Flynn also told Botner that he hated his wife, Ashley Flynn, 37, and that he had thought about “ways to kill her and not go to jail”, according to messages read in court.
He referred to the mother of his two daughters in text messages by derogatory names, such as “douche”, “whore”, “slut” and the “spawn of Satan”.
The morning after Caleb Flynn discussed divorcing his wife with Botner, a church congregant texted her, asking whether she had heard about Ashley Flynn. They sent her an article which said she was dead.
“My heart started pounding,” Botner testified at Flynn’s trial. “It seemed like too much of a coincidence that the day he’s divorcing her, she’s just dead all of a sudden.”
On September 29, Flynn was found guilty of aggravated murder, as well as felonious assault and tampering with evidence.
“As I stand here before God, I am not lying when I say I did not kill my wife. I will continue to fight for my innocence as long as the Lord allows me to, as I did not kill my wife,” Flynn said as he was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Monday (local time).
The trial in Troy, a small city in western Ohio, attracted nationwide attention.
Flynn’s lawyer, L. Patrick Mulligan, told the New York Times: “There was a struggle for people to get in every day.
“It was as intense as I’ve ever personally experienced,” he said.
Flynn’s American Idol appearances from 2013 resurfaced, including clips in which he described how much he loved his wife.
“I absolutely love the Lord. I love my wife more than anything. She is very, very pretty. Just, oof, love her,” he said during an interview posted to the show’s YouTube channel.
“I’m just a normal person who absolutely loves to sing more than anything in the world.”
Flynn claimed he was sleeping on the couch when he heard gunshots at their home in Tipp City in the early hours of February 16. He said he found his wife dead. She had been shot twice in the back of the head while sleeping.
“Somebody broke into my home and shot my wife,” he said during a 911 call. “There’s blood everywhere. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.”
Prosecutors said that Flynn had attempted to stage a home invasion. Matthew Joseph, a prosecutor, called his story “a complete fabrication”.
“While the defendant told law enforcement that he was sleeping, his electronic devices documented something different. They documented movement and activity in the hours leading up to Ashley’s murder,” he said. “The defendant said he was sleeping. His devices say he was awake and moving.”
The gun that was used to kill Flynn has not been found.
When Botner took the stand on September 23 (local time) as the prosecution’s star witness, she was presented with 34 hefty books containing copies of the thousands of messages the couple exchanged.
At one point, some members of the jury visibly cringed as they listened to the artificial intelligence-generated songs Flynn created for her. Observers in the court and legal counsel also struggled to keep a straight face.
During her hours-long testimony that ran more than two days, Botner read many of the text messages aloud in the courtroom, including one exchange in which she told Flynn she wanted to kill his wife. “That makes two of us,” he replied.
She cried on the witness stand as she read out the messages, adding: “I didn’t mean it.”
Botner also texted Flynn that she was “not asking that you take her life obviously, because that’s not what you should do, and I know you actually wouldn’t”.
She admitted to lying to the FBI because she was worried about her reputation if it became public that she had been having an affair with Flynn. Botner also admitted deleting messages after the murder.
She said she had not made a deal with the prosecution for testifying against her former lover. Legal experts said the chances of her facing criminal charges for an accomplice or conspiracy murder charge were “extremely slim”.
“The prosecution is not likely to charge their star witness” for destroying evidence or lying to a federal law enforcement official, Tre Lovell, a lawyer, told the Telegraph. “Her testimony and involvement was pivotal for them in what was a purely circumstantial evidence case.”
“With respect to charging her with murder as an accomplice, co-conspirator, aider and abettor, this is also extremely slim. Text messages that you want someone dead do not rise to the level of a crime,” he added.
“Wanting someone to die or even be murdered isn’t enough for criminal liability,” Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, told NBC News.
He added that while destroying the messages “may make her guilty of tampering with evidence”, prosecutors “rarely charge their star co-operating witnesses after they testify”.
Flynn himself did not testify and the defence called no witnesses. The defence argued the evidence in the case was circumstantial and proved only an affair.
After listening to several days of testimony, the jury took less than three hours to find Flynn guilty.
During sentencing, Flynn sobbed as statements from his two daughters asking for the maximum punishment were read to the court.
‘Mummy was the perfect person’
In a searing letter read on her behalf, Alyssa Flynn, 12, said: “You have already caused so much pain to your family and the world. The least you can do is tell everyone you did it and receive your outcome.
“Did you really even think about how much pain you would bring your own two daughters?
“By the way, Ashley Flynn was the best thing that ever happened to you. You had the best life ever, and you decided to throw it away for a girl who was half your age.”
Her sister, Ava Flynn, 10, asked their father in a statement read on her behalf: “Mummy was the perfect person, the absolute perfect person – what did she ever do to make you hate her so much?
“She was my best friend. And then you chose to kill the only mother I ever had. I miss her so much – so, so, so much. You have no idea.”
Matthew Keyt, Ashley Flynn’s brother-in-law, told the court that the two young girls lie on the grass and cry in front of their mother’s tombstone as they imagine it will bring them closer to her.
Flynn was wearing an orange prison jumpsuit as he apologised to his daughters but still insisted a burglar killed their mother.
Outside the courthouse, Paul Watkins, a prosecutor, read a statement from Ashley Flynn’s family: “No verdict can bring Ashley back, give the girls back their mother, or erase the pain our family has endured,” it said.
“We refuse to let the evil that ended Ashley’s life have the final word in her story … Please remember Ashley not for how she died, but how beautifully she lived.”
Mulligan, Flynn’s lawyer, said he will lodge an appeal against his conviction.
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