A former ballerina was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday for the 2020 shooting death of her ex-husband in Florida.
CBS affiliate WTSP reports that Ashley Benefield was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with credit for time served, followed by 10 years of probation. The case, known as the “Black Swan murder” trial, attracted national attention, with some comparing Benefield to the protagonist of the 2010 film “Black Swan.”
The former ballerina was guilty by a jury in July on charges of manslaughter for shooting and killing her husband, Doug Benefield, in September 2020 after an argument.
Ashley Benefield, 32, claimed she killed her ex-husband, then 58, in self-defense during an argument at her mother’s home, where she had moved from South Carolina after the ‘have left. Authorities said she shot him twice.
“I just held the gun in front of me and said, stop, and he turned around and he got into this position almost like a fighting stance. He started moving his arms and his hands …he started coming towards me and he lunged at me and I just pulled the trigger,” Ashley Benefield testified at his trial.
Pool/Bradenton Herald
The couple married after knowing each other for less than two weeks, “48 hours” reported. At the time of their marriage, Ashley Benefield was 24, and Doug Benefield, a widower whose wife had died about nine months earlier, was 54.
As reported by “48 Hours”the marriage was difficult. There was tension between Ashley Benefield and Doug Benefield’s teenage daughter, and an attempt to start a ballet company together failed. Ashley Benefield accused her husband of poisoning his first wife and left him while she was pregnant with their child to stay with his mother, alleging he was now poisoning her. The allegations were investigated by police and no charges were filed.
Once their child was born in 2018, Ashley Benefield allegedly hid the baby from her husband for six months, until a judge intervened. After that, the couple largely reconciled and in 2020, they planned to move to Maryland together at the suggestion of Ashley Benefield.
On September 27, 2020, the Benefields were preparing a U-Haul truck for the move. Ashley Benefield’s mother, Alicia Byers, took her granddaughter to a park, leaving the couple alone in the house. A neighbor reported hearing sudden screams and called 911.
Moments later, Ashley Benefield arrived at another neighbor’s home, gun in hand. She allegedly told the neighbor that she shot her husband in self-defense. The neighbor called 911.
When police and emergency services responded, Doug Benefield was still alive but unable to speak. He died at an area hospital about an hour later.
Investigators determined that Doug Benefield was shot twice, once in the leg and once in the arm. This second bullet entered his chest cavity. The shots were fired as he turned away from his wife, investigators determined.
Ashley Benefield’s lawyer, Faith Brown, told police at the time that her client had planned to leave her husband and had an escape plan, including a safe place to stay, a cell phone and a car rental property rented under another name. Brown told police that Benefield feared her husband “had gotten wind” of the plan.
Ashley Benefield was arrested five weeks after the shooting.
