In court today
• First day: After opening statements and witness testimony, the first day of court proceedings has wrapped up in the murder trial of Caleb Flynn, a former “American Idol” contestant accused of shooting his wife, Ashley, and staging the crime scene in February.
• The big reveal: Prosecutors opened with a focus on Flynn’s affair, highlighting more than 100,000 messages he sent to a mistress in which he allegedly expressed a desire to kill his wife. The defense acknowledged the affair but argued the state had built its case on a theory of motive and would be unable to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. Jurors then visited the home where the killing occurred.
• Charges: Flynn has pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault and tampering with evidence. The defense previously suggested authorities had made a “rush to judgment” in arresting Flynn.
Our live coverage of the Caleb Flynn’s murder trial has ended. Read more about the case here.
Prosecutors revealed Caleb Flynn’s affair in the opening statement. Here's what to know
The first day of the murder trial of Caleb Flynn began with prosecutors revealing a yearslong extramarital affair, highlighting more than 100,000 messages he sent to a mistress in which he allegedly expressed a desire to kill his wife.
Flynn, a former “American Idol” contestant, is accused of shooting his wife, Ashley, and staging the crime scene in February. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault and tampering with evidence. If convicted of the most serious charge, he could be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Here’s the key things to know:
- In his opening statement on Friday, Miami County prosecutor Paul Watkins quoted several messages from Flynn to his mistress about wanting to kill his wife, including one mentioning upcoming “actions” the night before the fatal shooting. “Those words tell you what this case is about: Motive, intent, and the truth behind the lies Caleb told,” Watkins said.
- The prosecutor later told jurors Flynn’s report of an intruder was not supported by evidence, mentioning Flynn’s relationship with his mistress, efforts to delete digital information and evidence from his devices, showing he was moving when he said he was asleep.
- Flynn’s defense attorney, Emily Smith, countered in her opening statement there was no proof beyond a reasonable doubt Flynn murdered Ashley. She acknowledged his behavior made him “easy to dislike” but maintained it does not necessarily make him a murderer. She said the prosecution lacked key evidence, such as the gun used to kill Ashley, which the prosecution previously said they did not need.
- After the first witness, Beth Hull, director of the Miami County, Ohio, communications center, explained how calls to the 911 emergency call system are recorded and stored, the prosecution played aloud Flynn’s February 911 call. Flynn appeared to cry in the courtroom as it played out.
- Tipp City Police Sgt. Corey Rismiller, the first officer on the scene, testified he found Ashley lying in bed with what appeared to be a gunshot wound in her head. In cross-examination, Rismiller said his body camera was not on when he arrived at the house and initially spoke with Flynn or when he first saw Ashley’s body. He said he turned it on after other officers arrived.
- The next witness called to the stand, Tipp City Police officer Alexandra Giampapa, said she noticed the middle console of a pickup truck was open when she arrived. Flynn told her he keeps a handgun in the truck’s glove compartment. He later said, “Someone has broken in; he was in his daughters’ room,” Giampapa said. The jury watched Giampapa’s body camera footage showing her talking to Flynn as he cried in his home, made phone calls to family members, and cried in the arms of his mother-in-law, Jill Smith.
- A Tipp City firefighter paramedic said Ashley had no signs of life when he found her and testified that her body’s coloring led him to believe it had not been there for “hours.”
- A police drone pilot testified about being called to take aerial images of Flynn’s home, and a deputy canine handler said his dog searched the home to track a supposed intruder and did not find any scent. Finally, an FBI officer testified he did not find much while canvassing the neighborhood.
- The trial is scheduled to resume Monday.
CNN’s Nicki Brown, Eric Levenson, Holly Yan, Elise Hammond and Dakin Andone contributed to this post.
Court adjourns for the day
The jury in the trial of Caleb Flynn is heading home after the court adjourned for the day.
The trial will resume on Monday morning, the judge said.
FBI agent is final witness of the day
FBI agent Michael Tom took the stand as the last witness of the day.
He said he canvassed over 80 homes in Caleb Flynn’s neighborhood to ask for people’s Ring cameras and if they had seen anything suspicious.
“There wasn’t much,” he said.
Court back in session after break
Court proceedings have resumed after taking a brief break.
Police canine handler says dog did not find any scent leaving home
David Laycox, a deputy canine handler with Preble County Sheriff’s Office, testified that he and his canine Haze were called to Caleb Flynn’s home to try to track a supposed intruder in the early hours of February 16.
Upon arrival, another officer directed him to begin searching for a scent at a side door of the garage, which was open when police arrived to the scene. Laycox noticed that he and his canine were leaving prints in the wet ground, but he did not see any other prints leaving the area.
Laycox directed his canine to follow the scent, and the dog immediately followed it through the door into the house, he said. He said the dog did not find a scent trail in a perimeter search of the house.
On a second attempt, his canine again followed the scent into the house.
On cross-examination, Laycox confirmed he primarily checked for a scent in specific areas but not at every door.
Ashley Flynn’s body did not appear to have been there for “hours,” paramedic says
Alex Huels, a firefighter paramedic with the Miami Valley Fire District, testified that he didn’t believe Ashley Flynn had been deceased for “hours.”
He added that he did not remember Flynn’s body “giving off warmth,” before saying that paramedics would not try to determine a patient’s biological time of death unless present at the time of death.
Flynn’s skin condition was uniformly pale, which Huels said was significant because discoloration similar to bruising typically surfaces on the body if hours pass.
Huels said he previously told an officer this after being asked if he had an idea how long Flynn had been deceased.
Defense works to cast doubt on drone's ability to find someone fleeing Flynn house
Defense attorney Patrick Mulligan worked to point out the officer operating the drone flown over the area of Caleb Flynn’s house was not able to determine if someone was fleeing the area.
Hunter Bradburn, a drone operator with the Troy Police Department, testified he performed a circular search over the house and a grid search including some nearby properties.
Caleb Flynn initially called the incident in as a burglary and told police someone broke in and shot his wife.
On cross-examination, Bradburn testified he was unable to calculate how far someone could have traveled on foot in the time between the killing of Ashley Flynn and when he started flying the drone.
Bradburn said the surrounding area he searched was as far as the maximum available distance the drone’s connectivity would allow, and the thermal cameras only picked up animals.
The officer said the drone has the capability to follow a moving vehicle, which could have been driving away from the house.
Police drone pilot takes the stand
Hunter Bradburn, a Troy Police Department officer and drone pilot, testified he was called to Caleb Flynn’s home to surveil the area shortly after the fatal shooting.
“I was asked to take aerial photographs as well as briefly surveil the scene around the residence in question,” he said.
Remember: Flynn had said an intruder shot his wife, and police called for canine and drone support to search the area.
Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly named Officer Bradburn’s agency. He is with the Troy Police Department.
Caleb Flynn was "visibly upset" when paramedic told him wife was dead
As Alex Huels, a firefighter paramedic with the Miami Valley Fire District, was walking out of the bedroom where Ashley Flynn was shot and killed, he had a brief interaction with her husband.
Caleb Flynn asked Huels about his wife’s condition on the paramedic’s way out of the house. Huels testified that he “indicated that she was dead.”
Caleb Flynn was “visibly upset,” Huels said.
Ashley Flynn had no signs of life, paramedic says
Alex Huels, a Tipp City firefighter paramedic, testified about finding Caleb Flynn’s wife Ashley dead on the night of February 16.
Upon arriving at the house, he went into the bedroom, stepping around a shell casing on the floor, which he had been told by officers was there, and found Ashley Flynn in her bed.
“She was in the bed, laying on her left side in what looked like to be a sleeping position,” Huels said.
He said she had gunshot wounds to her head, was not breathing, was not moving and had no pulse. He did not attempt to resuscitate her, citing protocol, he said.
“I’m in shock!” cried Flynn’s mother-in-law as he sobbed on the front lawn
Caleb Flynn stumbled out his door and immediately collapsed on his porch, wailing hysterically as his mother-in-law, Jill Smith, walked up to the house, officer body camera footage shows.
Trembling, Flynn embraced Smith. “I don’t understand,” Smith said through tears.
She placed her arm on Flynn’s back as he crumpled, hands on his knees. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do,” he stammered.
“I’m in shock!” Smith cried, before asking officers to get Flynn a blanket from inside the house.
Flynn closed his eyes and held back sobs while watching the footage in court.
Flynn’s daughters were “confused” when leaving the house, says Tipp City Police officer
Caleb Flynn’s daughters appeared “tired, sleepy and confused,” when they were leaving a bedroom in Flynn’s house, recalled Tipp City Police officer Alexandra Giampapa in her testimony.
The two girls were taken outside to a vehicle belonging to Jill Smith, Ashley Flynn’s mother, Giampapa added.
"She's dead." Body camera shows emotional Flynn calling his mother
Caleb Flynn sobbed as he told his mother over the phone that his wife was dead, according to body camera footage being shown in court.
“Ashley’s dead. She’s dead,” he says. “Someone broke in.”
Flynn is crouched down on the floor, as he holds his phone to his ear. Tipp City police Officer Alexandra Giampapa, whose body camera footage is being shown, told him a few minutes earlier that he could call family, but they could not come into the house.
“She’s gone, mom,” Flynn says.
He is also heard saying that someone broke in and shot her.
Giampapa previously testified that Flynn called both his mother and his mother-in-law.
Correction: An earlier version of this post misspelled the police officer’s first name.
Jury watches police officer's body-camera footage
Tipp City police Officer Alexandra Giampapa’s body-camera footage showing her interactions at Caleb Flynn’s home on the night of his wife’s killing was played in court for the jury Friday.
The 23-minute video begins as Giampapa arrived to the house and met with a trembling, crying Flynn. “Right now I need you to breathe, OK?” Giampapa said to him.
Giampapa and another officer then went into the garage and other parts of the house to look for a supposed intruder, but did not find anyone. The officers noticed the middle console of Flynn’s pickup truck was open, the video shows.
Flynn told the officers he had several firearms, including a handgun he kept in his pickup truck. In the video, he sat on a couch sobbing, rocking back and forth and covering his mouth and face.
In court, Flynn appeared to be crying as the video played.
Flynn called his mother and mother-in-law the night of wife's killing, officer says
Caleb Flynn called his mother and his mother-in-law the night his wife was killed, Tipp City police Officer Alexandra Giampapa testified.
She said she was with him most of the night, and saw him make two phone calls, to his mom and his wife’s mom. At one point, Flynn’s mother-in-law came to the house and Flynn was allowed to talk to her in the yard, Giampapa said.
While she testified that she heard very little of that in-person conversation, the officer said Flynn was crying and was getting “a little more worked up.” He was taken into a back of an ambulance until he calmed down and was allowed back into the house, she said.
Inside, he described to a detective what happened, she said. The story he gave the investigator was similar to what she heard Flynn say during the phone calls, Giampapa testified.
He said that “someone had broken in, he was in his daughters’ room, he had been sick, his daughters were sick too,” Giampapa said.
Flynn told the detective he fell asleep and woke up to someone breaking in and a gunshot, Giampapa said.
Correction: An earlier version of this post misspelled the police officer’s first name.
Police officer says she noticed middle console of truck was open
Tipp City police Officer Alexandra Giampapa testified about her initial actions upon arriving to Caleb Flynn’s home on the night of his wife’s killing.
Giampapa arrived to Flynn’s home just after 2:30 a.m. on February 16 along with two other officers, and she and one of the officers went to the garage to clear it of any potential intruder. In the garage, she noticed a side door was open, and the middle console of a pickup truck was also open, she said.
Back inside, Flynn told Giampapa he keeps a handgun in the glove compartment of his truck, Giampapa testified.
Remember: The gun used in the shooting has not been found, prosecutors said in opening statements.
Court is taking a lunch break
The murder trial of Caleb Flynn is taking about an hour recess for lunch.
The jury heard opening statements this morning, and testimony in the early afternoon from a police sergeant who responded to the scene.
Police sergeant is off the stand
Tipp City police Sgt. Corey Rismiller is off the stand after testifying under direct examination and cross-examination.
On cross-examination, Rismiller said it took about an hour for the police canines and drone to reach Caleb Flynn’s home.
There was no redirect questioning from the prosecution.
Police sergeant testifies his body camera wasn’t initially on
The defense is now cross examining Tipp City police Sgt. Corey Rismiller.
Defense attorney Patrick Mulligan asked Rismiller about his tenure with the department and his history of investigating homicides. Rismiller testified that he started in 2001 and responded to one homicide in about 2006 or 2007.
Rismiller said his body camera wasn’t on when he first got to the house of Caleb and Ashley Flynn, but he turned it on after the other officers arrived.
Mulligan noted that by that time, Rismiller had spoken with Caleb Flynn and received Flynn’s explanation about the door to the garage was open and him saying his wife was shot. These moments were not recorded on the body camera, he testified.
His body camera was also not on when he sees Ashley Flynn’s body for the first time, Reismiller testified.
