MIAMI COUNTY — Testimony in day three of Caleb Flynn’s murder trial in Miami County wrapped up late Monday afternoon.
He’s accused of shooting and killing his wife, Ashley, in their Tipp City home in February as their daughters slept.
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Flynn claimed someone broke into the home and murdered his wife.
News Center 7’s John Bedell has followed this story from the beginning.
Today we heard from a state investigator who collected evidence at the Flynn home.
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He testified for a little over three hours that he was at the Flynn home for 12 hours collecting evidence.
At the end of the examination, prosecutors asked him, based on that evidence, about his conclusion.
“My concern at the end of the scene examination was that this was a homicide and it was staged as a burglary,” said David Hammond, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) Special Agent.
Hammond responded to Caleb and Ashley Flynn’s Tipp City home hours after Ashley was murdered.
Before collecting evidence, he documented that evidence with pictures throughout the house.
“It shows the positioning of Ashley Flynn,” Hammond said.
That included pictures of how investigators said they found Ashley Flynn’s body in her bed.
News Center 7 will not show those graphic pictures, but we will tell you that Caleb Flynn started crying and wiping his nose. He also winced at times as prosecutors showed those images.
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Flynn told police he thought someone broke into the home through a side door to their garage and killed his wife.
We saw in court Monday that door had a handle lock and a deadbolt.
“Both of those locks were unlocked when I examined them,” Hammond said. “That was really curious.”
Hammond testified that the damage to that door was inconsistent with damage he’s seen in hundreds of burglaries he’s investigated in his career.
“There was no evidence that we could see or that I could see to indicate that the door had been kicked open or forced open,” he said.
Hammond did testify that the door handle had been broken off.
On cross-examination, the defense challenged the competency of the investigation.
“As far as your decision or conclusion that there was no forced entry on the rear door, you found that door to be unlocked, correct?” asked Patrick Mulligan, Flynn’s attorney.
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“I did,” Hammond responded.
“And you don’t know how many days that door was unlocked, correct?” Mulligan then asked.
“That’s correct,” Hammond said.
It was mentioned again that investigators have not recovered the murder weapon.
“As far as pieces of evidence in a homicide case, the gun is pretty much the most important piece, many times, correct?” Mulligan asked.
“Uh, it can be,” Hammond said.
We heard from the doctor who did that exam and from a crime scene technician from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.
The two witnesses testified and said that the story Caleb Flynn gave investigators did not match what they documented about the door at the Flynn’s home.
The testimony included an Ohio BCI Crime Scene Technician, Holly Ryczek, who came to the couple’s Tipp City home.
“It appeared inconsistent with the forced entry that I’ve observed on other doors that have forced entry to them,” Ryczek said.
We also heard from the doctor who performed Ashley Flynn’s autopsy.
The doctor said she was shot and killed at close range as she slept in her bedroom.
His testimony started with prosecutors asking him questions.
“Just viewing this photo, can you tell how many gunshot wounds there are?” Miami County Assistant Prosecutor Matthew Joseph asked.
“No,” said Dr. Bryan Casto, Montgomery County Coroner’s Office Deputy Coroner and Forensic Pathologist.
“Can you tell that there were any gunshot wounds just on this photo?” Joseph asked.
“No,” Dr. Casto said.
Dr. Casto said only after cleaning Ashley’s body and shaving some of her hair off her head around the wounds could he tell she had been shot twice and he testified the characteristics of the wounds told him something else.
“It would just imply that there’s probably -- this is a close-range injury,” Dr. Casto said.
We are not showing the graphic autopsy photos. Caleb Flynn winced and cried again as the photos were shown.
During cross-examination from the defense, Dr. Casto testified there is no time of death for Ashley.
He could not tell from the evidence exactly how far away the shooter was when Ashley was shot.
“So, it is your opinion here that you are unable to determine the specific range at which these wounds were caused?” asked Emily Smith, Caleb Flynn’s defense attorney.
“That’s right,” Dr. Casto replied.
A Tipp City detective testified that they spent tens of hours over several weeks looking for the gun, including doing things like taking insulation out of the attic at the Flynn home and searching storm drains in the neighborhood for it with no luck.
We had five witnesses throughout the day.
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