Former American Idol contestant on trial. Plastic surgeon allegedly murders lawyer. Plus, AI scams.
Dateline NBC
This episode of Dateline True Crime Weekly covers several high-profile criminal trials and investigative updates. It details the murder tria
Key takeaways
- Caleb Flynn, a former American Idol contestant, is on trial for allegedly staging a break-in to murder his wife, Ashley.
- Plastic surgeon Tomasz Kosowski was found guilty of first-degree murder in the disappearance and death of attorney Stephen Cozzi.
Main topics
- Caleb Flynn murder trial
- Tomasz Kosowski conviction
Notable quotes
I love my wife more and anything.
Conclusion
The episode highlights the intersection of traditional true crime inve
Transcript preview
Speaker 5 (0:00) Stay informed with the NBC News app. Speaker 8 (0:02) Major developments out of the White House. Speaker 1 (0:04) Read, watch, and listen throughout your day. Speaker 8 (0:07) And now, unlock even more with an NBC News subscription. Get deeper reporting and exclusive articles. Plus, more insight, analysis, and content only for subscribers. When you really look inside these numbers. It's more context and clarity from the reporters you trust. Download the NBC News app now and subscribe for more. Speaker 8 (0:30) Corrupt people will always run for office, but we have to stand up to them. When a local journalist. If officers do something that's against the law, we're going to write about it. Takes on a sheriff. We began getting allegations of violence. Nothing's more dangerous than the truth. These stories really got him angry. It was a complete madhouse. It Speaker 4 (0:49) cost us everything. Speaker 8 (0:51) I knew they didn't like us. I had no idea they would talk about killing us. From producer Rachel Maddow. Speaker 8 (1:00) Good Speaker 1 (1:01) morning. It's the start of another workday for the Dateline team. Speaker 8 (1:05) Just talking to the DA, they were really looking at the boyfriend. Speaker 1 (1:08) Our producers are catching up on breaking crime news. Body cam and family are kind of front and center in this case. Speaker 8 (1:15) He's back in jail. It looks like he's going to be staying there for a while. Speaker 1 (1:19) Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly. I'm Andrea Canning. It's September 24th, and here's what's on our docket. In Florida, a plastic surgeon is on trial accused of stalking and murdering an attorney, and he's representing himself. He showed up every day voluntarily in his orange jail clothes. In Dateline Roundup. An update from the prosecutor in the case of Nolan Wells, the Mississippi teen whose mysterious death over the July 4th weekend made headlines across the country. Speaker 5 (1:50) On Monday night, 11 weeks after Nolan's death, the Jackson County District Attorney posted a video statement with the findings of the grand jury investigation. Speaker 1 (1:59) Plus, scammers using AI to pull at your heartstrings. NBC News Chief Investigative Consumer Correspondent Vicki Wynn tells us about something called sadness bait. These Speaker 3 (2:10) AI tools make it look like real people are suffering, real people are crying, real people are asking you for help. Speaker 1 (2:17) Before all that, we're taking you to a courthouse in Troy, Ohio, where a former American Idol contestant is on trial for his wife's murder. Speaker 1 (2:27) In the early morning hours of February 16th of this year, 39-year-old Caleb Flynn was on the line with 911 making this plea for help. Speaker 8 (2:39) Caleb told Speaker 1 (2:45) police that an intruder had broken into their home and fatally shot Ashley while she was sleeping. But investigators didn't buy Caleb's story. After processing the scene, they suspected he'd staged the whole thing. Three days after making that 911 call, he was arrested and later charged with Ashley's murder. He has pleaded not guilty. Up until the trial, we hadn't heard much about the prosecution's case against Caleb. But in a dramatic opening statement, the prosecutor revealed for the first time what he believes Caleb's alleged motive might be. Another woman. Here to fill us in on all of it is Dateline Field producer Justin Ratchford, who is calling us from the courthouse. Hey, Justin. Hi, Andrea. Thank you for coming on. So, Justin, this case is getting a lot of attention. As we mentioned, Caleb was once a contestant on American Idol, which is part of why this is making headlines. Give us a little bit of background on... Caleb's time on the show. It Speaker 2 (3:42) was back in 2013. He was the contestant in season 12. And in his interview, he described himself as a music pastor who connected with his church through music. And the thing that you might remember about him is how he talked about Ashley, who really nudged him to even audition and the love that he had for her. I love my wife more than anything. She is very, very pretty. Just, oof, I love her. Speaker 1 (4:04) Wow. Now, 13 years later, Ashley is dead. Do we know anything about what Caleb and Ashley were up to between 2013 and 2026? Speaker 2 (4:14) Yeah. So the couple actually settled in Ashley's hometown, Tip City. That's where she grew up. They had two daughters together. Ashley was a substitute teacher and middle school volleyball coach. And Caleb, he actually worked as the vice president of sales for Ashley's family business, a flooring company. Speaker 1 (4:31) Okay. So it seems like, you know, your typical all-American family. The crux of this case, this is the question the jury has to answer, is whether an intruder murdered Ashley or did Caleb murder Ashley. So, Justin, what was Caleb's version of the event? Speaker 2 (4:47) So Caleb made the 911 call around 2.31 a.m. And that's actually what the jurors got to hear right away the first day of the trial. Prosecutors played it, and it was really eerie and chilling hearing Caleb's voice. Is she breathing? Speaker 8 (5:10) Okay, she's not responding to you? No, no. Okay, do you see anybody in the house now? No, it's pitch black and the doors are locked. The door leading to the garage door was wide open when I ran in there. Speaker 2 (5:26) Tip City officers took the stand next and they described finding Ashley's body in bed with the shots to the back of the head that Caleb was talking about. They said that there was no sign that she had been startled or awakened before she had been shot. And Speaker 1 (5:40) where did Caleb say he was during the shooting? The Speaker 2 (5:43) officers testified that Caleb told them that he had been sleeping on the couch that night because he was sick and Ashley had asked him to sleep there. He went to check on his daughters in the middle of the night and fell asleep in their room. And the only thing that woke him up was the sound of the gunshot. He also mentioned that the intruder must have come through the side garage door and shot her and fled right through it. Speaker 1 (6:06) Justin, were investigators suspicious of Caleb from the get-go? Speaker 2 (6:09) No. They said that Caleb was as appropriate as could be in the moment. You know, he was emotional, he was sobbing, and just really concerned about the well-being of his daughters. So Speaker 1 (6:20) when did the red flags begin for investigators? The officers testified Speaker 2 (6:24) that the side garage door was open, like Caleb said. But they said that when they examined the door from the inside, it looked like there was a refrigerator that had been shoved aside so the door could be opened. Meaning the door must have been open from the inside and not the outside. Speaker 1 (6:38) And Justin, the prosecutor brought up something else that they believed pointed to an inside job. Speaker 2 (6:43) Yeah, the prosecutor called up a canine handler to the stand who had been at the crime scene. And the handler said that his dog couldn't pick up the scent of anyone fleeing from the area from that side door. But instead, the dog kept wanting to go back into the house. What's more, an FBI special agent testified that the deadbolt of the side door was damaged but inconsistent with someone kicking the door open from the outside. Speaker 6 (7:07) As I stood there inside of the garage, it looked to me like the damage had happened with the door open. Speaker 1 (7:14) Justin, as far as motive goes, we mentioned there's another woman in all of this. So that Speaker 2 (7:19) was the bombshell of the prosecutor's opening statement. The prosecutors say that Caleb was having a secret affair. The prosecutors actually started reading text messages Caleb sent to this other woman about wanting to kill Ashley. Speaker 6 (7:31) I was up until 4 a.m. last night crying, literally, to kill her. Speaker 6 (7:41) According Speaker 2 (7:57) to the prosecution, in the year leading up to Ashley's death, Caleb exchanged over 100,000 messages with his lover, often talking about how he hated Ashley and wanted her gone. Just hours before Ashley was killed, Caleb sent his lover a message saying, I choose you. I'm free. Actions will come tomorrow. And then they alleged that by staging this break-in, Caleb could get rid of Ashley while keeping the benefits of the life that they built together. Speaker 6 (8:38) What Speaker 1 (8:39) does the prosecution believe actually happened? So they Speaker 2 (8:44) allege that Caleb shot Ashley twice with his handgun that he kept in his truck. Speaker 6 (8:57) The console was up and the gun was missing. You will hear that Ashley was shot twice with nine millimeter bullets. Speaker 1 (9:07) How has the defense pushed back on Speaker 2 (9:10) all of this, Justin? So the defense, they start with the gun. They point out that police never found a murder weapon. It's missing. It's never been located. Speaker 7 (9:18) They can't show you whose gun killed Ashley. They can't show you if Caleb had a gun in his hands that night. They can't show you if Caleb pulled the trigger. They are merely guessing Speaker 8 (9:27) and they're asking you to do the exact same thing. Speaker 1 (9:30) Justin, how did the defense handle Caleb's affair and all those text messages with his lover? So right out Speaker 2 (9:37) of the gate, the defense admitted that Caleb had an affair, but it didn't mean he killed his wife. According to them, Caleb sent those messages about Ashley just to appease his lover. And despite all that, he loved his family and was regularly sending. warm, loving messages to Ashley. Speaker 1 (9:53) How has Caleb been reacting to all of this? He's been emotional Speaker 2 (9:57) every single day. It's been really hard to watch him react to testimony, the photos. Ashley's family has been reacting too, and it's just really painful to see them in the background while this is going