2026年9月24日 / 美国东部时间晚上7:47 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
俄亥俄州一场庭审周四继续进行，该案被告是一名前《美国偶像》参赛者、音乐牧师，他于今年早些时候被控谋杀妻子。作证的是他的情妇。
24岁的阿莱加·博特纳与40岁的被告凯莱布·弗林有染，她在两天的作证结束前，披露了两人在阿什利·弗林遇害前交换的逾10万条短信内容。
检方指控弗林于2月16日在妻子熟睡时朝其脑后开了两枪。他们称，弗林随后将俄亥俄州蒂普城的家中布置成入室抢劫现场，并拨打911谎称入侵者实施了谋杀。作案枪支至今未被找到。弗林辩称，妻子遇害时他在另一个房间。
他还被控篡改证据和恐吓证人。曾参加《美国偶像》第12季的弗林对所有指控均不认罪，其辩护团队辩称警方过快将他列为嫌疑人，且该案因 intense 媒体关注度被歪曲。
博特纳作证称，她与凯莱布·弗林维持了约18个月的婚外情，两人是在她担任他所在教堂的实习生时相识的。她描述了两人如何隐藏聊天记录，承认最初对联邦调查局撒谎，并解释了自己的手机和工作笔记本电脑在阿什利·弗林遇害前几周丢失的情况。当被问及如今对凯莱布·弗林的看法时，她作证道：“我恨他。”
博特纳作证称，凯莱布·弗林经常发表针对妻子的仇恨言论。在周四庭审中披露的一条2025年8月22日发给她的短信中，他写道自己当晚熬夜到凌晨4点，“想办法杀了她还不用坐牢”。博特纳回复劝他离婚了事。
“显然我不是让你夺走她的生命，因为那不是你该做的事，我知道你其实也不会那么做，”博特纳在短信中写道，“但只要离婚，一切都会改变。”
博特纳直到阿什利·弗林遇害四天后才与联邦调查局接触，此前她的姨妈向执法部门提供了线索，执法人员联系她接受询问。
她在首次接受联邦探员询问时称，不相信凯莱布·弗林杀害了妻子，但在第二次询问中改变了说法，表示相信是他所为，并最终认定妻子的死“太过巧合”，她周四作证称。
在法庭上，博特纳称有“很多次”她会质疑弗林是否真的恨妻子，并提及两人之间的温情短信。博特纳表示，这段婚外情持续约一年后，她以为自己爱上了凯莱布·弗林，嫉妒他妻子能从他那里得到关注，其中包括情人节前后的一次争吵事件。
检方周三在法庭上播放的一段视频显示，凯莱布·弗林在与妻子同住的家中录制视频，背景里有他们的狗，他大声说道：“我爱阿莱加·博特纳。”
2025年9月30日的一条短信中，凯莱布·弗林告诉博特纳，他愿意为了和她在一起而“牺牲我的女儿们、一份年薪25万美元的工作、一处住所、可能还有我任职的教堂、公众的鄙夷和羞辱，以及更多”。随后他要求博特纳在社交媒体上取关一名男子，还讽刺地称这是“巨大的牺牲”。
博特纳曾多次向凯莱布·弗兰特下最后通牒，要求他离开妻子，曾发短信给他：“在她离开之前，我就走。”
在辩护律师对这些短信进行交叉询问时，博特纳作证称：“我一直说的都是离婚。”
阿什利·弗林被发现遇害的前一天，凯莱布·弗林给博特纳发了一系列短信，称自己第二天就会离开妻子，还写道他“并不害怕”。
检方展示了博特纳在案发当天早上发给凯莱布·弗林的短信，内容是：“凯莱布，发生什么事了？你参与了吗？这是真的吗？”他没有回复，博特纳作证称她删除了这条短信，因为担心警方会搜查他的手机，发现两人的婚外情。
几小时后，在由凯莱布·弗林的岳父母主办的教会成员聚会上，他告诉博特纳妻子被入侵者枪杀了。
“我的心脏开始狂跳，在我看来，就在他要和她离婚的那天，她突然就死了，这也太巧合了，”博特纳周三在谈到得知阿什利·弗林死讯时的想法时作证道。
庭审将于周五继续进行。
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/former-american-idol-contestant-on-trial-for-wifes-murder-in-ohio/
Mistress testifies in trial of former “American Idol” contestant charged with his wife’s murder
September 24, 2026 / 7:47 PM EDT / CBS News
The Ohio trial of a former “American Idol” contestant and music pastor charged with murdering his wife earlier this year continued Thursday with the testimony of his mistress.
Alleigha Botner, 24, who had an affair with the defendant Caleb Flynn, 40, concluded two days of testimony by discussing the more than 100,000 text messages the two exchanged before Ashley Flynn’s death.
Prosecutors allege Flynn shot his wife twice in the back of the head while she was asleep in bed on Feb. 16. They allege he then staged their Tipp City, Ohio, home to mimic a break-in and called 911 to claim an intruder was responsible for the murder. The gun used in the shooting has not been recovered. Flynn has claimed he was in another room when his wife was murdered.
He is also charged with tampering with evidence and intimidating a witness. Flynn, who was on season 12 of “American Idol,” pleaded not guilty to all charges, and his defense has argued that police moved too quickly to accuse him and that the case has been distorted by intense publicity.
Botner testified to a roughly 18-month sexual affair with Caleb Flynn, who she met when she was an intern at his church. She described how the two hid their messages, admitted lying to the FBI at first, and explained how she lost her phone and work laptop just weeks before Ashley Flynn’s death. Asked how she feels about Caleb Flynn today, she testified, “I hate him.”
Botner testified that Caleb Flynn regularly made hateful comments about his wife. In one Aug. 22, 2025, text to her that was revealed in Thursday’s trial, he wrote that he had stayed up until 4 a.m that night “thinking of ways to kill her and not going to jail.” Botner responded by encouraging him to get a divorce instead.
“I’m not asking that you take her life, obviously, because that’s not what you should do, and I know you actually wouldn’t,” Botner responded in a text. “But to make the divorce happen, it would change everything.”
Botner did not speak to the FBI until four days after Ashley Flynn’s murder, when law enforcement reached out to her for an interview following a tip from her aunt.
In her first interview with FBI agents, she told them she did not believe that Caleb Flynn had killed his wife, but in her second interview with agents, she said she did, ultimately concluding her death was “way too much of a coincidence,” she testified Thursday.
In court, Botner claimed there were “a lot of times” when she questioned whether Flynn really hated his wife, citing affectionate messages between the two. Botner said that about a year into the affair, she thought herself in love with Caleb Flynn and resented his wife for the attention she was getting from him, including an incident around Valentine’s Day that resulted in an argument.
A video played by prosecutors in court Wednesday showed Caleb Flynn recording the home he shared with his wife while loudly stating, “I love Alleigha Botner” with their dog in the frame.
In a Sept. 30, 2025, text, Caleb Flynn told Botner he was willing to sacrifice his “daughters, a quarter-million-dollar salary job, a place to live, possibly a church I serve at, public shame and humiliation, and way more” to be with her. He then asked Botner to unfollow a man on social media, sarcastically calling it a “big sacrifice.”
Botner made several ultimatums to Caleb Flynn, demanding that he leave his wife, texting him, “Until she’s gone, I’m gone.”
On cross-examination about those texts by defense attorneys, Botner testified that “I always meant divorce.”
The day before Ashley Flynn was found dead, Caleb Flynn sent Botner a series of messages in which he claimed he was going to leave his wife the next day, writing that he was “not scared.”
Prosecutors showed texts that Botner sent Caleb Flynn on the morning of the murder in which she wrote, “Caleb, what’s going on? Were you involved? Is this real?” He did not respond, and Botner testified that she deleted the message because she feared police would search his phone and uncover the affair.
Hours later, at a gathering for members of Caleb Flynn’s church hosted by his in-laws, he told her his wife was shot by an intruder.
“My heart started pounding, and in my mind, it just seemed like too much of a coincident that, the day he’s divorcing her, she’s just dead all of a sudden,” Botner testified Wednesday regarding when she learned of Ashley Flynn’s death.
The trial will resume Friday.
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/former-american-idol-contestant-on-trial-for-wifes-murder-in-ohio/
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