A former ballerina has been found guilty of manslaughter for killing her estranged husband in 2020 when she was just 28 years old.
Ashley Benefield, now 32, faces up to 30 years in prison for the manslaughter charge because she used a firearm in the killing. She was initially charged with second-degree murder, but a Manatee County jury opted for a lesser offence.
The case has been dubbed the “Black Swan trial,” referring to the 2010 film Black Swan in which Natalie Portman plays a young ballerina losing her grip on reality.
Throughout the trial, Ashley maintained that she killed her then-58-year-old estranged husband, Doug Benefield, out of self-defence and that her husband had abused her. Prosecutors argued that Ashley fabricated the abuse allegations in order to gain sole custody of the couple’s child.
Defendant Ashley Benefield glances back after the jury retired to deliberate during her trial, Monday, July 29, 2024, at the Manatee County Judicial Center in Bradenton, Fla.
Tiffany Tompkins/The Bradenton Herald via AP
The Benefield’s marriage
Ashley and Doug married in 2016 when she was a 24-year-old ballet dancer and Doug was a 54-year-old consultant and Navy veteran. The pair met a Republican fundraiser and got married just 13 days after.
Doug, 30 years Ashley’s senior, was a recent widower. His first wife had died just nine months prior, according to CBS’s 48 Hours.
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A year after getting married, Ashley became pregnant and soon after that, she left her husband. She allegedly fled the marriage after an incident in which Doug fired a gun into the ceiling of their home during an argument. Ashley then started accusing Doug of poisoning her and his first wife.
When their daughter was born in March 2018, Ashley didn’t inform Doug or put his name on the birth certificate. Doug met his daughter six months later after a judge intervened, 48 Hours reported. The couple eventually reconciled and, in 2020, Ashely suggested that they move to Maryland together. During this time, Ashley had been living with her mother in Florida while Doug lived in South Carolina.
The shooting
On Sept. 27, 2020, the Benefields were alone at Ashley’s mother’s house, packing a moving van, while Ashley’s mother took their daughter to the park. A neighbour then reported hearing screaming. Ashley went to the neighbour’s house, gun in hand, and told them that she had just shot her husband in self-defence.
Doug was still alive when emergency workers responded but he was unable to talk. He died an hour later in hospital.
During the trial, Ashley testified that she and her husband had been arguing and that he hit her with a moving box and “body-checked” her. She said she was “scared to death” and thought her husband was going to kill her. She grabbed her gun, pointed it at Doug and told him to stop. When he continued to move towards her, she shot him.
Investigators determined that Doug was shot twice, and the fatal bullet struck him and went through his body, hitting his arm first and travelling into his chest. This suggests that Doug was turning away from his wife when he was shot, contradicting Ashley’s testimony.
The trial
Prosecutors argued that Ashley’s testimony was inconsistent and that she had killed her estranged husband in order to get sole custody of their daughter.
“This case is about a woman who very early on in her pregnancy decided she wanted to be a single mother,” Assistant State Attorney Suzanne O’Donnell told the jury, according to The Post and Courier. “She did not want the father of this child to have any visitation.”
Meanwhile, Ashley’s lawyer claimed that the former ballerina was a victim of intimate partner violence and that Doug was an abusive and controlling spouse.
“The evidence is going to show that Douglas Benefield was a very disturbed man,” Neil Taylor told the jury. “Thirty years older than Ashley, he was obsessed with her, and he successfully portrayed himself as everything he was not in an effort to win her hand in marriage. Despite promoting himself as a religious and decent human being, Douglas Benefield was a manipulative, cunning and abusive man who insisted, absolutely insisted, on control.”
Prosecutors argued that Ashley did not qualify as a victim of domestic abuse because she and Doug had lived separately in the period before the shooting, CBS reported. The court also heard of a previous legal battle between the couple in which Ashley sought a domestic violence injunction against her husband in 2017. The injunction was denied by a judge who did not find her claims to be credible.
After nearly seven hours of deliberation, the jury found Ashley guilty, not of second-degree murder, but the lesser offence of manslaughter. Her sentencing hearing has yet to be scheduled.
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If you or someone you know is experiencing abuse or is involved in an abusive situation, please visit the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime for help. They are also reachable toll-free at 1-877-232-2610.