Alleigha Botner took the stand in a Miami County, Ohio, courtroom and told jurors she believes Caleb Flynn, a former pastor and one-time "American Idol" contestant, murdered his 37-year-old wife, Ashley Flynn, after months of texting his mistress about wanting Ashley dead.
Botner, 24, testified Wednesday that Flynn, 40, regularly told her he wanted his wife "gone" or "dead" during the roughly year-long affair the two carried on while Flynn served as a worship leader at the Ohio church where Botner had once interned. Hours before Flynn dialed 911 on February 16 to report what he called a burglary and shooting at the couple's home in Tipp City, a small city north of Dayton, prosecutors say he texted Botner three words that now sit at the center of the state's case: "I choose you. I'm free. Actions will come tomorrow."
Ashley Flynn was found in her bed with two gunshot wounds to the back of her head. The couple's two daughters, ages 10 and 12, were asleep across the hall, Breitbart reported. Caleb Flynn called 911 and told dispatchers an intruder had broken in and shot his wife. He was arrested days later.
Flynn has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault, and tampering with evidence. His defense attorney, Emily Smith, told jurors during opening statements that being a bad husband does not make a man a killer.
Botner testified she first met Flynn in 2022 while interning at their church. By May 2024, the two had begun a sexual relationship. Over the months that followed, she said, they exchanged more than 100,000 text messages, a volume prosecutors have used to build a detailed picture of Flynn's state of mind in the run-up to Ashley's death.
Among those messages, ABC News reported, were repeated expressions from Flynn about wanting his wife dead. Botner told jurors Flynn called Ashley a "whore," a "s***," and "spawn of Satan." She recounted one statement that prosecutors highlighted:
"He said that he wishes if he could kill her and not go to jail or get arrested, I forget exactly what he said, that he would do it."
A text prosecutors introduced put it more bluntly. Flynn allegedly wrote to Botner: "If I could literally kill her and not go to h***, I would do it in a heartbeat. That is how dark and how hateful I feel. I choose you."
Fox News reported that Botner testified Flynn's comments about wanting Ashley dead came up at least once a month and that, on one occasion, he told her he had stayed up late "thinking about ways to kill her."
Smith, the defense attorney, acknowledged Flynn made what she called "ugly, hurtful" statements but argued he was lying to appease Botner and keep her happy. She told jurors during opening statements:
"A man can fail as a husband without being a murderer, and a man can make selfish decisions without committing a crime."
Botner described a relationship defined by broken promises. At some point during the affair, Flynn took Ashley on a 15th anniversary cruise, while still involved with Botner. Ashley discovered text messages between the two during the trip and contacted Botner, asking to meet. Botner refused.
"I didn't think I could face her, knowing that I was having a relationship with her husband."
Flynn sent Botner an audio apology after the cruise. Portions played in court captured him saying, "I was wrong for going on a cruise. I was wrong for hurting you." He added: "It only comes out of just sheer absolute massive love for you. But until I can be released from her, I know that you do not have to do anything."
Botner grew frustrated. She gave Flynn a January 11 deadline to leave Ashley. He promised he would. He did not. Botner testified she told him she was done:
"I told him that I don't trust him, and that I'm moving on with my life."
Flynn responded by sending her song lyrics he had written: "Life is now empty since the moment I lost you." The following month, he told Botner he was finally divorcing Ashley. Botner said she did not believe him.
On February 15, the day before the 911 call, Botner sent Flynn ChatGPT screenshots explaining divorce proceedings when an affair is involved, and instructions on how to permanently delete messages from his phone. Fox News reported the screenshots were sent at 5:47 p.m. that evening. Botner testified she was worried about her own reputation and her job if the affair became public through divorce proceedings.
"I was afraid that if he got a divorce, that actually would bring up the messages she saw between us. I was worried about my reputation. I was worried about losing my job, and so I was sending Caleb ChatGPT screenshots of how to fully delete all messages from his phone."
Then came the final texts. Past midnight, hours before Ashley was found dead, Flynn messaged Botner: "I choose you. I'm free. Actions will come tomorrow." Fox News reported he also wrote, "Tomorrow is a big day" and that he was "about to be free." Botner testified she understood the messages to mean Flynn planned to talk to Ashley about a divorce.
Prosecutors allege Flynn shot Ashley twice in the back of the head while she slept, then staged the scene to make it look like a break-in so that, in the words of Miami County prosecuting attorney Paul Watkins, "he too would be a victim." Watkins laid out the alleged motive during opening statements:
"He'd get to keep his mistress, have his daughters all the time. He would benefit financially, get to keep his lucrative job working for Ashley's family business, and he'd get to keep his position as a worship leader."
Physical evidence presented during the trial's first days has undercut Flynn's intruder story. The New York Post reported that a deputy canine handler, David Laycox, testified a police dog named Haze tracked a scent from the garage back into the house and found no trail of any suspect leaving the scene. FBI agents canvassed the neighborhood for two days and found no witnesses who reported anything suspicious the night Ashley died.
A paramedic, Alex Huels, told jurors he found Ashley in bed "laying on her left side in what looked to be a sleeping position." Flynn, meanwhile, made emotional phone calls to family members after police arrived, repeatedly insisting an intruder had broken in.
The defense has pointed to what it calls the absence of direct evidence. Smith told jurors no firearm has been tied to Flynn. The gap between the prosecution's circumstantial case and the missing weapon remains one of the trial's central tensions.
Botner's testimony was at times blunt, at times raw. She acknowledged the affair without excuses:
"I found myself in a place I never thought I would be. I never morally justified it. I just did it, even while I knew it was wrong."
She described the moment she learned Ashley was dead. "My heart started pounding," she said. "It just seemed like too much of a coincidence that the day he's divorcing her, she's just dead all of a sudden."
Fox News reported that Botner initially lied to the FBI about the affair out of fear for her reputation and her job. She eventually cooperated with investigators and took the stand for the prosecution.
Asked why she now hates Flynn, Botner did not hedge:
"Because I believe that he murdered his wife."
The court recessed for the day during Botner's testimony. She is set to return Thursday.
Flynn, a former contestant on Season 4 of "American Idol," built a life that looked, from the outside, like a model of faith-community respectability, worship leader, family man, employee at his wife's family business. Prosecutors say what was happening behind that surface tells a different story: 100,000 texts to a mistress, matching tattoos, a stream of violent fantasies, and a wife who ended up shot in her sleep.
A jury will decide whether the circumstantial trail adds up to murder or whether the defense is right that a faithless husband is not necessarily a killer. But the facts already in evidence leave a 37-year-old mother of two dead, two young girls without their mother, and a congregation's trust in ruins, and no amount of deleted messages can undo any of it.
