An Ohio jury took a little over two hours to convict the former American Idol contestant on all nine counts, with sentencing set for October 5.
An Ohio jury has convicted Caleb Flynn, the music pastor who once made it to Hollywood Week on American Idol, of murdering his wife Ashley. Jurors needed just over two hours to return guilty verdicts on all nine counts, according to NBC News, covering murder, felonious assault and tampering with evidence.
Flynn, 40, broke down in tears as the verdict was read, per Just Jared. He had pleaded not guilty. Sentencing is scheduled for October 5, and he faces life in prison without parole.
Ashley Flynn, 37, was found shot to death at the couple's home in Tipp City on February 16, at around 2:30 a.m., OK! Magazine reported. Caleb initially told police an intruder had broken in and killed her. Prosecutors argued otherwise through the whole trial, saying he fired twice into the back of her head while she slept and staged a burglary afterward.
The couple's daughters, then nine and eleven, were asleep in the next room.
What undid his story, prosecutors said, was his own phone. Matthew C. Joseph, assistant prosecuting attorney for the Miami County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, told the court in closing arguments that Flynn's devices showed activity in the hours before Ashley died, even as he told investigators he'd been asleep. "The defendant said he was sleeping," Joseph said, according to TheWrap. "His devices say he was awake and moving."
The prosecution's account of motive centred on Alleigha Botner, 24, who Flynn met while she worked at his church and with whom he was having an affair at the time of Ashley's death. Botner took the stand and read from texts the two had exchanged, OK! Reported, out of a trove that reportedly ran past 100,000 messages across nearly two years.
Some of what she read out was ugly. Prosecutors and outlets reporting on the trial cited messages in which Flynn allegedly wrote about wanting Ashley dead, including one saying, "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 Ashley was killed, he allegedly texted Botner, "I choose you. I'm free. Actions will come tomorrow, February 16, a day I'll never forget."
Botner testified that her feelings toward Flynn changed once she came to believe he had murdered his wife. Ashley's sister, Keyla Keyt, also addressed the court on how the family felt about the affair, though the couple's daughters did not testify.
The contrast with Flynn's public image hasn't gone unremarked. Back in 2013, in his Idol hometown segment, he told cameras, "I absolutely love the Lord. I love my wife more than anything. She is very, very pretty. I love her." He was cut before the live rounds that season.
For now, the case moves to sentencing on October 5, when Judge Samuel Huffman will decide whether Flynn serves that life term, the outcome prosecutors sought from the start.
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