Caleb Flynn's murder trial has it all: testimony about a secret affair between church members, thousands of deleted texts, lies to the FBI and curiously silent pet dogs.

What the trial doesn't have is the murder weapon.

The absence of the firearm used to fatally shoot Ashley Flynn has loomed large in the case against Caleb Flynn, the former  American Idol  contestant and church worship leader accused of killing his wife in February.

Flynn, 40, has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder. He told investigators he kept a handgun in his truck's center console, but that console was open when police arrived to the family's Ohio home, and the gun has never been found.

In opening statements, the prosecution said recovering the gun was not necessary to getting a conviction, but the defense said its absence showed the prosecution's case was weak.

 They can't show you whose gun killed Ashley. They can't show you if Caleb had a gun in his hand that night. They can't show you Caleb pulled the trigger,  defense attorney Emily Smith said.

The murder weapon is of course important evidence, but legally it's not required to get a guilty verdict. For example, Scott Peterson was convicted of murder without a weapon in evidence. Prosecutors instead relied on circumstantial evidence to make their case, including a secret affair and undermining his alibi.

CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson said the lack of a weapon has  very little  impact on Flynn's case.

 Of course it's not ideal to not have an actual murder weapon, but at the end of the day there's so many other things that you can use that I think can buttress your case, and in this particular case that's exactly what they're doing,  he said.

Similarly, in Flynn's trial, prosecutors have relied heavily on motive - Flynn's secret affair with a younger church colleague, his  dark and hateful  texts fantasizing about killing his wife and his financial stake in his wife's family's business. They have also tried to poke holes in Flynn's tale of a mystery intruder who broke into the home, stole his gun, fatally shot his wife and fled into the night.

 Peopl

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