Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Amrican Idol Start Trembles in Court, Wife Shot Dead Over Church Mistress

Episode Date: September 29, 2026

Caleb Flynn, an American Idol wanna be learns his fate today. He was arrested tried for allegedly murdering his wife, Ashley Flynn earlier this year. Prosecutors say he fatally shot her in their home, then staged the scene to look like a home invasion. His two children were home at the time.  Ashley Flynn, 37, was shot twice in the head.   Caleb called 911 claiming an intruder had broken in. He told police the console of his truck was open and the gun kept there was missing.  Prosecutors detailed an affair Caleb had be in for the last 18 months. He met Alleigha Botner when she was an intern at  Caleb's church. Prosecutors presented over 100,000 text messages between Caleb and his mistress, which included hatred toward Ashley and wishes for her death.    Today a jury finds Caleb Flynn guilty on all counts.    Joining Nancy Grace today:  Randolph Rice - Former Prosecutor and Current Criminal Defense & Civil Attorney at Rice Law, website: ricelawmd.com, IG, FB, X: @ricelawmd Caryn Stark -   Forensic Psychologist, renowned TV and Radio trauma expert and consultant, www.carynstark.com, Instagram: carynpsych, FB: Caryn Stark Private Practice   David Sarni  -  Former NYPD Detective, 27 years at NYPD, Adjunct Professor John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Instagram: dsonthemedia, TikTok: DS08296, Facebook: David Sarni, LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-sarni-ba002910a  Joseph Scott Morgan  - Professor of Forensics: Jacksonville State University, Author, "Blood Beneath My Feet", YouTube Host: "Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan", @JoScottForensic Shannon Hill  - Host, Shannon Hill News on Instagram, Tiktok and YouTube  Dave Mack -  Investigative Reporter, 'Crime Stories' See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Tonight, an American Idol star's wife is shot execution style asleep in her own bed. That's right. Two bullets to the back of the head and the star's mistress takes the stand in his murder trial. Good evening. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for being with us. Is she gone? Just look at me. Take a breath.

Mr. Flynn, you have several charges here. Count one is a murder charge. Two and three are both phelony assault charges. Count four is tampering with evidence. Count five is tampering with evidence. I just want to take care of my daughters. I'm not at risk. As we go to air, a jury has spoken. In the case of an American Idol star, suspect number one, in the execution style murder of his wife. Dave, what happened?

On the ninth day of the murder trial, and a little more than two hours of deliberations, the jury came back, guilty, on all nine charges. The former American Idol contestant, Caleb Flynn, guilty of murdering his wife. My name is Caleb Flynn. I'm from Tip City, Ohio. I audition because I'm sure everybody says it,

but music is all I know. It's what I live to do, and I love to sing, so that's why auditioned. Maybe my wife kind of nudge me a little bit, too. My first thought when I got my golden ticket, honestly, all I could do was cover my face because I cried a little bit.

I'm kind of a crybaby. I get it from my mom and my dad. The thing that makes me unique, you know, I absolutely love. I love the Lord. I love my wife more than anything. She is very, very pretty. Just, oof, I love her. But, you know, I'm just a normal person who absolutely loves to sing. My favorite past idol contestant would probably be Carrie Underwood. I promise you if my wife died her hair blonde, she would look just like her.

In a few moments, I'm going to play some excruciating lyrics that he tracked for his lover. if you could have seen the looks, especially the women in that, in that courtroom were giving, it was painful to listen to him, go on and on about his mistress in song. Let's get right down to it. A woman murdered in her own bed, shot execution style twice to the back of the head, and here's the poisonous icing on the sour cake. They're two little girls. were home at the time

Mommy was murdered. That's going to take a lifetime of therapy for them to get through that. But I want you to hear something. The jury just heard. Oh, my, man. Miami County, not a home. Somebody broke into my home.

Somebody broke in my home. Are they still in there? I don't know. I don't know. Okay, what's the address? Not 932 County of the Court in Ohio. Please, please, please, please.

My wife is... I need you to take a deep breath, okay? Do you still see anybody in the house? No, the door to the ground is wide open. Please, hurry, please. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. My daughters are here.

My daughters are here. Where is she at? She's in the bed. She's in the bed. Are you with her? I am in the room. I'm looking at her, yes, please. You can't have the door locked?

We have the noise to the cross law, but he's the house. Did a cop just call him, ma'am? He apparently reverted to American Idol falsetto as he was making that 911 call. Randolph Rice, joining me veteran trial lawyer, former prosecutor, but now on the other side, he is a criminal defense attorney and wins a lot of cases. He founded Rice Law. Randolph, good evening. have you ever noticed how many women are shot and the home intruder picks them out and then the husband and the children live?

It's really, you know, I need to come up with a statistic on that. It happens a lot. Have you noticed it, Randolph? Well, Nancy, that's what's so strange about this case. And that's why this points to somebody else other than Caleb Flynn because it is so strange in nature. The facts of it don't point towards him. They point to some intruder that came. in the house, execution style, killed his wife, and then immediately left the home. Killed the wife for what? Maybe that somehow, for the first time I've got my facts wrong, was something stolen? Was the home ransacked? Did you know about that? And the jury somehow didn't? We don't. And that's the problem with the prosecution. And I think that's the problem with this whole case is because it is so strange. Wait a minute. That's the problem with the prosecution?

That's it because it is so odd that nothing was taken, that she was execution style shot in the back of the head. That's why the prosecution can't put their finger on anybody else other than Mr. Flynn. Joining us in addition to veteran trial lawyer Randolph Rice, David Sarnie is joining us out of Brooklyn. You know what that means? Former NYPD detective 27 years, Professor John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

And you can find him at DSR. on the media on Insta. David, did you hear what Randolph Rice just said or did you just turn down the volume? Because he said it's the state's problem that the intruder didn't steal anything, didn't ransack the home, and there was no sex attack. So what's the motive? Now, Rice says that's the state's problem, the prosecution's problem. I say it's the American Idol Star's problem. Well, you have to think it this way. The burden of proof is always on the state. to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. And what detectives have to do is take the evidence available to them.

And there is a treasure trove of information that they could utilize. It comes from the initial 911 call. It comes from the video, the body cameras of the responding officers. And they take that information. And what you will do with that is then break down what was said at each time.

And then when you get him to speak to him in the interrogation room, the box, as we call, as I call it, you get, you want to say, see where his stories become inconsistent. And that's the thing. You look at the inconsistencies. And the first thing I noticed, the 911 call is he says two shots.

At no time does he say two shots when he calls 911, me talks to anybody, or the responding officers, or during the interview slash interrogation. So that's something we look at is, you know, he didn't touch, we looked at things that are inconsistent to what he said in the beginning. A lot of things were inconsistent. And it comes back down to, do you believe what he said?

And we have to refute it, not because of liar, liar pants on fire. We have to refute it with facts. So the investigators, when they sit him down, create a timeline in that interrogation room so they can now look to things to refute about what he said to them. And then the information that you have, plus something was stolen. And there is something stolen, which was the gun. And he also was very evasive when he spoke to the responding office about this handgun that was missing from his car. Straight out to Shannon Hill.

Guys, here is the so-called American Idol star singing in his heyday. Shannon Hill, while we are watching this, Shannon Hill, star of Shannon Hill News on Insta, the victim, his wife, was shot twice. Oh, by the way, that's from Christian Life Center. Shot twice. We're on the head. was she shot Shannon. Nancy, I believe it was in the back of her skull. And interestingly enough, your previous guest just mentioned the 911 call of Caleb saying she was shot twice, which I think kind of gives us a little bit of a red flag right there.

How did he know she was shot twice in the head? This woman has hair covering her head. How did he know? Shannon Hill, you just read my mind. I have taken copious notes. to ask Joe Scott Morgan on this because David Sarny brought it up first. Okay. Randolph Rice is trying to ignore it and pretend, okay, look over there. Not over here. Joe Scott Morgan is with us, Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University.

He is the star of a YouTube hit body bags with Joe Scott Morgan, but for our purposes, he is a death investigator with over 10,000 death scene investigations under his belt, plus the thousands that he and I have investigated together, plus all the reenactments that we have created to help solve crimes. Joe Scott, thank you for being with us tonight. Exactly what Sarnie and Shannon Hill were saying, exactly what Randolph Rice doesn't want us to talk about. You and I have seen a lot of head injuries, gunshot wounds.

And typically, you can't tell what is going on with the naked eye. think Travis Alexander and others. He was stabbed 30 times by Jody Arias and the stab wounds were actually overlapping. Or think about the Idaho four murder victims murdered by Coburger, Brian Coburger. There were so many wounds you couldn't make sense of it until you clean the body and inspect it, inch the body,

inch by inch. Think about it. Just what Shannon Hill was saying. The wife has long hair and a lot of it, thick, beautiful hair. It was her crowning glory. Somewhere, oh, that's a great shot of what I'm talking about. Thank you. Somewhere and all that are two bullet wounds. Now, who other than a medical examiner that was examining her head closely could say on the scene she took two bullet shots to the head. Okay, here's what we do at autopsy so that we can assess, all right,

particularly with people that are very, very hair suit, they have very thick hair. Nancy, with a case like this at autopsy, we would actually shave that portion of the head, just so that we could fully appreciate it, photograph it, that sort of thing. I mean, it's, people don't think that this is, you know, a difficult task, but it is because you're trying to be careful. Those wounds themselves are, and the hair as well, has evidentiary value. And so to think that this guy could suddenly be able to visualize, you know, that there are two defects in the back of her head without potentially having knowledge of, I don't know, very specific knowledge about pulling a trigger. Here's, here's another thing, Nancy, that that we have to think of. The head is the most vascular area of the body. Okay, what does that mean? Well, when it's traumatized, all of

us can identify if you've ever split your scalp open, you know you bleed profusely. With two gunshot wounds to the back of the head, she would have bled copiously at the scene, super saturated. He would not have been able to appreciate these insults to the back of her head, Nancy. This record is on. Miley is having a moment. New name. Exclusive shows. So IHart Radio is sending you to experience it all. Life at the Hollywood Pole.

Lights, hotel, tickets, and $1,000 cash. Listen to IHard new music for 10 minutes a day on the IHart Radio app. And click enter. Every day you listen is another chance to win. Stream Miley's new album, Bass Persuades, today. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. I got to tell you something, Joe Scott. In the last serial murderer that I tried before I left to go watch a show with Johnny Cochran, Court TV,

when I looked at my murder victim, her hair, now she'd been strangled, but she had been beaten also, and her hair, she had beautiful, long, black, thick hair. Her hair was matted in blood. when I first saw the picture of the scene where she was found, and probably was dumped, I said, what is that? I don't know if this is ever happening. I guess not, because you're there on the saying, you don't see autopsy photos, you're there.

I couldn't even make head nor tails of what I was looking at. I remember, I looked at the picture and I did it like that. I'm like, what is this? It was a photo of her head from behind. that just happened to be the photo on the top in the file. She had been put face down, but her hair was matted in blood. I didn't even know what it was until I went to the next picture

and she had been turned over and I could see that was her hair framing her face on the other side. My point, the moment I heard him say, she's been shot twice, that's why you have to shave the victim's head. Yeah. So you can see how many times they've been shot. Yes.

And when you say to be fully appreciated, to see it in its entirety. So, you know, Sarnie and Shannon Hill got it right. Randolph Rice is hiding right now because he's totally busted. But I want to go back to the 911 call. Do you have any idea how much I love playing these two a jury? I try to get them in immediately, immediately. And you have to go through evidentiary hoop. to get them in, like the date, who recorded it, where is it from?

Has it been altered? How can you prove it has not been altered? There's a whole litany of things you have to do. But by the time you do it 15, 20 times, you know it by heart. So listen, just as the jury heard this 911 call. Where are you guys at in the house? I am in the bedroom with her right now. Okay.

My daughter is in their room. So you are not with the children? I was with the children when it happened. Okay, but you're not with them now? No, they're in their room. They're not even awake. My God, oh my God. Oh, my God.

They're heading that way, okay. I need you to take a deep breath for me. No, I rubbed her leg and said her name. She's not answering. Your daughter's not answering you? No, they're in the other room. Okay. in their room. Okay. Are you hearing any kind of noise inside the house? No. He rubbed her leg. How about a little

CPR man? Do something. Completely useless. Karen Stark, I almost said, why are men so useless? But I'm not going to say that. Karen Stark is with me. She is a renowned forensic, psychologist, TV, radio trauma expert, consultant. Karen Stark can be found. at Karen Stark.com. That's Karen with a C. Karen, you and I have investigated and covered a lot of cases. He rubbed her legs. She's freaking dying. And he gives her a foot massage. What is he saying? And why is he talking in a falsetto?

The 911 op called him, ma'am. What he's doing, Nancy, is he's trying to sound like he's really upset. And that's his version of hysterical. You know, my wife, oh my goodness, oh, please, please, please. That's what's happening. And none of it rings true. Wait, could I just get you to do that one more time? Just to make sure I heard it correctly, could you just do that reenact one more time?

My wife. Okay, never mind. But wait a minute. Why did you say he's doing that? It's for a reason or is it just instinct? No, no. He's doing that to show how absurd. said he is. He's trying to fake like a crying, hysterical kind of voice. That's what I think. And

that's his version of it where his pitches is very high. Randolph Rice, are you hearing Karen Stark and are you hearing that the American Idol Star rubbed her leg as she's dying? That makes perfect sense, Nancy, because remember, he's in the bedroom with the kids. He hears this shot. He freezes for a second, and then he goes and checks on his wife. Now, remember, they'd had some issues in the past. It wasn't like he was going to go lay in bed with her, but he rubs her leg, realizing she's not moving. What issues in the past? You mean him having sex with another woman? That issue? There has been testimony that there was a bit of friction between the two of them leading up to this. Is that what she calls sex with another woman friction?

I guess. They've been drawing apart. They're really. relationship had drawn apart. Why do you put it like that? I don't get it. Their relationship, like the relationship as an entity, had been drawn apart. He is boinking another woman. Is that the friction you're talking about? Completely separate relationship. I'm talking about Mr. Flynn and his wife, Ashley. That relationship was separated, which makes the sense that he comes into the room and rubs her leg in the dark. Then he realized she's not moving. He turns the light on. He sees two bullet holes in the back of her head. And as Joe Scott Morgan said, this is a big issue with the,

I think the prosecution is going to have, is that that is the most vascular part of the body. A lot of blood. What does blood do when the head gets hit? It sprays. What's not on Mr. Flynn? There's no blood on him. Yeah. And you know what? Dave Mack, joining us in addition to Shannon Hill, Dave Mack, Crime Stories, investigative reporter, no blood on him. A, is that correct? And B, did he have time to change clothes? And C, they did not do a G.S.R. A gunshot residue on him. But realistically, Dave Mack woulda could have should have, even if they had, if he had changed clothes or touched anything, we would have lost that gunshot residue. It's like baby powder.

Yeah, he had plenty of time to do everything like you just said. They didn't test him. He was able to, you know, wash up, clean up, change clothes, and do whatever he wanted before he called 911. You know, we still don't know everything he did. We just know that he was up moving around a lot. But any way you look at it, he had plenty of time to wash his hands, wash his face, wash his hair, and put new clothes on before ever even calling 911. I'm seeing blood spatter and blood on a light switch.

That's significant Joe Scott Morgan because that tells me he was in contact. The killer was in contact with her body before the light was turned on or off. Yeah, yeah, that's a biological clue left behind. That's probably a contact smear that you're looking at there. So where does that come from? You know, we don't think that in life she's walking around with her own blood and touching, you know, touching a fixture or any other location. So this has to be post trauma, Nancy, in order for that to transfer onto, you know, say, for instance, hands. We see it with people that walk through puddles of blood, you know, and they'll transfer it from the soles of their shoe to other locations.

So, yeah, that's a big indicator here. Take a look at this. More blood evidence. Okay. This 911 is a treasure trope. I've got so much to talk to you, to talk over tonight with our experts. And I've got to play the excruciating, agonizing. You might as well just pull my nails off with pliers,

hearing him sing his lyrics to his sex partner. But wait, 911 first. I say, the one who is shot. She was what? In the head, in the head. I hope there's not everywhere. Okay, is she breathing? I don't think so.

Ashley, I have some baby. Baby, please. Oh, my God. No, she's not. Okay, she's not responding to you? No, no. The bill was leading to the glass door was wide open when I ran in there. Okay, do you see any kind of vehicles?

Oh, no, no, wait, the door, there's a side door in my garage door that's open by the, oh my God. Just take a deep breath for me, okay? Okay, okay. Just get that claw, now I want you to put it on that wound, but don't apply the right pressure to it, okay? They're coming you as quick as they can, okay? I keep on your head. Okay. Oh, my stars.

He laid a cloth on her head. He's really going all out. This is after the leg massage. And the 911 operator is actually trying to console him. Just take a deep breath. I mean, the fake hyperventilation, the garage door left wide open. Even my children at age five knew to put the garage door down and make sure the doors were locked and the outside lights on before they go.

to bed at age four. And he leaves the garage door wide open and then thinks in the midst of his wife being shot twice, according to him in the head, which you can't possibly see under those circumstances. He thinks to say, oh, the garage door was open. Hint, hint, the intruder came in through the garage door. Wow. How you can make all that out in this fake falsetto? I don't know. but here he is hyperventilating and laying a cloth on his wife's head. She's dead.

But wait, wait, here's another clue. Listen. She's my wife. You can call family, by the way. They just can't come in this house. They're not going to be able to come like near the house or anything like that. I'm going to call it.

My parents live in Minnesota. She's dead. She's dead. She's dead. I was with the girl. Jill, she's done. Someone broke in and shot her. She's done.

The empty house, but he said, I could call you. Randolph Rice, I think he made a huge mistake. He shouldn't have auditioned with singing. Acting is really what he's good at. I mean, Merrill Street. Back off, woman. Do you hear this guy? He's in shock, Nancy.

Clearly, he's in shock. And he's trying to reach out to the people that he loved. and he's telling them everything he knows. His wife is gone, she is dead, and somebody broke in. This is great evidence for the defense because this is the closest in time. And you and I know, you and I both talk about this all the time, about the testimony or the statements made right near the time of crime versus later are so much better.

And he's telling them exactly what happened. Someone broke in, someone killed Ashley. That's the facts. As we go to air tonight, the jury has spoken. Guilty. Dave Matt, what happened? Caleb Flynn, the American Idol contestant and former church pastor charged in the death of his wife, Ashley, an original indictment had 11 counts, but two misdemeanor counts were dropped.

The nine substantive counts were one count of aggravated murder, three counts of murder, two felonious assault counts, and three counts of tampering with evidence. During the nine-day trial, the prosecution called many witnesses, including Flynn's mistress, who now claims to hate him. But the defense chose not to call even one witness, and Caleb Flynn did not take him. testify on his own behalf. In the end, the jury did not believe Ashley Flynn was murdered in a burglary gone wrong. They believed a 40-year-old music pastor killed his wife to be with his much younger mistress. Caleb Flynn guilty on all counts. To Shannon Hill joining us from

Shannon Hill News on Insta, isn't it true that when law enforcement arrived, he, the suspect, car was open and the console was opened and he later indicated that is where he kept his gun. That's correct, Nancy. The investigators went to go look at his car and noticed that the console was open. And that is allegedly where Caleb Flynn was keeping his gun, but there was no gun inside that console.

And there is still yet to be a gun found at the scene. So David Sarnie, I would have to believe that a perp comes into the home, the garage doors open, comes into the home, after breaking into the car, getting the gun, coming in, no rape, no sex assault, no theft, shoots the woman, the wife, and leaves. So they find the gun there and, hey, and think, hey, this would be a great murder weapon, and then they leave with the gun. The gun's never been found.

It does it. This is the thing. We have to make sense, and this is why detectives do what they do. We look for the truth. Is it reasonable that a car booster, and this is what we talk, we call boosters, people go into a garage to steal property from a vehicle, then decide to take the property in the vehicle, then go into the house, into the one room that the wife is sleeping, shoot. The husband somehow hears it. His kids are sleeping. The dogs apparently are not barking, and all this happens within that time frame.

Is it reasonable? Does it make sense? And it doesn't. So we have to kind of figure that out. We have to dot the eyes and cross the tease with statements that he makes. That's why on the scene, the original cop to respond to that scene do a great job because they stay there with them the whole time. And I'll tell you this, you can get from them. They're not too sure about this guy either.

But it's not what we think. It's what we can prove. And this is why you have this trial is because his statements do not make sense to what happened. He equivocated about the gun being in the house. He didn't say the type of gun because when they asked me any guns, he didn't talk about the 9mm he kept in his console. And that seems to be a weapon that was used to shoot her. And a person stealing is not going to decide, I want to take more chance to go into one room, take nothing, shoot a woman, and then leave the scene. And that's why the detectives took all his information and had to break down all of his statements to see where it comes down to.

The timeline has been created also to create digital evidence that they can go back on to see if anything else was there. Who made the night? What time the night when one call was made? Were there any calls prior to? We know their calls after he calls the mother, his mom first, then calls the mother-in-law and tells her she's gone. And that's another thing. Tell us a mom, she's shot. When he talks to the mother-in-law, he goes, she's gone.

And then he includes his story that he wants to continually push, that somebody came in and shot her, which makes no sense. Dave Matt, Crime Stories investigative reporter. What caliber gun does Caleb Flynn say he owned and that was stolen from his car console? He kept the 9mm pistol in the center console of his truck, Nancy. And Joe Scott Morgan, we keep showing the bullets that clearly were taken either from her head or from the scene. What caliber? That's a 9mm, Nancy.

Actually, that's a live round right here. That's a 9mm round. The team's done a good job of that one image of the projectile. It's actually been mushroomed or deformed slightly. You can even see the striations on the side of it that gives you an eye, an indication of rifling. Why is that important? Well, that particular round right there can be assessed by,

by a ballistics expert if they had this weapon that he is alleged to have owned and they would do test firing with that weapon and compare it to the striations on the bullets or fragments of bullets that were recovered from Ashley at autopsy. And this is critical here in a sense that you can tie this back to the weapon. Can you put it in his hand? Well, no and hell no, because GSR was not performed on him. And why is that important? Well, when you can, early on in an investigation, and investigators miss this a lot because there's a lot of stuff going on, they don't necessarily get to the individual to secure them in order to do the GSR. And just because he had time to clean up and those sorts of things prior to does not relieve you of your duties as an investigator to do this

GSR testing just to say that you did it and you never know you might get lucky and come up with some particulate matter off of his hands and that's that's kind of essential so they've even though we do have evidence at the scene of gunfire it's it doesn't have a lot of utility to it from a forensic standpoint where we can kind of lash all these things together and present it to a jury so that you can say he definitely had a weapon in his hand that was discharged and it's consistent with a 9mm that he is alleged to have owned. We even recovered a projectile from her body, and we've got spent brass on the floor. We were referring earlier to the garage door being open.

I believe Shannon Hill that it was the door leading to the garage from the inside of the home. Correct, Nancy. The doorknob was broken off of that door, but investigators say that there didn't seem to be any force entry. was no kicks or pushes to the door that made it look that there was any intruder coming in. Rather, they believe that it was a staged robbery or burglary. This record is on. Miley is having a moment. New name, new album, exclusive shows.

So IHeart Radio is sending you to experience it all. Life at the Hollywood Poults, hotel, tickets, and $1,000 cash. Listen to IHard new music for 10 minutes a day on the IHart Radio app and click enter. you listen is another chance to win. Stream Miley's new album Bass Persuades today. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Shannon Hill, Shannon Hill News,

a very unusual photo was found on the victim, his wife's, devices. I'm talking about Ashley Flynn, the mother of his children, his wife of nearly 16 years. She was a teacher and a middle school volleyball coach. Here she is.

And where was this photo found, Shannon Hill? Yes, Nancy. This photo was found on Ashley Flynn's phone. And as you can see, she has Caleb Flynn's face X off. And I believe that this was also saved on her phone during a time in which Ashley Flynn had discovered this affair going on between Caleb Flynn and Ali's. Abotner, who was a church co-worker of theirs.

Oh, my stars, wait a minute. Karen Stark, it's bad enough to cheat on your spouse. You know, just hopping into any motel you can find up and down the interstate, probably in the church office, but then a coworker, somehow that makes it worse. No matter which way you look at it, Nancy, it's pretty terrible. And a coworker is, that's taking advantage of the position. that he's in as a pastor where he's taking advantage of a coworker in a way you can look at it that way and they have every opportunity now because they work together to be together and do whatever they

want there is no doubt in my mind that she crossed it off that way with that black x because she is furious and doesn't want him speak of the devil and his imp shall soon appear karen stark We're showing you footage. That's from Christian Life Center. Dave Mack, who is that woman singing with the suspect? That's going to be a Leah Botner, the mistress. Oh, my goodness. Now I think I know why his face was exed out in the wife's pictures. And now you're going to know why.

Listen to this. Okay, prepare yourself. It's painful. I warned you though I was scared They said time is a thief But your love's not close door I warned you

The jury had to hear that Now correct me if I'm wrong But Dave Mac Aren't those the songs That he, the American Idol star Caleb Flynn, wrote for his sex partner, Mistress, whom he met

when she was an intern at the church Is that who he's singing to? Exactly who he's singing to, Nancy. You know, Randolph Rice joining as a veteran defense attorney, you know you've lost the jury when they're like this during the songs. They're going on. They're looking up.

They're rolling their eyes. Yeah. They heard these Randolph Rice. Yeah. And that's not an indication of somebody who would go and kill their wife. I mean, if everybody that wrote cheesy love songs, we'd be locking up all the boy bands. in America. To his mistress? One one. Cheesy love songs. To his mistress. You left that part out.

Those are not to his wife. The dead woman, the mother of his children, 16 years of marriage, and she got two gunshot wounds to the head. Those are two his lover. The affair is completely separate. And you've got to look at it that way, Nancy. I know it's hard to sort of put them together and think that they're somehow related. But that was the affair that he was having. He's on trial for the murder of his wife. The evidence has to prove that he was the one who committed this, not some sort of affair that was going on on the side. The evidence. You mean the 18-month affair? The 18-month affair? This was not just a one-time fling at the Motel 6. This was 18 months with a woman. He met when she was an intern at their church where he is a pastor. And he hadn't been charged

with any crimes related to that affair. And he's not on trial for that. What he's on trial for is the murder of his wife. And the state has to prove that there's evidence that that actually happened. The alternative theory is that somebody broke in, found that gun, was going to do a burglary. And uh-oh, they come across Ashley Flynn. They shoot her real quick, they panic and they leave the house. Asleep. Asleep. How did they get panic because she was asleep? They figured they walked in. This was going to be a clean burglary and they realized somebody's in the bed. They panic, they shoot her and they take off out the door. And we don't have a gun. That's the biggest problem here for the prosecution. No gun. How did,

how did Mr. Flynn get rid of this gun so quickly? How did he get all the blood off his clothes? How did he get rid of his clothes? Where are the clothes with the blood on it? These are the evidentiary problems that they're going to have in proving this case. Okay. Speaking of evidence, I'd like to bring to your attention a text that the mistress reads out loud in court. I just wish I didn't say this. I didn't mean it. He says, says I want to kill her, Caleb. Who said that?

Me. Next message. I said it's so bad. Next message. He said that makes two of us. Crying now. I bet she wasn't crying in the Motel 6. That's from our friends at East Idaho News.

There's your out right there, Rice. Blame the mistress. Of course, it wasn't her. but she writes in a text, she admits, I want to kill her, Caleb. But the crucial part is that he says that makes two of us. And Nancy, here's the problem that the prosecutor is going to have with this. They say this multiple times. Why do they not take actions or why does he not take an action after he says this?

So this is all taken out of context because Caleb Flynn is trying to still keep Ms. Botner around and he's telling you anything. Look at your monitor. I was up till 4 a.m. last night crying. I stopped crying, literally trying to think of ways to kill her and not go to jail. That's from Caleb Flynn. You know, the American Idol star, who is the suspect number one in his wife's murder. I was up to 4 a.m. last night crying, literally trying to think of ways to kill her and not go to jail. Okay, David Sarny, look at this. She says you took my virginity and my heart. And he says, we have to get rid of...

What? Sarny. I mean, right there. Your wife? The mother of your children, you call her a... To top it all off in writing, idiot. The animosity you're seeing through these texts is massive. I mean, that's the thing. We've seen relationships break up, divorces happen.

It will happen. But it comes back to the facts. We go back to this whole thing again. He's saying that somebody, some intruder came into his house, took the gun from a console. If you look at the vehicle, you look at his truck, and I've had my car broken into, so I know. They're going to throw everything around.

They're going to toss that car. That car is in pretty good shape for someone who's taking property, takes the gun directly from the console, decides to walk into the house, go to the bedroom where he's not in, surprisingly, get shot, then he hears it, he doesn't know what to do, then he goes. The kids are still sleeping,

we don't know why that's the situation, we don't know why the dogs are there. This comes back to the same thing, what facts are there. That's why it takes that timeline, the digital evidence that comes back, to show the opportunity that he has the means and the motive. We know the means as a handgun that he denies almost saying it's a nine millimeter. We also have the fact that he has relationships,

outside the marriage. And you can see all the text messages. The metadata on that is also important. The phone calls, going to check to see any phone calls prior to the initial 911 call. They also do tracking of his cell phone, tracking of his Apple to see where he is in the house. This is what's so good about sometimes technology. It can, when it works, it's great, when it sucks, it doesn't. But in this case, it worked to prove the circumstantial case against Caleb Flynn that he was involved. Because that night of all nights, is not in the bedroom and his wife gets shot. And according to his own words, two shots. Hey, look at these screenshots. Joe Scott Morgan, I hate to like shower you with evidence, but what can I do? Kill her.

I hate her ever-living guts. Keep it rolling, control room. Look at these texts between mistress and defendant. I choose you. I'm free. Actions will come tomorrow. This is after she shot. Keep going, please. I need to rid myself a so I can start completely free and get. give you all of me. Does she really want all of you? I love you. Just give me one more chance. I love you till the day you die. I need her to die. To cheat again, to leave. I hate I don't want to be anywhere near her. I hate her. I know it hurts you. I've never hated anyone like I do her. Now that is from the mistress. Let's see the rest. here now they're worried did ash keep those screenshots of our messages ash of course is the murder victim what if she recovered them from recently deleted just in case this could be super bad if she has them yeah i guess so because you're talking about killing her why couldn't i have married you and had kids with you it goes on and on and on she the mistress is pressuring him to do something

Okay, Joe Scott Morgan, really? Yeah, he's laying out, literally laying out the plan here, which, of course, winds up with Ashley having been literally executed in her own bed, shot in the back of the head. By the way, I might say an indeterminate range. He wasn't like up close on her when she was shot, according to the forensic pathologist, but at least from an indeterminate range in that space that he alone,

would have had access to. And that's what's so damning about this, Nancy. Out of all the people in the world, why is this perpetrator going to choose this lady at this particular time to go into her husband's truck to retrieve a weapon and again enter back into the home and end her life? We remember an American hero, Deputy Sheriff Justin Smith,

Stone County Sheriff's Arkansas, shot and killed in the line of duty, leaving behind his wife. Lori and their sons, Ash, Corey, and Jared, American hero, Deputy Sheriff Justin Smith. Thank you to our guests, but especially to you for being with us tonight. Nancy Gray, signing off, but I'll see you tomorrow night. And until then, good night, friend. This is an I-Heart podcast, guaranteed human.