Former American Idol contestant and pastor found guilty of murdering wife
Caleb Flynn shot his wife, Ashley, dead in their Ohio home in February before saying in a 9/11 call she was killed by burglars.
Former American Idol contestant and pastor found guilty of murdering wife
A former Ohio music pastor who once competed on the TV talent show American Idol has been convicted of murdering his wife.
Caleb Flynn, 40, shot Ashley Flynn twice in the back of the head while she was asleep in bed at their Ohio home on 16 February this year, then attempted to say burglars had killed her.
The jury took less than three hours to reach its decision.
Flynn was also convicted on the other eight counts against him, including aggravated murder and tampering with evidence. He now faces life in prison without parole.
Closing arguments concluded on Tuesday in Flynn’s trial, ending eight days of testimony that included a song played in court that prosecutors said he wrote for the woman he was having an affair with.
Over the course of the trial, prosecutors presented evidence including police body camera footage, along with activity on Flynn’s iPhone and Apple Watch around the time of the killing.
They also called dozens of witnesses, including his former mistress Alleigha Botner, whom he met while she was an intern at his church.
Some of their 100,000 text messages were read aloud in court. The defence called no witnesses.
"I was up until 4am last night crying, literally thinking of ways to kill her and not go to jail," Flynn wrote in a message to Botner, 24, in August 2025.
In another message, he wrote: "I just want her dead and gone."
During closing arguments on Tuesday, Miami County Prosecuting Attorney Paul Watkins focused heavily on Flynn’s text messages, which he said showed Flynn’s "hatred" for his wife.
Flynn was seen in court at times appearing emotional, sniffling and wiping tears from his eyes.
Watkins also said that when police arrived at the family’s home in Tipp City in the early hours of 16 February, Flynn told officers he had been lying in his daughters’ bedroom when he heard gunfire.
Flynn said he then found his 37-year-old wife dead in the bedroom after noticing the garage side door was open.
Watkins said Flynn later told investigators he had not been to the garage, contradicting his earlier account.
Flynn’s defence lawyer Patrick Mulligan, meanwhile, told the court there was no concrete evidence, saying: "Connecting a couple of meaningless dots doesn't solve the case."
Mulligan said the issue was not whether Flynn was a good husband, and that evidence of infidelity was not evidence of murder.
"They can't find the gun, therefore they blame it on him?" Mulligan asked, referring to the tampering-with-evidence charge Flynn also faces.
Flynn’s gun, which had been kept in the console of his truck, has remained missing since investigators arrived at the scene and found the truck’s centre console open.
Earlier in the trial, Botner testified for two days about her nearly 18-month relationship with Flynn.
Along with reading some of their text exchanges, she also explained the lyrics line by line from an AI-generated song.
Video of the jury’s reaction to the song, including what appeared to be laughter, went viral.
Prosecutors also called Joseph Wilhelm, a special agent with Ohio’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations, as a witness.
He said multiple apps had been removed from Flynn’s phone before his wife’s death, including Instagram and an AI-music generating app.
The music generating app, Wilhelm said, "related to his relationship with Alleigha Botner".