Caleb Flynn’s daughters send powerful message as he’s sentenced to life in prison for their mom’s murder

CNN

By Nicki Brown, CNN

(CNN) — Minutes before he was sentenced Monday to life in prison for the murder of his wife, Caleb Flynn sobbed as his in-laws read letters written by his two daughters, asking him heartbreaking questions about their mother’s death.

“Mommy was the perfect person, the absolute perfect person. What did she ever do to make you hate her so much?” the couple’s 10-year-old daughter, Ava, wrote in a statement.

“Did you really even think about how much pain you would bring your own two daughters?” Ava’s 12-year-old sister, Alyssa, asked in her own statement.

The girls’ words were read by relatives in court as the family asked an Ohio judge to sentence Flynn, 40, to the fullest extent less than a week after he was convicted of the fatal shooting of his wife, Ashley, in their Tipp City home in February.

The girls’ uncle – who is now raising the two girls with his wife, Ashley’s sister – told the court their statements came “straight from the heart” and were “totally unedited.”

Prosecutors argued at trial Flynn killed his wife in part because of his affair with a fellow worship leader at their church and then staged the crime scene to make it appear she had been killed by an intruder. Flynn maintained his innocence Monday, tearfully telling the court he loved Ashley, whom he described as “beautiful and amazing in countless ways,” even as he tacitly acknowledged his infidelity.

For their part, Ashley’s loved ones shone a spotlight on their mother, daughter and sister, remembering her as a beloved teacher, devoted Christian and dedicated parent to her two daughters. Ava called her mother her “best friend” and described her as an “angel.”

“Ashley Flynn was the best thing that ever happened to you. You had the best life ever, and you decided to throw it away for a girl who was half your age,” Alyssa wrote to her father, referencing his nearly two-year affair with 24-year-old Alleigha Botner.

“How could you stand in that church and sing about how much you love God when you knew all the secrets you had inside?”

Caleb Flynn, who appeared in court wearing an orange prison jumpsuit with his wrists shackled, was ultimately sentenced to life without parole for the murder of his wife – the maximum possible sentence. He also was sentenced to 9 years in prison for tampering with evidence and 7 years in prison for firearm enhancements, all to be served consecutively.

‘Please tell Jesus that you’re sorry’

Both girls described the immense grief and pain they felt after their mother’s death, with the youngest saying she still cries every day.

“My heart aches to see you hurt, but then I think it was your choice,” Ava said. “It was your choice to leave your only two daughters. It was your choice to hide everything from everyone, and it was your choice to kill the only mother I’ve ever had.”

“Unfortunately,” she added, “that was a choice that cannot be erased, even though I really wish it could.”

The girls urged Flynn to confess to the murder and repent for his sins. Ava told her father he could still “have a life in heaven someday.”

“Please tell Jesus that you’re sorry,” she wrote. “It’s not going to change your punishment, but it will determine your eternal reward someday.”

“I wish that you could come to understand that actions have consequences and you have a lot to pay,” Alyssa said in her statement. “The least you could do is tell everyone you did it and receive your outcome.”

God has been present in her life since Ashley’s death, the 12-year-old wrote, and their family has “never been stronger.”

“Through all of what you put me through, God is gonna work something out for good,” Alyssa said. “And by the way, I don’t plan on coming to see you.”

Ashley’s sister and brother-in-law described helping the girls work through their grief.

“Nearly every day, we watch as Ashley’s daughters visit their mother’s gravesite,” Matthew Keyt told the court. “I watch them cry and talk to her. They often lie on the grass in front of her tombstone, imagining in their innocence that it will bring them just a bit closer to their mom.”

Ashley’s sister, Kayla Keyt, said she will honor her sister’s legacy by teaching her nieces to love deeply, tell the truth and follow Jesus.

“Caleb, you took Ashley from this earth, you took a mother from her daughters, you shattered a family that trusted you, and you created pain that Alyssa and Ava will carry in some form for the rest of their lives,” she said.

“But you did not take Jesus from them,” Kayla Keyt said. “You did not take heaven from Ashley, and you did not destroy our faith.”

Flynn maintains his innocence

Given an opportunity to address the court, Flynn apologized to his late wife’s family for breaking their wedding vows, and expressed gratitude to his own family for their “unwavering love.”

Still, Flynn maintained his innocence, turning to face prosecutors as he denied killing Ashley.

“I have unfortunately lied about a lot of things over the last couple of years,” he said, a veiled reference to his affair. “But as I stand here before God, who is my ultimate judge, I am not lying. I did not kill my wife.”

“I will continue to fight for my innocence as long as the Lord allows me to,” he said.

Flynn apologized for his “hateful” comments about his wife, many of which were heard in court during the trial as his former mistress read from the more than 100,000 messages they exchanged in the year before Ashley’s death.

“What I am most ashamed of and regret most of all is the awful things I said about Ashley,” he said. “I loved her and love her. She was my wife.”

Flynn wiped tears from his face as he addressed his daughters, who he called his “greatest joy in this life.”

“I have so many thoughts and dreams of raising you and seeing you grow up to be mighty women of God, but unfortunately, I can’t. That’s why I’m sorry. I want to be there for your most important moments, and for that I’m sorry,” he said.

“There’s so much I wish I could be there for, and so my heart breaks knowing I can’t. But please know again, I dearly love you both and miss you more than you’ll ever know.”

Before handing down the sentence, Judge Jeannine Pratt directly addressed Flynn, admonishing him for the selfish actions that shattered his daughters’ lives and their innocence.

“You took from them something they can never get back – their mother,” the judge said. “They will live with the scars of what you did for the rest of their lives.”

Pratt said the girls will now grow up with questions that no child should ever have to ask – including Ava’s question asking why Flynn hated her mother so much.

“The court cannot answer that question for her, and there’s no answer that can justify what you did,” the judge told Flynn before she handed down the maximum sentence. “No sentence can bring Ashley back to her children, but there must be accountability, and there must be justice.”

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CNN’s Lauren del Valle, Eric Levenson and Elise Hammond contributed to this report.