Botner says Caleb Flynn planned divorce on the day wife was killed

By B.J. Bethel

A former Vandalia worship leader told a Miami County court that she was house-sitting in Vandalia when she heard Ashley Flynn was shot.

Alleigha Botner was watching the home for her pastor and his wife. She received a message on the morning of February 16 over Instagram informing her of Ashley’s shooting. 

In shock, she texted Caleb Flynn to find out if the story was true.

“Caleb I just saw the news,” Botner said. “Someone told me to pray for Mrs. Flynn. What’s going on right now? Were you behind this? 

Botner testified while Caleb watched in Judge Jeannine N. Pratt’s courtroom at the Miami Courthouse. He’s on trial for the murder of Ashley. He’s facing charges of aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault, tampering with evidence, and intimidating a witness, victim or attorney. 

The weekend before the shooting, Botner helped Caleb plan his divorce from Ashley, which he planned for February 16. Botner and Caleb began an affair in 2024. The two had met in 2021 at Christian Life Center in Vandalia when Botner was 20 years old and an intern. Frustrated that Caleb hadn’t divorced his wife, she ended the relationship in December.

“It seemed like too much of a coincidence that the day he’s divorcing her, she’s just dead all of a sudden,” Botner said. 

The day of Ashley’s death, she and other church staff went to the home of Ashley’s parents, Todd and Jill Smith. After receiving a hug from Caleb, Botner said she questioned him about Ashley’s death. She said she was “very suspicious.” She said he told her, “It didn’t happen the way we thought it would, didn’t it?”

Botner testifies over two days, reads dozens of text messages

Botner read dozens of text messages in court during her two days as a witness. The messages were from the 100,000+ collected by investigators from their conversations in the year leading up to Ashley’s killing, filling over 30 books that were brought into the courtroom in boxes, each text numbered.

The texts often included violent and hateful language toward Ashley. Caleb expressed a desire to kill his wife in many of the texts read in court. 

In an early 2025 text, Caleb wrote: “I just wanted her dead and gone.” 

Botner cried in court when she read her own text wishing to kill Ashley but said she didn’t mean it and wished she hadn’t written it. She once told Caleb he hoped his words were only exaggerated feelings and not something he wanted to do. 

“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 said. 

When cross-examined by the defense, Botner said she didn’t believe the antipathy Caleb had for his wife was completely true. She had read messages between them on his phone, and they used loving language.

Prior to February 16, Botner didn’t believe Caleb was capable of killing his wife. The day before, during direct testimony, she told the court she hated Caleb and believed he killed Ashley.