'Black Swan murder trial': Former ballerina on trial in estranged husband's Florida killing
A former ballerina in Florida is standing trial nearly four years after the shooting death of her estranged husband in a case dubbed by some news media as the "Black Swan murder trial."
Ashley Benefield, 32, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in the Sept. 27, 2020, shooting death of Doug Benefield.
Her trial began last week in the Manatee County Judicial Center after Judge Matt Whyte rejected Ashley Benefield's argument that her case should be dismissed based on Florida's "Stand your ground" law, saying she shot Doug in self-defense.
The trial, expected to last three weeks, has already seen emotional testimony from Ashley Benefield about what happened the night of her estranged husband's death. The jury will soon have to decide whether she was just protecting herself and the couple's young daughter or whether the shooting was a calculated decision by someone prosecutors describe as "manipulative."
Here's what to know about the trial.
Who is Ashley Benefield? Who was Doug Benefield?
Ashley and Doug Benefield met in 2016 and were married 13 days later following a whirlwind romance. She was 24 and he was 54, according to media reports at the time.
During the early years of their marriage, the two founded the American National Ballet, a company that fell apart before it could get off the ground, according to testimony during trial. Ashley is a graduate of the Maryland Youth ballet.
Throughout their marriage, the couple experienced a tumultuous relationship involving domestic abuse allegations against Doug Benefield, marriage counseling and a string of litigation in both South Carolina and Florida, where Ashley Benefield had moved to live with her mother after becoming pregnant in 2017.
In her motion to dismiss the case, Ashley Benefield claimed her husband was abusive and volatile, regularly carrying a loaded weapon and once firing a gun into their kitchen ceiling to intimidate her.
What led up to the shooting?
On the afternoon of Sept. 27, 2020, Doug Benefield arrived to Ashley's Manatee County home with a U-Haul truck to help pack for a move to Maryland. Doug Benefield was under the impression that he, his wife, and daughter would move there together, although Doug would live separately, according to court documents and previous testimony.
Ashley's defense attorney, Neil Taylor, told jurors that frustrations mounted as the couple packed and it escalated into an argument. Doug got physical, body-checking Ashley with a box, blocking her from leaving a room and following her into her bedroom, where she grabbed a gun, Taylor said. Doug advanced toward her and she fired the gun, Taylor said.
Witnesses outside the home told investigators they heard about six gunshots and some 30 seconds later, saw Ashley run out of the house toward a neighbor's home with a gun still in her hand, screaming and crying.
What did Ashley Benefield say during her testimony?
Ashley Benefield recalled the evening she shot and killed her estranged husband while testifying before a jury Friday.
"I thought he was going to kill me," Ashley Benefield testified with her shoulders hunched over and shaking.
She recollected the shooting, when she ran to her bedroom and pulled her gun from a storage bin hoping it would deter Doug Benefield. Instead, Ashley Benefield said the bedroom door banged open and she saw Doug Benefield take on a fighting stance, moving his arms in a jerking motion.
In a panic, she pulled the trigger, Ashley Benefield said. When he kept coming toward her, she said she tried to move away, firing the gun again in a panic. When he fell backward, feet flying into the air, she ran from the house to her neighbor's next door, she said.
What has Ashley Benefield said about Doug?
Possessive. Controlling. Manipulative. Aggressive. Scary. Unpredictable. Those are some of the words Ashley Benefield used to describe her estranged husband during their marriage.
The adjectives were a juxtaposition to how she described Doug Benefield during her testimony when she met him in August 2016. Then, she'd viewed him as funny, smart and charming, adding that they "just instantly clicked." Four days after meeting, the Naval pilot flew Ashley Benefield down to South Carolina where he proposed, and she accepted.
But less then two months into their marriage, she alleged that Doug Benefield began to have violent outbursts, usually cussing and yelling at her, according to her testimony. She added after these dark periods, he would be sweet and apologetic.
What have prosecutors said?
The prosecution has argued that Ashley Benefield had one goal: to be a single mother and to prevent the father of her child from having visitation.
Assistant state attorneys Suzanne O'Donnell and Rebecca Freel have attempted to paint a picture that Ashley Benefield shot her husband to stop him from seeing a psychological evaluation report that would have revealed she had no intention of reconciling their marriage.
“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 said during her opening statement. "And she did not want the father of this child to have any visitation. Her husband. And everything she did from that point on was to obtain that goal and she would stop at nothing to obtain that goal."
O'Donnell said: "This was a custody battle that this mother was going to win at all costs. And the cost was the life of Doug Benefield."