Caleb Flynn Trial: What Ex-Mistress Alleigha Botner Told the Jury

• Alleigha Botner, 24, testified for two days in the Ohio murder trial of former American Idol contestant Caleb Flynn, 40, with whom she had an affair.
• She told jurors she now hates him “because I believe that he murdered his wife,” and read messages in which prosecutors say he wrote about wanting Ashley Flynn dead.
• Flynn has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder. His lawyers say he wanted a divorce, not a killing, and that the gun was never found.

“I hate him.” That is how Alleigha Botner, 24, described her feelings for Caleb Flynn on the witness stand on Wednesday (Sept. 23), in his trial for the killing of his wife, Ashley Flynn, 37. Asked what changed, she said: “Because I believe that he murdered his wife.”

Flynn, 40, is a former pastor and worship leader from Tipp City, Ohio, north of Dayton, who competed on Season 12 of American Idol in 2013. He has pleaded not guilty. Botner finished two days of testimony on Thursday in Miami County Common Pleas Court in Troy.

What did Alleigha Botner testify?

That she met Flynn in 2022 while interning at their church, and that they had a sexual relationship for about a year starting in May 2024, while he was married. The two exchanged about 107,000 messages and deleted them routinely, she said.

She read many of them to the jury. In one from August 2025, according to the messages shown in court, Flynn wrote that he had been up until 4 a.m. “thinking of ways to kill her and not going to jail.” Botner testified that she wrote back that he should get a divorce instead.

In my mind, it seemed like too much of a coincidence that the day he’s divorcing her, she’s just dead all of a sudden.

Alleigha Botner, testifying on Sept. 23

By January, she said, she had given him a deadline, Jan. 11, to leave his wife. He did not. On Feb. 14 he told her he was filing for divorce.

Hours before he called 911 on Feb. 16, he texted her, prosecutors say: “I choose you. I’m free. Actions will come tomorrow.” Botner said she read that as the divorce.

She also testified that on the evening of Feb. 15 she used ChatGPT to look up whether messages could be permanently deleted, and sent Flynn screenshots of the answers, because she feared the affair would come out in a divorce and cost her her job.

What did Caleb Flynn’s defense ask her?

Flynn’s lawyers acknowledge the affair and told jurors his behavior makes him “easy to dislike,” but say the state lacks key evidence, including the murder weapon, which has never been recovered. Their case is that he wanted to divorce Ashley, not kill her.

On cross-examination, Botner said there were “a lot of times” she doubted that he really hated his wife, and agreed he may have said it to make her feel better. She confirmed she did not go to authorities for several days, and that she had searched online for unsolved homicides and Ashley Flynn’s name.

She also testified that she was never charged or offered anything for her testimony, and that investigators never searched her apartment or car or took her DNA or fingerprints.

What happened to Ashley Flynn?

Caleb Flynn called 911 on the morning of Feb. 16 to report a break-in and a shooting at the family’s home.

Prosecutors say he shot his wife twice in the back of the head in their bed while their two daughters slept in the house, then staged the scene to look like an intruder had done it.

He was arrested days later. He faces one count of aggravated murder, three counts of murder, two counts of felonious assault and three counts of tampering with evidence.

What does Caleb Flynn face if convicted?

It depends on which count the jury picks. In Ohio, aggravated murder means causing a death on purpose and “with prior calculation and design,” which is why prosecutors have spent days on messages written months before the shooting.

Aggravated murder carries life in prison, with or without the chance of parole after 20, 25 or 30 years.

Murder does not require that planning, and carries 15 years to life. The multiple counts give jurors alternatives: if they are not convinced the killing was planned, they can still convict on a lesser charge. Tampering with evidence covers the alleged staging of the scene.

More celebrity news: Jonathan Taylor Thomas was arrested at a DUI stop, and Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 15 years. Everything else is in Celebrities. And from the other talent show in the headlines, who won America’s Got Talent.

— Bruno Monteiro

Sources: testimony and exhibits in State of Ohio v. Caleb Flynn, Miami County Common Pleas Court, Sept. 23–24, 2026, as broadcast by WDTN, WHIO and ABC7; Ohio Revised Code §§ 2903.01, 2903.02 and 2929.02–.03. Reported by ABC News (Meredith Deliso), CNN (Eric Levenson, Andy Rose and others), Fox News (Greg Wehner) and Oxygen (Arnold Davick). Photos: WDTN pool footage, American Idol (2013) and Ashley Flynn’s Facebook, via ABC7.