A former music minister from Ohio who once appeared on “American Idol” is on trial on charges that he killed his wife during his tenure. who has a business more than a decade after he gushed to TV viewers about how he was inspired to chase his dream on the singing competition.
Caleb Flynn, 40, has pleaded not guilty to murder, assault and tampering with evidence charges in the February shooting of Ashley Flynn, 37, a school teacher and volleyball coach, at their home in Tipp City, north of Dayton. Flynn and their two daughters were home when police arrived.
In Flynn’s trial, which will go to closing arguments on Tuesday, there is evidence from a woman who said that she and Flynn had been in a relationship at the time of his wife’s murder. Jurors also heard AI-generated love songs that prosecutors say he composed for his paramour and some of the more than 100,000 text messages that authorities say they exchanged.
Prosecutors say Flynn staged a home invasion to deceive investigators and claimed in a frantic 911 call that a burglar had shot his wife. Flynn’s co-accused, 24-year-old Allighea Botner, said he had said he hated his wife and thought he was killing her.
Here’s what you need to know about the Flynn test:
A mistress testifies at the trial
Botner’s bombshell relationship testimony has been the highlight so far. On the stand for two days, Botner described how she met Flynn in 2022 while she was a 20-year-old student at his church and had a relationship with him that lasted more than a year.
She described the secret life she says they shared, including open conversations in which he thought about leaving his wife and wanting her dead.
“He told me he hates her,” Botner said. “He told me the girls are the only reason he’s still with her.
Botner laughed as she read some of her text messages with Flynn, saying she regretted telling him: “I want to kill her, Caleb.”
Instead of dissuading him from that dark thought, Flynn replied: “That makes two of us.”
In August 2025, about six months before the killing, Flynn texted Botner: “I was up until 4 a.m. last night crying, literally trying to think of ways to kill her and not go to jail.”
In another text message read in court, Botner said she was not serious, telling Flynn: “I’m not asking you to take her life openly, because that’s not what you should do, and I know you won’t.
Botner texted Flynn at one point: “Until she’s gone, I’m gone.”
When questioned about that text and others in which she issued similar ultimatums, Botner said, “I always meant divorce.”
When asked by a prosecutor how she felt about Flynn now, Botner said: “I hate him.” When she was asked why, she said: “Because I believe he killed his wife.
Botner did not speak to the FBI until four days after the murder, when a tip from her aunt led law enforcement to contact her.
At first, Botner told FBI investigators that she did not believe Flynn had killed his wife. In her second interview, however, she said she had decided her killing was “too much of a coincidence,” she said.
Prosecutors played some of Flynn’s AI-generated love songs, which included lyrics like: “Age didn’t matter, when it was you and me,” and “we danced on the edge of a life we could choose, so close to forever, so much to lose.”
911 audio calls, police interviews played in court
They also played audio of Flynn’s 911 call, in which he said someone had broken into his home and killed his wife. He told a dispatcher that she had been shot several times in the head and that she did not know if the attacker was still there.
When police arrived, the garage door, side door and center console of Flynn’s pickup truck were all open. Flynn told officers he kept a gun in the consulate, but no weapon was found there, according to a police report. Police say they have never found the gun used in the killing.
The defense has argued that no gunshot residue was found on Flynn the night of the murder and that his wife’s blood was not on him either. They also noted that investigators found none of Flynn’s tools appeared to have damaged the garage door.
Jurors also saw videos of Flynn’s police interviews. Crying and wearing a t-shirt that said, “God-Sized Vision,” he said he was asleep on the bed when he was woken up by a pair of gunshots. Flynn told investigators that a man had come to the door a day before the killing and handed his wife an American flag while making a “weird sales pitch for America.”
In another police interview, Flynn told investigators: “We are a normal married couple who love each other and disagree. I never laid a hand on her.”
Flynn did not testify on his own behalf. Neither did anyone else.
Closing arguments are expected on Tuesday
After eight days of testimony from 40 prosecution witnesses, including investigators and forensics experts, Flynn’s lawyers decided not to call witnesses.
The prosecution and defense rested their cases on Monday. That leaves Tuesday for closing arguments, and then the start of jury deliberations.
In an opening statement, defense attorney Emily Smith acknowledged Flynn’s affair. However, she told jurors: “Caleb is not on trial for being a bad person. He is not on trial for cheating. You are not here to discuss whether you like Caleb or not.”
Prosecutors chose not to call Flynn’s daughters, ages 10 and 12, as witnesses.
Flynn appeared in season 12 in 2013. He sang in televised auditions in Chicago in front of judges Mariah Carey, Randy Jackson and Nicki Minaj but did not advance to the main competition in Hollywood, where Candice Glover took the crown.
“All I know is music,” Flynn said on the show. “This is what I live to do, and I love to sing.”
Flynn said God inspired him to become an actor. He credited his wife for encouraging him to try out for “American Idol” again after missing the cut a few seasons earlier.
“I love my wife more than anything,” he said. “She’s very, very pretty. Oof, I love her.”
Ashley Flynn was a middle school volleyball coach and was a substitute teacher, Tipp City Schools said on its Facebook page. In her obituary, she was described as “a faithful and loving wife, and a caring and devoted mother.”
“She was known for her beautiful smile, her warmth, her kindness, and the positive impact she had on so many – inside and outside the classroom and on the court,” the school district said.
According to her online obituary, the Tipp City High School and Lee University graduate also volunteered at her church, Christian Life Center, and was part of a program that teaches the Bible to public school students.
“Ashley was known as a bright light of joy to all who crossed her path, tirelessly encouraging others along the way,” the obituary said. “Her genuine concern for people reflected the selfless love we all strive to share.”