Oct. 5, 2026
BREAKING: Caleb Flynn Sobs “I Didn’t Kill My Wife” Before Judge Sentences American Idol Alum To Life Without Parole
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RSS Feed It was a heartbreaking and dramatic afternoon in court as Caleb Flynn heard directly from his two young daughters who wrote letters to him read aloud by his wife, Ashley’s family members. Alyssa and Ava Flynn told their father how much pain he’s caused them and begged him to tell the truth about killing their mother. Other members of Ashely’s family spoke directly to Flynn, including her own parents who told their former son-in-law that they forgive him. Flynn read a letter to his daughters, family members and Ashley’s family apologizing for his decisions and hateful words, but insisting that he did not kill his wife. The judge gave him stern words, and then, the maximum sentence possible: life without parole.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Monday, October 5th, and sentencing has just ended in the so-called American Idol murder trial. A judge has just given Caleb Flynn the harshest sentence possible. But it might not be the harshest thing he heard during his sentencing hearing. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes. Not too surprised maybe by the sentence, but there is no doubt. This was stunning. It was heartfelt. It was jaw-dropping, and it was powerful. We heard from his daughters in court today.
00:00:43
Speaker 2: Yes, and it was.
00:00:45
Speaker 3: They were so unbelievably, they were able to express themselves so well.
00:00:52
Speaker 2: I was going to say poise. I mean, this, they, this was their written words.
00:00:55
Speaker 3: They were unedited and they were read aloud by members of Ashley's family, but you could feel the sincerity and the authenticity of these little girls.
00:01:04
Speaker 2: One, the little one referred to him as daddy.
00:01:06
Speaker 3: The 12 year old referred to him as Caleb, but both of them seemed wise beyond their years, able to express the pain they were feeling, the anger they were feeling.
00:01:15
Speaker 1: And faith-based.
00:01:17
Speaker 3: And, yes, the forgiveness they wanted to extend to him and their hope that he would actually admit his wrongdoing, admit his sins to Christ.
00:01:27
Speaker 2: It was really remarkable. It was heartbreaking.
00:01:32
Speaker 1: Remarkable and heartbreaking there, Robes. And we mentioned we hear from the girls. We heard from Caleb Flynn in court today, folks, for Robes... I'm not sure how to describe it. I'm not sure what to call it. I'm not surprised at the tears necessarily, but by the message, I don't know.
00:01:54
Speaker 3: Look, he cried from start to finish throughout this entire sentencing hearing. I mean, he was sobbing during his daughter's written words. And we've said he's been sobbing before this was the hardest I've seen him cry. And that's saying a lot because he's cried pretty much throughout this entire process. But he did, when he first started speaking through tears, he did remind me and remind us all, almost eight months of being here, this is my first opportunity to speak. That's how he started. And I started thinking about it. It's only been eight months. This family, the Flynn family, hasn't been through a Thanksgiving without Ashley. They haven't been through a Christmas without Ashley.
00:02:39
Speaker 2: There are going to be a lot.
00:02:40
Speaker 3: Of firsts, and it's pretty remarkable that they've already brought her killer to justice, and today he sat there and spoke for the first time since.
00:02:49
Speaker 2: This all began.
00:02:50
Speaker 1: Isn't that how it should be? Swift justice roams, and so they'll be able to go into the holidays with some kind of finality and some kind of peace and moving on. I mean, seven months, is it? Eight months?
00:03:03
Speaker 2: Yes, eight months.
00:03:04
Speaker 1: From crime to conviction.
00:03:06
Speaker 2: That's remarkable.
00:03:08
Speaker 3: So he started out by reading aloud a letter he had written to his daughters. And he said, I don't know if you'll be able to hear this, but he said, first and foremost, to my daughters. He said, I want to say regardless, I love you too with absolutely everything inside me. And then he just went on and on talking about the day they were born and how proud he was of them.
00:03:29
Speaker 2: You're my greatest joy.
00:03:30
Speaker 3: He wants to be there for their most important moments. He tells them that he loves them and misses them more than you'll ever know.
00:03:38
Speaker 1: And he's sobbing through this whole thing.
00:03:39
Speaker 2: He's sobbing. You're amazing and perfect in every way. He talked about Jesus. He talked about faith.
00:03:44
Speaker 3: He talked about staying true to God, but just was gushing about how much he loved them and how amazing and perfect they are.
00:03:54
Speaker 1: He went through what? He went through his own family, I think his brother. He mentioned his parents and had some thank yous. And I think he spoke directly, right, to the family of his now-dead wife.
00:04:05
Speaker 3: Yes, he actually directly named them his... former father-in-law, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and brother-in-law. He called them by their names. I believe he said Todd and Jill and to Kayla and Matt. And I thought this was interesting because first you thought he was going to admit what he did. You thought he might apologize for his crime because he said, I made vows to Ashley on our wedding day.
00:04:32
Speaker 2: I failed those vows.
00:04:33
Speaker 3: Through my decisions, I have caused you an incredible amount of pain and Through those decisions, I'm sure you have felt betrayal, confusion, anger, and so much more.
00:04:42
Speaker 2: All the words don't come close. I can never apologize enough.
00:04:46
Speaker 3: I take complete accountability and responsibility for my words and my decisions. And I am so sorry. I am so, so sorry. I pray you can one day forgive me.
00:05:08
Speaker 1: Okay. And now he went on for a little while in his, what would you say he did? 15 minutes at least?
00:05:13
Speaker 2: Probably around 15 minutes.
00:05:14
Speaker 1: Okay. So this was going on for a while. And at some point as we're listening through this, I looked up at you and said, has he said he's innocent? Has he said he didn't do it? And sure enough, here it comes.
00:05:26
Speaker 2: Here it comes.
00:05:27
Speaker 3: He said, I have unfortunately lied about a lot of things over the last couple of years.
00:05:32
Speaker 2: As I stand here before God.
00:05:35
Speaker 3: Let's say before God, that's a pretty heavy declaration there, Robes, convincing it all for you.
00:05:58
Speaker 2: Absolutely not.
00:05:59
Speaker 1: No? Nothing?
00:06:00
Speaker 2: And it wasn't convincing to Ashley's family.
00:06:02
Speaker 1: Move no needle.
00:06:03
Speaker 2: Not at all.
00:06:04
Speaker 3: In fact, I just felt, in a way, for the first time, I actually felt a little sad for him because it was pathetic. And it was pitiful because if he actually thinks for one second that anybody believes that, other than his parents, who kind of feel like they have to believe it, I would imagine, he's fooling himself.
00:06:23
Speaker 1: He's a fool. Rose, this was... I guess the order of the family. He spoke first, right?
00:06:31
Speaker 2: He spoke first.
00:06:32
Speaker 1: He spoke first. And then I believe Ashley's sister. Yes. And then the brother.
00:06:37
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:06:38
Speaker 1: That was a brother-in-law, right?
00:06:39
Speaker 3: Brother-in-law.
00:06:40
Speaker 1: They're the ones who are taken care of and have to raise the kids now. They spoke. Then it was the parents.
00:06:47
Speaker 3: Well, they spoke first. And then Matt, who was the brother-in-law, read Ava's letter aloud.
00:06:55
Speaker 1: And then.
00:06:56
Speaker 3: Ashley's mom, Jill, got up and read Alyssa's letter aloud. And then mom and dad got up and spoke at the end.
00:07:04
Speaker 1: We wondered, I guess, Rose, we wondered if we were going to hear from the kids. We had no idea we'd hear from them this way. And we're going to share some exact quotes here from the kids. And Rose, to set this up, the uncle, their uncle, set this up by saying, These are their exact words. Yes. Nothing here is edited. This is how they wanted to say it, and every single word is theirs. And that certainly got our attention.
00:07:36
Speaker 2: It definitely did.
00:07:37
Speaker 3: And just to hear how 10-year-old Ava's letter, because you think a lot of times in these victim impact statements.
00:07:44
Speaker 2: They're reading something to the judge. They're asking the judge.
00:07:47
Speaker 3: Please honor my mom's memory and send my dad to prison. I did not for one second think we were actually going to get a letter directly.
00:07:57
Speaker 2: To their father. And I don't know that he was expecting it either.
00:08:01
Speaker 3: But he immediately broke down as Matt reads, Dear Daddy, I don't even know where to start. How could you do such a thing? I looked up to you. I loved you with all my heart. And then you lied to everyone. Mommy was the perfect person. What did she ever do to make you hate her so much?
00:08:24
Speaker 1: And I think that's the line. That's it. Like that is like how, I mean, how much are these girls aware of? It seems like an awful lot. Yes.
00:08:35
Speaker 3: And when Ashley's sister, who was taking care of them alongside her husband, Matt, when she got up and gave her victim impact statement, She made a good point when she spoke directly to Caleb. She said to him, you chose to make this public. We begged you.
00:08:53
Speaker 2: We asked you to admit it.
00:08:55
Speaker 3: We asked you basically to plead out and to admit that you did this and spare the public spectacle that this has now become. So now your daughters, we've tried to shield them, but we can only shield them for so long. They're eventually going to be able to Google their mom's name, your name, and all the disgusting sort of details that came out in court, now they're going to be able to read all of them. And if he had just pleaded guilty, if he had spared the family this trial, if he had just admitted that he murdered Ashley, her daughters might, their daughters might not actually have to know all the awful details.
00:09:32
Speaker 1: That was one of the grander points. That one hit home for me most, outside of just the emotional part, but just from a practical, it said a lot Robes could think, this was nasty. This was ugly. This was hate-filled stuff.
00:09:49
Speaker 3: To know that his daughters are going to be able to read those text messages.
00:09:53
Speaker 1: And they will.
00:09:54
Speaker 2: They will read it. Of course they will. Of course you're going to read it.
00:09:56
Speaker 1: They might be reading it now.
00:09:58
Speaker 2: They might be.
00:09:58
Speaker 1: Even one of the kids, didn't she make a speech? media?
00:10:00
Speaker 2: She mentioned you're all over YouTube and it hurts me. This was Ava. It hurts me to see you in pain.
00:10:05
Speaker 3: I mean, it's really, this is remarkable what these little girls said. Ava, and this is another paragraph that she said that hit home. And then you chose to kill the only mother I ever had. I miss her so much. So, so, so much.
00:10:19
Speaker 2: You have no idea.
00:10:20
Speaker 3: How could you cheat on her and go to that awful girl, Aaliyah?
00:10:23
Speaker 2: I never liked her.
00:10:25
Speaker 3: It was so remarkable to hear these letters because it was literally, and this appears to be the first time, they have contacted their father since he was arrested seven, eight months ago. This is the first time they've been able to tell him how they feel, how shocked they are, how angry they are, how upset they are, how hurt they are.
00:10:42
Speaker 2: It was unbelievable to hear this in court.
00:10:44
Speaker 1: You know, and I think to parents out there, and I guess particular parents of girls, and particular parents of girls who've hit these ages, they sound a certain way when they talk. Like everything they're saying, they sound so familiar, except they're talking about something this serious.
00:11:06
Speaker 3: Right.
00:11:06
Speaker 1: Right, when a parent disappoints you or hurts you, or you let... Robes, there's a tone they have that seems almost still respectful of the parent and child relationship, even though they seem to know they have the authority to be pissed right now. Robes, this is so well done. And because it sounded like it was perfectly in the pitch, the voice of a kid, man, we were crying the whole time listening to it. Do somebody else read the words of two kids?
00:11:39
Speaker 2: It was gutting.
00:11:40
Speaker 3: It was. It was gutting. And to hear little Ava, who's 10, saying she prays for her daddy and Aaliyah every night. And she prayed that they told the truth, that they stopped lying.
00:11:50
Speaker 1: They read the prayer, didn't they?
00:11:52
Speaker 2: Yes, she read the prayer.
00:11:53
Speaker 3: And then she said, I hope you will bring Jesus back into your heart. I mean, it was just beautiful and sweet and powerful. And she still made her point. And she still let him know how hurt she is. And I just, yes, we were crying throughout the entire letter.
00:12:11
Speaker 1: It stood out, baby, that both of them made a plea. Like, they sounded like adults, almost, in pleading. You need to repent, right, for one thing. You also need to just tell the truth. And both of them said, it's not going to change your outcome.
00:12:29
Speaker 2: You will still be punished.
00:12:31
Speaker 1: Still be punished. These were their words. But this is.
00:12:34
Speaker 3: Your only chance at salvation. Like, they want him to go to heaven. They're deeply faithful. And in order for him to go to heaven, she said, affairs are sins and murders are sins, daddy. And you need to pray for forgiveness. It was really remarkable.
00:12:50
Speaker 1: And, you know, the only, I was very, yeah, obviously touched, emotional hearing their words. And the only time it was turned off is when I looked at the screen and they were showing him cry during it. There was nothing. Yes, you just rolled your eyes. It's just something about him. And that was more of an ick factor today than from before. He was crying uncontrollably.
00:13:11
Speaker 2: He was feeling deep pain.
00:13:14
Speaker 1: I'm sure. Okay, I don't want to say the obvious thing about the pain of his wife, but it's just It's hard. Sympathy is a tough thing to find for him today, even though I know those words were gutting. But the words in court weren't done. We also, well, the final say in court today went to the judge. We'll tell you the words she had for him as she made the sentence and we'll explain the sentence that he got. Stay here.
00:13:48
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Amy and TJ.
00:13:50
Speaker 3: We told you what Caleb Flynn's 10-year-old daughter wrote and was read aloud in court today. And then her 12-year-old daughter, Alyssa, also wrote her letter and had it read aloud, thank you, by grandmother Jill. This was Ashley's mom. By the way, as he's sobbing and crying... I was so impressed with the composure Ashley's family had. Her sister, her brother-in-law, her father, her mother composed. So for Jill to read this, I just was imagining as a grandmother, you're reading your granddaughter's letter about her own father who murdered your daughter. I mean, this is just so emotional. So interestingly, Alyssa started with Dear Caleb. Her sister said, Dear Daddy. She said, Dear Caleb. But she started out, I loved you deeply with all my heart. And it's so sad that you can't love anyone but yourself. I wish that you could come to understand that actions have consequences. You don't truly understand how much you hurt my life. I wish you could feel the pain I have been through. Something so tragic and to know it was my father was just shocking.
00:15:04
Speaker 2: I mean, just that sounds so adult.
00:15:08
Speaker 3: She said Ashley Flynn was the best thing that would ever happen to you.
00:15:14
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't argue with that. I mean, no matter what, how wonderful of a woman. Yes, that is one thing. A wonderful mom. She's sort of right. She's in the church. Good family. But Roe, that family took him in and took care of him like financially. He depended on this family.
00:15:33
Speaker 2: In every way.
00:15:34
Speaker 1: In every way.
00:15:35
Speaker 3: Yeah. So, and you can see both of the girls, and obviously we're only just reading a few excerpts, went, and I just thought it was really beautiful, went to town defending their mom and what kind of a mom she was and what kind of a woman she was. But Alyssa very notably ended the letter to her father saying, and by the way, I don't plan on coming to see you.
00:15:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was, didn't she sign it off love?
00:16:00
Speaker 3: She said love, no. The little one, Love Ava. This one just signed off Alyssa Flynn. So she said, Dear Caleb, and signed Alyssa Flynn. That's 12-year-old Alyssa. 10-year-old Ava started off, Dear Daddy, and Love Ava.
00:16:15
Speaker 1: And even that, I said to you, man, preteen girls. That sounds like they're getting the point across.
00:16:21
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
00:16:22
Speaker 3: They're not going to mince words, and they're not going to make any, like, gloss it over with lovey-dovey words.
00:16:26
Speaker 2: That was not going to happen. And also, we got to hear from Todd and Jill. This is Ashley's parents.
00:16:32
Speaker 3: And look, they just talked about, we will truly miss and cry for her every single day, but the very powerful moment that they delivered, they, I really appreciated this. Todd, her father spoke very quietly, but very firmly. Jill and I forgive you for taking Ashley's life. That's a hell of a statement.
00:16:52
Speaker 1: How many did we hear, right? We heard, well, the sister was the first that got up and she's extended that as well. Look, this is, From all accounts, hell, they grew up in the church. What are we talking about? This is, this is, faith is at the center of this family. And the sister, you know, we didn't mention this at the top. She, she spent time talking about how she feared something like this and how it was being publicized would make people question faith or turn away from faith because, wow, look, this happened to this great Christian family. Then how can God let something like this happen? She spent a lot of time to a certain degree, preaching a little bit.
00:17:30
Speaker 3: She did, and she even said their oldest daughter, Alyssa, questioned, why should I believe in Jesus if he let this happen to my mom? And so she was just concerned that the publicity of this case and the fact that a church was involved... that somehow this would turn people off further away from the faith. And she said, that's the last thing Ashley would want. I did think that, um, Ashley's dad wrapped it up really, really well after forgiving publicly, forgiving Caleb alongside Ashley's sister. He said, but with a lack of responsibility, a lack of a confession or any remorse, we want justice to the fullest, fullest extent of the law.
00:18:07
Speaker 2: And I think that was an important point.
00:18:09
Speaker 3: The family made it very well known that they were extra responsible. angry about the fact that Caleb Flynn refuses to admit that he killed Ashley, and by doing so, dragged this entire family through this very public, painful process.
00:18:23
Speaker 1: Robes, how could, if he admitted, how could that change his sentence? You have to, man, Robes, he put two bullets in the back of her head as she slept, and the kids were nearby. Robes, even if he came out and said, I am sorry, I can't believe I did it, I lost my mind, da-da-da-da-da-da-da, Robes, the brutality of that is hard to step back from.
00:18:55
Speaker 3: He wouldn't change his fate, but he might, according to his family, might believe that he has an opportunity for forgiveness in the next life.
00:19:04
Speaker 2: And that's what his daughters wrote to him about. It hadn't convinced him.
00:19:08
Speaker 3: It certainly didn't convince him today to even come close to an admission of guilt. In fact, he doubled down and said, I, like almost like he was.
00:19:16
Speaker 1: A preacher in church.
00:19:18
Speaker 2: Saying, I didn't kill my wife.
00:19:21
Speaker 1: You know what? He whimpered through his entire speech until that moment. He was almost, we mentioned somewhat jokingly, he sounds like some character, a cartoon character. He's whimpering and speaking and squealing at times. That was as strong as his voice got.
00:19:39
Speaker 2: He got defiant.
00:19:40
Speaker 1: He did.
00:19:41
Speaker 2: In that moment.
00:19:42
Speaker 1: Well, the judge had her say at the end. She had a few comments certainly saying that he poses a risk to the public. She made a couple of mentions about him being the one that should have been protecting the kids. You actually shattered their lives. You were the one that if there was an intruder, you were the guy. And instead, look at what you did to him. And she said the court is asking the one question that the daughter just asked and that all of us are asking. What? did she do to make you hate her so much? We have no answer to that, Robes. No answer. If he's in love with another woman, if he's in lust with another woman. Go be with her. But what caused you to hate your wife so much? Nobody has that answer. So the judge, like we say here, threw the book at him. Essentially, she had to sentence him for the conviction for murder or aggravated murder. And the only option was life. with or life without parole. She gave him life without the possibility of parole. But Robes, on top of that, she also, for the counts of interfering with the police, what is it, what was the right phrase for it, count 7, 8, 9, interference with the police investigation, tampering with evidence, that's it, tampering with evidence, 7, 8, 9, he had three counts of this. She gave him the max on each of those, which is 36 months, that's three years each of She also gave him these aggravating gun charges, which she could add to these counts, which added up to seven years. So here's the deal, folks. She gave him seven years for the gun stuff, nine years for the tampering with evidence. You have to serve those consecutively. Then your life sentence starts. It sounds crazy, but it makes sense.
00:21:31
Speaker 3: But she's making sure if there's any sort of an appeal and he gets some sort of a new trial or an overturning of the murder charges, that these lesser charges could potentially stick so that he would stay in jail while a new trial began or anything.
00:21:45
Speaker 2: But this basically, because people would wonder why, why the overkill with the charges happened.
00:21:49
Speaker 3: It's because a lot of these, over the years, sometimes get overturned or questioned, and so you want to throw as many charges as you can with as much sentencing attached to them to ensure that someone stays behind bars throughout the lengthy appeals process. And yes, Caleb Flynn's attorneys have made it very clear that they are appealing the jury's verdict.
00:22:10
Speaker 1: You know what? The family, I will tell you today, Robe, they looked at peace.
00:22:14
Speaker 2: They did.
00:22:15
Speaker 1: I didn't see overly emotional folks in the courtroom. Even when they were leaving Robes, I didn't see high-fiving anything. They just quietly, solemnly, just peacefully kind of ushered themselves out of the courtroom. So what will the holidays look like? Who knows? But a hell of a crime, a hell of a trial. I don't know what lessons out of this one. Jeez.
00:22:39
Speaker 3: I just feel for them because it's not over. It's over, but they will still have to be a part of the appeals process that often takes place.
00:22:46
Speaker 2: But I hope those kids.
00:22:48
Speaker 3: You know, everyone getting their say in court today matters. Going forward, moving forward, feeling like you had a say or you got to at least tell your truth. And it was good that those girls weren't in court today. That would have been horrific for them.
00:23:01
Speaker 1: Well, folks, we appreciate you going along with us during this trial. On behalf of my dear Amy Robach, I'm TJ Holmes. We'll talk to you all soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Monday, October 5th, and sentencing has just ended in the so-called American Idol murder trial. A judge has just given Caleb Flynn the harshest sentence possible. But it might not be the harshest thing he heard during his sentencing hearing. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes. Not too surprised maybe by the sentence, but there is no doubt. This was stunning. It was heartfelt. It was jaw-dropping, and it was powerful. We heard from his daughters in court today.
00:00:43
Speaker 2: Yes, and it was.
00:00:45
Speaker 3: They were so unbelievably, they were able to express themselves so well.
00:00:52
Speaker 2: I was going to say poise. I mean, this, they, this was their written words.
00:00:55
Speaker 3: They were unedited and they were read aloud by members of Ashley's family, but you could feel the sincerity and the authenticity of these little girls.
00:01:04
Speaker 2: One, the little one referred to him as daddy.
00:01:06
Speaker 3: The 12 year old referred to him as Caleb, but both of them seemed wise beyond their years, able to express the pain they were feeling, the anger they were feeling.
00:01:15
Speaker 1: And faith-based.
00:01:17
Speaker 3: And, yes, the forgiveness they wanted to extend to him and their hope that he would actually admit his wrongdoing, admit his sins to Christ.
00:01:27
Speaker 2: It was really remarkable. It was heartbreaking.
00:01:32
Speaker 1: Remarkable and heartbreaking there, Robes. And we mentioned we hear from the girls. We heard from Caleb Flynn in court today, folks, for Robes... I'm not sure how to describe it. I'm not sure what to call it. I'm not surprised at the tears necessarily, but by the message, I don't know.
00:01:54
Speaker 3: Look, he cried from start to finish throughout this entire sentencing hearing. I mean, he was sobbing during his daughter's written words. And we've said he's been sobbing before this was the hardest I've seen him cry. And that's saying a lot because he's cried pretty much throughout this entire process. But he did, when he first started speaking through tears, he did remind me and remind us all, almost eight months of being here, this is my first opportunity to speak. That's how he started. And I started thinking about it. It's only been eight months. This family, the Flynn family, hasn't been through a Thanksgiving without Ashley. They haven't been through a Christmas without Ashley.
00:02:39
Speaker 2: There are going to be a lot.
00:02:40
Speaker 3: Of firsts, and it's pretty remarkable that they've already brought her killer to justice, and today he sat there and spoke for the first time since.
00:02:49
Speaker 2: This all began.
00:02:50
Speaker 1: Isn't that how it should be? Swift justice roams, and so they'll be able to go into the holidays with some kind of finality and some kind of peace and moving on. I mean, seven months, is it? Eight months?
00:03:03
Speaker 2: Yes, eight months.
00:03:04
Speaker 1: From crime to conviction.
00:03:06
Speaker 2: That's remarkable.
00:03:08
Speaker 3: So he started out by reading aloud a letter he had written to his daughters. And he said, I don't know if you'll be able to hear this, but he said, first and foremost, to my daughters. He said, I want to say regardless, I love you too with absolutely everything inside me. And then he just went on and on talking about the day they were born and how proud he was of them.
00:03:29
Speaker 2: You're my greatest joy.
00:03:30
Speaker 3: He wants to be there for their most important moments. He tells them that he loves them and misses them more than you'll ever know.
00:03:38
Speaker 1: And he's sobbing through this whole thing.
00:03:39
Speaker 2: He's sobbing. You're amazing and perfect in every way. He talked about Jesus. He talked about faith.
00:03:44
Speaker 3: He talked about staying true to God, but just was gushing about how much he loved them and how amazing and perfect they are.
00:03:54
Speaker 1: He went through what? He went through his own family, I think his brother. He mentioned his parents and had some thank yous. And I think he spoke directly, right, to the family of his now-dead wife.
00:04:05
Speaker 3: Yes, he actually directly named them his... former father-in-law, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and brother-in-law. He called them by their names. I believe he said Todd and Jill and to Kayla and Matt. And I thought this was interesting because first you thought he was going to admit what he did. You thought he might apologize for his crime because he said, I made vows to Ashley on our wedding day.
00:04:32
Speaker 2: I failed those vows.
00:04:33
Speaker 3: Through my decisions, I have caused you an incredible amount of pain and Through those decisions, I'm sure you have felt betrayal, confusion, anger, and so much more.
00:04:42
Speaker 2: All the words don't come close. I can never apologize enough.
00:04:46
Speaker 3: I take complete accountability and responsibility for my words and my decisions. And I am so sorry. I am so, so sorry. I pray you can one day forgive me.
00:05:08
Speaker 1: Okay. And now he went on for a little while in his, what would you say he did? 15 minutes at least?
00:05:13
Speaker 2: Probably around 15 minutes.
00:05:14
Speaker 1: Okay. So this was going on for a while. And at some point as we're listening through this, I looked up at you and said, has he said he's innocent? Has he said he didn't do it? And sure enough, here it comes.
00:05:26
Speaker 2: Here it comes.
00:05:27
Speaker 3: He said, I have unfortunately lied about a lot of things over the last couple of years.
00:05:32
Speaker 2: As I stand here before God.
00:05:35
Speaker 3: Let's say before God, that's a pretty heavy declaration there, Robes, convincing it all for you.
00:05:58
Speaker 2: Absolutely not.
00:05:59
Speaker 1: No? Nothing?
00:06:00
Speaker 2: And it wasn't convincing to Ashley's family.
00:06:02
Speaker 1: Move no needle.
00:06:03
Speaker 2: Not at all.
00:06:04
Speaker 3: In fact, I just felt, in a way, for the first time, I actually felt a little sad for him because it was pathetic. And it was pitiful because if he actually thinks for one second that anybody believes that, other than his parents, who kind of feel like they have to believe it, I would imagine, he's fooling himself.
00:06:23
Speaker 1: He's a fool. Rose, this was... I guess the order of the family. He spoke first, right?
00:06:31
Speaker 2: He spoke first.
00:06:32
Speaker 1: He spoke first. And then I believe Ashley's sister. Yes. And then the brother.
00:06:37
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:06:38
Speaker 1: That was a brother-in-law, right?
00:06:39
Speaker 3: Brother-in-law.
00:06:40
Speaker 1: They're the ones who are taken care of and have to raise the kids now. They spoke. Then it was the parents.
00:06:47
Speaker 3: Well, they spoke first. And then Matt, who was the brother-in-law, read Ava's letter aloud.
00:06:55
Speaker 1: And then.
00:06:56
Speaker 3: Ashley's mom, Jill, got up and read Alyssa's letter aloud. And then mom and dad got up and spoke at the end.
00:07:04
Speaker 1: We wondered, I guess, Rose, we wondered if we were going to hear from the kids. We had no idea we'd hear from them this way. And we're going to share some exact quotes here from the kids. And Rose, to set this up, the uncle, their uncle, set this up by saying, These are their exact words. Yes. Nothing here is edited. This is how they wanted to say it, and every single word is theirs. And that certainly got our attention.
00:07:36
Speaker 2: It definitely did.
00:07:37
Speaker 3: And just to hear how 10-year-old Ava's letter, because you think a lot of times in these victim impact statements.
00:07:44
Speaker 2: They're reading something to the judge. They're asking the judge.
00:07:47
Speaker 3: Please honor my mom's memory and send my dad to prison. I did not for one second think we were actually going to get a letter directly.
00:07:57
Speaker 2: To their father. And I don't know that he was expecting it either.
00:08:01
Speaker 3: But he immediately broke down as Matt reads, Dear Daddy, I don't even know where to start. How could you do such a thing? I looked up to you. I loved you with all my heart. And then you lied to everyone. Mommy was the perfect person. What did she ever do to make you hate her so much?
00:08:24
Speaker 1: And I think that's the line. That's it. Like that is like how, I mean, how much are these girls aware of? It seems like an awful lot. Yes.
00:08:35
Speaker 3: And when Ashley's sister, who was taking care of them alongside her husband, Matt, when she got up and gave her victim impact statement, She made a good point when she spoke directly to Caleb. She said to him, you chose to make this public. We begged you.
00:08:53
Speaker 2: We asked you to admit it.
00:08:55
Speaker 3: We asked you basically to plead out and to admit that you did this and spare the public spectacle that this has now become. So now your daughters, we've tried to shield them, but we can only shield them for so long. They're eventually going to be able to Google their mom's name, your name, and all the disgusting sort of details that came out in court, now they're going to be able to read all of them. And if he had just pleaded guilty, if he had spared the family this trial, if he had just admitted that he murdered Ashley, her daughters might, their daughters might not actually have to know all the awful details.
00:09:32
Speaker 1: That was one of the grander points. That one hit home for me most, outside of just the emotional part, but just from a practical, it said a lot Robes could think, this was nasty. This was ugly. This was hate-filled stuff.
00:09:49
Speaker 3: To know that his daughters are going to be able to read those text messages.
00:09:53
Speaker 1: And they will.
00:09:54
Speaker 2: They will read it. Of course they will. Of course you're going to read it.
00:09:56
Speaker 1: They might be reading it now.
00:09:58
Speaker 2: They might be.
00:09:58
Speaker 1: Even one of the kids, didn't she make a speech? media?
00:10:00
Speaker 2: She mentioned you're all over YouTube and it hurts me. This was Ava. It hurts me to see you in pain.
00:10:05
Speaker 3: I mean, it's really, this is remarkable what these little girls said. Ava, and this is another paragraph that she said that hit home. And then you chose to kill the only mother I ever had. I miss her so much. So, so, so much.
00:10:19
Speaker 2: You have no idea.
00:10:20
Speaker 3: How could you cheat on her and go to that awful girl, Aaliyah?
00:10:23
Speaker 2: I never liked her.
00:10:25
Speaker 3: It was so remarkable to hear these letters because it was literally, and this appears to be the first time, they have contacted their father since he was arrested seven, eight months ago. This is the first time they've been able to tell him how they feel, how shocked they are, how angry they are, how upset they are, how hurt they are.
00:10:42
Speaker 2: It was unbelievable to hear this in court.
00:10:44
Speaker 1: You know, and I think to parents out there, and I guess particular parents of girls, and particular parents of girls who've hit these ages, they sound a certain way when they talk. Like everything they're saying, they sound so familiar, except they're talking about something this serious.
00:11:06
Speaker 3: Right.
00:11:06
Speaker 1: Right, when a parent disappoints you or hurts you, or you let... Robes, there's a tone they have that seems almost still respectful of the parent and child relationship, even though they seem to know they have the authority to be pissed right now. Robes, this is so well done. And because it sounded like it was perfectly in the pitch, the voice of a kid, man, we were crying the whole time listening to it. Do somebody else read the words of two kids?
00:11:39
Speaker 2: It was gutting.
00:11:40
Speaker 3: It was. It was gutting. And to hear little Ava, who's 10, saying she prays for her daddy and Aaliyah every night. And she prayed that they told the truth, that they stopped lying.
00:11:50
Speaker 1: They read the prayer, didn't they?
00:11:52
Speaker 2: Yes, she read the prayer.
00:11:53
Speaker 3: And then she said, I hope you will bring Jesus back into your heart. I mean, it was just beautiful and sweet and powerful. And she still made her point. And she still let him know how hurt she is. And I just, yes, we were crying throughout the entire letter.
00:12:11
Speaker 1: It stood out, baby, that both of them made a plea. Like, they sounded like adults, almost, in pleading. You need to repent, right, for one thing. You also need to just tell the truth. And both of them said, it's not going to change your outcome.
00:12:29
Speaker 2: You will still be punished.
00:12:31
Speaker 1: Still be punished. These were their words. But this is.
00:12:34
Speaker 3: Your only chance at salvation. Like, they want him to go to heaven. They're deeply faithful. And in order for him to go to heaven, she said, affairs are sins and murders are sins, daddy. And you need to pray for forgiveness. It was really remarkable.
00:12:50
Speaker 1: And, you know, the only, I was very, yeah, obviously touched, emotional hearing their words. And the only time it was turned off is when I looked at the screen and they were showing him cry during it. There was nothing. Yes, you just rolled your eyes. It's just something about him. And that was more of an ick factor today than from before. He was crying uncontrollably.
00:13:11
Speaker 2: He was feeling deep pain.
00:13:14
Speaker 1: I'm sure. Okay, I don't want to say the obvious thing about the pain of his wife, but it's just It's hard. Sympathy is a tough thing to find for him today, even though I know those words were gutting. But the words in court weren't done. We also, well, the final say in court today went to the judge. We'll tell you the words she had for him as she made the sentence and we'll explain the sentence that he got. Stay here.
00:13:48
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Amy and TJ.
00:13:50
Speaker 3: We told you what Caleb Flynn's 10-year-old daughter wrote and was read aloud in court today. And then her 12-year-old daughter, Alyssa, also wrote her letter and had it read aloud, thank you, by grandmother Jill. This was Ashley's mom. By the way, as he's sobbing and crying... I was so impressed with the composure Ashley's family had. Her sister, her brother-in-law, her father, her mother composed. So for Jill to read this, I just was imagining as a grandmother, you're reading your granddaughter's letter about her own father who murdered your daughter. I mean, this is just so emotional. So interestingly, Alyssa started with Dear Caleb. Her sister said, Dear Daddy. She said, Dear Caleb. But she started out, I loved you deeply with all my heart. And it's so sad that you can't love anyone but yourself. I wish that you could come to understand that actions have consequences. You don't truly understand how much you hurt my life. I wish you could feel the pain I have been through. Something so tragic and to know it was my father was just shocking.
00:15:04
Speaker 2: I mean, just that sounds so adult.
00:15:08
Speaker 3: She said Ashley Flynn was the best thing that would ever happen to you.
00:15:14
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't argue with that. I mean, no matter what, how wonderful of a woman. Yes, that is one thing. A wonderful mom. She's sort of right. She's in the church. Good family. But Roe, that family took him in and took care of him like financially. He depended on this family.
00:15:33
Speaker 2: In every way.
00:15:34
Speaker 1: In every way.
00:15:35
Speaker 3: Yeah. So, and you can see both of the girls, and obviously we're only just reading a few excerpts, went, and I just thought it was really beautiful, went to town defending their mom and what kind of a mom she was and what kind of a woman she was. But Alyssa very notably ended the letter to her father saying, and by the way, I don't plan on coming to see you.
00:15:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was, didn't she sign it off love?
00:16:00
Speaker 3: She said love, no. The little one, Love Ava. This one just signed off Alyssa Flynn. So she said, Dear Caleb, and signed Alyssa Flynn. That's 12-year-old Alyssa. 10-year-old Ava started off, Dear Daddy, and Love Ava.
00:16:15
Speaker 1: And even that, I said to you, man, preteen girls. That sounds like they're getting the point across.
00:16:21
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
00:16:22
Speaker 3: They're not going to mince words, and they're not going to make any, like, gloss it over with lovey-dovey words.
00:16:26
Speaker 2: That was not going to happen. And also, we got to hear from Todd and Jill. This is Ashley's parents.
00:16:32
Speaker 3: And look, they just talked about, we will truly miss and cry for her every single day, but the very powerful moment that they delivered, they, I really appreciated this. Todd, her father spoke very quietly, but very firmly. Jill and I forgive you for taking Ashley's life. That's a hell of a statement.
00:16:52
Speaker 1: How many did we hear, right? We heard, well, the sister was the first that got up and she's extended that as well. Look, this is, From all accounts, hell, they grew up in the church. What are we talking about? This is, this is, faith is at the center of this family. And the sister, you know, we didn't mention this at the top. She, she spent time talking about how she feared something like this and how it was being publicized would make people question faith or turn away from faith because, wow, look, this happened to this great Christian family. Then how can God let something like this happen? She spent a lot of time to a certain degree, preaching a little bit.
00:17:30
Speaker 3: She did, and she even said their oldest daughter, Alyssa, questioned, why should I believe in Jesus if he let this happen to my mom? And so she was just concerned that the publicity of this case and the fact that a church was involved... that somehow this would turn people off further away from the faith. And she said, that's the last thing Ashley would want. I did think that, um, Ashley's dad wrapped it up really, really well after forgiving publicly, forgiving Caleb alongside Ashley's sister. He said, but with a lack of responsibility, a lack of a confession or any remorse, we want justice to the fullest, fullest extent of the law.
00:18:07
Speaker 2: And I think that was an important point.
00:18:09
Speaker 3: The family made it very well known that they were extra responsible. angry about the fact that Caleb Flynn refuses to admit that he killed Ashley, and by doing so, dragged this entire family through this very public, painful process.
00:18:23
Speaker 1: Robes, how could, if he admitted, how could that change his sentence? You have to, man, Robes, he put two bullets in the back of her head as she slept, and the kids were nearby. Robes, even if he came out and said, I am sorry, I can't believe I did it, I lost my mind, da-da-da-da-da-da-da, Robes, the brutality of that is hard to step back from.
00:18:55
Speaker 3: He wouldn't change his fate, but he might, according to his family, might believe that he has an opportunity for forgiveness in the next life.
00:19:04
Speaker 2: And that's what his daughters wrote to him about. It hadn't convinced him.
00:19:08
Speaker 3: It certainly didn't convince him today to even come close to an admission of guilt. In fact, he doubled down and said, I, like almost like he was.
00:19:16
Speaker 1: A preacher in church.
00:19:18
Speaker 2: Saying, I didn't kill my wife.
00:19:21
Speaker 1: You know what? He whimpered through his entire speech until that moment. He was almost, we mentioned somewhat jokingly, he sounds like some character, a cartoon character. He's whimpering and speaking and squealing at times. That was as strong as his voice got.
00:19:39
Speaker 2: He got defiant.
00:19:40
Speaker 1: He did.
00:19:41
Speaker 2: In that moment.
00:19:42
Speaker 1: Well, the judge had her say at the end. She had a few comments certainly saying that he poses a risk to the public. She made a couple of mentions about him being the one that should have been protecting the kids. You actually shattered their lives. You were the one that if there was an intruder, you were the guy. And instead, look at what you did to him. And she said the court is asking the one question that the daughter just asked and that all of us are asking. What? did she do to make you hate her so much? We have no answer to that, Robes. No answer. If he's in love with another woman, if he's in lust with another woman. Go be with her. But what caused you to hate your wife so much? Nobody has that answer. So the judge, like we say here, threw the book at him. Essentially, she had to sentence him for the conviction for murder or aggravated murder. And the only option was life. with or life without parole. She gave him life without the possibility of parole. But Robes, on top of that, she also, for the counts of interfering with the police, what is it, what was the right phrase for it, count 7, 8, 9, interference with the police investigation, tampering with evidence, that's it, tampering with evidence, 7, 8, 9, he had three counts of this. She gave him the max on each of those, which is 36 months, that's three years each of She also gave him these aggravating gun charges, which she could add to these counts, which added up to seven years. So here's the deal, folks. She gave him seven years for the gun stuff, nine years for the tampering with evidence. You have to serve those consecutively. Then your life sentence starts. It sounds crazy, but it makes sense.
00:21:31
Speaker 3: But she's making sure if there's any sort of an appeal and he gets some sort of a new trial or an overturning of the murder charges, that these lesser charges could potentially stick so that he would stay in jail while a new trial began or anything.
00:21:45
Speaker 2: But this basically, because people would wonder why, why the overkill with the charges happened.
00:21:49
Speaker 3: It's because a lot of these, over the years, sometimes get overturned or questioned, and so you want to throw as many charges as you can with as much sentencing attached to them to ensure that someone stays behind bars throughout the lengthy appeals process. And yes, Caleb Flynn's attorneys have made it very clear that they are appealing the jury's verdict.
00:22:10
Speaker 1: You know what? The family, I will tell you today, Robe, they looked at peace.
00:22:14
Speaker 2: They did.
00:22:15
Speaker 1: I didn't see overly emotional folks in the courtroom. Even when they were leaving Robes, I didn't see high-fiving anything. They just quietly, solemnly, just peacefully kind of ushered themselves out of the courtroom. So what will the holidays look like? Who knows? But a hell of a crime, a hell of a trial. I don't know what lessons out of this one. Jeez.
00:22:39
Speaker 3: I just feel for them because it's not over. It's over, but they will still have to be a part of the appeals process that often takes place.
00:22:46
Speaker 2: But I hope those kids.
00:22:48
Speaker 3: You know, everyone getting their say in court today matters. Going forward, moving forward, feeling like you had a say or you got to at least tell your truth. And it was good that those girls weren't in court today. That would have been horrific for them.
00:23:01
Speaker 1: Well, folks, we appreciate you going along with us during this trial. On behalf of my dear Amy Robach, I'm TJ Holmes. We'll talk to you all soon.