A former ballerina accused of fatally shooting her estranged husband four years ago has been convicted.
Late on Tuesday, July 30, 2024, Florida woman Ashley Benefield, 33, was found guilty of the 2020 murder of Douglas “Doug” Benefield after a Manatee County deliberated for seven hours, according to Fox Tampa Bay affiliate WTVT. The mother of one, who maintained that she killed her husband in self-defense, was initially charged with second-degree murder though she was ultimately convicted on lesser charges of manslaughter.
Assistant State Attorney Suzanne O’Donnell for Florida’s 12th District said Ashley hadn’t killed her husband to protect herself but to win an ongoing custody battle over the couple’s young daughter, per NBC News.
“This was a custody battle that this mother was going to win at all costs,” O’Donnell said in her opening statements. “The cost was the life of Doug Benefield, and that is murder.”
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Ashley Benefield now faces 15 years in prison.
How did Doug Benefield die?
On September 27, 2020, at around 7:00 p.m., Manatee County deputies responded to Ashley’s mother’s Bradenton home — about 50 miles south of Tampa — where they found the 58-year-old victim wounded and clinging to life on the bedroom floor. Responders were called to the home after Ashley, reportedly with the gun still in her hand, showed up at a neighbor’s doorstep and admitted to the homicide, according to CBS News.
An affidavit stated that Doug had sustained a bullet wound to his leg and another that pierced through the victim’s bicep before entering his chest, as previously reported by Oxygen.com. An additional two bullets were found in the wall.
The husband succumbed to his injuries after being transported to a local hospital.
At the time, Ashley told investigators that she shot Doug only after he attacked her, though authorities were dubious early on.
“Based on the entry wounds on Douglas, it does not appear that he was facing Ashley when she began shooting. It also does not appear that Douglas had taken any kind of defensive or combative stance,” per the affidavit. “Douglas was not found to have any weapons or near him.”
Authorities said they found “no signs” of Ashley being harmed.
More About the Couple
The state shows a photo array of Ashley Benefield during closing arguments in Benefield's trial, Monday, July 29, 2024, at the Manatee County Judicial Center in Bradenton, Fla. Benefield is on trial for the 2020 shooting death of her husband. Photo: Tiffany Tompkins/The Bradenton Herald/AP
In 2016, Doug was a 54-year-old technology consultant and U.S. Navy veteran when meeting Ashley for the first time at a Republican Party fundraiser, as previously reported. He’d become a widower nine months earlier when his wife, Renee, died of a heart condition.
At the time, Ashley was a 24-year-old working on behalf of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.
It was love at first sight, and the pair married less than two weeks later.
The following year, Ashley — a former professional ballerina — and Douglas tried to make a go of opening a dance studio, the American National Ballet, in Charleston, South Carolina. The short-lived business aimed to teach ballet to “dancers of all shapes, sizes, styles and colors” but closed its doors in 2018, the same year Ashley became pregnant with Doug’s child and moved to Florida to be closer to her mother.
After Doug’s murder, detectives stated Ashley began accusing Doug of domestic violence soon after learning she was pregnant, according to the charging papers.
“It appears that the main focus of these complaints was to keep the child away from Douglas,” wrote authorities.
Manatee County detectives looked into Ashley’s allegations, including Doug poisoning her tea and allegedly having a role in his late wife’s death, among other “numerous cases,” though none of them were substantiated. The wife also attempted to file an injunction to keep Doug away from the baby, though the presiding judge found no “scintilla of truth” to the woman’s claims.
Doug was also awarded visitation.
“At this point, it appeared that Ashley had exhausted all legal means to keep the child away from Douglas before the shooting,” the affidavit stated.
The Black Swan Murder Trial
During his closing arguments, Ashley’s defense attorney, Neil Taylor, noted that his client filed “complaint after complaint after complaint calling Doug Benefield’s behavior to the attention of authorities with no results,” according to NBC News. “Over and over again with no relief.”
Ashley testified on the stand to allegations of ongoing abuse, including a time when Doug fired his gun at the ceiling, threatened suicide, punched holes in walls, and punched the couple’s dog unconscious.
“I felt like I was living a nightmare,” Ashley told the court. “I never knew what I was gonna get.”
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At the time of the murder, Ashley said she planned on moving to Maryland with her mother. Doug was reportedly due to go with her, though they planned to continue to live separately, according to the Fox affiliate. Ashley testified that Doug grew angry when she pointed out that their items were being packed together when they should have been packed separately.
He allegedly body-checked her more than once as Ashley continued to pack.
“I just blurted it out and said, ‘I’m done, and you need to leave now,’” Ashley testified.
She said she feared Doug was going to kill her after his eyes went “black,” so she ran into the bedroom, collected the gun, and fatally shot the husband.
During cross-examination, Ashley admitted that despite alleged outbursts in the past, Doug had never struck her, according to WTVT, something State Attorney O’Donnell noted in her closing arguments.
“She wasn’t saying, ‘I’m so afraid of this man, I’m a victim of domestic violence, I need help,’ not at all,” said O’Donnell. “She’s saying, ‘I want to keep my baby.’”
The case became known as the “Black Swan” trial, a nod to the 2010 film starring Natalie Portman as a disturbed ballet dancer.
Where is Ashley Benefield now?
Following the guilty verdict, Ashley Benefield was remanded to the custody of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, and her $100,000 bond was revoked, according to NBC News.
Doug Benefield’s cousin, Tommie Benefield, described hearing officers place the defendant back in handcuffs once the courtroom session ended.
“The sound was as good as the sight,” said Tommie, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Doug Benefield’s adult daughter, Eva, also made a statement to the press following the verdict.
“I apologize to all women who have gone through domestic violence situations,” she said. “I think what Ashley was doing was unfair to them. They deserve justice, and I’m very happy that my dad got the justice he deserves.”
A sentencing hearing has yet to be scheduled.
