Trial looms in slaying of teen girl

Greg Tuttle

Friday, Oct. 20, 2000 | 10:48 a.m.

A jury will decide if a Henderson man is guilty of murder for the death two years ago of a 16-year-old girl whose body was found face down in the toilet of a clubhouse restroom.

Henderson Justice of the Peace Rodney Burr concluded a two-week preliminary hearing Thursday by ruling there is enough evidence to send Stephen Finnegan's case to Clark County District Court.

Finnegan, 30, faces charges of murder, sexual assault and kidnapping. He is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 2.

Deputy District Attorney Michael O'Callaghan said after the hearing the case will be reviewed by a committee to determine whether prosecutors should seek the death penalty against Finnegan. Prosecutors have 30 days from the time of arraignment to announce whether they intend to seek a death sentence.

"It will be an interesting trial," Burr said after making his ruling.

Jessica Heany's body was found inside a clubhouse at the Arbor Court condos on March 7, 1998. Investigators said the Silverado High School student was sodomized and strangled before her face was forced into a toilet bowl.

Police found prints on the bathroom stall, but at the time they were unable to match them with a suspect and no other clues immediately surfaced in the girl's death.

But earlier this year Finnegan's prints were matched to those found in the bathroom during a police training seminar in California. Finnegan's prints were entered into a computer data base when he was convicted of gross lewdness after Heany's death.

Henderson Police Detective Eddie Newman testified at the preliminary hearing that he interviewed Finnegan on March 31. Finnegan said he did not know the girl and had never used the women's restroom at the clubhouse. But the detective became suspicious when Finnegan said he believed the men's and women's restrooms at the clubhouse had been switched.

Both Finnegan and the girl lived at the condos at the time, and a key to the clubhouse was later found on a key ring belonging to Finnegan.

Defense attorney Bill Terry argued Thursday there is not enough evidence linking Finnegan to the girl's death and said the case should be dismissed.

"This is a case everybody wants solved, but they are targeting the wrong individual, and the facts speak for themselves," Terry said.

O'Callaghan said Finnegan's explanation of the switched bathrooms "doesn't fly" and his statement to police shows a "consciousness of guilt."

Burr denied a defense request to lower Finnegan's bail and release him on house arrest pending trial. But the judge dismissed a burglary charge against Finnegan, saying there was not enough evidence to support that charge.