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

By Nicki Brown, CNN

(CNN) — Minutes before Caleb Flynn was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife, the former worship leader sobbed as his two young daughters asked 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 read in court.

“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 Flynn, 40, was sentenced for fatally shooting his wife, Ashley, in their family’s Tipp City, Ohio, home in February. Prosecutors argued at trial he 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 an intruder had killed her.

At the sentencing hearing Monday, Ashley’s loved ones remembered her as a beloved teacher, devoted Christian and dedicated mother 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.

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

The girls urged Flynn – who tearfully maintained his innocence in his own statement Monday – to confess to the murder and repent for his sins, with Ava telling 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.”

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