Caleb Flynn, an Ohio man whose audition on season 12 of American Idol was televised in 2013, has been found guilty of killing his wife.
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It took the jury a little over two hours to find him guilty of all nine counts of murder, assault, and tampering with evidence, NBC News reported. The 40-year-old broke down in tears as Judge Jeannine Pratt read the verdict. He was taken from the courtroom in handcuffs.
Sentencing will take place on October 5. Flynn faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Back in February, Flynn told 911 that his wife Ashley Flynn, a school teacher and volleyball coach, had been shot multiple times in the head by a home intruder. When police arrived, he told them he was asleep on the couch at the time of the home invasion and woke up to the sound of gunshots.
Prosecutors alleged that Flynn staged a home invasion to mislead investigators. They claimed that he had shared thoughts of killing his wife with his then-mistress, 24-year-old Alleigha Botner.
Matthew C. Joseph, assistant prosecuting attorney for the Miami County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in Troy, Ohio, said that Flynn “wanted to be a victim” during his closing arguments on September 29. He also claimed Flynn wanted to “keep his mistress and have his daughters all to himself.”
Texts between Flynn and Botner showed that he discussed killing his wife with her before his wife’s death. “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.
During her testimony, Botner told the court that she hated Flynn. When a prosecutor asked her why, she responded “Because I believe that he murdered his wife.”
However, 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.