Medical examiner testifies student likely was strangled

Kim Smith

Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2000 | 10:58 a.m.

A Silverado High School student found dead near the clubhouse of her condominium complex in 1998 probably was strangled and sodomized, a medical examiner said Tuesday.

Dr. Sheldon Green spent nearly three hours testifying during Stephen Finnegan's preliminary hearing, which will determine whether there is enough evidence for him to be tried in the girl's death.

The 30-year-old Finnegan was arrested in connection with the slaying of Jessica Heaney two years after the crime when a Henderson detective took an unknown set of fingerprints found at the murder scene to a training seminar and they matched Finnegan's.

Heaney, 16, was last seen alive at 11 a.m. on March 6, 1998, and her body was found 24 hours later in the clubhouse area of the Arbor Court condominiums.

Prosecutors Michael O'Callaghan and Lisa Luzaich are seeking to charge Finnegan with first-degree murder and set out during the hearing to show that he not only killed her with premeditation and deliberation, but also during the commission of other felonies -- sexual assault, kidnapping and burglary.

Green testified that Heaney probably died between 4:30 p.m. March 6 and 2:30 a.m. March 7 after someone strangled her. Her head showed signs of trauma as if she had been hit, and a shoe print was found on her partially clothed body.

Green added that there was evidence that the girl had been sodomized, though no body fluids were found.

Under cross-examination from defense attorney Bill Terry, Green testified no foreign hairs were found on her body, and conceded that something other than sexual assault could have caused the girl's internal injuries.

Also testifying Tuesday was Linda Ebbert, a sexual assault nurse examiner who has examined more than 900 sexual assault victims. She testified she doesn't know of anything besides sodomy that could cause the injuries Heaney sustained.

The preliminary hearing is scheduled to reconvene Thursday before Henderson Justice of the Peace Rodney Burr. Expected to testify are the crime scene technicians who found the palm and fingerprints that ultimately led police to Finnegan.

Those prints were found in the women's bathroom and sauna in the clubhouse.

Finnegan's prints ended up in a crime data base following his conviction in 1999 on an open and gross lewdness charge. As a result of that conviction, he was forced to register as a sex offender.