A former ballerina’s murder trial in Manatee County, Florida, in the 2020 shooting death of her 58-year-old Navy veteran husband Doug Benefield ended late on Tuesday with a guilty verdict for manslaughter with the use of a firearm, but you wouldn’t know that from watching her response to the outcome.
Ashley Benefield, now 32, offered no reaction at all as the verdict was read, after roughly six and a half hours of deliberations.
Left: Ashley Benefield stone-faced as guilty verdict is read on July 30, 2024. Right inset: Doug Benefield and Ashley Benefield (Law&Crime).
Moments later, Benefield grabbed a pen and started writing on a note pad before she was taken into custody to await sentencing, which could lead to a punishment of up to 30 years behind bars, prosecutors said.
Ashley Benefield writes on note pad after guilty verdict (Law&Crime).
There was never any dispute that Ashley Benefield shot and killed Doug Benefield at a Lakewood Ranch home in September 2020, but the defense maintained that the defendant opened fire in self-defense.
The prosecution attempted to paint a picture of a woman who “early on in her pregnancy, decided she wanted to be a single mother” and “did not want the father of this child to have any visitation.”
“And at the end, when there was no other option, she shoots him and kills him and claims self-defense,” prosecutor Suzanne O’Donnell said in opening statements.
“By all images, they looked like they were going to reconcile,” O’Donnell continued. “The problem was: that’s not what Ashley Benefield wanted. Although that’s what she was portraying, that’s not what she wanted.”
On the day of the shooting, Ashley Benefield was preparing to move to Maryland with her mother and the then-separated couple’s young daughter. Doug Benefield arrived to help with the move — a move he also planned to make, though the two would remain separate.
After arriving “happy, hyper and animated,” the man eventually became “agitated, sullen and intimating,” the defense claimed. Eventually, after verbally insulting his wife, Doug Benefield rammed her with a moving box, leaving abrasions, the defense further said. The altercation escalated and ended in a homicide.
At trial, Benefield’s defense argued that Doug Benefield was “anything but” a victim and was, instead, “a very disturbed man.”
“He fired a handgun into the ceiling of their kitchen on an occasion to stop Ashley from talking,” defense attorney Neil Taylor said in court. “He threw a loaded gun at Ashley. He punched their dog in the face so hard that he knocked the dog unconscious.”
“Ashley Benefield feared him,” Taylor added. “She left him a letter when she moved out three years prior to the homicide detailing how scared she was of him because of all of these acts. She feared for herself and for her unborn child. Three years before the shooting. She left him; he pursued. She rejected him; he would not take no for an answer.”
Ashley Benefield testifies in court (Law&Crime).
Benefield testified in her own defense at trial and appeared to be emotional when talking about the deadly shooting.
There was no emotion at all when the jury of her peers found her guilty.
Doug Benefield’s daughter Eva, however, tearfully looked on.
After the verdict, Eva posted on TikTok that her dad “got the justice he deserves” after “four years of waiting.”
Colin Kalmbacher contributed to this report.
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