Ex-‘American Idol’ contestant Caleb Flynn sentenced to life without parole in wife’s murder
NBC News · LC · trust 46/100
Caleb Flynn, 40, was found guilty of aggravated murder in the February shooting of Ashley Flynn, 37, a schoolteacher and volleyball coach. Flynn and their two daughters were home when police arrived .
Before issuing the sentence, Judge Jeannine Pratt said he would be punished because he posed a high risk of harm to the community.
“The layers of deceit, manipulation and cruelty are hard to fathom,” Pratt said Monday. “And you used your faith to manipulate the lives of others.”
Caleb Flynn reading his statement to the court Monday in Troy, Ohio, before being sentenced. Pool via NBC News Flynn maintained his innocence Monday, crying and shaking as he read a statement to his family and Ashley’s.
“I loved her and loved her. She was my wife. She was beautiful and amazing in countless ways,” Flynn said. “I will continue to fight for my innocence as long as the Lord allows me to, since I did not kill my wife.”
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“I never knew that love this fierce was possible until the moment that I held you for the first time,” Flynn said to his daughters. “Please know your daddy is so proud of you and loves you beyond what words can describe.”
Flynn’s daughters were not in court, but other family members read written statements from the preteen girls who were ages 9 and 11 when their mother was killed.
“I love you deeply with all my heart and it’s sad that you can’t love anyone but yourself,” read the letter from his daughter Alissa.
In her letter, his daughter Ava said photos and videos of her father on trial online have been inescapable.
“My heart aches to see you hurt, but then I think it was your choice,” she wrote. “It was your choice to have that affair.”
Both daughters implored their father to confess to murdering their mother. Along with their grandparents, uncle and aunt, who read statements in court, the girls said their faith has been helping them get through their grief.
Ashley Flynn’s sister, Kayla Keyt, said during her victim statement that her family could not overcome their sense of shock and despair after learning that Flynn betrayed them in such a violent and horrible way.
“We trusted you. We believed in you. We honestly would have laid down our lives for you,” Keyt said.
Prosecutors said Flynn’s wife was defenseless in bed when he shot her and then feigned a home invasion to mislead investigators.
Flynn frantically called 911 and said someone had broken in while he slept on the couch. He woke up to the sound of gunshots, he told investigators.
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.”
But Flynn’s lover, Alleigha Botner, testified in court that he talked about hating his wife and having thoughts of killing her. Jurors heard AI-generated love songs that prosecutors say he made for Botner and some of the more than 100,000 text messages that authorities say they…
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