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

Caleb Flynn at the Miami County Court of Common Pleas in Troy, Ohio, on Monday.Pool via APShareAdd NBC News to GoogleSept. 29, 2026, 3:36 PM EDTBy Selina Guevara, Shaquille Brewster and Minyvonne BurkeA jury reached a verdict Tuesday in the murder trial of former “American Idol” singer Caleb Flynn, whose wife was killed in February, which he has blamed on an armed intruder of their Ohio home.

Flynn, a former music pastor, pleaded not guilty to murder, assault and tampering with evidence in the death of Ashley Flynn. He told a 911 dispatcher that his wife, 37, who worked as a school teacher and volleyball coach, was shot multiple times in the head and he didn’t know whether the intruder was still in their Tipp City home.

Flynn and the couple’s two daughters were home at the time of the shooting.

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.

Add to GoogleBoth sides rest in trial of ‘American Idol’ contestant accused of killing his wife02:40Prosecutors 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.

“The evidence has proven the defendant’s account to be a complete fabrication,” Matthew C. Joseph, assistant prosecuting attorney for the Miami County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in Troy, Ohio, said in closings Tuesday.

Flynn, who had tears on his face, wiped his nose.

“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 “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.”

Over 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.

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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 allegedly wrote in an August 2025 text, 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 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.

Flynn’s attorney, Patrick Mulligan, 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.

Flynn sang in the televised auditions in Chicago for Season 12 of “American Idol” in 2013 but did not advance to the main competition. He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Selina 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.