Mistress of American Idol singer who killed spouse disputes accusations she helped plan the homicide

The mistress of a former American Idol contestant has denied allegations that she helped the singer plan his spouse’s homicide, regardless of sending disturbing messages saying she wished her ‘gone.’

An lawyer for Alleigha Botner advised Fox Information Digital that his consumer’s messages weren’t proof that she was an confederate to Caleb Flynn.

Flynn, 40, was convicted on September 29 of murdering his spouse, Ashley, who he shot within the head whereas sleeping of their marital mattress at their Ohio house on February 16. He was sentenced to life in jail with out the opportunity of parole on Monday.

Flynn, a former pastor, murdered Ashley after having an affair with Botner, who labored on the church the place they each served on the worship workforce.

Messages between the lovers grew to become a key a part of the trial, the place jurors heard from greater than 100,000 texts exchanged throughout their roughly 18-month affair.

‘Look, she’ll take full duty for her actions,’ Botner’s lawyer, Nick Gounaris, advised Fox Information Digital.

‘The reality is that she had an affair with a married man and she or he mentioned horrible issues about that man’s spouse. That is what she did.

‘What the general public has incorrect is that she was by some means concerned within the planning or execution of the homicide that Caleb did on the sixteenth of February 2026. That is what the general public has incorrect. She takes full duty for her actions, however not what he was convicted of,’ he continued.

Through the trial, Botner broke down in tears as she was pressured to learn one chilling alternate aloud.

‘Have you learnt how badly I need to say, “F it” to any guidelines and any obstacles and simply love you with my complete coronary heart for the remainder of my life,’ she wrote to Flynn in July 2025.

Then got here the chilling admission: ‘I need to kill her, Caleb. It is so unhealthy.’

Flynn replied: ‘That makes two of us.’

One other alternate confirmed Flynn allegedly telling Botner: ‘Please rent somebody to take douche out. I want you,’ utilizing a derogatory nickname that they had given Ashley.

‘So tempting,’ Botner responded.

Flynn allegedly advised his mistress in August that he had spent a lot of the evening considering how Ashley could possibly be killed with out him ending up behind bars.

‘I used to be up till 4am final evening crying, actually pondering of the way to kill her and never go to jail,’ he wrote.

Botner responded by explicitly telling him to not kill Ashley.

‘I am not asking that you just take her life, clearly, as a result of that is not what it is best to do, and I do know you truly would not,’ she wrote.

‘However to make the divorce occur, it might change every thing.’

Flynn responded: ‘I will work on eliminating her. Till then, I like you.’

In one other September 2025 message, Flynn listed what he was ready to sacrifice to be together with his mistress, together with his daughters.

He mentioned he was keen to danger his ‘daughters, a quarter-million-dollar wage job, a spot to dwell, presumably a church I serve at, public disgrace and humiliation, and far more.’

Botner, in the meantime, repeatedly demanded that he depart Ashley.

‘Till she’s gone, I am gone,’ she wrote in a single ultimatum.

However underneath questioning from Flynn’s protection, Botner insisted the ominous language was about ending the wedding.

‘I all the time meant divorce,’ she testified.

‘I believe the explanation that she wasn’t charged is simply since you say one thing, you continue to have to point out that that particular person was by some means concerned,’ Gounaris advised Fox.

‘The proof that was reviewed, the proof that was developed, the proof that they secured by way of all of those totally different avenues didn’t counsel something that concerned Alleigha Botner within the dying of Ashley Flynn.’

Botner testified that she was simply 20 when she met Flynn at Christian Life Middle in Dayton in 2022, the place she was an intern and he was in his mid-30s.

Their relationship grew to become romantic in early 2024, she mentioned.

By the evening earlier than Ashley’s dying, prosecutors mentioned the key relationship was reaching a decisive second.

Botner despatched Flynn data she had researched about divorce proceedings, custody, deleting messages and the way Ashley might doubtlessly show her husband’s infidelity.

‘The entire communications which are contemporaneous with the time that he kills his spouse all the way in which as much as 12:45 in that morning – about an hour and 45 minutes… earlier than he calls 911 – are all about divorce,’ Gounaris mentioned.

Shortly earlier than midnight, Flynn despatched his mistress one ultimate message.

‘Good evening, tomorrow’s a giant day. I’ve acquired to get to mattress,’ he wrote. ‘I select you, I am about to be free.’

Hours later, Ashley was useless.

Botner testified that the timing instantly alarmed her.

‘Caleb, what is going on on? Have been you concerned? Is that this actual?’ she messaged Flynn on the morning of the killing.

She later deleted the message as a result of she feared investigators would look at his telephone and uncover their affair, she admitted.

Botner initially advised the FBI she didn’t consider Flynn had murdered his spouse, however later modified her view, describing Ashley’s dying as ‘approach an excessive amount of of a coincidence.’

Requested in court docket how she feels about her former lover now, her reply was far less complicated.

‘I hate him.’

Flynn appeared on American Idol in 2013, telling TV viewers his spouse had inspired him to chase his desires on the singing competitors.