Former American Idol contestant Caleb Flynn’s alleged mistress, Alleigha Botner, returned to testify in his ongoing murder trial, sharing text messages in which they both expressed wanting to kill his wife.
Botner first gave testimony on Wednesday, September 23, detailing her affair with the musician, who’s charged in the fatal shooting of his wife, Ashley Flynn, at their home in Tipp City, Ohio, according to CNN.
Botner claimed that she and Caleb, 40, exchanged more than 100,000 text messages with each other since their romantic relationship started in 2024, when they were both members of their church’s worship team, and that Caleb repeatedly expressed he hated his wife.
During her testimony on Thursday, September 24, Botner reportedly cried while reading some of her text messages with Flynn.
“Do you know how badly I want to say, ‘F it,’ to any rules and any barriers and just love you with my entire heart for the rest of my life,” Botner said, per CNN, while reading a text she said she wrote to Caleb in July 2025.
Before she continued to read from the text thread, she started crying and said, “I just wish I didn’t say this,” adding, “I didn’t mean it.”
Then she read another text she sent to Caleb, which read, “I want to kill her, Caleb.”
Botner read Caleb’s alleged response: “That makes two of us.”
Ashley, 37, was found dead at her home on February 16 after Caleb called 911. He is accused of staging the crime scene and claiming a burglar killed Ashley during a purported break-in.
The couple shared two daughters, who are 10 and 12. The girls were both home when Caleb allegedly killed Ashley, according to prosecutors.
Ashley’s sister Kayla Keyt took the stand on Monday, September 21, and testified that the pair’s daughters were “shocked” to learn their father was having an affair. According to People, however, the oldest daughter was “not surprised” the relationship was with Botner.
On Thursday, while reading one of her texts to Caleb from August 2025, Botner reportedly expressed that she didn’t want Caleb to kill Ashley but hoped he would divorce her.
“I’m not asking that you take her life, obviously, because that’s not what you should do, and I know you actually wouldn’t,” Botner’s text read. “But to make the divorce happen, it would change everything.”
She shared how Caleb replied, saying: “Don’t give me another thought. I’ll work on getting rid of her. Until then I love you.”
In a September 2025 text exchange, Caleb allegedly told Botner he would give up his children, his job and more for their relationship.
“I think what I’m willing to sacrifice is my daughters, a quarter-million-dollar salary job, a place to live, possibly a church I serve at, public shame and humiliation, and way more. Alleigha that’s what I’m willing to sacrifice,” Caleb’s message said, according to Botner’s testimony.
Caleb is charged with one count of aggravated murder, three counts of murder, two counts of felonious assault, three counts of tampering with evidence and two counts of intimidation of an attorney, victim or witness in a criminal case.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Following Caleb’s arrest earlier this year, his attorney, L. Patrick Mulligan, told Us that he and his client were “both disappointed and concerned about the short timeline and seeming rush to judgment in this case.”
