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Who is Ashley Benefield and what did she do? All you need to know about her amid Black Swan murder trial
Ashley Benefield, a former ballerina who is accused of shooting and killing her husband is currently on trial in a Florida court.
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Ashley Benefield, Florida ballerina is on trial for murder of her husband
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Benefield's trial got underway in Florida earlier this week
TRIGGER WARNING: This article contains references to homicide.
A 32-year-old former dancer is currently on trial after being charged with killing Doug Benefield, her estranged husband. Ashley Benefield's trial got underway in Florida earlier this week after she allegedly killed her husband in September 2020 at her mother's Lakewood Ranch residence.
Ashley Benefiedl claims to have shot her husband out of self-defense
Ashley, who is accused of second-degree murder, has been accused by the prosecution of killing the Navy veteran because she no longer wanted him in her life or the lives of their daughter. According to Ashley's defense lawyer, Ashley killed Doug out of self-defense after he attacked her and feared for her own life after years of abuse.
Who is Ashley Benefield?
In 2016, Doug, a 54-year-old technology consultant and veteran of the Navy, and Ashley, a 24-year-old ballet dancer, met at a Republican party event held at the Palm Beach estate of former presidential candidate Ben Carson. Their love was quick, and 13 days later they were married.
Doug helped Ashley realize her ambition of founding a ballet company, and the two went on to form The American National Ballet, hoping to employ dancers of all body types. However, things quickly started to go wrong. Ashley moved from South Carolina to Florida in August 2017 to live with her mother.
What did Ashley Benefield do?
When she originally moved to Florida, they maintained a distance relationship and made an effort to stay in touch. However, Ashley Benefield began to file complaints against the victim around the same time the ballet failed.
Prosecutors say Ashley tried to get rid of Doug by accusing him of emotional abuse and claiming he had attempted to poison her with heavy metals, as Fox 13 reported. The prosecution said that she kept their child's birth a secret from Doug, informing him only after she requested a restraining order against him.
Doug visited Ashley's mother's house on September 27, 2020, to help Ashley with packing for their planned transfer to Maryland, where he was also planning to settle. Following a 911 call, authorities discovered Doug shot to death and bleeding in three different. Ashley informed the authorities that she had shot her partner in self-defense after he attempted to attack her.
At that time, the Manatee County Sheriff's Office stated that although Ashley had claimed that Doug had attacked her during the incident, however, detectives found no evidence that she was acting in self-defense when she fired multiple shots at her husband.
