Former American Idol contestant Caleb Flynn has been sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole after being convicted of murdering his wife, Ashley Flynn.

The 40-year-old former music pastor was found guilty last week following a brief jury deliberation. Prosecutors successfully rejected his claim that an intruder had entered the family’s Ohio home through the garage and shot Ashley while she slept.

Flynn was convicted of nine charges, including aggravated murder and tampering with evidence. The case has attracted widespread attention because of the evidence presented against him and the emotional testimony from his two daughters.

Ashley, a 37-year-old teacher, was fatally shot in February. At the time, their two children, aged nine and 11, were asleep inside the house.

Flynn initially told investigators that he had been sleeping when he heard gunshots. He claimed he later discovered Ashley dead in their bed and noticed that the garage door was open, leading him to believe an intruder had broken into the home.

Prosecutors, however, presented evidence suggesting that the scene had been staged to create the appearance of a break-in.

During the sentencing hearing, letters written by Flynn’s daughters were read in court. One daughter questioned how her father could have killed her mother.

“Dear Daddy, I don’t even know where to start. How could you do such a thing?” she wrote.

She described Ashley as “the perfect person” and expressed deep pain over the loss of her mother.

The second daughter addressed Flynn simply as “Dear Caleb” rather than “Dad”. She urged him to admit what he had done and accept the consequences.

“You made me feel like an idiot thinking I could trust you,” she wrote, adding that she would never visit him in prison.

Flynn reportedly sobbed as the letters were read.

Despite the conviction, Flynn continued to deny murdering his wife during his sentencing statement. He expressed love for his family and apologised for unspecified decisions he had made.

“I made vows to Ashley on our wedding day. I failed those vows,” he said.

However, he maintained that he did not kill Ashley.

Judge Jeannine Pratt described Flynn as an “extreme” risk to the public before imposing the life sentence without parole.

Evidence presented during the trial included police body-camera footage and data from Flynn’s iPhone and Apple Watch. Prosecutors used the digital evidence to challenge his account that he had been asleep around the time of the shooting.

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The prosecution also called dozens of witnesses, including Botner, a woman Flynn had met while she was an intern at his church.

Botner read some of their approximately 100,000 text messages in court. Among the messages was one in which Flynn allegedly wrote that he had stayed awake until 4am thinking about ways to kill Ashley without going to prison.

In another message, he reportedly said he wanted her “dead and gone.”

Flynn did not testify during the trial, while his defence team called no witnesses.

His lawyer, Patrick Mulligan, has indicated plans to appeal the conviction, arguing that there was insufficient evidence of prior calculation and design.

Mulligan also argued that evidence of infidelity did not establish that Flynn had committed murder and questioned the tampering-with-evidence charge because the firearm allegedly used in the killing could not be found.

Following the verdict, prosecutor Paul Watkins read a statement from Ashley’s family.

“Ashley loved Jesus with her whole heart,” the family said, adding that she loved people and, above all, loved being a mother.

Flynn briefly appeared on American Idol in 2013, during which he spoke positively about his relationship with Ashley and said he loved his wife “more than anything.”