Former American Idol contestant Caleb Flynn was seen sobbing in court as his daughters’ victim statements were read aloud.
Flynn, previously a music pastor, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of his wife, Ashley.
But it was not the sentence that left the courtroom in tears; it was the words of Caleb and Ashley’s two daughters.
Ashley Flynn was shot and killed in the family’s home in Tipp City, Ohio, with prosecutors arguing that Caleb tried to make it look like a burglary gone wrong.
During the trial, the court heard that he had been having an affair with Aleigha Botner, a former intern at the church where he worked.
Last month, a jury found him guilty of aggravated murder. The couple’s daughters – aged 9 and 11 at the time of the crimes – were too young to face their father themselves in court, and so heir uncle and grandmother read their statements instead.
“Mommy was the perfect person, the absolutely perfect person,” one of the girl’s statement, read by her uncle, said.
“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.”
She also told him that he had “sinned big time” with Aleigha, but could still ask God for forgiveness.
“How could you cheat on her and go to that awful girl Aleigha? I never liked her,” the daughter said.
“You and Aleigha sinned big time but you still have a chance to tell God that you are sorry.”
Her sister, meanwhile, said it was sad that her father seemed unable to love anyone but himself, in a statement read by the girls’ grandmother.
“You have already caused so much pain to your family and the world. The least you could do is tell everyone that you did it,” read the statement.
“By the way, I don’t plan on coming to see you,”
Today, the girls live with Ashley’s sister Kayla and her husband Matthew Keyt. They told the judge that the children cry every day and are struggling to come to terms with the death of their mother.
Kayla described one of the girls recently as “laying beside me, sobbing into my shoulder as they both often do, because she missed her mommy and could not understand how her own father could have done this to all of us.”
Matthew said the sisters visit their mother’s grave almost every day.
“I watch them cry and talk to her,” he said. “They often lie on the grass in front of her tombstone imagining that it will bring them a bit closer to their mom.”
Despite the verdict, Caleb Flynn continues to insist that he did not kill Ashley. In his own statement to the court, he said he regretted breaking his marriage vows and the fact that he would not be there to raise his daughters.
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