A former music pastor in Ohio who appeared briefly on “American Idol” was set to be sentenced Monday after a jury convicted him of murdering his wife while he was having an affair.
Prosecutors said Caleb Flynn, 40, staged a home invasion in February after shooting Ashley Flynn, a 37-year-old schoolteacher and volleyball coach. During the trial, Alleigha Botner testified she met Flynn in 2022 while she was a 20-year-old intern at his church and had an affair with him for more than a year. Flynn claimed she was killed by a burglar. “I made vows to Ashley on our wedding day. “I cannot apologize enough. I’m free. Flynn didn’t testify on his own behalf, nor did anybody else.
I failed in those vows,” he said. “As I stand here before God, who is my ultimate judge, I am not lying when I say I did not kill my wife,” he said. She told jurors that Flynn said he hated his wife and had thoughts of killing her. Jurors also heard AI-generated love songs that prosecutors said he made for Botner. The gun used to kill Ashley Flynn was not found at the scene, and his attorney told jurors that investigators found no evidence that Caleb Flynn fired a gun that day. Prosecutors said his fingerprints and DNA were at the scene and that his devices showed him moving around the house, even though he claimed he was asleep at the time of the shooting.
He sent a text message to his lover the night before the shooting, saying, “I choose you. Actions will come tomorrow,” prosecutors said.
