An affair, a missing gun and 100,000 messages: What we learned on Day 1 of testimony in Caleb Flynn’s trial

Ohio prosecutors trying former “American Idol” contestant Caleb Flynn for the murder of his wife opened their case Friday with a shocking revelation: The worship leader was having a yearslong affair with another woman and had messaged her about thoughts of killing his spouse of nearly 16 years.

“I was up until 4 a.m. last night crying, literally trying to think of ways to kill her and not go to jail,” Flynn wrote in one of 100,000 messages with his mistress, according to Miami County Prosecuting Attorney Paul Watkins . “If I could literally kill her and not go to hell, I would do it in a heartbeat,” Flynn wrote in another, Watkins said. “That is how dark and how hateful I feel.”

Flynn sent the texts just months before his wife Ashley, a beloved middle school volleyball coach, was fatally shot in the head inside their family’s suburban home in February, Watkins said.

“Those words tell you what this case is about: motive, intent and the truth behind the lies Caleb told after his wife, and the mother of his two young daughters, was shot to death in their home,” the prosecutor said.

His wife encouraged his ‘American Idol’ dream. Now he stands trial for her murder

The bombshell disclosure of Flynn’s affair came during opening statements Friday, roughly seven months after he called 911 and told authorities an intruder broke into his home and killed his wife while he was in his daughters’ bedroom. Prosecutors dispute his account and allege he murdered his wife and staged the crime scene, pointing to his affair as a motive for the killing.

Flynn’s defense attorney, however, told jurors the prosecution had little to stand on aside from his infidelity, arguing in her own opening statement the state lacks key evidence needed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt – including the murder weapon.

“You’re not here to deliberate on whether or not you like Caleb. You certainly are not here to render a verdict on whether or not you approve or condone of his actions,” defense attorney Emily Smith told the jury.

“This is an aggravated murder trial,” she said. “A man can fail as a husband without being a murderer, and a man can make selfish decisions without committing a crime.”

From Frings & Bayliff Funeral Home

Following opening statements, the sixteen jurors – four of them alternates – visited the crime scene at the family’s Tipp City, Ohio, home and heard testimony from seven witnesses, many of them first responders who testified about their response to the scene around 2:30 a.m. on February 16. They described Flynn as hysterical, and police bodycam footage played in court showed the father of two sobbing as he spoke to police and called his mother and mother-in-law to relay news of Ashley’s death.

Flynn’s mistress, Ashley’s loved ones and the Flynns’ preteen daughters – who are key to their father’s presumed alibi – are expected to take the stand during the trial, which is scheduled to last about two weeks.

An attorney for the mistress declined to comment Friday.

Flynn, 40, has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder and several other charges. If convicted of the most serious charge, he could face a sentence of life in prison without parole.

Flynn, dressed in a navy-blue suit jacket, appeared to cry in court Friday as prosecutors began presenting their case by playing his 911 call , in which he said an intruder had broken into his family’s house and shot his wife.

“My wife, she’s got two shots to her head. There’s blood everywhere,” he told the dispatcher, seemingly frantic. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.”

But Watkins said the evidence didn’t support Flynn’s assertion that a stranger entered the home and “executed” his wife by shooting her twice in the back of the head as she lay in bed .

The bullets that killed Ashley were the same caliber as her husband’s 9 mm handgun, which he stored in the center console of his truck, according to the prosecutor. Officers noted the center console was open when they arrived, Watkins said. The gun was missing.

Investigators still haven’t recovered the alleged murder weapon. But Watkins stressed prosecutors do not need it, outlining other evidence he said supports their case against Flynn: efforts to delete digital information, fabricated damage to a door in the family home and Flynn’s movements in the hours leading up to his wife’s death.

Flynn’s digital footprint also includes the tens of thousands of messages with his paramour, Watkins said, including texts where the music pastor said he wanted a future with her and wished his wife were dead.

“I choose you. I’m free,” Flynn allegedly wrote his mistress, just hours before Ashley’s death. “Actions will come tomorrow.”

Flynn believed if he could successfully frame a “faceless” intruder for his wife’s murder, he would be able to keep his relationship with his mistress, full custody of his daughters, his “lucrative” job at his wife’s family business and his position as a worship leader, Watkins said.

“The evidence will not show that Ashley was murdered by a stranger who vanished into the night,” the prosecutor said. “The evidence will show that Ashley was murdered by her husband, the father of her two young children.”

The defense told jurors prosecutors are relying on the salacious affair to prove its case, arguing the decision to charge the former worship leader stemmed from a flawed investigation, rush to judgment and lack of direct evidence.

“The only thing that we know is that Caleb had an affair,” Smith said. “The state of Ohio has pinned its entire case on the flawed claim that simply because Caleb Flynn had motive to leave his wife, that he instead murdered her and manipulated the scene.”

At times, Flynn said “ugly, hurtful, selfish things about his wife Ashley to appease his mistress,” Smith said. But the evidence will also show “a warm and loving text message between Caleb and Ashley regularly.”

Prosecutors used Flynn as a “scapegoat” and charged him without key evidence, the defense attorney argued, pointing out investigators can’t prove which gun killed Ashley or if he handled a firearm at all that night.

“They are merely guessing, and they’re asking you to do the exact same thing,” she said, arguing there was no forensic evidence, no eyewitnesses and no surveillance footage that would link Flynn to his wife’s death.

Smith acknowledged Flynn told his mistress about a divorce but told jurors he was “not on trial for being a bad husband.”

“A tragedy deserves more than a theory,” she said. “And Ashley deserves an investigation that was willing to follow the evidence wherever it may have led, as thoroughly as possible – not simply wherever the story is easiest to tell.”

Testimony in court Friday largely focused on the immediate hours after Ashley’s death, when Flynn called 911 and waved down a responding officer, initiating an investigation that within days would lead to his arrest.

Police bodycam footage shown to jurors Friday gave them a glimpse into the Flynns’ home as more officers rushed inside and encountered Flynn kneeling in the dining room. They went room to room, footage showed, including the garage. There, officers noticed the center console of Flynn’s truck had been left ajar – as had a door leading outside.

“Is she, is she gone?” Flynn asked one officer, stammering between gasping breaths. “What do I do with my daughters?”

Bodycam footage showed Flynn told police he had a cough, and that Ashley had sent him to sleep on the couch. He woke, he said, when he thought he heard his dogs’ collars, and he went into his daughters’ bedroom and lay down.

“That’s when I heard it,” he said of the gunshots.

The first officer on scene testified he arrived at the home in response to a call about a potential burglary and shooting. Flynn told him his wife had been shot and the intruder was not in the house, Tipp City police Sgt. Corey Rismiller said. He did not consider Flynn a suspect at that time.

During his cross-examination, Flynn’s defense attorney Patrick Mulligan appeared to try to undermine the officer’s credibility: Under questioning, Rismiller acknowledged it had been about 20 years since he last responded to a homicide in Tipp City, a small community of 10,000 people about 15 miles north of Dayton.

Body camera footage showed Flynn weeping, covering his face, and rocking back and forth as police searched his home.

“Ashley’s dead. She’s dead,” he told his mother on a phone call. “Someone broke in.”

When his mother-in-law arrived at the home soon after, Flynn wailed and collapsed on the front porch, bodycam footage showed . An officer helped him to his feet before he and Ashley’s mother embraced on the front lawn.

“The girls don’t know, the girls are sleeping,” Flynn said as he hugged her. “I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to do.”

“I don’t know what to do either,” the grandmother said through tears. “I’m just – I’m in shock.”

Tipp City Police Enforcement

First responders described finding Ashley lying in bed in a sleeping position with gunshot wounds to her head. When Tipp City firefighter paramedic Alex Huels arrived, Ashley had no pulse and was not breathing , he testified, but he did not believe she had been deceased for “hours.” Huels said he did not attempt to resuscitate her, citing protocol.

About an hour after police first arrived at the Flynns’ home, law enforcement deployed a drone and a police canine in hopes of tracking any suspects, according to testimony Friday.

The canine’s handler, Deputy David Laycox of the Preble County Sheriff’s Office, noticed he and the dog, Haze, were leaving prints in the wet ground. Still, he did not see any other prints leaving the area, Laycox said.

Ultimately, the handler testified, the canine did not find a scent trail on the perimeter of the house and had a “negative alert to any suspect … leaving the scene.”

CNN’s Eric Levenson, Holly Yan, Elise Hammond and Isa Mudannayake contributed to this report.

俄亥俄州检察官周五开庭审理前“美国偶像”参赛者卡莱布·弗林谋杀妻子的案件，并爆出惊人内幕：这位敬拜领袖与另一名女子有长达数年的婚外情，并曾向她发信息，表达了想要杀死与他结婚近 16 年的妻子的想法。

据迈阿密县检察官保罗·沃特金斯称，弗林在与情妇的十万条短信中写道：“我昨晚哭到凌晨四点，真的在想办法杀了她却不用坐牢。”沃特金斯说，弗林在另一条短信中写道：“如果我真的能杀了她而不下地狱，我会毫不犹豫地这么做。这就是我内心黑暗和仇恨的根源。”

沃特金斯说，弗林发送这些短信的几个月后，他的妻子阿什利（一位深受爱戴的中学排球教练）于2月份在他们位于郊区的家中被枪击头部身亡。

“这些话告诉你这起案件的重点：动机、意图以及卡莱布在妻子（也是他两个年幼女儿的母亲）在家中被枪杀后所撒的谎言背后的真相，”检察官说。

他的妻子曾鼓励他追逐“美国偶像”的梦想。如今，他却因谋杀妻子而受审。

弗林婚外情的爆炸性消息是在周五的开庭陈述中披露的，距离他拨打911报警称一名入侵者闯入他家并在他女儿卧室里杀害妻子大约七个月。检方否认了他的说法，并指控他谋杀了妻子并伪造了犯罪现场，指出他的婚外情是杀人动机。

然而，弗林的辩护律师告诉陪审团，除了他的不忠之外，检方几乎没有什么可以站得住脚的。她在开庭陈述中辩称，州政府缺乏证明其案件达到排除合理怀疑程度所需的关键证据，包括凶器。

“你们来这里不是为了讨论是否喜欢卡莱布，更不是为了评判是否赞同或纵容他的行为，”辩护律师艾米丽·史密斯告诉陪审团。

“这是一起加重谋杀案，”她说。“一个男人可能作为丈夫失职，但这并不意味着他就是杀人犯；一个男人可能做出自私的决定，但这并不构成犯罪。”

来自弗林斯和贝利夫殡仪馆

在开庭陈述之后，16名陪审员（其中4名是候补陪审员）前往位于俄亥俄州蒂普市的案发现场，并听取了7名证人的证词，其中许多是急救人员，他们作证讲述了2月16日凌晨2点30分左右到达现场的情况。他们形容弗林当时情绪激动，法庭播放的警方执法记录仪视频显示，这位有两个孩子的父亲在与警方交谈时泣不成声，并打电话给他的母亲和岳母，告知她们阿什利去世的消息。

弗林的情妇、阿什利的亲人以及弗林家的十几岁女儿（她们是弗林父亲的推定不在场证明的关键）预计将在审判期间出庭作证，审判预计将持续约两周。

情妇的律师周五拒绝置评。

40岁的弗林对加重谋杀罪和其他几项指控均不不认罪。如果最严重的指控成立，他可能面临终身监禁且不得假释的刑罚。

周五，弗林身穿海军蓝西装外套，在法庭上似乎哭了起来。检方开始播放他的 911 报警电话录音，他在电话中说，一名入侵者闯入他家，开枪打死了他的妻子。

“我妻子头部中了两枪，到处都是血，”他惊慌失措地告诉调度员，“我的天哪，我的天哪，我的天哪。”

但沃特金斯表示，证据并不支持弗林的说法，即一个陌生人闯入家中，在他的妻子躺在床上时朝她的后脑勺开了两枪，将她“处决”了。

据检察官称，杀死阿什利的子弹与她丈夫存放在卡车中央扶手箱里的9毫米手枪口径相同。沃特金斯说，警员到达现场时发现中央扶手箱是打开的，枪也不见了。

调查人员至今仍未找到据称的凶器。但沃特金斯强调，检方并不需要凶器，并列举了其他证据来支持他们对弗林的指控：删除数字信息的企图、伪造的房屋门损坏以及弗林在妻子遇害前几个小时的行踪。

沃特金斯说，弗林的数字足迹还包括他与情妇之间的数万条信息，其中包括这位音乐牧师表示希望与她共度未来并希望妻子死去的短信。

据称，弗林在阿什利去世前几个小时给他的情妇写信说：“我选择你。我自由了。明天会有行动。”

沃特金斯说，弗林认为，如果他能成功地陷害一个“无名”闯入者谋杀他的妻子，他就能保住与情妇的关系、女儿们的完全监护权、在妻子家族企业中“收入丰厚”的工作以及他作为敬拜领袖的职位。

检察官说：“证据不会表明艾什莉是被一个消失在夜色中的陌生人谋杀的。证据会表明，艾什莉是被她的丈夫，她两个年幼孩子的父亲谋杀的。”

辩方告诉陪审员，检方依靠这起淫秽事件来证明其指控，辩方认为对这位前敬拜领袖的指控源于有缺陷的调查、仓促的判决和缺乏直接证据。

史密斯说：“我们唯一知道的是，卡莱布有外遇。俄亥俄州政府将整个案件的依据都建立在一个有缺陷的说法上，即仅仅因为卡莱布·弗林有离开妻子的动机，他就杀害了妻子并伪造了现场。”

史密斯说，弗林有时会为了讨好情妇，说出“一些关于妻子阿什利的丑陋、伤人、自私的话”。但证据也会显示“卡莱布和阿什利之间经常互发温馨甜蜜的短信”。

辩护律师辩称，检方将弗林当作“替罪羊”，并在没有关键证据的情况下对他提起诉讼，并指出调查人员无法证明是哪把枪杀死了阿什利，也无法证明他当晚是否接触过枪支。

“他们只是在猜测，却要求你做同样的事情，”她说道，并辩称没有法医证据、没有目击证人、也没有监控录像可以将弗林与他妻子的死联系起来。

史密斯承认弗林曾向他的情妇透露过离婚的事，但他告诉陪审团，弗林“受审不是因为他是个坏丈夫”。

“一场悲剧需要的不仅仅是一个理论，”她说。“阿什利的遭遇需要进行彻底的调查，调查人员应该愿意追查证据，无论证据指向何方，而不应该仅仅选择最容易讲述故事的地方。”

周五的法庭证词主要集中在阿什利去世后的几个小时内，当时弗林拨打了 911 并拦下了一名出警的警官，由此展开的调查在几天之内就导致了他的被捕。

周五向陪审团播放的警方执法记录仪视频显示，更多警员冲进弗林家，发现弗林跪在餐厅里。视频显示，他们逐个房间搜查，包括车库。在那里，警员们注意到弗林的卡车中央扶手箱门半开着，通往室外的门也敞开着。

“她……她走了吗？”弗林气喘吁吁地问一名警官，结结巴巴地说，“我的女儿们怎么办？”

执法记录仪视频显示，弗林告诉警方他咳嗽了，阿什利让他睡在沙发上。他说，他醒来时好像听到了狗项圈的声音，于是就去了女儿们的卧室躺下。

“就在那时我听到了枪声，”他说道。

第一位到达现场的警官作证说，他接到报警称可能发生入室盗窃和枪击事件后赶到现场。蒂普市警局警官科里·里斯米勒说，弗林告诉他，他的妻子中枪了，入侵者不在屋内。当时他并没有把弗林列为嫌疑人。

在交叉询问中，弗林的辩护律师帕特里克·穆里根似乎试图破坏该警官的可信度：在质询中，里斯米勒承认，距离他上次在蒂普城（一个位于代顿以北约 15 英里、人口 1 万的小社区）处理凶杀案已经过去了大约 20 年。

执法记录仪视频显示，当警察搜查弗林的住所时，弗林哭泣着，捂着脸，身体前后摇晃。

“艾什莉死了，她死了，”他在电话里告诉母亲。“有人闯了进来。”

他的岳母随后赶到家中，执法记录仪视频显示，弗林随即嚎啕大哭，瘫倒在前廊上。一名警官将他扶起，之后他和阿什利的母亲在前院草坪上拥抱在一起。

“女孩们还不知道，她们还在睡觉，”弗林一边说着一边拥抱她。“我不知道该怎么办，我不知道该怎么办，我不知道该怎么办。”

“我也不知道该怎么办，”奶奶哽咽着说，“我……我太震惊了。”

蒂普市警察执法部门

急救人员描述说，他们发现阿什利躺在床上，呈睡姿，头部有枪伤。蒂普市消防员兼医护人员亚历克斯·休尔斯作证说，他到达现场时，阿什利没有脉搏，也没有呼吸，但他认为她死亡的时间还不到“几个小时”。休尔斯说，他没有尝试抢救，理由是遵循了相关规定。

据周五的证词显示，警方首次抵达弗林家约一小时后，执法部门部署了一架无人机和一条警犬，希望追踪任何嫌疑人。

警犬训导员，普雷布尔县警长办公室的副警长戴维·莱科克斯注意到他和警犬黑兹在潮湿的地面上留下了脚印。莱科克斯说，尽管如此，他没有看到其他脚印离开该区域。

训犬员作证说，最终，这只狗没有在房子周围找到气味踪迹，也没有对任何嫌疑人离开现场发出“否定警报”。

CNN的Eric Levenson、Holly Yan、Elise Hammond和Isa Mudannayake对本报道亦有贡献。