The Oak Ridge Police Department is asking for tips about an arson on Waddell Circle on Sunday, July 11.
The Oak Ridge Fire Department had responded to a residential fire in a quadplex that evening. (That was the same evening widespread power outages and partial power outages were reported in Oak Ridge.)
The fire on Waddell Circle was later determined to be set intentionally, and ORPD investigators responded to the fire.
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Psychiatric and mental health evaluations have now been scheduled for the two defendants charged with murder, sex crimes, kidnapping, and abuse of a corpse in a series of gruesome crimes allegedly committed against a 36-year-old woman in a home in east Oak Ridge between December 2019 and August 2020.
The mental health evaluation for Sean Finnegan, 52, the first co-defendant, is scheduled for Monday at Ridgeview Psychiatric Hospital in Oak Ridge. His evaluation was ordered by Anderson County General Sessions Court Judge Roger Miller on Friday, August 21.
Finnegan’s evaluation by Ridgeview is expected to include his competency to stand trial and his mental capacity at the time he allegedly committed the crimes against Jennifer Gail Paxton, the 36-year-old Knoxville woman who was killed, according to arrest warrants. Finnegan’s evaluation is also expected to include an IQ test and an evaluation of his ability to assess his conduct.
The results of the evaluation will be reported to public defender Kathy Kroeger, the court, and prosecutors. The results are usually not available to the public.
[Read more…]An evaluation at Ridgeview Psychiatric Hospital has been ordered for a 52-year-old man charged with murder, rape, kidnapping, and abuse of a corpse in a series of gruesome crimes allegedly committed against a 36-year-old woman in a home in east Oak Ridge between December 2019 and August 2020.
The evaluation was ordered for Sean Finnegan in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge on Friday. The evaluation was recommended by Finnegan’s attorney, who was able to show why it should be conducted, Anderson County General Sessions Court Judge Roger Miller said in the order.
Finnegan is represented by Kathy Kroeger, a public defender in the Seventh Judicial District in Anderson County.
The evaluation by Ridgeview is expected to include Finnegan’s competency to stand trial and his mental capacity at the time he allegedly committed the crimes against Jennifer Gail Paxton of Knoxville. It is also expected to include an IQ test and an evaluation of Finnegan’s ability to assess his conduct.
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Note: This story was last updated at 11:45 p.m.
An Anderson County judge on Tuesday denied a motion to reduce the $1 million bond for Rebecca Dishman, and a prosecutor said the state could consider the death penalty in the “especially heinous” murder.
Dishman, 22, is one of two defendants charged with murder, sex crimes, kidnapping, and abuse of a corpse in a series of gruesome crimes allegedly committed against Jennifer Gail Paxton, 36, of Knoxville, in a home in east Oak Ridge sometime between December and August.
Dishman had a hearing in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge on Tuesday afternoon. She was represented by defense attorney Paul Sexton.
Sexton said Dishman waived her right to be in court, and she did not appear to hear the discussion of her case. On Dishman’s behalf, Sexton asked Anderson County General Sessions Court Judge Roger Miller to reduce her bond.
“She’s a woman of limited means,” Sexton said, and there is no way she can afford to be released on bond.
Under the law, Dishman is entitled to a reasonable bond, Sexton said.
[Read more…]Note: This story contains graphic content. Reader discretion is advised.
Bond for Sean Finnegan was set at $1 million on Monday. It’s the same bond his co-defendant, Rebecca Elizabeth Dishman, received on Friday.
Finnegan, 52, and Dishman, 22, are charged with murder, sex crimes, kidnapping, and abuse of a corpse after a 36-year-old woman, Jennifer Gail Paxton, was allegedly tortured, raped, and strangled, and her body was allegedly cut and broken before being stuffed into a freezer in a home in east Oak Ridge.
Finnegan has been charged with five felonies after the Oak Ridge Police Department responded to a homicide report at the home on East Fairview Road on Wednesday night and found Paxton’s body during a search of the home early Thursday. The five felony charges against Finnegan are first-degree murder, aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence.
Dishman has also been charged with five felonies: first-degree murder, aggravated sexual battery, aggravated kidnapping, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence.
[Read more…]Note: This story contains graphic content. Reader discretion is advised.
Bond was set at $1 million on Friday for Rebecca Elizabeth Dishman, one of two Oak Ridge defendants charged with first-degree murder, sex crimes, and kidnapping after a 36-year-old woman was allegedly tortured, raped, and strangled, and her mutilated body was stuffed into a freezer.
The identity of the victim, Jennifer Gail Paxton, hadn’t initially been released because authorities wanted to ensure that family members had been notified of her death. On Friday night, the City of Oak Ridge said Paxton’s family had been notified.
Dishman, 22, one of the two defendants, has been charged with five felonies after Paxton’s death: first-degree murder, aggravated sexual battery, aggravated kidnapping, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence.
Her co-defendant, Sean Finnegan, 52, has also been charged with five felonies: first-degree murder, aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence.
Finnegan could have his bond set Monday, according to records in Anderson County General Sessions Court.
[Read more…]Note: This story contains graphic content. Reader discretion is advised.
The 36-year-old woman found dead in an Oak Ridge home early Thursday had been lured there with the promise of a place to stay, according to arrest warrants.
But once at the home on East Fairview Road, she became the victim of a series of gruesome crimes, including murder, according to the warrants, which were filed by Oak Ridge Police Department Sergeant Marvell Moore.
The woman was held against her will, tortured, and raped before she was killed, the warrants said.
She was chained to a bed and shackled with a dog collar, said the warrants, which were filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge. She was struck on the head and an arm with a baseball bat so she wouldn’t resist or try to escape the attacks, and her arms were bound with zip ties, the warrants said.
Once she was incapacitated, the two defendants in the case, Sean Finnegan, 52, and Rebecca Dishman, 22, both of Oak Ridge, repeatedly raped her before strangling her, causing her to die, the warrants said.
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Three people were shot in Oak Ridge on Thursday, four bystanders were allegedly in imminent danger, and two people have been arrested, with one facing two charges of attempted first-degree murder, according to police and court records.
Adrian Conan Curb, the 40-year-old Oak Ridge man charged with attempted murder after the shooting, allegedly had a handgun with a drum-style magazine attached, according to arrest warrants filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court.
The shooting was reported at about 8:39 p.m. Thursday on South Dillard Avenue in Scarboro.
The three people who were shot were taken to hospitals with injuries that aren’t considered life-threatening, the Oak Ridge Police Department said in a press release Friday.
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Six women were arrested Thursday and charged with theft and criminal conspiracy after they allegedly ran from a shoe store in Main Street Oak Ridge with about $3,300 worth of stolen merchandise, police officers said.
Oak Ridge Police Department Detective Marvell Moore said he had been conducting a retail theft patrol near Rack Room Shoes at about 1:19 p.m. Thursday. While in the parking lot, Moore said in arrest warrants filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court, he saw the women enter Rack Room Shoes with large purses and plastic bags that appeared to be empty.
“Based on my training and experience, I know that shoplifters will carry large empty bags to conceal merchandise,” Moore said in the warrants.
After a short time, Moore said he saw the women run out of Rack Room Shoes with the same bags that they had when they entered. However, now the bags were full, Moore said.
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William Antwon Mollette
Note: This story was last updated at 4:45 p.m.
CLINTON—An Oak Ridge man was sentenced to the maximum 30 years in prison in an attempted murder case as part of a plea agreement on Thursday after a shooting last year left a woman with life-threatening injuries.
William Antwon Mollette, 44, pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder and possession of a firearm during a dangerous felony in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton on Thursday.
Mollette, who has a prior felony conviction in Alabama, received the maximum 25 years on the attempted first-degree murder charge, a Class A felony, and he received the maximum five years on the firearm possession charge, a Class D felony. The two sentences are to be served consecutively for a total 30-year sentence.
The victim of the shooting, Cathy Griffin, was agreeable to the 30-year sentence, Tony Craighead, deputy district attorney general in Anderson County, told Criminal Court Judge Don Elledge.
Griffin read a statement in court during the plea agreement hearing. She described being shot and stalked by Mollette at a home on Walsh Lane last year, having her lungs collapse and blood stream from her abdomen, and knowing that she, a nurse, was dying. [Read more…]
The Oak Ridge Police Department investigates a shooting on East Holston Lane at about 1 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
CLINTON—An Oak Ridge man and woman pleaded guilty on Monday to their roles in a robbery that started as a drug deal set up through social media and ended with a shooting that injured one person.
The plea agreements for the two defendants, Nicole Marie Brewer, 21, and Nicholas Rashad Strickland, 27, were entered in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton on Monday. The robbery and shooting were reported on East Holston Lane in Oak Ridge on Tuesday, November 15, 2016.
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Dominique Leshawn Gordon
An Oak Ridge man has been indicted on aggravated robbery, aggravated kidnapping, and aggravated assault charges after an alleged robbery at Hibachi Burger in Grove Center in January 2017.
A 19-count indictment was filed against Dominique Leshawn Gordon, 22, by the Anderson County Grand Jury on April 3.
Gordon pleaded not guilty during an arraignment in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton on April 30.
His indictment includes one count of aggravated robbery; one count of especially aggravated kidnapping with a weapon when a child, who was then two years old, was involved; eight counts of aggravated kidnapping while committing a felony, confining the victims and interfering with their liberty; and nine counts of aggravated assault while using a gun. [Read more…]
