Ex-mistress gets emotional reading texts during testimony in former 'American Idol' contestant's murder trial
Caleb Flynn is accused of fatally shooting his wife, Ashley Flynn, in bed.
The former mistress of an Ohio man accused of fatally shooting his wife in their bedroom and allegedly staging the crime scene to make it seem like an intruder broke into their home took to the stand again on Thursday, getting emotional at times as she spent hours reading messages shared between the two in the months leading up to his wife's death.
Caleb Flynn, 40, a former pastor who once appeared as a contestant on the 12th season of "American Idol," is on trial in Miami County, Ohio, for the murder of his 37-year-old wife, Ashley Flynn.
He called 911 in the early hours on Feb. 16 to report a burglary and shooting at the family's home in Tipp City, north of Dayton. He was arrested days after the shooting and was charged with aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault and tampering with evidence. He has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors allege that Caleb Flynn shot his wife twice in the back of the head in bed while their two daughters were asleep in the house -- and manipulated the scene to make it seem as if someone broke into their home -- so that he could be with his mistress and appear to be a "victim."
The former mistress, 24-year-old Alleigha Botner, took the stand for the second day in a row on Thursday. The prosecutor continued to ask her to read some of the more than 100,000 messages between her and Caleb Flynn during their relationship, which she said became sexual in May 2024.
Botner testified on Wednesday that she first met Caleb Flynn in 2022 while interning at their church. She said she began having a sexual relationship with him in May 2024, despite knowing he was married, and the two would talk about getting married.
Many of the exchanges the prosecutor asked her to read talked about them both hating "douche" -- what Botner said she and Caleb Flynn called his wife -- and wanting him to leave her.
"If I could literally kill her and not go to hell, I would do it in a heartbeat," Caleb Flynn said in one message from May 2025, she testified.
"That's why I constantly tell you I hate her, loathe her. I want her dead," he said in another sent two days later, she testified.
"We have to get rid of douche. I need you. You're my everything," he said a month later, she testified.
Botner began to tear up while reading an exchange from July 10, 2025.
"I said, 'Do you know how badly I want to say eff it to any rules and any barriers and just love you with my entire heart for the rest of my life?'" she testified.
She paused before reading the next message and started to cry, saying, "Sorry, I just wish I didn't say this."
"I didn't mean it," Botner continued before reading the message. "It says, 'I want to kill her, Caleb.'"
"Who said that?" the prosecutor asked.
"Me," she said.
She testified that Caleb Flynn then responded, "That makes two of us."
In August 2025, Caleb Flynn went on a 15th anniversary cruise with his wife, during which Botner said his wife found their messages.
"All I want is you. I'm sorry I hurt you. I was up till 4 a.m. last night crying and literally thinking of ways to kill her and not go to jail," Caleb Flynn messages Botner after the cruise, according to Botner's testimony.
That day, Botner testified that she texted him, "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. But to make the divorce happen, it would change everything."
In texts in the weeks leading up to the fatal shooting, Botner asked Caleb Flynn when he was leaving his wife.
"I said, 'Do you know how many times you've said you're going to fast and then leave her? This will literally be your fourth time you've prayed protection or fasted about how,'" she said, reading a message from early January.
"I said the same day, 'As Jesus is my witness right now. I swear on absolutely everything that I love, if you do not leave her next week, I don't want this anymore for the rest of my life,'" she testified.
She said she told Caleb Flynn that she was done waiting and if he didn't leave his wife by Jan. 11, she would move on with her life. He didn't leave her by that date, though she said she believed he was going to talk to his wife about getting a divorce on Feb. 16 -- the day of the alleged murder.
"I just want to be free of her, have my girls, and have a chance to start a life with you," Caleb Flynn messaged his mistress on Feb. 15, Botner testified while reading a long exchange that discussed deleting their text messages and him leaving his wife and finding a new place to live.
"He said, 'Okay, actions will come tomorrow," she testified.
After learning that Ashley Flynn had died, she testified that she texted Caleb Flynn on Feb. 16, "What is going on right now? Were you behind this?"
When she saw him in person for the first time after the shooting, she testified that he told her, "It didn't happen the way we thought it would, did it."
"I said, 'Caleb, how did this happen?'" she testified, saying she asked him a lot of questions about the shooting and was "suspicious."
Under cross-examination, she testified that in a second interview with FBI agents regarding the case, on Feb. 26, she indicated that she believed Caleb Flynn had killed his wife.
"I simply thought that it was way too much of a coincidence that she was all of a sudden dead on the day that he was going to divorce her," she said.
She said she had not told anyone about her concerns until then.
The defense also asked if the two would argue regularly in their messages, which Botner affirmed.
"His would be about me going to young adult events, and mine would be about him being around Ashley," she testified regarding their arguments.
Asked by the defense if Caleb Flynn would say he hated his wife "as a lie to make you feel better," Botner testified, "He might have been."
Prosecutors alleged that Caleb Flynn killed his wife so he could be with his mistress and staged it to look as if an intruder did it so he "too would be a victim."
"He'd get to keep his mistress, have his daughters all the time," Miami County prosecuting attorney Paul Watkins said during opening statements last week. "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."
Defense attorneys have conceded that Caleb Flynn said "ugly, hurtful" things in the messages with his mistress, though they said he did so to appease her and lied to her to make her happy.
"A man can fail as a husband without being a murderer, and a man can make selfish decisions without committing a crime," defense attorney Emily Smith said during opening statements.
The defense has also argued that there is no direct evidence, such as a firearm, tying Caleb Flynn to the murder, "only a theory following an affair."
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