Feb. 21, 2026
Former American Idol Contestant Charged With Murdering His Wife
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RSS Feed 39 year old Caleb Flynn is waking up behind bars this morning, charged in the shooting death of his wife Ashley. Police say Flynn staged the crime scene to try and blame an intruder for Ashley’s death. Amy and T.J. play part of Flynn’s dramatic 911 call, where he first tells authorities his wife has been shot twice in the head. They also go back to season 12 of American Idol, where Flynn tells fans about how much he loves his wife.
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00:00:09
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks.
00:00:10
Speaker 2: It is Saturday, February twenty first, and it wasn't too terribly long ago he was auditioning on American Idol in front of the likes of Keith Urban and Mariah Carey. This morning he sits in jail, accused of shooting and killing his wife. With that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ.
00:00:29
Speaker 1: Robes.
00:00:29
Speaker 2: The headlines are everywhere about an American Idol contestant being charged with the killing of his wife. I think Robe, some of the details of his background make some of this a little more shocking at this point.
00:00:39
Speaker 3: Yes, he was a music pastor.
00:00:43
Speaker 4: He spoke as a contestant on American Idol of his love of the Lord and his love of his wife, Ashley. So yes, if anyone was familiar with him now, he made it to Hollywood. He had the golden ticket to Hollywood Week, and that's an exciting week. But most of the people get cut, and he was among the folks who got cut. So it wasn't as if we followed his story to the end.
00:01:04
Speaker 1: But certainly there wasn't a finalist.
00:01:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, to be clear, he was not that guy waiting for his name to be called, right he wasn't that, but he made an impression on this season.
00:01:13
Speaker 3: He certainly did. And this was somebody.
00:01:15
Speaker 4: If you watched season twelve of American Idol, you will remember Caleb Flynn. And he was this sweet kid from Ohio who had a wife who he loved to love the Lord and loved music. And it just seemed like this wholesome, church going midwestern young man.
00:01:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, somebody almost so innocent you just wanted to root for. See exactly, it's not like a good kid. Well that good kid is thirty nine years old now and is sitting in jail. We are talking about former American Idol contestant. Caleb Flynn is the name. He has now been charged in the shooting death of his wife, Ashley, who's thirty seven years old. Police say he called nine to one one to report that someone had broken into their home and tried then to pin the murder on that intruder. Flynn is accused of staging the crime scene and is facing charges as such.
00:02:05
Speaker 1: Robes.
00:02:06
Speaker 2: This happened earlier in the week. The death was February sixteenth, but he was just arrested charge made a court appearance yesterday, has pleaded not guilty. But roabes a part of this story, the big part of it is that nine to one one call. It is an extended nine to one one call. We will play it for you here in just a moment, a portion of it. But robe the nine to one one call. And we've watched a lot of true crime, and quite frankly, it comes up a lot hearing people in these nine to one one calls who end up being the actual perpetrator.
00:02:34
Speaker 3: Correct.
00:02:35
Speaker 4: So now that we know he's been arrested in charge, and of course he is pleaded not guilty, so we'll point out that he is innocent until proven guilty.
00:02:42
Speaker 3: But when you hear the nine to one one call.
00:02:46
Speaker 4: You start to listen to it through that lens, knowing he's now been arrested and charged with his wife's murder.
00:02:52
Speaker 3: But his voice goes up at least three octaves to the.
00:02:54
Speaker 4: Point where the nine one one operator refers to him as mam several times. So look, now you could pop hear this is somebody who is pretending, who is feigning.
00:03:04
Speaker 3: Maybe he is upset.
00:03:05
Speaker 4: Obviously this is a traumatic event. Even if he did cause it. He is.
00:03:12
Speaker 3: Sobbing.
00:03:13
Speaker 4: Is like I said, his voice is like this and he's panicked and he's just saying all these things, and he seems like he's befuddled and doesn't know what to do. But yeah, it's just fascinating. It's an eight minute long nine to one one call.
00:03:28
Speaker 2: But I mean, you never know how someone will react in those moments. Right, If you take him at his word and somebody broke in and his wife has been shot and killed and she's bleeding in front of him, who knows how one so we would react. So we always want to leave room for that possibility. We have just seen so many of these cases. And now we have the police themselves saying that what we're about to play for you and this nine to one one call is essentially fake. And he is putting on and putting on a performance. And when you hear the police tell you that, and then you start listening to it, you do it gets in your mind as a little performance.
00:04:02
Speaker 4: Yes. And then also he's accused of staging this crime scene to make it look as if an intruder broke in. There were signs of forced entry, and you can hear him on the nine one one call when police arrived.
00:04:14
Speaker 3: The first thing he's saying is see there was an open door.
00:04:16
Speaker 4: There was an open door from the garage, and I was with the kids, and I was sleeping in the kids room and woke up and you can hear him already setting up a defense or setting up the scene.
00:04:27
Speaker 3: To you know. I just thought that was interesting.
00:04:29
Speaker 4: He was immediately talking about the open door in the garage. And also just look, we again, we've watched so many of these true crime stories. We've covered enough of real crime to know that it's highly unusual for someone to break into a home, come in, just shoot one person, leave three other people alive, take nothing, and then just leave. It makes zero sense.
00:04:50
Speaker 2: And the other thing we always hear as well, Rhodes, nobody breaks into a home and takes out who was not the biggest threat. You don't go in and go after the woman, right, she's not. We hear that so many times. That's so much about police work in them seeing this scene and fairly quickly thought it did not look right. This was again on February sixteenth, so that was Monday, if I have that correct, robes, But it took them until Thursday, late Thursday, and then Friday he had his court appearance. The charges here we are talking about four counts, two counts of tampering with evidence and then two counts of felonious assault having to do with shooting and killing his wife with a nine millimeter handgun. This is part just played about forty five seconds to a minute of it, part of the nine to one to one call. This is Caleb Flynn, thirty nine years old, former American Idol contestant, calling nine to one one this week on Monday, reporting that his wife had been shot by an intruder.
00:05:52
Speaker 3: Are they in there?
00:05:54
Speaker 1: I don't know what. I don't know what.
00:06:16
Speaker 3: You don't see anybody in the house?
00:06:23
Speaker 1: Oh my god? And there you have it. And it goes on.
00:06:28
Speaker 2: How long did you say? Fully eight minutes with us back and forth. Now, of course it's a lot of information that the nine one one operator is trying to get and direct police so that they're going to what they think is a dangerous seeing somebody with a gun. Uh this now on one dispatch was asking a lot of questions, Who's where, what room? Doing what they're supposed to do?
00:06:44
Speaker 4: Yes, And I thought it was interesting that the nine one one operator kept asking about the children and he was just glossing over it. Saying there, but if there's an intruder in your house, have you checked on the children?
00:06:54
Speaker 1: No?
00:06:55
Speaker 3: I haven't. That makes no sense.
00:06:57
Speaker 4: You know that if an intruder was in your house, you saw your wife was shot in the head twice, which is what I believe he said, and was white as a ghost. I believe he told that I'm one one operator as well. You. Then the next thing you do is run to your children. You rush to them to make sure they're okay, and then you barricade yourself in the room with your children. And yes, you feel terrible for your wife, but that is what you would do again.
00:07:19
Speaker 2: We I always try to leave room robes for I've never been in that position. Who knows how people react, but as a parent that your first thought is protection of the babies.
00:07:30
Speaker 3: If there's an intruder, you just do and for.
00:07:33
Speaker 2: Him to say, well, and you listen to more of it than I did. I don't know where the kids are.
00:07:37
Speaker 4: No, he just said they're in their room, they're fine. He was like, but have you checked on them?
00:07:41
Speaker 3: And he said no, And that makes zero sense.
00:07:43
Speaker 4: Of course, you would check on your kids if you find your wife shot and there is an intruder and there was a door open, there could be a man in your home. You would grab a knife. You would be going from room to room. You would get the kids behind you, you would wake them up. You would say you have to be on guard. There's someone in the home. I mean, I just I'm sorry. You're right, you don't know what you would do, but I would think that is what I would do.
00:08:03
Speaker 2: But that's also robes to your point here. Your thinking is the same thinking that police have and going, wait a minute, this doesn't sound right. So it's not just you, it's the police investigative and almost common sensical robes that the reaction didn't seem to fit. So the police criminal complaint is out there now, and this is the word, this is how they put it in the criminal complaint, is that he had purpose to mislead a public official with purpose to corrupt the outcome of any such proceding or investigation. Officers were led astray by the staging of the crime scene ropes. They didn't go as far as saying exactly, at least in the criminal complaint, what he had done, but they are laying out and he is facing these two counts and what in the world. It seems like we've seen a lot of these stories lately, while people try to cover up their tracks in some way with some kind of elaborate ruse about this fake intruder and this guy came into the house, and this is another one of these scenarios that seem to never work.
00:09:01
Speaker 3: It doesn't.
00:09:02
Speaker 4: I don't know if people are watching crime shows and somehow think that they're smart enough to get away with it, or I don't know if this was a premeditated act, if this was some crime of passion or some angry argument that erupted into the unthinkable and then he tried to cover his tracks after the fact.
00:09:19
Speaker 3: I mean, it's hard to know.
00:09:20
Speaker 4: But yes, we've covered enough trials where we see people come up with just about anything under the sun, and it never works because if it doesn't make sense, if it doesn't make common sense, the jury's never going to buy it.
00:09:33
Speaker 2: You know, you said some and we I think the opposite. If you watch a true crime show, you know you're not gonna get away with murder.
00:09:41
Speaker 1: So he said as.
00:09:43
Speaker 2: Even watching and thinking maybe he can't. Now he must have never watched a true crime show. Probes This doesn't always get work, and we have to keep saying he has pled, not guilty, and this is an innocent man. As we speak, we are for telling you what police are right now saying. And they're saying this is not an innocent man, and they're saying there is not a burglar out there, and they're saying that nine.
00:10:02
Speaker 1: To one one call is total BS.
00:10:05
Speaker 2: But from the other side, Caleb Flynn is speaking through his attorney at least curious what you make of this statement here. There's a lot to short statement, but a lot of I hate to say it, lots of yes.
00:10:17
Speaker 4: This is the statement from Flynn's lawyer. Look that Flynn looks forward to defending this case. We are both disappointed and concerned about the short timeline and seeming to rush to judgment in this case. When the government runs out of leads or can't develop leads and looks at a surviving spouse. In cases such as these, the change chance, the chance of a wrongful conviction increases.
00:10:41
Speaker 3: So they're just basically saying.
00:10:43
Speaker 4: Well, you just assumed it's the spouse, because that's what police do. They have tunnel vision. They don't consider other suspects. They just look squarely at the spouse. And look, that is true. You are the first person, the last person to see someone alive. We've talked about this in other cases, in the guth three case as well. That is good police work. You have to rule people out, exclude them. Yes, and yes, continue to cast a wide net. And I'm sure the police considered the intruder theory, but obviously they and it seems like, look, they didn't.
00:11:13
Speaker 3: Arrest him on the spot. They took what what did you say? Three days? Four days?
00:11:18
Speaker 2: But the suggestion here is that they ran out of leads and then had to come this way.
00:11:23
Speaker 4: That doesn't that doesn't seem what that isn't that doesn't reflect what we typically see in investigations.
00:11:28
Speaker 3: If they don't have a suspect, they don't arrest anyone.
00:11:31
Speaker 1: Let's just go with this guy, is what there.
00:11:33
Speaker 3: Seems like the obvious choice.
00:11:34
Speaker 2: Let's just take him. But folks, stay here the other part of this story. Yes, you have headlines related to American Idol, But during that course of him being on the show, he had to do, of course, several segments in several interviews, and in those interviews he spoke highly about two people in particular that have guided him through his life and through his music journey, Jesus and his now deceased wife Stay here all right, We continue here on Amy and TJ with the developing story. Just yesterday in court, former American Idol contested Caleb Flymm, who competed on season twelve, made it to Hollywood out of the Chicago area.
00:12:28
Speaker 1: He is from Tipton. No excuse me, tip City is it called.
00:12:31
Speaker 3: It's called you know what.
00:12:32
Speaker 2: It's in Ohio, right outside of Dayton, but it's called Tip City, Ohio. It's right outside of outside of Dayton. But he drove to Chicago to do his audition. So he made it to Hollywood at that what they called a golden ticket or whatever that gets you to Hollywood. He was one of those guys now road just a part of that. His whole family went with him to this thing. Was a big event. Including with him was his wife Ashley, who of course was killed this week, shot and killed. He has been charged in her death robes. During his segment in which they introduced these contestants to the viewers, he had a lot to say. And this is the where you get an idea of his personality. His background seem like innocent, young kids, right time of their lives. He spoke very highly robes about the Lord and about his wife Ashley.
00:13:19
Speaker 4: Yes, he said, music is all I know. It's what I do, It's what I love to do. I love to sing. And then in terms of why he came to audition to American Idol, he said, well, maybe my wife kind of nudged me a little bit. And when asked about who inspires him to perform, he said, I guess I would say the Lord. I'm a music pastor, so it's my job every week to go up there and to sing and connect what I do on stage with the congregation. But then he added, I absolutely love my wife more than anything.
00:13:51
Speaker 3: She's very, very pretty. I love her now.
00:13:55
Speaker 2: I mean, taking the recent events this week out of the picture, looking at that just in its former context, Yah, seemed like swee kids.
00:14:05
Speaker 4: It seemed like sweet kids who yes, met at a young age, got married young and they're just in love in each other's person. Yes, And he even talked about how Carrie Underwood was his favorite former American Idol and he added, I promise you if my wife dyed her hair blonde, she'd looked.
00:14:19
Speaker 3: Just like her.
00:14:20
Speaker 4: And that was a little creepy, but yes, I mean maybe he has a type. And he fell in love with Ashley and also just kept a little flame burning for Carrie Underwood as well. But and in terms of who Ashley is, Ashley is you mentioned she's thirty seven years old. She's a middle school girls volleyball coach and a substitute teacher, just you know. And I saw the outside of their house with the crime scene tape. Now it's a sweet Middle America suburban home. You've got a young couple. I guess they're in their late thirties with two kids. And yes, it looks idyllic. It looks like they have a sweet, happy, safe, comfortable life.
00:15:00
Speaker 2: And if we do the math, that season was the twenty thirteen ish, so we go back thirteen years, they would have been twenty six twenty four in that area, they were very very young and getting starting in their life and their love and their careers. And this is the guy who grew up in the church. His parents ran a church in the area there in Ohio. He is a church kid and robes who knows what has taken place? And he might be completely innocent of this might be, but at this point and right now authorities don't think he is oof.
00:15:34
Speaker 3: It's tough.
00:15:35
Speaker 4: They were married, it says here, for more than fifteen years. They met at Lee University in Tennessee. So these were college sweethearts and they had two daughters.
00:15:43
Speaker 3: They have two daughters, and those poor little girls.
00:15:45
Speaker 4: Right now mom is dead and dad is behind bars, charged with her murder. And I feel like we've done so many of these stories recently. It's just so incredibly sad.
00:15:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, we had the victims in these stories, right it goes way beyond the person who may be deceased, but there are two other victims who have lost their mom and quite frankly, might lose their dad for the rest of their lives depending on how this goes. Keep saying Ropes, He's innocent, innocent man, He's an innocent.
00:16:14
Speaker 1: Man right now.
00:16:15
Speaker 2: But Caleb Flynn is in jail right now facing a two million dollar bond.
00:16:20
Speaker 1: Ropes. He has a court apparent well next week, is it right?
00:16:23
Speaker 4: Another court appearance, Yes, and his big plea to the judge to get out or to have bond set it a reasonable limits that he could get out. He said, his two daughters, he said, I need to be their dad right now, but I'm sure the family of Ashley Flynn probably thinks otherwise.
00:16:40
Speaker 2: We'll keep an eye on this one, Folks, who always appreciate you spending some time with us as always top right corner of your Apple podcast app where you see our show page as a button there that says follow Click that and you can make sure you subscribe and always get our updates coming to you, and of course, as we always say, there have been a plenty as of late, but we appreciate you as always hanging with us on t J.
00:17:00
Speaker 1: Holmes On behalf of my dear Amy Robot. Talk to you also, M
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks.
00:00:10
Speaker 2: It is Saturday, February twenty first, and it wasn't too terribly long ago he was auditioning on American Idol in front of the likes of Keith Urban and Mariah Carey. This morning he sits in jail, accused of shooting and killing his wife. With that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ.
00:00:29
Speaker 1: Robes.
00:00:29
Speaker 2: The headlines are everywhere about an American Idol contestant being charged with the killing of his wife. I think Robe, some of the details of his background make some of this a little more shocking at this point.
00:00:39
Speaker 3: Yes, he was a music pastor.
00:00:43
Speaker 4: He spoke as a contestant on American Idol of his love of the Lord and his love of his wife, Ashley. So yes, if anyone was familiar with him now, he made it to Hollywood. He had the golden ticket to Hollywood Week, and that's an exciting week. But most of the people get cut, and he was among the folks who got cut. So it wasn't as if we followed his story to the end.
00:01:04
Speaker 1: But certainly there wasn't a finalist.
00:01:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, to be clear, he was not that guy waiting for his name to be called, right he wasn't that, but he made an impression on this season.
00:01:13
Speaker 3: He certainly did. And this was somebody.
00:01:15
Speaker 4: If you watched season twelve of American Idol, you will remember Caleb Flynn. And he was this sweet kid from Ohio who had a wife who he loved to love the Lord and loved music. And it just seemed like this wholesome, church going midwestern young man.
00:01:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, somebody almost so innocent you just wanted to root for. See exactly, it's not like a good kid. Well that good kid is thirty nine years old now and is sitting in jail. We are talking about former American Idol contestant. Caleb Flynn is the name. He has now been charged in the shooting death of his wife, Ashley, who's thirty seven years old. Police say he called nine to one one to report that someone had broken into their home and tried then to pin the murder on that intruder. Flynn is accused of staging the crime scene and is facing charges as such.
00:02:05
Speaker 1: Robes.
00:02:06
Speaker 2: This happened earlier in the week. The death was February sixteenth, but he was just arrested charge made a court appearance yesterday, has pleaded not guilty. But roabes a part of this story, the big part of it is that nine to one one call. It is an extended nine to one one call. We will play it for you here in just a moment, a portion of it. But robe the nine to one one call. And we've watched a lot of true crime, and quite frankly, it comes up a lot hearing people in these nine to one one calls who end up being the actual perpetrator.
00:02:34
Speaker 3: Correct.
00:02:35
Speaker 4: So now that we know he's been arrested in charge, and of course he is pleaded not guilty, so we'll point out that he is innocent until proven guilty.
00:02:42
Speaker 3: But when you hear the nine to one one call.
00:02:46
Speaker 4: You start to listen to it through that lens, knowing he's now been arrested and charged with his wife's murder.
00:02:52
Speaker 3: But his voice goes up at least three octaves to the.
00:02:54
Speaker 4: Point where the nine one one operator refers to him as mam several times. So look, now you could pop hear this is somebody who is pretending, who is feigning.
00:03:04
Speaker 3: Maybe he is upset.
00:03:05
Speaker 4: Obviously this is a traumatic event. Even if he did cause it. He is.
00:03:12
Speaker 3: Sobbing.
00:03:13
Speaker 4: Is like I said, his voice is like this and he's panicked and he's just saying all these things, and he seems like he's befuddled and doesn't know what to do. But yeah, it's just fascinating. It's an eight minute long nine to one one call.
00:03:28
Speaker 2: But I mean, you never know how someone will react in those moments. Right, If you take him at his word and somebody broke in and his wife has been shot and killed and she's bleeding in front of him, who knows how one so we would react. So we always want to leave room for that possibility. We have just seen so many of these cases. And now we have the police themselves saying that what we're about to play for you and this nine to one one call is essentially fake. And he is putting on and putting on a performance. And when you hear the police tell you that, and then you start listening to it, you do it gets in your mind as a little performance.
00:04:02
Speaker 4: Yes. And then also he's accused of staging this crime scene to make it look as if an intruder broke in. There were signs of forced entry, and you can hear him on the nine one one call when police arrived.
00:04:14
Speaker 3: The first thing he's saying is see there was an open door.
00:04:16
Speaker 4: There was an open door from the garage, and I was with the kids, and I was sleeping in the kids room and woke up and you can hear him already setting up a defense or setting up the scene.
00:04:27
Speaker 3: To you know. I just thought that was interesting.
00:04:29
Speaker 4: He was immediately talking about the open door in the garage. And also just look, we again, we've watched so many of these true crime stories. We've covered enough of real crime to know that it's highly unusual for someone to break into a home, come in, just shoot one person, leave three other people alive, take nothing, and then just leave. It makes zero sense.
00:04:50
Speaker 2: And the other thing we always hear as well, Rhodes, nobody breaks into a home and takes out who was not the biggest threat. You don't go in and go after the woman, right, she's not. We hear that so many times. That's so much about police work in them seeing this scene and fairly quickly thought it did not look right. This was again on February sixteenth, so that was Monday, if I have that correct, robes, But it took them until Thursday, late Thursday, and then Friday he had his court appearance. The charges here we are talking about four counts, two counts of tampering with evidence and then two counts of felonious assault having to do with shooting and killing his wife with a nine millimeter handgun. This is part just played about forty five seconds to a minute of it, part of the nine to one to one call. This is Caleb Flynn, thirty nine years old, former American Idol contestant, calling nine to one one this week on Monday, reporting that his wife had been shot by an intruder.
00:05:52
Speaker 3: Are they in there?
00:05:54
Speaker 1: I don't know what. I don't know what.
00:06:16
Speaker 3: You don't see anybody in the house?
00:06:23
Speaker 1: Oh my god? And there you have it. And it goes on.
00:06:28
Speaker 2: How long did you say? Fully eight minutes with us back and forth. Now, of course it's a lot of information that the nine one one operator is trying to get and direct police so that they're going to what they think is a dangerous seeing somebody with a gun. Uh this now on one dispatch was asking a lot of questions, Who's where, what room? Doing what they're supposed to do?
00:06:44
Speaker 4: Yes, And I thought it was interesting that the nine one one operator kept asking about the children and he was just glossing over it. Saying there, but if there's an intruder in your house, have you checked on the children?
00:06:54
Speaker 1: No?
00:06:55
Speaker 3: I haven't. That makes no sense.
00:06:57
Speaker 4: You know that if an intruder was in your house, you saw your wife was shot in the head twice, which is what I believe he said, and was white as a ghost. I believe he told that I'm one one operator as well. You. Then the next thing you do is run to your children. You rush to them to make sure they're okay, and then you barricade yourself in the room with your children. And yes, you feel terrible for your wife, but that is what you would do again.
00:07:19
Speaker 2: We I always try to leave room robes for I've never been in that position. Who knows how people react, but as a parent that your first thought is protection of the babies.
00:07:30
Speaker 3: If there's an intruder, you just do and for.
00:07:33
Speaker 2: Him to say, well, and you listen to more of it than I did. I don't know where the kids are.
00:07:37
Speaker 4: No, he just said they're in their room, they're fine. He was like, but have you checked on them?
00:07:41
Speaker 3: And he said no, And that makes zero sense.
00:07:43
Speaker 4: Of course, you would check on your kids if you find your wife shot and there is an intruder and there was a door open, there could be a man in your home. You would grab a knife. You would be going from room to room. You would get the kids behind you, you would wake them up. You would say you have to be on guard. There's someone in the home. I mean, I just I'm sorry. You're right, you don't know what you would do, but I would think that is what I would do.
00:08:03
Speaker 2: But that's also robes to your point here. Your thinking is the same thinking that police have and going, wait a minute, this doesn't sound right. So it's not just you, it's the police investigative and almost common sensical robes that the reaction didn't seem to fit. So the police criminal complaint is out there now, and this is the word, this is how they put it in the criminal complaint, is that he had purpose to mislead a public official with purpose to corrupt the outcome of any such proceding or investigation. Officers were led astray by the staging of the crime scene ropes. They didn't go as far as saying exactly, at least in the criminal complaint, what he had done, but they are laying out and he is facing these two counts and what in the world. It seems like we've seen a lot of these stories lately, while people try to cover up their tracks in some way with some kind of elaborate ruse about this fake intruder and this guy came into the house, and this is another one of these scenarios that seem to never work.
00:09:01
Speaker 3: It doesn't.
00:09:02
Speaker 4: I don't know if people are watching crime shows and somehow think that they're smart enough to get away with it, or I don't know if this was a premeditated act, if this was some crime of passion or some angry argument that erupted into the unthinkable and then he tried to cover his tracks after the fact.
00:09:19
Speaker 3: I mean, it's hard to know.
00:09:20
Speaker 4: But yes, we've covered enough trials where we see people come up with just about anything under the sun, and it never works because if it doesn't make sense, if it doesn't make common sense, the jury's never going to buy it.
00:09:33
Speaker 2: You know, you said some and we I think the opposite. If you watch a true crime show, you know you're not gonna get away with murder.
00:09:41
Speaker 1: So he said as.
00:09:43
Speaker 2: Even watching and thinking maybe he can't. Now he must have never watched a true crime show. Probes This doesn't always get work, and we have to keep saying he has pled, not guilty, and this is an innocent man. As we speak, we are for telling you what police are right now saying. And they're saying this is not an innocent man, and they're saying there is not a burglar out there, and they're saying that nine.
00:10:02
Speaker 1: To one one call is total BS.
00:10:05
Speaker 2: But from the other side, Caleb Flynn is speaking through his attorney at least curious what you make of this statement here. There's a lot to short statement, but a lot of I hate to say it, lots of yes.
00:10:17
Speaker 4: This is the statement from Flynn's lawyer. Look that Flynn looks forward to defending this case. We are both disappointed and concerned about the short timeline and seeming to rush to judgment in this case. When the government runs out of leads or can't develop leads and looks at a surviving spouse. In cases such as these, the change chance, the chance of a wrongful conviction increases.
00:10:41
Speaker 3: So they're just basically saying.
00:10:43
Speaker 4: Well, you just assumed it's the spouse, because that's what police do. They have tunnel vision. They don't consider other suspects. They just look squarely at the spouse. And look, that is true. You are the first person, the last person to see someone alive. We've talked about this in other cases, in the guth three case as well. That is good police work. You have to rule people out, exclude them. Yes, and yes, continue to cast a wide net. And I'm sure the police considered the intruder theory, but obviously they and it seems like, look, they didn't.
00:11:13
Speaker 3: Arrest him on the spot. They took what what did you say? Three days? Four days?
00:11:18
Speaker 2: But the suggestion here is that they ran out of leads and then had to come this way.
00:11:23
Speaker 4: That doesn't that doesn't seem what that isn't that doesn't reflect what we typically see in investigations.
00:11:28
Speaker 3: If they don't have a suspect, they don't arrest anyone.
00:11:31
Speaker 1: Let's just go with this guy, is what there.
00:11:33
Speaker 3: Seems like the obvious choice.
00:11:34
Speaker 2: Let's just take him. But folks, stay here the other part of this story. Yes, you have headlines related to American Idol, But during that course of him being on the show, he had to do, of course, several segments in several interviews, and in those interviews he spoke highly about two people in particular that have guided him through his life and through his music journey, Jesus and his now deceased wife Stay here all right, We continue here on Amy and TJ with the developing story. Just yesterday in court, former American Idol contested Caleb Flymm, who competed on season twelve, made it to Hollywood out of the Chicago area.
00:12:28
Speaker 1: He is from Tipton. No excuse me, tip City is it called.
00:12:31
Speaker 3: It's called you know what.
00:12:32
Speaker 2: It's in Ohio, right outside of Dayton, but it's called Tip City, Ohio. It's right outside of outside of Dayton. But he drove to Chicago to do his audition. So he made it to Hollywood at that what they called a golden ticket or whatever that gets you to Hollywood. He was one of those guys now road just a part of that. His whole family went with him to this thing. Was a big event. Including with him was his wife Ashley, who of course was killed this week, shot and killed. He has been charged in her death robes. During his segment in which they introduced these contestants to the viewers, he had a lot to say. And this is the where you get an idea of his personality. His background seem like innocent, young kids, right time of their lives. He spoke very highly robes about the Lord and about his wife Ashley.
00:13:19
Speaker 4: Yes, he said, music is all I know. It's what I do, It's what I love to do. I love to sing. And then in terms of why he came to audition to American Idol, he said, well, maybe my wife kind of nudged me a little bit. And when asked about who inspires him to perform, he said, I guess I would say the Lord. I'm a music pastor, so it's my job every week to go up there and to sing and connect what I do on stage with the congregation. But then he added, I absolutely love my wife more than anything.
00:13:51
Speaker 3: She's very, very pretty. I love her now.
00:13:55
Speaker 2: I mean, taking the recent events this week out of the picture, looking at that just in its former context, Yah, seemed like swee kids.
00:14:05
Speaker 4: It seemed like sweet kids who yes, met at a young age, got married young and they're just in love in each other's person. Yes, And he even talked about how Carrie Underwood was his favorite former American Idol and he added, I promise you if my wife dyed her hair blonde, she'd looked.
00:14:19
Speaker 3: Just like her.
00:14:20
Speaker 4: And that was a little creepy, but yes, I mean maybe he has a type. And he fell in love with Ashley and also just kept a little flame burning for Carrie Underwood as well. But and in terms of who Ashley is, Ashley is you mentioned she's thirty seven years old. She's a middle school girls volleyball coach and a substitute teacher, just you know. And I saw the outside of their house with the crime scene tape. Now it's a sweet Middle America suburban home. You've got a young couple. I guess they're in their late thirties with two kids. And yes, it looks idyllic. It looks like they have a sweet, happy, safe, comfortable life.
00:15:00
Speaker 2: And if we do the math, that season was the twenty thirteen ish, so we go back thirteen years, they would have been twenty six twenty four in that area, they were very very young and getting starting in their life and their love and their careers. And this is the guy who grew up in the church. His parents ran a church in the area there in Ohio. He is a church kid and robes who knows what has taken place? And he might be completely innocent of this might be, but at this point and right now authorities don't think he is oof.
00:15:34
Speaker 3: It's tough.
00:15:35
Speaker 4: They were married, it says here, for more than fifteen years. They met at Lee University in Tennessee. So these were college sweethearts and they had two daughters.
00:15:43
Speaker 3: They have two daughters, and those poor little girls.
00:15:45
Speaker 4: Right now mom is dead and dad is behind bars, charged with her murder. And I feel like we've done so many of these stories recently. It's just so incredibly sad.
00:15:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, we had the victims in these stories, right it goes way beyond the person who may be deceased, but there are two other victims who have lost their mom and quite frankly, might lose their dad for the rest of their lives depending on how this goes. Keep saying Ropes, He's innocent, innocent man, He's an innocent.
00:16:14
Speaker 1: Man right now.
00:16:15
Speaker 2: But Caleb Flynn is in jail right now facing a two million dollar bond.
00:16:20
Speaker 1: Ropes. He has a court apparent well next week, is it right?
00:16:23
Speaker 4: Another court appearance, Yes, and his big plea to the judge to get out or to have bond set it a reasonable limits that he could get out. He said, his two daughters, he said, I need to be their dad right now, but I'm sure the family of Ashley Flynn probably thinks otherwise.
00:16:40
Speaker 2: We'll keep an eye on this one, Folks, who always appreciate you spending some time with us as always top right corner of your Apple podcast app where you see our show page as a button there that says follow Click that and you can make sure you subscribe and always get our updates coming to you, and of course, as we always say, there have been a plenty as of late, but we appreciate you as always hanging with us on t J.
00:17:00
Speaker 1: Holmes On behalf of my dear Amy Robot. Talk to you also, M