A jury in Ohio on Tuesday convicted a former music pastor who once auditioned for “American Idol” of murder, finding him guilty of killing his wife.
Jurors deliberated for about two and a half hours before finding the former pastor, Caleb Flynn, 40, guilty of aggravated murder and other charges in the killing of his wife, Ashley, who was shot twice in their home in Tipp City, Ohio, in February.
Mr. Flynn, who claimed that an intruder shot his wife, faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced on Monday.
L. Patrick Mulligan, a lawyer for Mr. Flynn, said he planned to appeal the verdict. “We appreciate the attention that the jury gave, but I can assure everyone that the decision will be thoroughly tested in first, the Court of Appeals, and as many courts of courts of appeals as it needs to be put in front of,” he said in a phone interview.
The nine-day trial drew outsize public attention to a courtroom in Troy, a small city north of Dayton. Jurors and a gallery that held several dozen spectators heard details of Mr. Flynn’s affair with a woman he met when she was a 20-year-old intern at his church, including readings of their text messages and playbacks of the love songs that prosecutors said Mr. Flynn created for her using artificial intelligence.
“It was a very small courtroom and so there was a struggle for people to get in every day,” Mr. Mulligan said. “It was as intense as I’ve ever personally experienced.”
Mr. Flynn appeared briefly in the 12th season of “American Idol” in 2013, telling viewers in an interview segment that he loved his wife. He auditioned for the judges Mariah Carey, Randy Jackson and Nicki Minaj but did not advance to the main competition, The Associated Press reported.
At his trial, the defense never denied that Mr. Flynn was unfaithful to his wife, but Mr. Mulligan said, “It’s a heck of a penalty to go to the penitentiary because you’re having an affair.”
Jurors heard text messages in which Mr. Flynn said he hated his wife, with whom he had two daughters, and wanted her dead.
“The defendant wanted to be a victim,” Matthew Joseph, an assistant Miami County prosecutor, said in a closing argument that was livestreamed by Court TV. “The evidence shows that he wanted to keep his mistress and have his daughters all to himself, and being the victim allowed him to do that without being the husband who left his wife for his mistress.”
Mr. Joseph said that claiming an intruder shot his wife would allow Mr. Flynn to keep his lucrative job working for his wife’s family, her life insurance and his reputation as a church worship leader.
Mr. Flynn closed his eyes when the judge read the verdict finding him guilty on all nine counts. He appeared to cry and wiped his nose with a tissue as the judge polled the jurors. He later sat down, leaned forward and appeared to sob.
“No verdict can bring Ashley back, give the girls back their mother, or erase the pain her family has endured,” the victim’s family said in a statement that Paul Watkins, the Miami County prosecuting attorney, read to reporters after the verdict was announced, according to WLWT-TV.
Mr. Flynn’s link to “American Idol,” seemed to be the “initial attraction” that brought widespread attention to the case, Mr. Mulligan said.
“He was a contestant, but I didn’t really pay a great deal of attention to that,” Mr. Mulligan said. “From what I understand, he has a nice voice. That’s all I know.”
In a 2013 “Road to Hollywood” interview on “American Idol,” Mr. Flynn called himself a music pastor.
“I love my wife more than anything. She is very, very pretty,” Mr. Flynn said in the segment, adding, “I’m just a normal person who absolutely loves to sing more than anything in the world.”
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