Jury reaches verdict in case of Caleb Flynn, ‘American Idol’ singer charged with wife’s murder

Add to GoogleFormer 'American Idol' contestant found guilty of wife's murder03:26Get more newsLiveonShareAdd NBC News to GoogleSept. 29, 2026, 3:36 PM EDT / Updated Sept. 29, 2026, 7:07 PM EDTBy Selina Guevara, Shaquille Brewster and Minyvonne BurkeFormer “American Idol” singer Caleb Flynn was found guilty Tuesday of murdering his wife in their Ohio home in February.

The jury took a little over two hours to convict Flynn on all nine counts of murder, assault and tampering with evidence in the death of Ashley Flynn, 37.

After Judge Jeannine Pratt read the verdict in Miami County Court of Common Pleas in Troy, Flynn broke down in tears and repeatedly wiped his nose and eyes. He was taken from the courtroom in handcuffs.

Following the proceedings, Miami County Prosecuting Attorney Paul Watkins read from a statement released by Ashley’s family, who said the verdict brings “justice and accountability.”

“However,” he continued, reading from the statement, “no verdict can bring Ashley back, give the girls back their mother, or erase the pain our family has endured. The cruelty of what happened to Ashley, and the things we’ve been forced to hear and relive, have at times felt unbearable.”

Sentencing will be Oct. 5, when Flynn faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Defense attorney Patrick Mulligan said his client will challenge the verdict.

“This decision will be tested thoroughly in the Court of Appeals,” Mulligan said after Tuesday’s proceedings.

Caleb Flynn found guilty of wife's murder

Flynn, a former music pastor, told a 911 dispatcher that his wife, who worked as a schoolteacher and volleyball coach, had been shot multiple times in the head by an intruder. He told the dispatcher that he did not know whether the intruder was still in their Tipp City home.

In police interviews played in court, Flynn told officers that he was sleeping on the couch when he woke up to the sound of gunshots. He said that a day before the killing, a man had come to their home and handed his wife an American flag while making a “weird sales pitch for America.”

When police arrived at the home on the day of the shooting, the garage door, a side door and the center console of Flynn’s pickup truck were open. Flynn told police that he kept a gun in the console, but no weapon was found there.

Prosecutors alleged that Flynn, 40, staged the home invasion to mislead investigators and shared thoughts of killing his wife in text messages to his then-mistress. Authorities never found the gun used in the killing.

Add to GoogleBoth sides rest in trial of ‘American Idol’ contestant accused of killing his wife02:40“The evidence has proven the defendant’s account to be a complete fabrication,” Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Matthew C. Joseph said in closings Tuesday.

“While the defendant told law enforcement that he was sleeping, his electronic devices documented something different. They documented movement and activity in the hours leading up to Ashley’s murder,” Joseph said. “The defendant said he was sleeping. His devices say he was awake and moving.”

Joseph told the court that Flynn, who sang in televised auditions in Chicago for Season 12 of “American Idol” in 2013 but did not advance to the main competition, “wanted to be a victim” and wanted to “keep his mistress and have his daughters all to himself.”

“Being the victim allowed him to do that without being the husband who left his wife for a mistress,” Joseph said. “Instead, he’d be the husband whose wife was tragically murdered by an unknown intruder.”

Caleb Flynn listens to court proceedings in Miami County Court of Common Pleas in Troy, Ohio, on Monday. Pool via APOver eight days, the jury heard from 40 prosecution witnesses, including Alleigha Botner, who said she met Flynn when she was 20 and an intern at his church. She said they had been having an affair at the time of Ashley’s killing.

Botner, now 24, testified that Flynn had made remarks that he hated his wife and harbored thoughts of killing her. Botner sobbed on the stand as she read some of their text messages, telling the court that she regretted having told him in one message: “I want to kill her, Caleb.”

Botner said Flynn replied: “That makes two of us.”

In other text messages shown in court, Flynn discussed wanting his wife dead.

“I was up until 4 a.m. last night crying, literally trying to think of ways to kill her and not go to jail,” he is alleged to have written in a text in August 2025, about six months before the killing.

Add to GoogleFormer mistress testifies in ‘American Idol’ contestant’s murder trial04:17In another text, Botner said she wasn’t serious. “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.”

Botner told the court that her feelings about Flynn have since changed and that she hated him. When a prosecutor asked her why, she said: “Because I believe that he murdered his wife.”

The defense rested Monday without calling a single witness.

Mulligan, one of Flynn’s defense attorneys, said in his closing argument that being “unfaithful doesn’t equal murder.”

“This case is wholly lacking in concrete evidence. Connecting a couple of meaningless dots doesn’t solve the case,” he said.

Afterward, Mulligan said the defense was “disappointed” in the jury’s decision.

Ashley’s family said she lived a virtuous life.

“She loved being a mom,” Watkins said, still reading from the family statement. “She prayed over her girls, taught them to love God and showed them what it looked like to live with faith, kindness, joy and grace. We refuse to let the evil that ended Ashley’s life have the final word in her story.”

Watkins praised law enforcement and prosecutors for their success in prosecuting the case. He said he is tired of talking about Flynn and wants renewed focus on the victim.

“This world would be a much better place if all of us in it lived like Ashley,” he said.

ShareAdd NBC News to GoogleSelina GuevaraSelina Guevara is an NBC News field producer, based in Chicago.

Shaquille BrewsterShaquille Brewster is a correspondent for NBC News.

Minyvonne Burke is a senior breaking news reporter for NBC News.