#SHOWBIZ: Former 'American Idol' singer Caleb Flynn gets life sentence for wife's murder

NEW YORK: A former American Idol contestant from the US has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for murdering his wife.

Caleb Flynn, 40, was found guilty of aggravated murder, tampering with evidence, and eight other charges, according to an AP report.

A jury quickly rejected his defence that an intruder had broken into his Ohio home and shot 37-year-old schoolteacher Ashley Flynn while she slept.

The tragic shooting happened in February at the family home in Tipp City.

Flynn, a former church music pastor, staged the scene to look like a burglary through the garage while the couple's two young daughters, aged nine and 11, slept nearby.

At Monday's emotional sentencing hearing, moving letters from his daughters were read out in court.

They pleaded with him to admit his guilt and asked how he could kill their mother.

One daughter wrote that he had made her feel stupid for trusting him, saying she would never visit him in prison. Her sister added: "Mommy was the perfect person... And then you chose to kill the only mother I ever had."

Flynn cried loudly as his children's statements were read out.

He then read his own statement, apologising for unspecified "decisions" while continuing to deny the murder.

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

Handing down the sentence, Judge Jeannine Pratt described Flynn as an "extreme" threat to the public.

During the eight-day trial, prosecutors presented strong digital evidence that proved Flynn was not asleep during the shooting.

Data from his iPhone and Apple Watch showed he was awake, alongside damning messages sent to his former church intern, with whom he was having an affair.

In one of over 100,000 text messages read to the jury, Flynn wrote: "I was up until 4am last night crying, literally thinking of ways to kill her and not go to jail." In another message, he declared: "I just want her dead and gone."

Defence lawyer Patrick Mulligan argued that proof of an affair did not prove murder.

He said he plans to appeal the verdict, claiming there was no proof of planning.

Flynn, who auditioned for American Idol in 2013 while claiming he loved his wife "more than anything", called no witnesses in his defence.