A former “American Idol” contestant repeatedly spoke about wanting his wife dead and once told his mistress he was “thinking about ways to kill her,” the woman testified Wednesday during his Ohio murder trial.
Alleigha Botner told jurors she carried on an affair with Caleb Flynn for about 18 months and had issued him an ultimatum about their relationship just weeks before the killing. She said Flynn’s remarks about his wife, Ashley Flynn, became increasingly alarming in the months before Ashley was fatally shot inside the couple’s Tipp City home.
“At first it was, ‘I want her dead. I wish she was gone,’” Botner testified.
Later, she said, Flynn told her: “If I could kill her and not go to jail, I would.”
Caleb Flynn becomes emotional in court during his murder trial in Ohio. Flynn is accused of killing his wife, Ashley Flynn, in February 2026 and staging the scene to look like a break-in. (COURTESY: WKEF)
According to Botner, the threats eventually became even more explicit.
“One night he was up really late thinking about — told me that he was thinking about ways to kill her,” Botner said.
Flynn made comments about wanting Ashley dead at least once a month, Botner testified.
Prosecutors later showed Botner thousands of messages exchanged during the affair. In one message attributed to Flynn, sent in February 2025, he wrote: “I need her to die, to cheat again, to leave.”
Other messages attributed to Flynn said, “I want her dead and gone” and, in response to Botner asking what she could do for him, “kill her.”
Alleigha Botner testifies Wednesday in the Ohio murder trial of former “American Idol” contestant Caleb Flynn. Prosecutors say Botner had an affair with Flynn before his wife, Ashley Flynn, was killed. (CREDIT: WKEF)
Flynn is accused of shooting Ashley in the back of the head inside their home on Feb. 16, then arranging the scene to suggest that an intruder had broken in. He has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder and related charges.
Botner also testified that Flynn possessed a gun before the killing. She recalled that he once showed her a firearm he kept in the center console of his truck.
“He showed me a gun,” she said.
Flynn told Botner the weapon was stored in the console, although she could not describe it because she saw it only once.
Caleb Flynn in a 2013 “American Idol” Hometown Interview. Caleb is the husband of Ashley Flynn, who was shot and killed in her Ohio home on Monday, February 16, 2026. (YouTube/American Idol)
The gun prosecutors say Flynn used to kill Ashley has never been found, despite extensive searches of the family’s home, nearby woods, storm drains and other locations.
Jurors also heard that Flynn and Botner regularly deleted messages during their relationship.
When asked how often she helped Flynn delete data from his devices, Botner replied, “Multiple times.”
“One of them being the night before Ashley was murdered,” she testified.
Ashley and Caleb Flynn in an undated photo with their two children. (GoFundMe)
Botner later testified that she used ChatGPT that night to research whether messages documenting the affair could be permanently deleted and sent Flynn screenshots of the results.
She told jurors she feared the affair could surface during a divorce and cost her her job. Prosecutors established that Botner sent the screenshots about 5:47 p.m. Feb. 15, hours before Ashley was killed.
Their relationship began turning personal in March 2024 and became sexual roughly two months later, Botner told jurors. She recalled Flynn telling her he hated Ashley, viewed his wife as little more than a “roommate” and remained in the marriage because of their two daughters.
Botner acknowledged knowing Flynn was married when the relationship became sexual and admitted she knew what they were doing was wrong.
“I never morally justified it,” she testified. “I just did it. Even while I knew it was wrong.”
Caleb and Ashley Flynn are pictured in an undated photo. (Ashley Flynn/Facebook)
The two exchanged roughly 107,000 messages over about a year — nearly 300 per day on average — while routinely deleting their conversations.
By January, Botner testified, she had grown tired of waiting and gave Flynn a final deadline: leave Ashley by Jan. 11, or she would move on with her life and end their relationship.
He did not leave.
Botner stopped communicating with Flynn until Feb. 14 — Valentine’s Day and two days before Ashley was killed.
Ashley Flynn, a Tipp City Schools substitute teacher and volleyball coach, was found dead in her Ohio home. (Tipp City Schools)
That day, she testified, Flynn told her he was “filing [for divorce] from Ashley” and was “actually leaving her this time.”
The two later met at Christian Life Center, where they had initially met through the church’s worship ministry. During that conversation, Botner recalled Flynn telling her he had already spoken with Ashley and told his wife he was divorcing her.
By the following night, Botner testified, Flynn was still telling her he planned to end the marriage Feb. 16.
“He said it’ll be a day I never forget,” she recalled.
Their communications continued past midnight, with Flynn allegedly telling her, “Tomorrow is a big day,” “I choose you” and that he was “about to be free.” Hours later, Ashley was dead. Botner told jurors she understood those comments at the time to mean Flynn was finally going through with the divorce.
Botner expected to hear from Flynn first thing that morning but instead received an Instagram message from a fellow church congregant asking whether she had heard about Ashley.
The congregant sent her a news story about Ashley’s death.
“My heart started pounding,” Botner testified. “It just seemed like too much of a coincidence that the day he’s divorcing her, she’s just dead all of a sudden.”
Botner testified that she immediately messaged Flynn.
“I said something like to Caleb, ‘What’s going on? Were you involved? Is this real?’” she recalled.
Flynn did not respond, Botner testified. She acknowledged deleting the message because she believed investigators would search his phone and feared they would discover the affair.
Botner admitted Wednesday that she initially lied to the FBI about her relationship with Flynn when investigators interviewed her days after the killing.
“I was selfishly afraid that my reputation was going to be ruined and that I was going to lose my job,” she testified. “And now that there was a murder attached, I didn’t want to be attached to that in any way.”
She began revealing more about the relationship after investigators told her they had found text messages on Ashley’s phone, Botner testified.
Prosecutors asked Botner how she feels about Flynn today, and she said, “I hate him.”
When asked why, Botner responded, “Because I believe that he murdered his wife.”
News Media reached out to Flynn’s attorney. Botner is expected to return to the stand on Thursday.