Todd and Jill Smith, Ashley Flynn’s parents, listen as jurors hear messages between Caleb Flynn and Alleigha Botner discussing how the Smiths might react if Flynn left his wife. In the messages, Flynn indicated he was not concerned about their reaction.
Staff Writer
Alleigha Botner, who testified she had an affair with Caleb Flynn, read messages attributed to Flynn about wanting his wife, Ashley, dead. In the messages, Flynn and Botner frequently referred to Ashley as “douche.”
Testimony from the mistress is continued today, Sept. 24, in the murder trial for Caleb Flynn, a Tipp City man accused of fatally shooting his wife and staging the scene to look like a home invasion.
The former music pastor and “American Idol” contestant is charged in Miami County Common Pleas Court with aggravated murder, two counts of felonious assault and three counts of tampering with evidence. The prosecution dismissed two misdemeanor counts of intimidation of an attorney, victim or witness in a criminal case before the start of the trial.
His wife, Ashley, a beloved middle school volleyball coach, educator and mother of two daughters, was shot twice in the head, apparently as she slept, early Monday, Feb. 16, at the family’s Cunningham Court home.
Alleigha Botner took the stand Wednesday, Sept. 23, and admitted her yearslong affair with Caleb Flynn. When asked how she felt about him now, she said, “I hate him” and that “I believe that he murdered his wife.”
The Dayton Daily News will have a reporter in the courtroom each day of the trial for regular updates of key testimony and events in the case, gavel to gavel. Follow our coverage at DaytonDailyNews.com.
@ 4:11 p.m.
Court adjourns until Friday, Sept. 25.
@ 3:03 p.m.
Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation special agent Joseph Wilhelm took the stand to testify about digital forensics.
He arrived in Tipp City on Tuesday, Feb. 17, to assist the Tipp City Police Department in the death of Ashley Flynn.
One of the devices Wilhelm said he examined was an iPhone 16 Pro belonging to Caleb Flynn. Extraction was not successful at the police department and Flynn home, so it was taken to the BCI.
“Forensic tools are engineered to grab as much data from the phone as possible,” he said.
He said that the Safari browsing history had been deleted at some point or was used in incognito mode.
Feb. 15, 2026 around 3:07 p.m. A search for best cough medicine for adults.
There also were several entries for Alleigha Botner related to Facebook, TikTok, Apple music,
He recovered no text messages between Caleb and Ashley Flynn on the phone, Wilhelm said.
Wilhelm said GroupMe had been installed on the pho Wilne, but that there were no messages on the phone. AI music song generator, GroupMe, ChatGPT and Instagram apps were uninstalled on the phone the day before Ashley Flynn’s death. Meanwhile, there was a Blink app for wireless security cameras.
“The location data remained at the residence until the device went to the Tipp City Police Department with the defendant,” Wilhelm said.
An Apple Watch transaction for a little more than $5 was Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026, at Circle K gas station convenience store, he said.
Between 1:07 and 2:30 a.m. the watch is charging, he said. The 911 call started at approximately 2:30 a.m.
Heart rate information on the Apple Watch was recorded at 10:50 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 15, and 1:33 a.m. Monday, Feb. 16, and 2:10 a.m. Feb. 16, he said.
A table recorded from the Apple Watch showed that steps were taken multiple times and devices were locked and unlocked.
He found an email regarding a star registry to an email address belonging to Caleb Flynn where he purchased a star for Alleigha Botner, named Alleigha’s Star.
The device also had an audio file of a song Flynn wrote for Botner. The lyrics matched those stored in Flynn’s device.
The prosecution played two versions of the song for the jury. Some family members of Ashley Flynn appeared to laugh when the music played.
The courtroom heard AI-generated songs created from lyrics written by Caleb Flynn during testimony Thursday.
@ 2 p.m.
Emily Smith, one of the two defense attorneys for Caleb Flynn, began questioning Alleigha Botner during cross examination.
She testified that she was taken on Feb. 20 to the Tipp City Police Department.
“Did the FBI tell you to tell the truth?” Smith said.
She agreed she was there to provide statements regarding Ashley Flynn’s death. She said she lied to protect her reputation.
During a second interview on Feb. 26, she spoke to the same FBI agents.
In the first interview she told police she did not believe Flynn killed his wife. In the second interview she said she did believe Flynn killed his wife. Before the second interview, Botner had retained counsel.
“I just thought it was just way too much of a coincidence that she was killed on the day he was going to divorce her,” Botner said.
She agreed that she never reached out to law enforcement about her concerns about Flynn and did not tell anyone else.
Her Florida trip was after her last text to Flynn, a couple weeks after her breakup.
She lost her iPhone 16. It fell into the ocean as she was getting out of a kayak with her dog. She said on cross that she did not get a receipt from Walmart when she unsuccessfully tried to get her phone fixed.
She had her replacement phone one month before it was confiscated by police for the investigation, she said.
The prepaid burner phone was from Target, and was bought after her phone became disabled. Law enforcement did not take her burner phone, she said, and she continued to use it.
She lost her laptop, but thought she left it in the overhead baggage compartment. She said she filed a claim but that law enforcement did not ask for it. She said the airport sent her emails saying they haven’t found it.
She was unsure whether she provided her Florida trip itinerary to the FBI.
She said in the moment, that Caleb Flynn having said his wife cheated made it easier for her, but that she knows it’s wrong.
“That’s what made me feel it was OK at the time,” she said.
The number of text messages from Botner were double the number of those from Caleb Flynn, Smith said, to which Botner said was likely accurate.
On Feb. 11, 2025, Botner texted Flynn, asking him to not get Ashley Flynn anything for Valentine’s Day or her birthday that she knew was coming up.
“Yes,” she said that the text messages showed that Botner and Caleb Flynn argued regularly.
She expressed insecurity and jealously when he was at home with his wife, and he showed jealously about other guys around her.
She agreed that her insecurity is what prompted the videos from Flynn showing that his wife was not home.
In one text, Botner said Flynn “murdered her heart,” that he took her virginity, her heart and stomped all over it and that she was done.
On Feb. 18, 2025, she wanted Flynn to tell her how he proposed to his wife.
“There were a lot of times that I questioned it,” whether Flynn hated his wife, Botner said.
“I would see text messages on his phone that she loved him. She also seemed to be very loving,” she said, and she thought he may have been loving toward her.
It is possible he was lying to her about hating his wife, Botner said.
Botner agreed that she had expectations their relationship would move forward and gave him an ultimatum several times, that he would have to chose between having custody of his daughters full-time and her.
She also agreed there was context to some of the messages read aloud in court earlier that were not read.
“You get so angry with me when you don’t get a response,” Flynn said to her regarding texts from her expressing how hurt and upset she was that he was spending time with his daughters and wife, including one girl’s birthday party. Also in that text exchange, Flynn said “if I could kill her and not go to hell I would,” in an apparent attempt to appease Botner.
In another lengthy communication from Botner about how hurt and betrayed she felt, Flynn responded that he wanted to be with her, that he was sorry he hurt her and that, “I stayed up until 4 a.m. thinking of ways to kill her.”
She said when he made comments about killing his wife that she never believed it, that she never believed he was capable of that.
On Saturday, Feb. 15, 2026, she reached out to Flynn when he wanted to schedule a meeting with her and her boss.
He said he was going to file for divorce and claimed he had proof that Ashley Flynn cheated because he saw his neighbor walk out the door.
“He had a small chance,” she said of Flynn chance with her because she was starting to move on in her life.
She agreed that the messages from Flynn about him taking action was about a divorce, which she said was why she sent information through ChatGPT.
She was concerned their affair would be uncovered.
She facilitated all the conversations, coaching him on where he was going to live and work, she agreed.
While she was housesitting for the lead pastor at CLC, she said a friend and her sister came over.
She texted that she was concerned about being by herself.
“I just have a fear of being alone, especially in a big house,” she said.
She went to the home of Todd and Jill Smith, Ashley Flynn’s parents, after the death.
“I just wanted to act as normal as possible,” she said.
Her boss asked her to go to the Smith home, and said that other staff members were there as well.
“No,” she said to a series of questions on whether law enforcement searched her apartment, her car, collected her DNA or took her fingerprints.
@ 12:47 p.m.
Court breaks for lunch.
@ 10:57 a.m.
In late October, Botner texted Caleb Flynn, “until she’s gone, I’m gone.”
“I’m done with my heart being played with, leave her and choose me,” she said.
Flynn said in one of the messages in November to Botner, “I know you need her gone. I need her gone as well.”
In messages to Flynn in November, Botner increasingly pressed for Flynn to make good on his promises to leave his wife so they could be together.
“Leave her and you can have me. I’m not going to continue doing this,” she texted.
A few days later, she said she needed to know whether he was leaving his wife, but if not she said she would be gone forever.
“You’re going to hurt me again. I’ve given you too many chances. This was supposed to be our future,” she texted days later.
In December, she told Flynn he needed to make up his mind and leave his wife before Christmas or she was going to change her life around forever.
“You’ll never leave her. I’ll believe it when I see it,” she texted on Christmas Eve.
On Jan. 3, she texted Flynn to “make up your damn mind.”
Jan. 11 was the final deadline, she said.
Flynn texted Botner, “I desire you more than life itself and I will let you know what happens.”
On Jan. 11, Botner said it was over.
“This is not who I fell in love with,” she said.
“I’m sorry I didn’t meet your deadline, only the Lord knows I did everything I could,” Flynn texted on Jan. 12.
He texted her again on Feb. 3 but Botner did not respond.
She next heard from him during a group chat with Botner and her boss at the church on Saturday, Feb. 14, that he needed to talk.
She texted him separately that he was not stepping down from his role on Easter at church.
He said, “I’m free,” and that he would tell her more about it later and they agreed to speak after the church service.
She told him on Sunday, Feb. 15, that he could still win her back but that she did have a date coming up in March.
“No one will love you like I can,” Flynn told her. “I have layers and layers of love for you that haven’t been tapped into.”
She told him, “I was all yours and you threw it away.”
In multiple texts, Flynn told her how desperate he was to fight for her and to convince her that he really was going to leave his wife, though Botner said there usually was an excuse for nothing to happen.
“No matter what happens, I need you to be free from a fake life and her,” Botner said.
He said he would tell his daughters, and read a Bible passage about a man whose wife strayed and he divorced her.
They discussed plans getting a divorce, with getting a different job, staying in a hotel and maybe with a friend near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
“I’m choosing freedom. I’m choosing you,” Flynn told Botner said.
She sent him ChatGPT screenshots showing how to permanently delete the messages she was reading in the courtroom.
He also told her that he would protect her so she didn’t get mixed up in their divorce.
“I believe God will protect us,” Flynn said.
During messages, Flynn compared himself to Job, who lost his family, wealth, friends and health but was rewarded twofold by God for keeping faith during his tribulations.
Around 9:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 15, Flynn talked about all that he had to do to start the divorce process the following day, talking to his daughters, in-laws, neighbor, friend about a job, pastor and a burner phone that he planned to buy paying cash.
“I’m doing it, Alleigha. My mind is racing but I’m not going back,” he said.
“Action will come tomorrow,” Flynn said around 10:15 p.m. the night before Ashley Flynn’s death.
“I didn’t know how to let you go. I can’t let you go,” he said.
He said he had a massive day ahead and that he had to get to sleep.
Around midnight, he said, “I have a lot going through my head,” and that he had a lot of awful thoughts at night.
“I want you, Alleigha. I want to do this. I want a chance.” Flynn said.
On Monday, Feb. 16, at 12:45 a.m., Botner congratulated him for finally being able to be free.
On 7:50 a.m. Feb. 16, she sent a message to Flynn using her burner phone, was deleted.
She sent another message that morning to Flynn after hearing the news of Ashley Flynn’s death.
“What is going on right now? Is this real,” she texted.
“The first thing he texted me was, ‘it didn’t happen the way we thought it would, did it?’”
He told her he was sleeping on the couch because he never slept in the bed. He woke up because he heard the dog shivering and went back to bed, heard a gunshot and looked in the bedroom and saw Ashley Flynn covered in blood.
He told her he was sleeping on the couch at the time of the shooting, Botner said.
Todd and Jill Smith, Ashley Flynn’s parents, listen as jurors hear messages between Caleb Flynn and Alleigha Botner discussing how the Smiths might react if Flynn left his wife. In the messages, Flynn indicated he was not concerned about their reaction.
@ 10:29 a.m.
Court is taking a morning break.
@ 8:42 a.m.
Before Alleigha Botner began her testimony, court staff outfitted her with a microphone because she was soft-spoken.
Miami County Prosecutor Paul Watkins asked her to continue reading certain text messages from the approximately 107,000 sent during a one-year period of their relationship.
In one, Flynn said if he could kill his wife and not go to hell that he would.
“… that’s why I constantly tell you how much I hate her, loathe, her, want her dead,” read another attributed to Flynn about his wife, Ashley.
On June 12, 2025, Flynn asked Botner to “Please hire someone to take douche (a name they used for Ashley Flynn) out. I need you.”
Botner replied, “so tempting.”
He also told her that they needed to get rid of Ashley Flynn and that he wasn’t joking.
Many messages were from Flynn saying he hated his wife and her family and hated talking about her because she has “taken everything from me and ruined my life.”
In text messages shared July 3, 2026, Botner told Flynn that “douche needs to go.” Flynn later replied, “please take her out.”
On July 8 a message read “I don’t know how many times I have to say I hate her guts,” Flynn said to Botner.
Botner got teary eyed and started crying before reading the next message, “I want to kill her,, Caleb.”
“Who said it?” Watkins said.
“Me,” Botner replied.
Caleb Flynn texted Botner in respone, “That makes two of us.”
He told her that he was not trying to hurt her and wanted to be with her, that he “was trying to trust Jesus.”
Flynn told Botner that he was refraining from a sexual relationship with his wife in August 2025.
Botner was supposed to meet Ashley Flynn for coffee, but Botner said she couldn’t face her.
On Sept. 8, 2025, Caleb Flynn said, “she’s awful. I hate her.” That same day he texted that he was fasting 40 days because he wanted Botner and loved her.
Many of the messages were similar to the one Flynn sent Sept. 23, 2025: “I hate her. I hate everything about her.”
He said at home, he ignores his wife, doesn’t talk to her her except about the girls and schedules and that he doesn’t hug her.
“I need her gone, Caleb,” Botner texted before the Flynns went on a 15th anniversary cruise in August 2025. Flynn also texted Botner at one point that he was willing to sacrifice for their relationship, that he was willing to sacrifice his daughters, his nearly quarter-million dollar salary, his position at the church and endure public humiliation and shame to be with Botner.
Alleged mistress Alleigha Botner became emotional while reading one of her messages during testimony, telling jurors, “I wish I hadn’t said that.” (Source: CourtTV via YouTube)
Video from yesterday, September 24, 2026
Alleigha Botner testified that Caleb Flynn repeatedly talked about wanting Ashley Flynn dead and said the statements escalated to thinking about ways to kill her. (Source: CourtTV via YouTube)
Previous coverage
Ashley Flynn Murder Case
Caleb Flynn, 40, a former worship pastor and contestant on the 12th season of “American Idol” television singing competition in 2013, is accused of killing Ashley Flynn, his wife of 15 years, early Feb. 16 at the couple’s Cunningham Court home and staging the scene to look like a home invasion. He was arrested within 82 hours of his wife’s death.
Here are stories from the investigation.
 
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