Former American Idol contestant Caleb Flynn discovered responsible of murdering spouse

A former Ohio music pastor who as soon as appeared on the TV expertise present American Idol has been discovered responsible of murdering his spouse.

Caleb Flynn, 40, fatally shot Ashley Flynn twice at the back of the top whereas she was asleep in mattress at their Ohio residence on 16 February this yr, then tried to say that burglars had shot her.

Flynn wept in courtroom after the jury delivered its verdict following lower than three hours of deliberations.

He was additionally discovered responsible of the opposite eight costs towards him, which included aggravated homicide and tampering with proof. He faces life in jail with out parole.

Closing arguments ended on Tuesday in Flynn’s trial, wrapping up eight days of testimony that included a track performed in courtroom that prosecutors say he wrote and devoted to the girl with whom he was having an affair.

Throughout the trial, the prosecution offered proof together with police physique digicam footage, and exercise on Flynn’s iPhone and Apple Watch across the time of the homicide.

They additionally known as dozens of witnesses, together with his former mistress Alleigha Botner, whom he met whereas she was an intern at his church.

Some of their 100,000 exchanged textual content messages had been learn aloud in courtroom. The defence known as no witnesses.

“I used to be up till 4am final evening crying, actually considering of the way to kill her and never go to jail,” Flynn wrote in a message to Botner, 24, in August 2025.

In one other message, he wrote: “I simply need her lifeless and gone.”

Testifying in courtroom, Botner stated she now hates Flynn “as a result of I consider that he murdered his spouse”.

During closing arguments on Tuesday, prosecuting lawyer Paul Watkins leaned closely into Flynn’s textual content exchanges, which he stated demonstrated the defendant’s “hatred” for his spouse.

An emotional Flynn was seen in courtroom at occasions sniffling and wiping tears from his eyes.

Watkins additionally stated that when police arrived on the household residence in Tipp City within the early hours on 16 February, Flynn advised police he had been mendacity in his daughters’ bed room when he heard gunfire.

Flynn stated he discovered his 37-year-old spouse lifeless within the bed room, after noticing the storage aspect door was open.

Watkins stated Flynn later advised investigators he had not been to the storage, contradicting his earlier assertion.

Flynn’s defence lawyer Patrick Mulligan, in the meantime, advised the courtroom there was no concrete proof, saying: “Connecting a few meaningless dots does not clear up the case.”

Mulligan stated the difficulty was not whether or not Flynn was a very good husband and that proof of infidelity was not proof of homicide.

“They cannot discover the gun, subsequently they blame it on him?” Mulligan questioned, referring to the cost of tampering with proof that Flynn additionally confronted.

Flynn’s gun, which had been saved within the console of his truck, has remained lacking since investigators arrived on the scene and located the truck’s centre console open.

Earlier within the trial, Botner took the stand as a witness for 2 days, providing testimony about her almost 18-month relationship with Flynn.

In addition to studying a few of their textual content exchanges, she additionally defined the lyrics line by line from an AI-generated track.

Video of the jury’s response to the track, together with what seemed like laughter, went viral.

Prosecutors additionally known as Joseph Wilhelm, a particular agent from Ohio’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations, as a witness.

He stated a number of apps had been uninstalled from Flynn’s telephone earlier than his spouse’s demise, together with Instagram and an AI-music producing app.

The music-generating app, Wilhelm stated, “associated to his relationship with Alleigha Botner”.

Flynn appeared in 2013 on the twelfth collection of American Idol. He was featured in televised auditions, and was given a “golden ticket” to go to Hollywood, however he by no means reached the primary competitors.

“Music is all I do know, it is what I stay to do and I like to sing, in order that’s why I auditioned,” he stated in movies proven on the programme.

“Maybe my spouse kinda nudged me a little bit, too.”

He is because of be sentenced on 5 October.