The former ballerina accused of fatally shooting her wealthy GOP donor husband appeared stone-faced when she was found guilty of manslaughter in a Florida courtroom late Tuesday.
Ashley Benefield, 33, stood trial for the second-degree murder of her husband, Doug Benefield, in the case known as the “Black Swan murder” trial when she received the verdict on the lesser charge, according to Court TV.
After nearly seven hours of deliberations, the Manatee County jury found the ex-ballerina discharged the firearm that killed her estranged husband in her mother’s Lakewood Ranch home on Sept. 27, 2020, in self-defense — despite prosecutors arguing that she had planned his murder.
Her stepdaughter, Eva Benefield, was seen with tears streaming down her face in the gallery as the jury gave their verdict.
The ex-ballerina had held to her claim that her Navy veteran husband attacked her the night he was gunned down after he allegedly showed up at her mother’s home unannounced.
The couple met at a political event in August 2016 when Ashley, a trained dancer, was 24, and Douglas Benefield, who had worked in the defense and private equity sectors, was 54, according to WFLA.
They tied the knot after only knowing each other for 13 days.
“They were just with each other all the time. It was very lovey-dovey. They were very touchy-feely PDAs. Any event with school or extra curricular that I was in, they were together,” Eva Benefield said during the trial. “They never left each other side.”
About a year into their marriage, the couple started a ballet company — which O’Donnell said was Ashley’s “dream” — but the business quickly “crumbled,” Assistant State Attorney Suzanne O’Donnell shared in her opening statement last week.
The former ballerina also became pregnant with their first child soon after their failed business venture.
“All within a year of being married, they have done a vasectomy reversal, gotten pregnant, started a ballet and the ballet has crumbled,” O’Donnell said.
Their relationship began to deteriorate during Ashley Benefield’s pregnancy, and she moved from their home in South Carolina to Florida to live with her mother.
“They continued a long distance relationship when she first moved to Florida and continued trying to keep together and communication, but about the same time as the ballet collapses, Ashley Benefield starts complaints against the victim,” O’Donnell said.
She began making complaints to local law enforcement about being a victim of non-physical domestic violence soon after moving to Florida.
Her defense attorney, Neil Taylor, argued his client was trapped in an abusive relationship — claiming that Doug Benefield was a manipulative, controlling, and abusive man who she killed in self-defense in fear for her and their young child’s life.
Taylor claimed that Doug once fired a handgun into the ceiling to stop Ashley from talking, punched their dog unconscious, and carried a concealed firearm that was always “pulled back and ready to fire.”
Things only worsened when Ashley allegedly never told her estranged husband when she gave birth to their daughter, Emerson, and that she tried to prevent him from seeing their child for the next six months — leading to a bitter custody battle.
Doug was eventually granted visitation with his daughter in July 2018, but the couple’s relationship never recovered.
On the day of the shooting, Doug was helping her pack up for a move to Maryland, Taylor claimed the visit turned to violence.
The defense argued that he was angry when he arrived at the house because he knew the relationship was ending.
The ex-ballerina alleged Doug threatened and then shoved during the visit.
The estranged husband allegedly then slapped her in the face, and she fled into the bedroom and grabbed her gun for safety, according to Taylor.
Doug allegedly then followed her into the room, where she yelled at him to “Stop!” before fatally shooting him.
“I thought he was going to kill me,” Ashley testified during the trial.
However, investigators later found no sign that she had been physically abused or that she was acting in self-defense and that she had fired four rounds from a .45-caliber handgun, hitting her estranged husband twice.
Detectives said that based on where Doug was hit, “it does not appear that he was facing Ashley when she began shooting,” the court doc stated.
O’Donnell told the jury during Tuesday afternoon’s closing arguments that to determine Ashley’s self-defense claim, they would have to find her actions “reasonable” and “necessary.”
The prosecution argued that Benefield killed her former partner because she wanted sole custody of their daughter.
“This defendant used domestic violence and allegations of it to make progress on her goal,” O’Donnell said. “She wanted sole custody of her child at all costs.”
After the verdict was announced, the judge overseeing the case revoked Ashley’s $100,000 bond and remanded her to the custody of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.
A sentencing hearing will be scheduled at a later date.
Manslaughter carries a 15-year maximum prison sentence in Florida.
