In "Black Swan murder" trial, former ballerina Ashley Benefield found guilty of manslaughter in husband's shooting death
Former ballerina Ashley Benefield has been found guilty of manslaughter with a firearm in the shooting death of her husband Doug Benefield.
Benefield had been charged with second-degree murder for allegedly shooting and killing her husband during an argument in 2020. The court case, known as the "Black Swan murder" trial, garnered national attention, with some comparing Benefield to the protagonist of the 2010 film "Black Swan."
The Florida jury reached its verdict Tuesday, the same day it began its deliberations. After initially sending the judge a note that it was unable to reach a unanimous verdict, it returned to deliberations late Tuesday night before reaching its verdict a little.
Benefield showed no emotion as the verdict was read.
The pair had wed after knowing each other for less than two weeks, according to "48 Hours" reporting. At the time of their marriage, Ashley Benefield was 24 and Doug Benefield, a widower whose wife had died about nine months earlier, was 54.
Their relationship was rocky, "48 Hours" reported: There were tensions between Ashley Benefield and Doug Benefield's teenage daughter, and an attempt to start a ballet company together failed. Ashley Benefield accused her husband of poisoning his first wife, and left him when she was pregnant with their child to stay with her mother, alleging that he was now poisoning her. The claims were investigated by police, and no charges were filed.
Once the child was born in 2018, Ashley Benefield kept the baby from her husband for six months, until a judge intervened. After this, the pair largely reconciled, and in 2020, they planned to move to Maryland together on Ashley Benefield's suggestion.
On Sept. 27, 2020, the Benefields were packing a U-Haul truck for the move. Ashley Benefield's mother, Alicia Byers, took her granddaughter to a park, leaving the couple alone in the house. A neighbor reported hearing sudden screaming and called 911.
Moments later, Ashley Benefield arrived at the home of another neighbor, gun in hand. She reportedly told the neighbor that she had shot her husband in self-defense. The neighbor called 911.
When police and emergency services responded, Doug Benefield was still alive but unable to speak. He died at an area hospital about an hour later.
Investigators determined that Doug Benefield had been shot twice, once in the leg and once in the arm. That second bullet traveled into his chest cavity. The shots had been fired when he was turning away from his wife, investigators determined.
Byers told police that her daughter had been living in fear of her husband for over three years, CBS News reported. Ashley Benefield's claims against her husband were investigated by police, but he was never charged with a crime, because he knew "how to play the game," according to Byers. Ashley Benefield's lawyer, Faith Brown, told police at the time that her client had been planning to leave her husband and had an escape plan, including a safe place to stay, a burner phone and a rental car rented under a different name. Brown told police that Ashley Benefield feared her husband "had gotten wind of" the plan.
Ashley Benefield was arrested five weeks after the shooting. She pleaded not guilty and spent about two weeks in jail before being released on bond.
Court documents and testimonies showed that the couple had argued before the shooting. The two had been fighting about the custody of their child, as well as about their marital status and issues of domestic abuse, according to CBS News affiliate WTSP.
In emotional testimony last week, Ashley Benfield recounted the argument. She said that her husband swore at her and called her names, then hit her with a moving box and "body-checked" her as she told him to leave.
"I was scared to death. I thought he would kill me," Benefield testified, according to WTSP. "I had nowhere to go. I was trapped in my own house. He wouldn't let me leave."
Benefield testified that she grabbed her gun, which was atop a storage bin that had yet to be packed. She said she held the gun in front of herself and told her husband to stop. However, he continued to move towards her and "lunged at" her, Benefield said.
"I remember trying to move to get away from him, but he kept coming at me," Ashley Benefield said. She said she did not recall how many shots she fired because she was "in a panic" and immediately "ran to get help."
Jason S. Quintal, the couple's marital counselor, testified that Doug Benefield "occurred as someone who was domineering at times," and "super controlling," but who "was very dedicated to wanting the relationship to work."
"He was very interested, despite conversations with some of the very disparaging things that Ashley had said about him, he was very much still wanting this to work and their plans were to move to Maryland," Quintal said.
Bruce Ferris, a former detective and domestic violence expert, testified for the defense that Ashley Benefield had been dealing with domestic abuse and had finally decided to leave her husband for her child's safety.
"If someone is single and they are being abused, certainly they want to incur the least amount of abuse. But if a child is involved now, they are concerned … about their own safety and their child's safety," Ferris said, according to WTSP.
Prosecutors argued that in the period before the shooting, Ashley and Doug Benefield lived separately and therefore, the former ballerina could not qualify as a victim of domestic abuse.
A ballistics expert said that based on interviews, crime scene photos and case documents, there were no inconsistencies between the crime scene and Ashley Benefield's account of the shooting. Retired medical examiner Dr. Emma Lew gave a presentation that supported Ashley Benefield's argument of self-defense.