The parents of former American Idol contestant Caleb Flynn have spoken out after he was found guilty Tuesday of killing his wife.
Flynn, 40, is due to be sentenced in early October for murdering Ashley Flynn following a yearslong affair with a woman who worked at the church where the couple served on the worship team.
After the verdict was announced, Flynn’s mother, Kim, broke down while speaking with reporters and blamed the media for influencing the outcome.
‘We couldn’t get ahead of the media’s propaganda and lies,’ she said through tears.
‘He didn’t do it. It was all circumstantial junk,’ she added.
Jurors found that Flynn shot Ashley while she was asleep in the couple’s marital bed at their Ohio home on February 16. They reached the verdict after deliberating for about two and a half hours.
Flynn’s lip trembled and tears ran down his face as the judge read the guilty verdict at the Miami County courthouse Tuesday.
He rocked back and forth and sobbed before lowering his head, appearing to pray, as members of Ashley’s family watched from the courtroom.
The judge revoked Flynn’s bond, and he was led from the courtroom in handcuffs. His sentencing is set for October 5.
Flynn now faces the possibility of life in prison without parole for Ashley’s murder. Police said the couple’s two young daughters, who were nine and 11 at the time, were at home when the shooting took place.
He had pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder, evidence tampering and several other charges.
On Monday afternoon, prosecutors filed a motion seeking dismissal of two misdemeanor counts alleging intimidation of an attorney, victim or witness in a criminal case.
Flynn’s affair detailed during murder trial
In a frantic 911 call, Flynn told police that a burglar had entered the family’s home in Tipp City, a suburb north of Dayton, and killed 37-year-old Ashley. Prosecutors argued instead that the former worship pastor staged the burglary to throw investigators off the trail.
Prosecutors said Flynn was having an affair with Alleigha Botner, a worship leader at his church, and wanted to end his marriage.
The court also heard that he wanted to avoid losing custody of his daughters, his well-paid position at Ashley’s family’s business and his role at the church.
During the trial, Botner acknowledged the affair and testified that Flynn had told her he hated Ashley and had considered killing her.
Botner, now 24, said she met Flynn in 2022 when she was a 20-year-old intern at the Christian Life Center in Dayton. Flynn was in his 30s at the time.
She and Flynn exchanged more than 100,000 text messages during their 18-month relationship, which she told the court began in early 2024.
Botner has since left her position at the church and moved to North Carolina. During her testimony, she read several of the messages to the jury.
She testified that Flynn frequently complained about his wealthy in-laws and told her he remained with Ashley only because of their two pre-teen daughters.
The married man and his mistress got matching tattoos, with Flynn’s in his armpit, so his spouse would not notice. Each got a lightning bolt, signifying their shared love of Harry Potter.
Flynn and Botner’s messages revealed
Botner told the court that Flynn ignored her ultimatums to leave his wife for her – the final one allegedly given the month before Ashley was killed.
In one September 2025 message, Flynn himself listed what he was prepared to sacrifice to be with his mistress.
He said he was willing to risk his ‘daughters, a quarter-million-dollar salary job, a place to live, possibly a church I serve at, public shame and humiliation, and way more.’
Botner, meanwhile, repeatedly demanded that he leave Ashley. ‘Until she’s gone, I’m gone,’ she wrote in one ultimatum.
‘I was up until 4am last night crying, literally thinking of ways to kill her and not go to jail,’ he wrote.
Botner responded by explicitly telling him not to kill Ashley.
‘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,’ she wrote. ‘But to make the divorce happen, it would change everything.’
Flynn responded: ‘I’ll work on getting rid of her. Until then, I love you.’
Flynn’s final message to mistress revealed
By the night before Ashley’s death, prosecutors say the pair’s secret relationship had reached a decisive moment.
Botner sent Flynn information she had researched about divorce proceedings, custody, deleting messages and how Ashley could potentially prove her husband’s infidelity.
Shortly before midnight, Flynn sent his mistress one final message. He wrote: ‘Good night, tomorrow’s a big day. I’ve got to get to bed.
‘I choose you, I’m about to be free.’
Hours later, Ashley was dead.
Botner testified that the timing immediately alarmed her.
‘Caleb, what’s going on? Were you involved? Is this real?’ she messaged Flynn on the morning of the killing.
She later deleted the message because she feared investigators would examine his phone and discover their affair, she admitted.
Flynn’s defense
When she learned Ashley had supposedly been killed by an intruder, Botner said her ‘heart started pounding.’
‘In my mind, it just seemed like too much of a coincidence that, the day he’s divorcing her, she’s just dead all of a sudden,’ she told the court.
Flynn insists he was sleeping in another room with his daughters when an intruder killed his wife.
His defense maintains investigators rushed to judgment and that lurid publicity surrounding his affair has distorted the evidence against him.
Flynn’s attorney told the jury during closing arguments Tuesday that investigators never found a gun or evidence that Flynn fired a gun that day.
‘His being unfaithful doesn’t equal murder,’ said defense attorney Patrick Mulligan. ‘The issue here isn’t, “Was he a good husband?”‘
Text messages Flynn sent to his lover complaining about his wife were meant to make her feel good, Mulligan added.
Flynn appeared on American Idol in 2013, telling TV viewers his wife had encouraged him to chase his dreams on the singing competition.
He sang before judges Mariah Carey, Randy Jackson and Nicki Minaj but did not advance to the main competition in Hollywood.
