Guilty verdict reported Life sentence possible

Sep 29

Fox reports that a jury convicts former Ohio music pastor and 2013 American Idol contestant Caleb Flynn of killing his wife and staging a home invasion. The brief says he could receive life in prison; it does not report a sentence.

On September 29, an Ohio jury finds former pastor and American Idol contestant Caleb Flynn guilty of murdering his wife Ashley. Fox reports the conviction and prosecutors' staged-home-invasion account, with life imprisonment possible. ABC says deliberations lasted less than three hours, airs the guilty finding and Flynn's reaction, and revisits the defense's burglary/location account, prosecutors' nearly two-year-affair motive argument and former partner's testimony. The family remembers Ashley through her daughters. Those September reports leave sentencing ahead. At the October 5 sentencing hearing, Paul Watkins retrospectively describes guilty findings for aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault, evidence tampering and firearm specifications; Judge Jeannine Pratt confirms the jury's guilty findings on all nine counts. This is confirmation of the earlier verdict, not a new jury decision. The October 5 sentence is recorded separately.