Photo: Miami County Jail
An Ohio jury has found a former American Idol contestant guilty of murdering his wife after prosecutors argued he staged a fake home invasion to cover up the crime.
Caleb Flynn, 40, of Tipp City, Ohio, was convicted Tuesday (September 29) on charges of aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault, and tampering with evidence in the death of his 37-year-old wife, Ashley Flynn, a school teacher and volleyball coach who was killed in February. The jury deliberated for nearly two and a half hours before returning a guilty verdict.
Flynn had called 911 in the early morning hours of Monday (February 16) to report that an intruder had broken into the couple's Tipp City home, north of Dayton, and shot his wife twice in the head. He was arrested three days later. Throughout the trial, Flynn maintained his innocence, pleading not guilty to all charges.
Prosecutors alleged that Flynn shot Ashley twice in the back of the head while she slept, then manipulated the crime scene to make it appear an intruder had broken in through the garage. Key to the state's case were more than 100,000 text messages exchanged between Flynn and his former mistress, Alleigha Botner, a 24-year-old who testified she met Flynn when she was 20 and an intern at his church.
Botner told jurors that Flynn had expressed hatred toward his wife and harbored thoughts of killing her. Flynn wrote in one message from May 2025: "If I could literally kill her and not go to hell, I would do it in a heartbeat." In another text from August 2025, he allegedly wrote, "I was up until 4 a.m. last night crying, literally trying to think of ways to kill her and not go to jail."
Hours before calling 911 on the morning of the shooting, Flynn texted Botner, "Actions will come tomorrow." In the hours after the killing, prosecutors said Flynn texted Botner again, whispering, "It didn't happen the way we thought it would."
Miami County Assistant Prosecutor Matthew Joseph told jurors that digital records from Flynn's devices contradicted his claim that he had been asleep before hearing the gunshots. "While the defendant told law enforcement that he was sleeping, his electronic devices documented something different," Joseph said. "They documented movement and activity in the hours leading up to Ashley's murder."
Prosecutors also pointed out that Flynn had removed security cameras from his home 20 days before the killing, including one that would have captured anyone entering from the garage. On the morning of the shooting, evidence showed Flynn had been deleting apps and messages from his phone. No gun was ever recovered, though Ashley was shot with two 9mm bullets and that Flynn's 9mm handgun, which he kept in his truck console parked in the garage, was missing when officers arrived.
Miami County Prosecuting Attorney Paul Watkins urged jurors to use "common sense," reading from texts that escalated in the months before the shooting. He told the court that just hours before the killing, Flynn wrote to Botner: "I know I can't live without you, and so again, if this gives me a 1% chance to spend my life with you, it's the 100% right decision. I choose you. I'm free."
Defense attorney Patrick Mulligan argued throughout the trial that the state's case was entirely circumstantial. "Connecting a couple of meaningless dots doesn't solve the case," Mulligan told jurors. The defense rested without calling a single witness, and Flynn did not testify in his own defense.
Flynn had sung in televised auditions in Chicago for Season 12 of American Idol in 2013, though he did not advance to the main competition. He worked as a music pastor at the time of Ashley's death, and prosecutors argued a conviction would allow him to keep his job at Ashley's family business and collect on her life insurance while maintaining his reputation in the church.
Flynn now faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. A sentencing date has not yet been announced.