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Oct. 7, 2026

Trump Approves an Army Firing Squad for Fort Hood Shooter Nidal Hasan, Caleb Flynn Gets Life for Ashley Flynn's Murder, Christa Pike Update

Trump Approves an Army Firing Squad for Fort Hood Shooter Nidal Hasan, Caleb Flynn Gets Life for Ashley Flynn's Murder, Christa Pike Update

The Pentagon announced Monday night that President Trump approved Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's recommendation to execute former Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, 56, by Army firing squad for the 2009 Fort Hood shooting that killed 13 people and wounded 32. The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place; it would be the first U.S. military execution since 1961 and the Army's first firing squad since 1945. No date has been set, and presidential approval does not guarantee an execution — Ronald Gray's was approved in 2008 and halted in federal court. In Ohio, Judge Jeannine Pratt sentenced Caleb Flynn, 40, to life without parole plus additional time for the February murder of his wife, Ashley Flynn, 37, after he told the court he did not kill her; the judge found no remorse and described deceit, manipulation and cruelty. And in Tennessee, Correction Commissioner Frank Strada has resigned and former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton will lead an independent review as Christa Pike remains critically ill and unconscious a week after the state failed to execute her. Garret Fisher reports.

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WEBVTT

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Good morning. This is Daily Crime and Justice from Calaroga Media,

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powered by AI. I'm Garrett Fisher. It's Wednesday, October 7th, 2026.

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Seven days ago, Tennessee tried to execute Krista Pike with

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lethal injection and could not. She is still unconscious. She

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is still on a ventilator. On Monday, the Pentagon announced

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that the president has approved an execution of a different kind.

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Nidal Hassan, the army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at

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Fort Hood in 2009, is to be put to death

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by an army firing squad. If it happens, it will

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be the first execution carried out by the United States

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military since 1961. Also on Monday, in an Ohio courtroom,

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Caleb Flynn stood before a judge, apologized for his affair,

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and swore before God that he did not kill his wife.

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Then he was sentenced to spend the rest of his

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life in prison for killing her. And in Wichita, Kansas,

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a woman who once read the morning news in St.

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Louis was sentenced to life for the murder of her

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80-year-old mother. According to court documents, she told police things

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that suggested she believed her mother was the devil. A

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judge said she was competent. She pleaded guilty. Three sentences.

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Three very different questions about what the law owes to

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the dead and to the people who killed them. Let's

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get into it. On the afternoon of November 5th, 2009,

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soldiers were lined up at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center

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at Fort Hood, Texas. Some were getting vaccinations. Some were

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doing paperwork. Most of them were weeks away from deploying

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to Iraq or Afghanistan. Major Nidal Hassan, an Army psychiatrist,

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walked into that building with a semi-automatic handgun and opened

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fire on people wearing the same uniform he did. 12

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soldiers were killed, so was a retired soldier who worked

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there as a civilian physician assistant. More than 30 others

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were wounded. Hassan was shot by responding officers and has

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been paralyzed from the waist down ever since. In 2013,

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a military jury convicted him of 13 counts of premeditated

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murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder and sentenced

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him to death. He represented himself at that court-martial. He

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told the court he had switched sides. He called almost

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no witnesses and offered almost no defense. At the time,

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the lawyers assigned to assist him raised concerns that he

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was steering the case toward a death sentence on purpose.

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Then came more than a decade of mandatory military appeals.

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The Supreme Court declined to review the case last year,

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and under military law, a death sentence cannot be carried

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out until the president personally approves it. On Monday, that

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approval came. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced that the defense

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secretary had recommended death by army firing squad and that

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the president had signed off. The secretary of the army

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will now set a time and a place. Parnell wrote, quote,

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judgment day for Hassan has finally come. Let me put

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the history in front of you because it is genuinely unusual.

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The last time the United States military executed anyone was 1961.

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when Army Private John Bennett was hanged at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

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The last time the Army used a firing squad was 1945,

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when Private Eddie Slovik was shot in France for desertion.

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Hassan is now held on military death row at that

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same Fort Leavenworth. And approval from the president is not

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the same thing as an execution. In 2008, President George W.

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Bush approved the execution of another soldier on military death row,

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Ronald Gray. A federal judge halted it. Gray is still

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on death row today, 18 years later. Stars and Stripes

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reports it is unclear whether Hassan will try to challenge

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his execution in federal court. So, as always on this show,

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we will cover the date if one is set. Dates move. Now,

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why a firing squad and why now? Since the death

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penalty came back in the United States in 1977, six

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people have been executed by firing squad. Three were in Utah,

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the last of those in 2010. The other three were

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all in South Carolina, all last year. Five states currently

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allow it. And as of July 1st of this year,

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Idaho became the only state where it is the primary method,

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with lethal injection as the backup. Idaho made that change

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after its execution team tried repeatedly, and failed, to find

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a usable vein on a man named Thomas Creech in 2024.

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In April of this year, the Justice Department added the

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firing squad to the list of methods allowed for federal executions,

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which brings us back to Tennessee. As of Monday, Krista

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Pike remains unconscious on a ventilator under armed guard in

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a Nashville hospital, according to her attorneys. Doctors are still

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working to clear the drug from her system. Since we

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last spoke, Tennessee's Commissioner of Correction, Frank Strada, has stepped down,

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and the state has named former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton

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to investigate what went wrong. The United Nations Human Rights

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Chief has publicly urged Tennessee not to attempt her execution again.

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So here is the argument you are going to hear

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a lot in the coming weeks, and I want to

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give both sides of it fairly. Supporters of the firing

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squad say it is fast, it is certain, and it

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does not depend on drug supplies, on pharmacists, or on

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someone finding a vein in a person whose veins may

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be scarred or fragile. Krista Pike's lawyers had warned the

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state in August that she had exactly that kind of condition.

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Idaho looked at Thomas Creech and drew a conclusion. Some

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people would say Tennessee just proved Idaho right. Critics say

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the method is not the problem. They point out that

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after one of last year's South Carolina firing squad executions,

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the condemned man's lawyers alleged that the shooters had not

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hit the target as planned and that he did not

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die as quickly as he should have. That has not

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been proven. but it tells you that no method removes

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human error. It just changes what the error looks like.

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Here is where I come down, and it is the

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same place I came down last week. I am not

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here to argue about capital punishment itself. I am here

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to argue about competence. If a government is going to

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take a life in the name of the public, it

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owes the public an execution that is carried out exactly

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as the law says by people who are properly trained

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with someone independent checking the work. Tennessee did not meet

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that standard. Whether the Army meets it is now a

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question with a very public answer coming. And through all

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of the talk about methods, please do not lose track

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of who this is actually about. Michael Grant Cahill was 62,

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a retired chief warrant officer and civilian physician assistant from Spokane, Washington.

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Witnesses said he tried to stop the gunman with a chair.

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John Geffany was 56, a psychiatric nurse who had arrived

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at Fort Hood the day before to prepare for a

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deployment to Iraq. Juanita Warman was 55. Libardo Eduardo Caraveo

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was 52. Russell Seeger was 51. Justin DeCrowe was 32,

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home from a year in Korea, waiting on a transfer

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so he could be closer to his wife and daughter.

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Frederick Green was 29. Amy Kruger was 29. She enlisted

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after 9-11 and had arrived at Fort Hood two days

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before she was killed. Kam Xiong was 23, a father

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of three. Jason Hunt was 22, recently married. Michael Pearson

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was 22. Aaron Namelka was 19, an Eagle Scout from Utah.

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And Francesca Velez was 21, just home from Iraq and pregnant.

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13 people. Someone has to say their names. When we

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come back, Caleb Flynn hears his sentence, and Ashley Flynn's

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family does something in that courtroom that most of us

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could not. Ashley Flynn was 37. She taught at LifeWise Academy,

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a program that brings Bible lessons to public school kids,

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and she coached middle school girls volleyball in Tip City, Ohio,

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near the high school she graduated from. She had two daughters.

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On February 16th of this year, she was shot and

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killed inside her home. Her husband, Caleb Flynn, a former

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music pastor who once competed on American Idol, told investigators

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an intruder did it while he slept in another room

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with their girls. Prosecutors said there was no intruder. They

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said he killed her and staged the scene to look

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like a break-in so he could start a new life

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with the much younger woman he was having an affair with.

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Last week, after a two-week trial, a Miami County jury

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convicted him on every count. If you have been with

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us through this trial, you know the evidence, the messages,

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the scene, the testimony. We are not going to relitigate

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it today. Monday was about what comes next. Under Ohio law,

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aggravated murder can carry 20 years to life, 25 to life,

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30 to life, or life with no possibility of parole.

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Prosecutors asked for the maximum. 13 victim impact statements were

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submitted to the court. Five were read aloud. Two of

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those statements were written by Ashley's daughters. Family members read

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them aloud. I am not going to repeat what they wrote.

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They are children, and those words were written for their father,

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not for us. What I will tell you is that

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Caleb Flynn wept while he listened. Ashley's sister, Kayla Keet,

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and her husband, Matthew, are now raising the girls. Matthew

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Keat told the court he would honor a responsibility he

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never expected to carry, and he asked the judge for

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a sentence that would keep Flynn from ever being able

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to enter our lives again. Then Kayla Keet did something remarkable.

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She told the court she forgives him. She also forgave

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the woman he had the affair with. Whatever your faith

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or lack of it, that is a hard thing to

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do in a room like that one. Then Caleb Flynn spoke.

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He apologized for the affair. He apologized for the things

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he said about his wife, which jurors heard in detail.

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He spoke directly to his daughters, and he said, quote,

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I am not lying when I say I did not

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kill my wife. Judge Jeannine Pratt did not accept that.

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She found that he showed no remorse. She said he

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poses the highest possible risk of harm to the public.

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She described layers of deceit, manipulation, and cruelty, and she

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said she was deeply disturbed that he had used his

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faith to do it. She noted that one of his

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daughters had asked why he hated her mother so much

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and said that no court could answer that question for

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a child. Then she sentenced him to life in prison

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without the possibility of parole, plus additional prison time for

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firearm specifications and for tampering with evidence to be served first.

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Caleb Flynn is a convicted man now. The presumption of

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innocence that he had when this trial started has been

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answered by a jury. He still has the right to appeal.

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That is his right. It does not change the verdict.

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Here is what stays with me. Kayla Keat told him

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the affair and the lies were his choice. He has

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never admitted the rest. So two girls are going to

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grow up with a guilty verdict and a father who

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says it is wrong. The judge said she could not

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give them an answer. Neither could the jury. The only

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person who could chose not to. After she pronounced the sentence,

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Judge Pratt turned to Ashley's family and told them to

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stay steadfast in their faith. That felt like the right

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last word from the bench. Ashley Flynn was 37, a teacher,

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a coach, a sister, a mom to two girls who

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will never stop missing her. Someone has to say her name.

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When we come back, a former morning anchor, her 80-year-old mother,

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and a state that does not allow the insanity defense

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most of us think we know. Anita Avers was 80

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years old. She was a marriage and family therapist. She

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spent her working life helping families get through the hardest

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things that can happen inside a home. She lived in

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South Wichita, Kansas, with her husband, Barry, and with her daughter,

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Angeline Mock. If you have lived in St. Louis, you

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may know that name. Angie Mock was a morning anchor

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at KTVI Fox 2. Over the years, she also worked

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as a reporter in Montana and Minnesota and as a

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sports reporter in Lincoln, Nebraska. By last year, she had

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left television and was working in sales for a software company.

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On the morning of Halloween 2025, Wichita police arrived at

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the house and found Mock outside with cuts on her hands. Inside,

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they found Anita Avers in her bed with multiple stab wounds.

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She died at the hospital a short time later. The

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details in the court documents are graphic, and I am

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not going to read them to you. According to the

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probable cause affidavit, Mock first told police that she was

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defending herself, that her mother had come after her with

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a knife. Later, alone in a police interview room, she

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allegedly made statements indicating she believed her mother was the devil.

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Her stepfather told investigators she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder,

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that the diagnosis was later changed to schizoaffective disorder, and

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that she suffered from delusions and depression. In January, a

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court found her not competent to stand trial. She was

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sent to the state hospital in Larned for evaluation and treatment.

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In July, Judge Jeffrey Goering found that her competency had

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been restored. In August, she pleaded guilty to first-degree murder.

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On Monday, Judge Goering sentenced her to life in prison

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with the possibility of parole after 25 years, which he

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said Kansas law required. She gets credit for nearly a

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year already served. She told the court she does not

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intend to appeal, though she has two weeks to change

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her mind. Reporters in the room said she cried as

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she left. Anita Avers' stepdaughter, Sonia Kreutziger, spoke to the court.

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She described a bright, compassionate, loving woman. She called the

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killing calculated. and she used a word that is now

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in every headline, demonic. She also said that Angeline had killed, quote,

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the one person who loved her unconditionally. I understand why

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a grieving family reaches for that word. I want to

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be careful with it on this show, because the record

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in this case points somewhere more complicated, and the law

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in this case points somewhere you might not expect. First,

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the word competent. A lot of people hear that a

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judge found someone competent and assume it means the judge

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found she was sane when she did it. It does not.

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Competency is about the present. It asks whether a defendant

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understands the charges against her right now and can help

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her lawyers. It says nothing about what was going on

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in her mind at the moment of the crime. Those

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are two separate questions, and only the first one was

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answered in court. Second, Kansas. Kansas is one of a

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small number of states that does not allow the traditional

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insanity defense, the one that asks whether someone could tell

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right from wrong. In Kansas, mental illness can be a

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defense only if it means the person could not form

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the intent to commit the crime at all. The U.S.

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Supreme Court upheld that approach in 2020 in a case

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called Kaler v. Kansas. So there are two fair ways

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to see Monday. Prosecutors and Anita's family would say this

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is simply justice. She pleaded guilty. A judge found her

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competent to do so. She chose not to appeal. A

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woman was attacked in her own bed, and the sentence

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the law requires was imposed. Others would say that a

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person whose own family describes years of serious mental illness,

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who was found incompetent just nine months ago, and who

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allegedly believed her mother was the devil, belongs in a

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conversation about treatment as much as punishment. and that in

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many other states, this case could have looked very different.

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A month ago on this show, we watched a Massachusetts

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jury come within one vote of finding Lindsay Clancy not

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criminally responsible. That option was never on the table in Wichita.

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I am not going to tell you which of those

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is right. I will tell you this. None of that

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complexity belongs to Anita Avers. She did nothing to deserve

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what happened in that bedroom. She spent 80 years on

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this earth, a lot of them helping other people's families heal.

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Her own family is now the one trying to. Anita

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Avers was 80 years old. Someone has to say her name.

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That's the show for this Wednesday. Before you go, a

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question for the Spotify crowd, and I genuinely want to

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read your answers. Kansas does not allow a traditional insanity defense.

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Should it? If you're listening on Spotify, drop a comment

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and tell me where you land and why. If this

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episode made you think, send it to one person who

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would want to hear it. That is how this show grows,

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and I am grateful every time you do it. And

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if you are on Apple Podcasts, look at the top

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of your screen. There is a button that says Listen Uninterrupted.

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For $ 5 a month, you get this show with no

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ads plus thousands of other shows across Calaroga Media. and

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your first 30 days are free. To every one of

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you who has already subscribed, thank you. You are the

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reason we can keep doing this every single morning. Coming up,

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we are keeping a close eye on Tennessee and on

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Krista Pike's condition, and we will tell you what the

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state's investigation finds. A Florida judge, not a jury, is

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expected to decide this month whether Dr. Tomasz Kosowski lives

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or dies for the murder of Stephen Kazi. And on Monday,

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the rape trial of Russell Brand begins in London. He

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has pleaded not guilty to every charge. We will be watching.

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I'm Garrett Fisher. Do better. Disclaimer. This episode of Daily

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Crime and Justice is produced with the assistance of artificial

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intelligence and is intended for news and commentary purposes only.

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It is not legal advice. Everyone charged with a crime

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is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a

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court of law. Nidal Hasan, Caleb Flynn, and Angeline Mock

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have each been convicted. Statements made in court filings, affidavits,

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and arguments are allegations or argument, not findings of fact,

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unless a court has said otherwise. On Nidal Hasan, some reports,

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including at least one tabloid account, have said there have

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been four firing squad executions since 1977, or that Hasan

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would be only the second since 2010. Those figures are

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out of date, Based on the death penalty information center's

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counts and later reporting, six people have been executed by

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firing squads since 1977. Reports also differ on the number

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wounded at Fort Hood. Hassan was convicted on 32 counts

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of attempted premeditated murder. Some outlets reported the Pentagon's announcement

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on Sunday evening. Most major outlets reported it Monday. No

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execution date has been set. The claims made by McCall

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Mahdi's attorneys about his South Carolina execution are allegations that

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have not been proven. On Krista Pike, her condition is

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based on statements from her attorneys as of Monday and

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may have changed by the time you hear this. Most

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reporting gives Colleen Slimmer's age as 19. Some older reports

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say 18. On Caleb Flynn, outlets differ on how much

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additional prison time was imposed for firearm specifications and evidence tampering.

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Some report 16 additional years. Others report shorter figures. One

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legal commentary site reported that the defense plans to appeal.

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We have not independently confirmed that. A tabloid published extensive

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quotations from statements written by Ashley Flynn's minor daughters. We

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chose not to repeat them. On Angeline Mock, details of

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the night of Anita Avers' death come from a probable

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cause affidavit and from police, and include statements Mock allegedly

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made that have not been tested at trial. Information about

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her diagnoses comes from her stepfather's statements to investigators as

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recorded in court documents, not from medical records presented in court.

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A tabloid characterization of Mock's appearance was not used. One

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outlet identified a different judge at her plea hearing. Most

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reporting identifies Judge Jeffrey Goering. Our explanation of Kansas law

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is a general summary, not legal advice. If anything in

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today's episode affected you, or if you or someone you

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love is struggling with mental illness or thoughts of harming

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yourself or others, you can call or text 988, the

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Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, at any time.