With no murder weapon, Caleb Flynn’s trial focuses on affair and alleged intruder

Caleb Flynn’s murder trial has it all: testimony about a secret affair between church members , thousands of deleted texts, lies to the FBI and curiously silent pet dogs.

What the trial doesn’t have is the murder weapon.

The absence of the firearm used to fatally shoot Ashley Flynn has loomed large in the case against Caleb Flynn, the former “American Idol” contestant and church worship leader accused of killing his wife in February.

Flynn, 40, has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder. He told investigators he kept a handgun in his truck’s center console, but that console was open when police arrived to the family’s Ohio home, and the gun has never been found.

In opening statements, the prosecution said recovering the gun was not necessary to getting a conviction, but the defense said its absence showed the prosecution’s case was weak.

“They can’t show you whose gun killed Ashley. They can’t show you if Caleb had a gun in his hand that night. They can’t show you Caleb pulled the trigger,” defense attorney Emily Smith said.

The murder weapon is of course important evidence, but legally it’s not required to get a guilty verdict. For example, Scott Peterson was convicted of murder without a weapon in evidence. Prosecutors instead relied on circumstantial evidence to make their case, including a secret affair and undermining his alibi .

CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson said the lack of a weapon has “very little” impact on Flynn’s case.

“Of course it’s not ideal to not have an actual murder weapon, but at the end of the day there’s so many other things that you can use that I think can buttress your case, and in this particular case that’s exactly what they’re doing,” he said.

Similarly, in Flynn’s trial, prosecutors have relied heavily on motive – Flynn’s secret affair with a younger church colleague, his “dark and hateful” texts fantasizing about killing his wife and his financial stake in his wife’s family’s business. They have also tried to poke holes in Flynn’s tale of a mystery intruder who broke into the home, stole his gun, fatally shot his wife and fled into the night.

“People lie. Evidence doesn’t,” prosecutor Paul Watkins said.

Prosecutors have focused on Flynn’s romantic and financial motive for wanting to kill his wife and get away with it.

Alleigha Botner, who had a 1.5-year affair with Flynn, was the key witness for the romantic motive. Reading from over 100,000 texts, the 24-year-old testified Flynn repeatedly said he “hated” his wife, referred to her with the derogatory term “douche” and fantasized about killing her.

“I just want her dead and gone,” Flynn wrote to Botner in early 2025.

“I was up until 4 a.m. last night crying, literally thinking of ways to kill her and not go to jail,” he wrote on August 22, 2025.

Those texts were deleted from Flynn’s phone, and Botner admitted she initially lied to the FBI about the affair.

Caleb Flynn’s former mistress took the stand at his murder trial. Here’s what we learned

Phone records show Flynn was at his and Ashley’s home at the time of the murder. And in his texts to Botner, Flynn said he planned to tell Ashley he was leaving her that night.

“I need to rid myself of douche so that I can start completely free and give you all of me,” he wrote to Botner.

Other witnesses testified about Flynn’s financial and familial motivation.

Flynn worked for his father-in-law’s flooring and furnishing business and made about $200,000 a year, Ashley’s sister testified . He also was wary of losing full custody of his two daughters, he said in texts with Botner .

A divorce would therefore risk his job, his children and his reputation. A random murder would not, though, as prosecutors theorized.

“If his plan to murder Ashley and stage it as if an intruder did it were to succeed, Caleb too would be a victim,” Watkins said in opening statements. “He’d get to keep his mistress, have his daughters all the time. He would benefit financially, get to keep his lucrative job working for Ashley’s family business, and he’d get to keep his position as a worship leader.”

By contrast, the defense said a motive and an affair does not a case make. Smith, the defense attorney, acknowledged Flynn was “easy to dislike” but said that proved nothing.

“A man can fail as a husband without being a murderer, and a man can make selfish decisions without committing a crime,” she said.

The prosecution’s other primary focus has been on undermining Flynn’s story that an intruder killed his wife.

In his call to 911 and in interviews with police, Caleb Flynn said he had been lying in his daughters’ bedroom when he heard a gunshot. He got up and noticed his garage side-door was open, as was the center console of his truck, where he keeps his gun, he said. He then went to the bedroom and found Ashley in a pool of blood with two gunshot wounds, he said.

“Somebody broke into my home – somebody broke into my home and shot my wife,” he said at the start of a 911 call at 2:30 a.m on February 16.

However, a series of law enforcement investigators have testified the crime scene was not consistent with that story.

For one, the garage side-door was hauled into court to show the jury. The door’s handle had been broken off but the door did not have damage consistent with a break-in, such as prying or force marks, said Det. Lt. Jason Moore of the Miami County Sheriff’s Office.

“It wasn’t what I would expect to see on a forced entry-type scenario,” he said.

Flynn’s claim that he was lying in his daughters’ bedroom also came under scrutiny.

The lower bed of the girls’ bunkbed was crowded with stuffed animals, photos showed, leaving no room “for anyone other than maybe a small child,” said David Hammond, a special agent with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation. In addition, Flynn told his mistress he had been lying on the couch when he heard the gunshot, she testified.

Further, there were no signs of any intruder leaving the home. 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, but did not find anything.

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

The canine handler testified he and his dog, Haze, were leaving prints in the wet ground outside the home, but they did not see any other prints leaving the area. He directed his canine to search for a human scent at the garage side-door and follow it, and the dog immediately went through the door into the house , he said.

The curious case of the Flynn’s two pet dogs in the nighttime also provided key evidence, much like in the famed Sherlock Holmes story . The golden doodles would always bark when someone approached the house, said Ashley’s father, Todd Smith.

“Nothing makes sense to me,” Smith testified. “Why would somebody break in, go in and get into the truck, go walk in there, shoot my daughter, and then run out? If it was a burglary, why weren’t they going around the whole house?”

“I thought, ‘How in the world did that happen and those dogs not go bananas?’” he said.

CNN’s Nicki Brown contributed to this report.

卡莱布·弗林的谋杀案审判可谓包罗万象：教会成员之间的秘密婚外情证词、数千条被删除的短信、对联邦调查局的谎言，以及异常沉默的宠物狗。

审判中缺少的是凶器。

在对前“美国偶像”参赛者、教堂敬拜领袖卡莱布·弗林的指控中，用于射杀阿什利·弗林的枪支的缺失成为了一个重要因素。卡莱布·弗林被控于二月份杀害了自己的妻子。

40岁的弗林对加重谋杀罪名拒不不认罪。他告诉调查人员，他把一把手枪放在卡车的中央扶手箱里，但警方到达他位于俄亥俄州的家中时，扶手箱是打开的，而且那把枪至今仍未找到。

在开庭陈述中，检方表示，找到枪支对于定罪并非必要，但辩方表示，没有找到枪支表明检方的案件很薄弱。

“他们无法证明是谁的枪杀死了阿什利。他们无法证明卡莱布当晚手里是否拿着枪。他们也无法证明是卡莱布扣动了扳机，”辩护律师艾米丽·史密斯说道。

凶器当然是重要的证据，但法律上并非定罪的必要条件。例如，斯科特·彼得森在没有凶器证据的情况下被判谋杀罪名成立。检方依靠间接证据来证明其指控，包括他的婚外情以及推翻他的不在场证明。

CNN法律分析师乔伊·杰克逊表示，没有找到武器对弗林的案件“几乎没有”影响。

“当然，没有真正的凶器并不理想，但归根结底，还有很多其他东西可以用来支持你的论点，而在这个特殊的案件中，他们正是这样做的，”他说。

同样，在弗林的审判中，检方也着重强调了作案动机——弗林与一位年轻的教会同事的秘密婚外情、他发送的“阴暗且充满仇恨”的短信（其中幻想杀死他的妻子）以及他在妻子家族企业中的经济利益。他们还试图质疑弗林关于神秘入侵者闯入家中、偷走他的枪、枪杀妻子后逃入夜色的说法。

“人会撒谎，但证据不会，”检察官保罗·沃特金斯说道。

检方重点关注弗林想要杀害妻子并逍遥法外的情感和经济动机。

与弗林有长达一年半婚外情的阿莱娅·博特纳是证明弗林作案动机的关键证人。这位24岁的女子宣读了超过10万条短信，作证说弗林反复表示他“恨”他的妻子，用侮辱性的词语“混蛋”称呼她，并幻想杀死她。

“我只想让她死而复生，”弗林在 2025 年初写信给博特纳说。

“我昨晚哭到凌晨 4 点，真的在想怎么杀了她又不坐牢，”他在 2025 年 8 月 22 日写道。

这些短信已从弗林的手机中删除，博特纳承认她最初就这段婚外情向联邦调查局撒了谎。

卡莱布·弗林的前情妇在他的谋杀案审判中出庭作证。以下是我们了解到的情况。

电话记录显示，谋杀案发生时，弗林正在他和阿什利的家中。弗林在发给博特纳的短信中说，他计划当晚告诉阿什利他要离开她。

“我需要摆脱这种束缚，这样我才能完全自由地开始，把完整的自己都给你，”他写信给博特纳说。

其他证人作证说明了弗林的经济和家庭动机。

据阿什利的妹妹作证，弗林在他岳父的地板和家具公司工作，年收入约20万美元。他还曾在与博特纳的短信中表示，他担心失去两个女儿的完全监护权。

因此，离婚会让他失去工作、孩子和名誉。但正如检察官推测的那样，随机谋杀却不会造成这些后果。

“如果他谋杀艾什莉并伪装成入室盗窃的计划得逞，卡莱布也会成为受害者，”沃特金斯在开庭陈述中说道。“他可以继续和情妇厮守，随时和女儿们在一起。他会在经济上获益，保住他在艾什莉家族企业的高薪工作，还能继续担任敬拜主领。”

相比之下，辩方表示，作案动机和婚外情并不能构成犯罪。辩护律师史密斯承认弗林“很容易让人讨厌”，但他表示这并不能证明什么。

“一个男人可能作为丈夫不称职，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，但这并不意味着他犯了罪，”她说。

检方的另一个主要重点是推翻弗林关于闯入者杀害他妻子的说法。

在拨打911报警电话和接受警方讯问时，卡莱布·弗林表示，当时他正躺在女儿们的卧室里，突然听到一声枪响。他起身发现车库侧门开着，卡车的中控台也敞开着，而他把枪就放在那里。他说，随后他走进卧室，发现女儿阿什利倒在血泊中，身中两枪。

“有人闯入我家——有人闯入我家并枪杀了我的妻子，”他在 2 月 16 日凌晨 2 点 30 分拨打 911 报警电话时说道。

然而，多名执法调查人员作证称，犯罪现场与该说法不符。

首先，车库侧门被带到法庭向陪审团展示。迈阿密县警长办公室的杰森·摩尔警探中尉说，门把手虽然被弄断了，但门上没有撬痕或强行打开的痕迹，与入室盗窃不符。

他说：“这不是我预想中强行闯入的场景。”

弗林声称自己当时躺在女儿们的卧室里，这一说法也受到了质疑。

照片显示，女孩们上下铺的下铺堆满了毛绒玩具，俄亥俄州刑事调查局特工大卫·哈蒙德说，除了小孩之外，几乎没有其他人能睡得下。此外，弗林告诉他的情妇，枪声响起时他正躺在沙发上，她的证词也证实了这一点。

此外，没有迹象表明有入侵者离开过这栋房子。警方首次抵达弗林家约一小时后，执法部门出动了一架无人机和一条警犬，希望能追踪到任何嫌疑人，但一无所获。

婚外情、失踪的枪支和10万条短信：我们在卡莱布·弗林案庭审第一天的证词中了解到了什么

训犬员作证说，他和他的狗“黑兹”在房子外潮湿的地面上留下了爪印，但他们没有看到其他爪印离开该区域。他说，他指示他的狗在车库侧门附近寻找人类的气味并追踪，狗立即穿过门进入了房子。

弗林家两只宠物狗夜间出现的奇特事件也提供了关键证据，这与著名的福尔摩斯故事颇为相似。阿什利的父亲托德·史密斯说，每当有人靠近房子时，这两只金毛贵宾犬都会吠叫。

“我百思不得其解，”史密斯作证说。“为什么有人会闯入我家，钻进卡车，走进屋里，开枪打死我女儿，然后逃走？如果是入室盗窃，为什么他们不把房子翻个底朝天呢？”

“我当时想，‘这到底是怎么回事，那些狗居然没有发疯？’”他说。

CNN的妮基·布朗对本报道亦有贡献。