Mistress Claims She Gave ‘American Idol’ Contestant Ultimatum Before Wife’s Killing Exposed Affair

Former “American Idol” contestant Caleb Flynn repeatedly expressed a desire for his wife to die and once told his mistress he was “thinking about ways to kill her,” the woman testified Wednesday during Flynn’s Ohio murder trial.

Alleigha Botner told jurors she had an affair with Flynn for about 18 months and issued him an ultimatum over their relationship only weeks before Ashley Flynn’s death. She said his remarks about his wife became increasingly disturbing in the months leading up to the fatal shooting inside the couple’s Tipp City home.

“At first it was, ‘I want her dead. I wish she was gone,’” Botner testified.

Flynn later told her, “If I could kill her and not go to jail, I would,” she recalled.

Botner said Flynn’s comments eventually became even more explicit.

“One night he was up really late thinking about — told me that he was thinking about ways to kill her,” Botner said.

According to Botner, Flynn made comments about wanting Ashley dead at least once a month.

Prosecutors later reviewed thousands of messages exchanged during the affair. One message attributed to Flynn, sent in February 2025, stated: “I need her to die, to cheat again, to leave.”

Other messages attributed to Flynn included “I want her dead and gone” and, in response to Botner asking what she could do for him, the one-word reply: “kill her.”

Flynn is accused of shooting Ashley in the back of the head inside their home on Feb. 16 and then staging the residence to make it appear that an intruder had broken in. He has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder and other charges.

Botner also testified about a gun she said Flynn possessed before the killing. She told jurors that he had shown her a firearm stored in the center console of his truck.

“He showed me a gun,” Botner said.

Flynn told her the weapon was kept in the console, although Botner said she could not describe it because she saw it only once.

Authorities have not found the gun prosecutors believe was used to kill Ashley. Investigators searched the family’s home, nearby woods, storm drains and other locations during the effort to recover it.

Jurors also heard testimony that Flynn and Botner regularly deleted messages exchanged during their relationship.

When asked how often she had advised Flynn on deleting information from his devices, Botner answered, “Multiple times.”

“One of them being the night before Ashley was murdered,” she testified.

Botner later testified that she used ChatGPT that night to research whether messages documenting the affair could be permanently deleted and sent Flynn screenshots of the results.

She told jurors she feared the affair could surface during a divorce and cost her her job. Prosecutors established that Botner sent the screenshots about 5:47 p.m. Feb. 15, hours before Ashley was killed.

Their relationship began turning personal in March 2024 and became sexual roughly two months later, Botner told jurors. She recalled Flynn telling her he hated Ashley, viewed his wife as little more than a “roommate” and remained in the marriage because of their two daughters.

Botner acknowledged knowing Flynn was married when the relationship became sexual and admitted she knew what they were doing was wrong.

“I never morally justified it,” she testified. “I just did it. Even while I knew it was wrong.”

The two exchanged roughly 107,000 messages over about a year — nearly 300 per day on average — while routinely deleting their conversations.

By January, Botner testified, she had grown tired of waiting and gave Flynn a final deadline: leave Ashley by Jan. 11, or she would move on with her life and end their relationship.

He did not leave.

Botner stopped communicating with Flynn until Feb. 14 — Valentine’s Day and two days before Ashley was killed.

That day, she testified, Flynn told her he was “filing [for divorce] from Ashley” and was “actually leaving her this time.”

The two later met at Christian Life Center, where they had initially met through the church’s worship ministry. During that conversation, Botner recalled Flynn telling her he had already spoken with Ashley and told his wife he was divorcing her.

By the following night, Botner testified, Flynn was still telling her he planned to end the marriage Feb. 16.

“He said it’ll be a day I never forget,” she recalled.

Their communications continued past midnight, with Flynn allegedly telling her, “Tomorrow is a big day,” “I choose you” and that he was “about to be free.” Hours later, Ashley was dead. Botner told jurors she understood those comments at the time to mean Flynn was finally going through with the divorce.

Botner expected to hear from Flynn first thing that morning but instead received an Instagram message from a fellow church congregant asking whether she had heard about Ashley.

The congregant sent her a news story about Ashley’s death.

“My heart started pounding,” Botner testified. “It just seemed like too much of a coincidence that the day he’s divorcing her, she’s just dead all of a sudden.”

Botner testified that she immediately messaged Flynn.

“I said something like to Caleb, ‘What’s going on? Were you involved? Is this real?’” she recalled.

Flynn did not respond, Botner testified. She acknowledged deleting the message because she believed investigators would search his phone and feared they would discover the affair.

Botner admitted Wednesday that she initially lied to the FBI about her relationship with Flynn when investigators interviewed her days after the killing.

“I was selfishly afraid that my reputation was going to be ruined and that I was going to lose my job,” she testified. “And now that there was a murder attached, I didn’t want to be attached to that in any way.”

She began revealing more about the relationship after investigators told her they had found text messages on Ashley’s phone, Botner testified.

Prosecutors asked Botner how she feels about Flynn today, and she said, “I hate him.”

When asked why, Botner responded, “Because I believe that he murdered his wife.”

News Outlet reached out to Flynn’s attorney. Botner is expected to return to the stand on Thursday.