Former ballerina Ashley Benefield found guilty of death of husband

The sound of handcuffs clicking shut reverberated through a Manatee County courtroom late Tuesday night at the conclusion of the Ashley Benefield trial. 

For the family of Doug Benefield, a naval pilot officer who was shot and killed by his estranged wife in Lakewood Ranch in September 2020, the sound was of ringing justice.

“The sound was as good as the sight,” Tommie Benefield, Doug Benefield’s cousin and a witness in the trial, said about watching Ashley Benefield be handcuffed, taken into the custody of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office and led out of the courtroom. 

After almost seven hours of deliberations, a six-person jury returned with a verdict of guilty of manslaughter, a lesser offense than the second-degree murder charge for Ashley Benefield, 32. They found that the former ballerina possessed and discharged a gun and as a result killed Doug Benefield.

The verdict was read out in a mostly empty courtroom — with Doug Benefield’s family filling half the gallery — compared to how full the benches had been just hours before and throughout the trial.

After five days of testimony, sidebars and objections the prosecution and defense gave closing arguments early Tuesday afternoon. 

In a case that has captured public interest, the former ballerina claimed she shot her estranged husband in self-defense, fearing for her life. The prosecution argued Ashley Benefield killed her husband in order to prevent him from learning she had no intention of reconciling their marriage and that her goal was to be a single mother with sole custody of their daughter.

The jury, made of five women and one man, began deliberations around 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon as slashing, torrential rain and dime-sized hail pelted outside the Manatee County Judicial Center. They were tasked with deciding whether Ashley Benefield shot and killed her estranged husband in cold blood or whether she acted in self-defense as a woman desperate to escape domestic abuse.

After six hours of deliberations, the jury said they couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict. The judge asked if they wanted to come back in the morning to continue deliberations, but the jury decided to stay. 

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Trial coverage:Defense rests their case, call mental health counselor

Less than an hour later, they delivered their verdict.

Doug Benefield’s family reacts to verdict, defense declines comment

Ashley Benefield’s defense attorney Neil Taylor inched closer to his client when the verdict was read by the court clerk, offering her comfort and support. 

Ashley Benefield remained solemn as the verdict was read. Her face revealed none of the emotions she’d displayed on the stand four days earlier. 

As the defense and prosecution made arguments about whether to remand her to the custody of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, the Lakewood Ranch mother bent her head over a piece of paper, scribbling a note. 

Taylor tried to keep his client out on bond before the sentencing hearing, arguing she has connections to the community, no prior criminal history and she’d appeared at every court hearing up to the trial. Assistant State Attorney Suzanne O’Donnell pointed out that Ashley Benefield had more at stake with the conviction as she potentially faces up to 30 years in prison.

Manatee County Circuit Court Judge Matt Whyte ordered that Ashley Benefield be taken into custody until the sentencing hearing, which is expected to be scheduled within the next few months.

Following the conclusion of the trial, Taylor walked past members of the media outside the judicial center declining to comment. 

Doug Benefield’s 23-year-old daughter, Eva, Tommie Benefield, and Doug Benefield’s younger brother, Dave, all took time to comment.

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“I apologize to all the women who have gone through domestic violence situations,” Eva Benefield said. “I think what Ashley was doing was unfair to them. They deserve justice and I’m very happy that my dad got the justice he deserves.”

Tommie Benefield said the family is happy Ashley Benefield was taken into custody as she’d only spent 17 days in jail following her arrest before she bonded out. He added they were thankful the lesser charge was included for the jury to consider. 

The family expressed their gratitude to the state attorneys, victim’s advocates, court personnel and the judge for everything they’d done.

Tommie Benefield acknowledged that the case was also hard on Ashley Benefield and that it’ll be difficult for her to be apart from her young daughter, who will remain with Ashley Benefield’s mother. 

Dave Benefield recalled getting to spend a few days with his brother five weeks before his death, and he said that Doug Benefield had loved his wife, his daughters and he wanted to be there for them.

“I am so thankful for justice, the entire process was simply amazing. But Doug, his heart would be, ‘I want to see my family healed, I would want to see my family whole,’” Dave Benefield said. 

As for the four long years of waiting for this verdict, Tommie Benefield said his family never gave up on the system. He and other members attended every hearing they could. While he acknowledged that you hate when anything takes that long to get to, it was worth it in the end when done right. 

‘She is not the victim’: Prosecutors state Ashley Benefield wasn’t domestic violence victim

“Domestic violence is absolutely a real problem,” O’Donnell said. “There are many, many women that are in horrendous situations. Women, and sometimes men, that are in situations that are being abused and beaten on a regular basis. People who feel like they cannot get out, no way to get out. This is not this defendant, and it never was.”

O’Donnell argued that Ashley Benefield used domestic violence and allegations to achieve her goal of gaining sole custody of her and Doug Benefield’s child at all costs. O’Donnell detailed how Ashley Benefield repeatedly made complaints and filed domestic violence injunctions against her husband, using the same claims over and over despite not having lived or been together with Doug Benefield for three years.

The prosecutor acknowledged that Doug Benefield wasn’t an angel and that his past behaviors hadn’t been appropriate; however, O’Donnell pointed out that the behavior had happened three years prior to the shooting.

By September 2020, Ashley Benefield had been living in her own home with her mother in Florida, Doug Benefield hadn’t physically harmed her in that time, he wasn’t controlling her comings and goings, and he couldn’t have used intimidation to control her since they hadn’t been together in three years. 

Beginning with their 13-day whirlwind romance and marriage, O’Donnell said that according to Ashley Benefield’s testimony, despite her husband becoming controlling and having angry outbursts, the couple decided Doug Benefield would have a vasectomy reversal to start a family. 

Despite moving away to Florida in August 2017, Ashley Benefield began a campaign of complaints against Doug Benefield, O’Donnell said. The judge granted a mutual injunction in South Carolina, which meant there was no finding of fault, but the family court judge in Florida denied Ashley Benefield’s domestic violence injunction and granted Doug visitation rights.

O’Donnell said MCSO Det. Chris Gillum’s testimony proved Ashley’s motive when she adamantly urged him to arrest Doug Benefield before a judge to help her “keep her baby.” 

The prosecution claimed Ashley Benefield was aware that her charade of reconciling with her husband was over and her comments of time running out and taking matters into her own hands in the days leading up to the shooting proved where her state of mind was the night Doug Benefield came over to help pack.

Assistant State Attorney Rebecca Freel hammered home one word to the jury during the last part of the prosecution’s closing arguments: “Manipulate.”

Ashley Benefield attempted to manipulate the Courts, law enforcement and various therapists, and now she was now trying to manipulate the jury, Freel said.

Freel pointed out that during Ashley Benefield’s testimony, it wasn’t until the judge pointed out that there were tissues to the right side of the stand, that Ashley Benefield grabbed one.

“She’d been crying for 15 minutes. Didn’t need a tissue,” Freel said. “That’s manipulation. That’s her effort to manipulate you and make you believe that she was a victim. She is not the victim. Douglas Benefield was the victim in this case.”

‘I’m going to surrender her fate to you’

“The issue to be resolved in this case: was the force used justified,” Taylor questioned the jury, his already quiet voice gruffer from being sick.

Taylor harkened back to his opening statements where he told the jury that Doug Benefield “was a very sick guy” and that his client’s actions on Sept. 27, 2020, were “absolutely justified.” 

The defense’s closing arguments focused on evidence that showed Ashley Benefield was a victim of domestic violence and how the prosecution’s theory of motive switched halfway through the case.

Taylor reminded the jury that the prosecution’s case relied on the motive that Ashley Benefield allegedly killed Doug Benefield to prevent him from seeing a report that was supposed to be released on Sept. 30, three days after the shooting took place. The report was the result of an agreed upon psychological evaluation by Dr. Brad Broeder as part of a domestic violence injunction. 

Taylor pointed out that Stephanie Murphy, the family law attorney hired by Doug Benefield to represent him in the injunction, had testified that the report was supposed to be released on the 30th. However, an email chain between Murphy, Ashley Benefield’s family attorney and a judge’s judicial assistant showed that the hearing was simply for the domestic violence injunction, not the release of the report. 

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Further, the same psychologist said that Ashley Benefield had no violent tendencies and wasn’t prone to contemptuous acts, Taylor said. Her only concern about the report, according to testimony, was that if Doug found out what she’d said about him, he would take it out on her or their child.

For four years, Ashley Benefield did what any law-abiding citizen was expected to do, Taylor said. She filed complaint after complaint about her estranged husband’s behavior to law enforcement, to no avail. Taylor questioned why she’d make the sudden leap to kill. 

Turning to Bruce Ferris’ testimony, Taylor pointed out how the mental health counselor listed aspects of Doug Benefield’s past that aligned with an abuser’s tendencies. He threatened to kill himself in front of Ashley, he punched the dog so hard he knocked him unconscious, he threw a loaded gun at his wife, placed a tracker on her car, he drove from South Carolina to Florida to track his wife, and he cursed, yelled and belittled his wife, Taylor said.

“If that’s not determination, what is? If that’s not fixation, what is? If that’s not obsession, what is?” Taylor questioned. 

Taylor argued that his client exhibited the characteristics of a victim of domestic violence by appeasing her estranged husband by going along to get along in order to protect her child. He said while she may have looked happy and content, she was in compliance mode to keep Doug Benefield at bay. 

“For the last several years, I’ve walked hand-in-hand with Ashley,” Taylor said. “I’m going to surrender her fate to you.”

Gabriela Szymanowska covers the legal system for the Herald-Tribune in partnership with Report for America. You can support her work with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America. Contact Gabriela Szymanowska at gszymanowska@gannett.com, or on X: @GabrielaSzyman3.