Former Ballerina Ashley Benefield Found Guilty of Manslaughter in Husband’s Death
Mike Lang/USATNSYNDICATION
Ashley Benefield, the 32-year-old former ballerina accused of murdering her husband, Doug Benefield, was found guilty of manslaughter. The verdict was announced in a Manatee County, Florida courtroom on Tuesday, July 30. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled at a later date.
Originally charged with second-degree murder, Benefield was convicted of the lesser crime. The judge remanded her to the custody of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office and revoked her $100,000 bond, according to NBC News.
Dubbed the “Black Swan Murder Trial” after the 2010 film starring Natalie Portman, the case has drawn significant attention. Benefield was accused of fatally shooting her 58-year-old husband in her mother’s Lakewood Ranch home in September 2020.
Prosecutors argued that Ashley killed her estranged husband to gain sole custody of their young daughter and remove him from their lives. “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. “And she did not want the father of this child to have any visitation [and] … she would stop at nothing to obtain that goal.”
In contrast, Ashley’s defense attorney claimed she acted in self-defense. “Thirty years older than Ashley, he was obsessed with her and he successfully portrayed himself as he was not in an effort to win her hand in marriage,” defense attorney Neil Taylor argued, per WFLA. “Despite promoting himself as a religious, honorable, and decent human being, Benefield was a manipulative, cunning, and abusive man who insisted, absolutely insisted on control.”
The couple met at a Republican party fundraiser in 2016 when Ashley was a 24-year-old ballet dancer and Doug was a 54-year-old Navy veteran and technology consultant. They married just 13 days later, and Ashley soon became pregnant with Doug’s child. However, their relationship quickly deteriorated.
Prosecutors said Ashley wanted to rid herself of Doug and accused him of emotional abuse, even claiming he tried to poison her with heavy metals, according to Fox 13. She reportedly did not notify Doug when their child was born, and he only found out when she filed a restraining order against him. The two battled for visitation rights, with Doug eventually granted visitation in July 2018.
On September 27, 2020, Doug visited Ashley’s mother’s home to help Ashley pack for her and their daughter’s move to Maryland, where Doug also planned to relocate. Police responded to a 911 call and found Doug fatally shot on a bedroom floor, bleeding in three places. Ashley told police her husband had tried to attack her and she shot him in self-defense.
