Bathroom key becomes key evidence in killing of teen girl

Kim Smith

Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2000 | 10:36 a.m.

Two years after 16-year-old Jessica Heaney was found dead in the bathroom of her condominium's clubhouse, her accused killer was found with the key to that restroom on his keychain.

Henderson Police Department Detective Eddie Newman offered that testimony Tuesday on the fourth day of Stephen Finnegan's preliminary hearing.

Heaney was found sprawled facedown in a toilet bowl at the Arbor Court condos on March 7, 1998. Police theorize that Finnegan sodomized her, strangled her and then stepped on her back while holding onto the bathroom stall's walls to make sure she had stopped breathing.

The girl was found shoeless, dressed in a pair of jeans and a bathing suit top.

Finnegan, who once lived in the same complex, was arrested May 31 when police were able to match prints from the bathroom and women's sauna to Finnegan's during a training seminar. No match had been made earlier because it wasn't until after her death that Finnegan was convicted of gross lewdness and his prints ended up in a computer data base.

Newman testified that when he interviewed Finnegan, the 30-year-old dry cleaner employee told him he didn't know Heaney. He further told him that although he had been in the sauna, he had never used the women's restroom.

Without being told that his fingerprints had been found or where, Finnegan also told him that the men's room had once been the women's restroom, Newman said.

According to earlier court testimony, however, the bathrooms have never been switched.

Newman said that after he arrested Finnegan he searched Finnegan's Green Valley home in the hopes of finding the girl's missing white sweater and keychain. He also hoped to find shoes that would match the print left on the girl's back.

When he came up empty, Newman said he searched through Finnegan's personal belongings, which were being stored at the jail. It turned out that one of the keys on his keychain fit the lock of the restroom where Heaney died.

Defense attorney Bill Terry asked Henderson Justice of the Peace Rodney Burr to suppress the evidence of the key, arguing that Newman should have received a search warrant before searching Finnegan's belongings. Burr denied the motion, agreeing with Deputy District Attorney Michael O'Callaghan, who noted that the belongings were in the possession of the jail, not Finnegan.

Also testifying Tuesday was Henderson Police fingerprint examiner Rich Little, who testified about matching Finnegan's prints to those found at the scene.

Under cross-examination from Terry, Little said he didn't try to lift fingerprints from the zipper and button of Heaney's jeans. He also testified there were other prints at the scene that he was unable to lift because they were smudged.