OBSERVATIONS/POINTS TO REVISIT/AREAS OF FURTHER CONSIDERATION in ASHLEY BENEFIELD TRIAL

 

OBSERVATIONS/ POINTS TO REVISIT in ASHLEY BENEFIELD

"BLACK SWAN" MURDER TRIAL

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Backstory: 

A former ballerina charged with second-degree murder in the death of her estranged husband is on trial in Florida, with prosecutors alleging that she fatally shot him during a contentious custody battle that she insisted on winning “at all costs.”

But in tearful testimony Friday, Ashley Benefield, 33, described herself as a victim of persistent abuse who acted in self-defense when she fatally shot Doug Benefield, 58, in her home south of Tampa on Sept. 27, 2020.

“I was scared to death,” she testified. “I thought he was going to kill me.”

Here’s what you need to know about the case.

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A QUICK COURTSHIP TURNED NASTY CUSTODY FIGHT

The couple met at a political event in August 2016 and married 13 days later, according to the prosecutor in the case, Suzanne O’Donnell, assistant state attorney for Florida’s 12th Judicial District. 

He was 54, Benefield testified. She was 24.

Within a year, she’d become pregnant and they’d tried establishing a ballet company together, though it failed, the prosecutor said in court. Benefield soon moved to Bradenton, Florida, O’Donnell said, so that her mother could help care for her during her pregnancy. 

O’Donnell said during the trial that Benefield decided early in the pregnancy that she wanted to be a single mother and did nothing to keep Doug Benefield informed of the fetus’s development after the move. But her husband was still trying to make their relationship work, the prosecutor said.

In an emailed letter March 15, 2018, Doug Benefield said he wanted to be a part of the child’s birth and life, O’Donnell said. Benefield was several weeks from her due date when the email was sent, O’Donnell said, but the next day she was induced and gave birth.

Benefield kept the delivery hidden from her husband, O’Donnell said.  

In his opening statement, Benefield’s lawyer, Neil Taylor, portrayed a very different picture of the couple’s troubled relationship. Benefield had come to fear her husband and moved to Florida to get away from him, he said. 

“She left him, he pursued her,” Taylor said. “She rejected him. He would not take no for an answer.”

In her testimony, Benefield described Doug Benefield as volatile, controlling and sometimes terrifying. She alleged that he punched holes in the walls of their home, that he struck their dog in the face so hard that the animal went unconscious, that he threw a loaded handgun at her, and that he fired a bullet into the ceiling after threatening to take his own life during an argument.

“I felt like I was living a nightmare,” Benefield testified. “I never knew what I was gonna get.”

Taylor introduced text messages between the couple at trial that he said corroborated his client's account.

The year the child was born, Benefield sought an injunction that would have barred Doug Benefield from seeing their baby. During a July 30, 2018, hearing, she raised the allegations that she later described at trial, according to a partial transcript of the hearing.

A judge denied the order, saying she did not find Benefield’s testimony credible, according to the NBC affiliate WFLA of Tampa. The judge granted immediate visitation rights to Doug Benefield, who had moved to Florida, O’Donnell said.

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COURT PROCEEDINGS

As part of those proceedings, the estranged couple was evaluated by a psychologist. While talking with the psychologist together, Doug Benefield said their reconciliation included his wife dropping her petition — a fact that Benefield did not dispute, O’Donnell said. But in private conversations with the psychologist, O’Donnell said, Benefield said that she did not plan to withdraw it.   

O’Donnell described this difference as a potential motive in the shooting: The evaluation’s conclusions were to be revealed during a hearing Sept. 30, three days after Doug Benefield was shot.

But under cross-examination, Benefield testified that she didn’t confront Doug Benefield because she didn’t want to make him look bad in front of someone else.

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AREAS THAT REQUIRE FOLLOW UP QUESTIONING/RESOLUTION/

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

1. Ashley made it clear to all those around her that she wanted a

baby. When Ashley did indeed get pregnant, she ran off to her

mother's house, to live with her and be taken care of by her. 

This was the first step in removing Doug from her life.

2. Ashley tried to deny Doug ANY access or visitation with his

child.

3. There are NO REPORTS of abuse with accompanying evidence.

ALL SELF-REPORT; ALL-self-serving.

4. HOLLOW POINT BULLETS: interesting ammo choice, they are 

made to stay to stay in the body, not a through and through shot.

5. Self-defense does not require 4 shots. It requires one. For 

reference, an example: When Alex Cox "shot" Charles Vallow in

"self-defense." It was initially thought this was the case that he

had been shot once in center mass. Instead, he was shot 2 times,

and it was RULED A MURDER; NOT SELF-DEFENSE.

6. The Medical Examiner does not believe that Doug was even]

facing Ashley when he was shot.

7. Neither person, Doug nor Ashley, had good decision making 

when it came to the "mad dash" to get married. They were

married within three weeks of first meeting. Doug's previous

wife, and the mother of his now 20-something-year-old-daughter,

had passed away only 8 months previously. The daughter was not

told they were married right away. This hurt her deeply, and she

was equally angry at Doug (her father) and Ashley.

8. The MAJORITY OF ALL EVIDENCE comes from Ashley and her

own self-reports bc Doug is dead and cannot refute anything she

says/allegations she makes.

9. Ashley applied for an injunction, but it was denied by a judge.

This would seem to indicate that whatever she was reporting

did not fit the criteria of a protective order.

10. CANNOT rule OUT possibility she "lured" him there. That would 

give Ashley "home court advantage", as they were at her house,

evidently "packing to move." Ashley says they were arguing,

yet she ran away to the one room that had multiple guns in it.

Ashley was aware Doug was unarmed.

11.TIMING IS SUSPECT: All of "this" happened before she

"escapes with child"; clean slate?

12. She did not want Doug to have any role in her child's life;

which she made very clear.

13. WHY did Ashley and her daughter KEEP Doug BENEFIELD's 

last name? If she loathes him, as she claims to, it is very hard

to understand why she and her child would decide to keep Doug's

last name.