to work from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. at the Pint House. Dishman testified she unsuccessfully tried to let Paxton go once, but never tried telling police because “at the time I wasn’t thinking rationally,” she said.
“Fear overtook everything,” Dishman continued.
With the defense, Rodgers argues that Dishman was not powerless.
“She was not trapped at the house,” Rodgers said in his opening. “That’s where she lived because he housed her and fed her and provided her a phone and probably glasses and probably food and probably every other thing because she didn’t have a job.”
The defense says Dishman was jealous Finnegan had brought Paxton home and took part in the killing. In cross examination, the defense attacked her credibility.
“Today you said something about Sean burning you with a torch. In any of your interviews prior, you never mentioned anything about a torch did you?” Rodgers questioned.
“No,” she responded.
“Okay,” Rodgers countered. “And then you also talked about him cutting you with a box cutter. In any of your other interviews, you never mentioned anything about a box cutter have you?”
“No,” Dishman repeated.
The defense also brought up Dishman’s prior interest in Satanism, as well as an incident in jail where Dishman threatened another inmate. The defense says Dishman was jealous of the other inmate, who was talking to a corrections officer Dishman was allegedly in a relationship with.
In questioning from the state, Dishman testified her parents died when she was a high school senior in 2016. After that, Dishman said she lived with several different people, including three of her five fiances.
Eventually in 2019, Dishman said she met Finnegan on Facebook and moved in with him after two weeks.
“You will see from the proof that Rebecca Dishman was a participant at the bequest of Mr Finnegan,” the state said in opening. “You will see that she was controlled and eventually her dynamic with Mr. Finnegan changed from this is something im an active participant in to the point that she felt that she needed to get out.”
Dishman testified that eventually, she told police about the murder about eight months later.
Four other witnesses also testified. Two, Paxton's aunt and cousin, shared about their relationship with the victim.
"She just made people laugh," Brittany Payne said about her cousin, who she likened to a sister. "Did whatever she could to make people happy."
Payne's mother also testified, sharing that Paxton had seven children who had been taken away by the state because of Paxton's battle with addiction. Once she no longer had custody of her kids, both Brittany and Beverly Payne testified that Paxton's addiction got worse.
Matthew Johnston with Oak Ridge Police Department also testified to verify the 9-1-1 call that was played for the jury. In it, the jury heard a neighbor call police to report a body in a freezer at Finnegan's house.
A neighbor also testified at the end of the day on Tuesday. Court resumes Wednesday at 9 a.m. with more witness testimony.
