Jury convicts Caleb Flynn on all nine counts in wife's killing

Caleb Flynn, a former Ohio music pastor who auditioned for "American Idol" in 2013, was convicted on Sept. 29 of murdering his wife, 37-year-old Ashley Flynn, at their home in Tipp City, north of Dayton. A Miami County jury deliberated a little over two hours before finding him guilty on all nine counts, NBC News reported.

Judge Jeannine Pratt read the verdict in Miami County Court of Common Pleas in Troy. Flynn, 40, broke down in tears and was taken from the courtroom in handcuffs.

Sentencing is set for 3 p.m. on Oct. 5, and Flynn faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The judge revoked his bond after the verdict, ABC News reported. Prosecutors alleged he shot Ashley Flynn twice in the back of the head as she lay in bed, then staged the scene to look like an intruder had forced his way in.

Nine counts and a two-hour deliberation

The nine charges were one count of aggravated murder, three counts of murder, two counts of felonious assault and three counts of tampering with evidence, according to Fox News. The tampering counts involved the missing firearm, the side garage door and emails. Jurors also found he used a firearm in seven of the counts.

While we respect the system, certainly, we're disappointed. I fully anticipate that there will be a notice of appeal filed, and this decision will be tested thoroughly in the Court of Appeals.

Mulligan said the aggravated murder conviction carries possible sentences ranging from 20 years to life up to life without parole, with an additional three years tied to the firearm specification, Fox News reported. He said the first six counts will merge for sentencing. Asked by reporters outside the courthouse what issues an appeal would raise, Mulligan cited a lack of evidence on prior calculation and design, according to ABC News.

Flynn called 911 early on Feb. 16 to report that his wife had been shot by an intruder, ABC News reported. The call came around 2:30 a.m., and Ashley Flynn was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Variety. Flynn was arrested three days later and booked into the Miami County Jail.

What prosecutors told the jury

Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Matthew C. Joseph told jurors in closing arguments Tuesday that Flynn's account collapsed under his own electronics. "The evidence has proven the defendant's account to be a complete fabrication," Joseph said, according to NBC News, adding that the devices documented movement and activity in the hours before the killing. "The defendant said he was sleeping. His devices say he was awake and moving."

Prosecutors said Flynn wanted out of the marriage without the cost of leaving it. Joseph told the jury that remaining the victim let Flynn keep his lucrative job at Ashley Flynn's family business, benefit from her life insurance and hold his position as a worship leader with no damage to his standing in the church, according to ABC News. Joseph said Flynn "wanted to keep his mistress and have his daughters all to himself," The Associated Press reported.

Flynn told officers in interviews played in court that he had left the bedroom because of a cough, fallen asleep in his daughters' room and woken to the sound of gunshots, ABC News reported. He also said a man had come to the home a day earlier and handed his wife an American flag while making a weird sales pitch for America. Police found the garage door, a side door and the center console of Flynn's pickup truck open when they arrived.

A refrigerator stood in front of the side door and would have had to be pushed for the door to open, according to Variety. Flynn told officers he kept a gun in the console of his truck, but no weapon was found there. The handgun was a 9mm, and Ashley Flynn was shot twice in the head with 9mm bullets, Joseph said, according to ABC News.

Eight days of testimony, 40 witnesses

Jurors heard from 40 prosecution witnesses over eight days, NBC News reported. The defense rested Monday without calling a witness. Among the state's witnesses was Alleigha Botner, who testified that she met Flynn in 2022 when she was a 20-year-old intern at his church and that their affair lasted more than a year, according to The Associated Press.

Flynn pleaded not guilty to all the charges. He was found guilty of each one, and the guilty findings came in sequence as he sat at the defense table, shaking and wiping tears from his face, Fox News reported. He closed his eyes and shook his head to the side as the judge read the verdicts, then began sobbing while the jury was dismissed, The Associated Press reported.

Botner, now 24, testified that Flynn said he hated his wife and had thoughts of killing her. She sobbed on the stand while reading text messages, and told the court she regretted writing to him: "I want to kill her, Caleb." Flynn replied, "That makes two of us," she testified, according to NBC News. Asked by a prosecutor why her feelings toward him had changed, she said: "Because I believe that he murdered his wife."

More than 107,000 messages between them

Botner walked jurors through many of the more than 107,000 messages she and Flynn exchanged, including explicit discussions about Ashley Flynn's death, Fox News reported. In a May 2025 message, Flynn allegedly wrote: "If I could literally kill her and not go to hell, I would do it in a heartbeat."

About six months before the killing, Flynn wrote that he had been up until 4 a.m. crying, "literally trying to think of ways to kill her and not go to jail," according to The Associated Press. Botner said she wasn't serious. In another message, she wrote: "I'm not asking that you take her life obviously, because that's not what you should do, and I know you actually wouldn't. But to make the divorce happen, it would change everything."

Ohio jury convicts former music pastor

Caleb Flynn, 40, was convicted on Sept. 29 of aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault and tampering with evidence in the shooting death of his wife at their Tipp City home on Feb. 16. Ashley Flynn, 37, was a schoolteacher and volleyball coach, and the couple's two daughters were home when police arrived, The Associated Press reported.

Defense points to a missing gun

Mulligan told jurors the state's case was circumstantial and that prosecutors had proved only that his client had an affair. Investigators never found a gun or evidence that Flynn fired one that day, he said. "His being unfaithful doesn't equal murder," Mulligan said, according to The Associated Press. "The issue here isn't, 'Was he a good husband?'" The text messages Flynn sent to Botner complaining about his wife were meant to make her feel good, Mulligan said.

Prosecutors built a largely circumstantial case, Fox News reported. "Connecting a couple of meaningless dots doesn't solve the case," Mulligan said in his closing argument, according to ABC News. Prosecutors alleged Flynn disposed of the gun, and Joseph told the jury that recovering the weapon was not an element the state had to prove.

• No gun was recovered in the shooting
• There was no eyewitness to the shooting
• Flynn was never tested for gunshot residue
• The defense rested Monday without calling a witness

Miami County Prosecuting Attorney Paul Watkins thanked the jury for what he called their dedication to justice in the case, then told reporters outside the courthouse that attention should move away from the defendant. "To be quite honest, I'm tired of talking about Caleb Flynn," Watkins said, according to ABC News. "It's time for the community, the media, and everyone else to turn their focus onto Ashley. This world would be a much better place if all of us in it lived like Ashley."

Ashley Flynn's family responds to verdict

Watkins read a statement from Ashley Flynn's family, who said the verdict brought justice and accountability but could not undo what happened. "No verdict can bring Ashley back, give the girls back their mother, or erase the pain our family has endured," the statement said, according to NBC News. "The cruelty of what happened to Ashley, and the things we've been forced to hear and relive, have at times felt unbearable."

The family described Ashley Flynn as a woman who loved Jesus with her whole heart and who, most of all, loved being a mom, ABC News reported. Flynn sang in televised auditions in Chicago for Season 12 of "American Idol" in 2013, before judges including Mariah Carey, Randy Jackson and Nicki Minaj, and was cut before the live shows. He told viewers then that his wife had encouraged him to audition.