Former American Idol contestant and Ohio pastor Caleb Flynn has been found guilty of murdering his wife, Ashley Flynn, following a trial involving thousands of text messages, digital evidence and testimony from his former lover.
Flynn, 40, was convicted of murder and eight other charges, including aggravated murder and tampering with evidence, after a jury deliberated for less than three hours.
He faces life imprisonment without parole and is due to be sentenced next month.
Flynn reportedly wept in court as the verdicts were read.
Prosecutors said Flynn shot his 37-year-old wife twice in the back of the head while she was sleeping at their home in Tipp City, near Dayton, earlier this year.
They alleged that he then attempted to make the killing appear as though intruders had carried it out.
Police body-camera footage and data from Flynn’s iPhone and Apple Watch were presented as evidence during the trial.
Prosecutors also called dozens of witnesses, including Alleigha Botner, a former intern at Flynn’s church with whom he had an affair.
Botner testified about her 18-month relationship with Flynn, during which they exchanged about 100,000 text messages.
One message Flynn allegedly sent to Botner said: “I was up until 4am last night crying, literally thinking of ways to kill her and not go to jail.”
In another message, he wrote: “I just want her dead and gone.”
Botner told the court that she now hated Flynn “because I believe that he murdered his wife”.
Prosecutors argued that Flynn feared losing custody of his daughters in a divorce, as well as his jobs at his wife’s family business and at the church.
They also highlighted what they described as inconsistencies in his account of the night Ashley was killed.
Prosecuting attorney Paul Watkins said Flynn initially told police he was in his daughters’ bedroom when he heard gunshots.
According to Watkins, Flynn later said he discovered his wife dead in their bedroom after noticing that the garage side door was open.
However, prosecutors said Flynn subsequently told investigators he had not been to the garage.
Flynn’s defence maintained that prosecutors had failed to produce concrete evidence linking him to the killing.
His lawyer, Patrick Mulligan, said: “Connecting a couple of meaningless dots doesn’t solve the case.”
Mulligan also argued that Flynn’s affair did not prove he killed his wife.
“They can’t find the gun, therefore they blame it on him?” he said, referring to the tampering-with-evidence charge.
The gun Flynn kept in his truck’s centre console has not been found. Investigators reportedly discovered the console open when they arrived at the scene.
Prosecutors also presented a song Flynn allegedly created about his relationship with Botner.
The song was played in court, with Botner explaining its lyrics during her testimony.
Joseph Wilhelm, a special agent with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations, also testified that several applications had been removed from Flynn’s phone before Ashley’s death.
One of the applications was an AI music-generation app which Wilhelm said “related to his relationship with Alleigha Botner”.
Flynn’s case attracted additional attention because of his previous appearance on American Idol.
He appeared during the programme’s 12th season, performing before judges Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj and Randy Jackson. He received a golden ticket to Hollywood but did not advance to the main competition.
Ashley Flynn was a schoolteacher and volleyball coach.
Caleb Flynn is due to be sentenced next month.
