trying to recorded line This is Gabby how can I help you hey Gabby it's on the I the phone he's saying the neighbor came over female neighbor it was a domestic she shot her husband okay all right I'm going to get that on the screen okay okay it was a pleasant night of September in the peak Co time when myty County's 911 Department received an emergency call from a man reporting that he had heard gunshots across the street from his house uh one of the neighbor heard said he heard gunshot okay they just told do
that or did you hear gunshots as well uh one of the neighbor that was walking around here he said he hear gunshots might be might have weap walk while the police were immediately dispatched to the location in the meantime they were put on the call with the neighbor who was currently harboring the shooter she's with me now quite upset the weapon is here we need the police before the mother her mother and the little girl gets back from the park I don't want them to find it she was quite hysterical I didn't know who was
banging on dor said that he attacked her and she shot him they've been having trouble [Music] [Music] okay Ashley Benfield a rising star in the ballerina world and an amateur swimsuit model who was supposed to be dancing Swan turned into a killer who mercilessly killed her own husband dying her hands red with his blood did the former ballerina kill Doug Benfield in self-defense or was it a cold-hearted murder hidden beneath Sinister intentions while the world was trying to figure out the truth Ashley was convicted of a second degree murder and put up for a trial
that was due in 4 years during that time police investigated everything that had happened and found out that things might not be what they had thought beneath the seemingly normal case of self-defense lies a cavern of dark secrets that will shock the world before we discuss that let's pray for the Departed soul that it may rest in peace the blossoming love between a killer and the victim started with an unusual meeting which can only be called a fateful accident 24-year-old Ashley Benfield who was still known as Ashley Byer is at the time was a young
ballerina dancer and a party fundraiser for the presidential campaign of Donald Trump during the 2016 elections 54-year-old Doug Benfield a Navy veteran and a technology consultant who has just gone through a heartbreak after losing his previous wife Renee to a heart condition just 9 months ago Doug happened to meet Ashley at one of the rallies and they were both smitten with each other in just 14 days he was Charming very funny really smart confident but quiet we were there for political reasons but then also he was a man of Faith shared similar interests for Doug
it was a chance to find love once again and for Ashley this quickly made them both a perfect fit for each other and for them it was the perfect chance to settle together and start a bright new chapter in their life just 13 days after meeting each other at the party in Florida Doug and Ashley decided to marry what was supposed to be a happy moment for them was a shock to Doug's teenage daughter whom he had with his previous spouse Renee Ava Benfield spoke about her father's impulsive decision to marry in an interview after
my mom died he really took kind of a motherly role along with a fatherly role he made sure you know I could go to him with boy problems with School drama with anything and he would take care of it I was upstairs and he said Eva we need to come down talk to me and Ashley and I said the only thing that you would need to tell me about y'all's relationship is if y'all if you proposed and as soon as those words came out of my mouth he said were married the couple had Big Dreams
especially Ashley so Doug put all of his effort into accomplishing them for her together they built their own ballet company known as the American national ballet while Doug was trying his best to build a stable company that will revolutionize the ballerina dancers of America Ashley was making sure that their family was happy in the process what seemed like a peaceful family soon started to fall apart when Doug and Ava heard that news which was the first crack in the wall in July 2017 Doug received the news from Ashley that she was pregnant Ashley always wanted
to have children as she dreamt of having her own family but the timing was not quite right since they had just married and they were in the middle of starting a new business Ava was perhaps the one who was the most affected by it in an interview she told the public that how did that sit with you it didn't sit well at all so this kind of felt like another stab in the back there was a lot of stress cuz now they basically have two teenage daughters and a little girl on the way things became
worse in August Ashley told Doug that she will be going back to her mother's house because in her words her pregnancy was decided to be too difficult this was tough for Doug who was already on the verge of exhausting himself because the American National Ballet company that they had set up was not working at all all the ballet dancers that they had just hired were soon starting to leave because they weren't getting paid on time and the company was going into one loss after another but Doug for the sake of his future children decides to
move in close to Ashley's Mother home in brington in hopes that he'll be there when his wife and future daughter need him but without him knowing Ashley gave birth in March without him even knowing that his daughter was already in this world Ashley purposely gave him a wrong due date so that he wouldn't be able to see her at all and so Ashley files an injunction Motion in the Family Court denying her husband to Doug any chance to to meet and visit his newly born daughter at all Doug who will never allow that to happen
tries to fight against the court but this is where Ashley brings up the domestic violence accusations which takes the court another month to sort out fortunately for Doug in September of 2018 the court finally denounced all the allegations and denied the motion from Ashley and set up a visitation schedule for Ashley and Doug but Ashley kept on fighting back and so the custody battle continued between them for months even though they were still seeing each other and often spent long amounts of time together at least according to their family court attorney during that time but
the previous cracks in their relationship were still there so no matter what happened they still bickered with each other at every small detail this continued to happen till both of them eventually decided to move in together and settle things once back but this was Doug's biggest mistake as he didn't know that this would be the last day of his life on this very Earth it was the eve of September 27th and Doug as he had promised to Ashley came with his U-Haul truck that he had parked right in front of her mother's house he got
up he went inside to help Ashley pick up the stuff so they loaded it into the truck they had planned to move together into a property that he had rented nearby Ashley's mother's house but while they were packing stuff Ashley and Doug got into an argument over how they should load the U-Haul Ashley tried to correct Doug by saying that her things should go in last so that it would be easier for her to get her stuff out first but this only served to make Doug upset as he told her that it looked like she's
already trying to split their stuff apart and what is her stuff should be his and what is his should be hers moreover he felt like she was trying to kick him out of the house so he became even more angry and told her that it is his right as her husband so he can even stay the night here if he wants these few words that he emitted in Anger quickly turned into a heated argument which eventually led to Doug hitting Ashley for the first time in their relationship fearing for her safety she ran towards her
bedroom as Doug followed her behind out of fear the only thing that Ashley could do was to grab the 45 caliber handgun in her bedroom which she pointed at Doug while threatening to leave her alone she angrily scowled at him but this only served to make Doug even more mad as he started moving even closer towards her according to Ashley benfield's statement Doug had taken a mixed martial arts stance which involved him protecting his body with his arms which she continued to move in a circular motion seeing that Doug wasn't willing to stop Ashley had
no choice to pull the trigger and she didn't stop until Doug was completely down without realizing what she had just done Ashley grabbed her handgun and sprinted straight out of her room and toward the neighbor's house where she fiercely started banging on the door on September 27th 2020 Dispatchers in manate County received a 911 call around 6 p.m. from a neighbor John sent to report a shooting at the home it's right next door to me she just came over her strange husband attacked her and she says she shot him Ashley was walked to his house
holding a 45 caliber gun and said Doug had attacked her and she shot him in the background Ashley's sobbing cries could be heard as she tells Jon that Doug is in her bedroom when asked by the color where Doug's body is in the house JN also informed to the police that the gun that was used in the event was also at his house but away from Ashley's grasp the 911 Department told the neighbors to stay calm and to not check on the crime scene until the police are there time was ticking slowly but soon the
police arrived as the ship shiff outside the medical team entered Ashley's mother's house and found Doug lying on the ground in Ashley's bedroom he had been shot two times once in the leg and one in the arm but the bullet had somehow managed to penetrate his chest leaving him in critical condition soon Doug was taken to a local hospital but due to the severity of his injuries he wasn't able to make it and he passed on at the age of 15 after the examination of the crime scene and hearing Ashley's defense that she only shot
doug because he threatened to kill her they came to a conclusion that her story didn't match with the crime scene and her post body examination where it was found that she had no injuries aside from an old scar this led to an issue of an arrest warrant against Ashley Benfield who decided that it was best to turn herself in and let the court prove her innocence in November of 2020 Ashley Benfield turned herself in at man County Jail and was officially charged with the second degree murder however she did not plead guilty and she had
to await her trial which was scheduled to be on July 23rd of 2024 the 4-year period was a difficult time for Doug's family and especially his daughter who silently awaited Justice to be surfed eventually the time finally arrived and Ashley Benfield was put on trial by Florida's jury the trial started with Suzanne OD denell as the prosecutor and held Ashley Benfield accountable for the cold-hearted murder that she committed of her ceased to Doug Benfield who was just there to be a great father to his daughter and a great husband toward Ashley this case is about
a woman who very early on in her pregnancy decided she wanted to be a single mother and she did not want the father of this child to have any visitation her husband and everything she did from that point on was to attain that goal and she would stop at nothing to attain that goal she tried several things in the system that you'll hear the courts law enforcement Department of Children and Families no one got on her side and at the end when there was no other option she shoots him and kills him and claims self-defense
prosecution argued that Ashley Benfield planned to be a single mother and didn't want Doug Benfield anywhere near their daughter that's why she tried so many times to use legal means to keep Doug away from their child but when everything else failed she shot her husband and killed him while still claiming that it was all in self-defense Ashley Benfield was the only person that was armed it was her gun she had it from before it's not like she took it away from Doug it was her gun and Doug Benfield was not armed he had no gun
no knife no Club no weapon of any kind suzan also highlighted that only Ashley Benfield was armed with a weapon and that Doug had nothing in his hands not even enough knife so there's no way he could have harmed her much else killed her now he was shot multiple times but one of the bullets was fatal the trajectory of that bullet was side to side it was not straight on Doug Benfield was not facing her coming at her at the time that the Fatal shot was fired moreover Ashley pleaded guilty by saying that Doug had
attacked her first but the post body examination showed that Ashley had no signs of injury which is in contradiction with the statement that she gave after she shot Doug if her goal was to stop Doug from harming her she could have just shot him on the leg so that he couldn't approach her but instead she purposely shot him close to the chest knowing that it could have been fatal to the 58-year-old victim also according to the manate County Sheriff's Office based on the entry wounds on Douglas it does not appear that he was facing Ashley
when she began shooting the detective route it also does not appear that Douglas had any kind of defensive or combative stance the medical examiner released an autopsy report that Doug Benfield was shot in the chest and not in the back but Ellie ignored those findings there is no way he was facing her when she shot him no way here's another angle this is from the back so if it went in on the side the right hand side and that red dot is where it landed in the back in Suzanne's eyes this was nothing but a
manipulative and calculating move by Ashley to separate her child from their father this is indicated from the fact that she was trying to reconcile with Doug while also planning to move somewhere else with her mother and daughter which was oddly suspicious in its own right Ashley's defense Mr Neil G Taylor defended her by telling the jury that Ashley was a victim of domestic violence emotional abuse and a violent household he portrayed Ashley to be a kind young woman who had Inspirations of achieving Big Dreams by becoming a part of Trump's Administration in 2016 elections but
Doug Benfield took everything from her and played her into becoming his wife this is going to show that Douglas Benfield was a very disturbed man of that I assure you you'll have no doubt when the case is over 30 years older than Ashley he was obsessed with her and he successfully portrayed himself as everything he was not in an effort to win her hand at first he didn't show his true colors and pretended to be a great husband he told her that he would never abuse her and promised to give her the whole world but
things became clear when his teenage daughter Ava Benfield started to live with them the same loving husband soon became an abusive husband after his teenage daughter didn't sit well with a stepmother who's just 9 years older than her soon things started to fall apart and Ashley became more and more afraid for her well-being to learn during this trial that over the course of this four-year relationship Douglas Benfield did the following he fired a handgun into the ceiling of their kitchen on an occasion to stop Ashley from Talking he threw a loaded gun at Ashley he
punched dog in the face so hard that he knocked the dog uncons ious it became so bad that at one point during an argument Doug pulled out a gun and pointed at his head as he told her that he will blow out his brains right in front of her but this wasn't the end when Doug couldn't pull the trigger on his head he chose a different maneuver and instead shot the gun at the ceiling showing Ashley what he's capable of he further made Doug into the villain by stating that Doug punched Ashley's dog which he
admitted to on the chats by telling Ashley that it was all in anger and he prom promises that he will do better this all eventually led to the day of the unfortunate event where Ashley was backed away into a corner it had no choice but to shoot her husband in self-defense the allegations against Doug were quite heavy and it seemed that Ashley would slip away from the cold murder that she had committed but fortunately the jury was sharp enough and saw straight through her lies and deception soon the Witnesses were called the first one to
testify was Doug's cousin Tommy Benfield he told the judge that he knew that Doug and Ash met at a political party and just after 13 days they decided to marry each other he also told the jury that Doug had previously undergone vasectomy he only undid it because of Ashley's wish to become a mother she talked about how they met at a political event a meeting uh where Doug and his business investors were Ashley had reached out to him before that meeting they showed me text messages between them for the 10 days between the first meeting
and her second meeting with him up in Charleston Mount Pleasant indicate to you when they got married or how long they had been married yes ma'am 13 days from first meeting that that they got married 13 days after they met yes ma'am okay did Ashley ever discuss with you that she carried a gun yes and what did she say about that she said that on their initial meeting in the political meeting that she and Doug and Doug's uh traveling partner in business went outside outside of Secret Service people and she showed him the gun she
was carrying at that event in her bra but did you have any conversations that night about them wanting to have a child or was that a different time I don't remember us talking about it that first night no ma'am okay do you remember a conversation with Doug and Ashley specifically Ashley about them wanting a child I I believe it was later in uh in the late spring the next time that I visited with them just like Tommy the next witness was Doug's first daughter Ava Benfield who testified to the daughter about the marriage between her
father and Ashley Benfield she informed the jury that even though she didn't like her father's decision she respected his wishes and continued to support him however after Ashley tried to play the role as her mother she felt awkward as she was just 9 years older than her you said um if Ashley was trying to get her point across that she would go on and on about that yes okay so you don't term that as a disagreement no okay and what would you term that as um my dad just listened to her voice her concerns okay
did you ever hear your dad at any time yell at her no did you ever hear um your dad do something or say something that was controlling to her no did you ever see or hear your dad threat leading when faced with difficult questions like her father being an abuser or that he poisoned his previous wife Eva became aggressive and denied all the claims she told the jury that her father loved her mother and was with them until the very end one by one each witness testified in the court and the jury wasn't able to
come to a conclusion in a single day so the trial was postponed until the next day where more witnesses were called and more investigations were brought in through front of the world one of the major testimonies was by Alicia buers the mother of Ashley Benfield she told the court about her daughter's living conditions and how she suffered an extremely difficult pregnancy and came back home to live with her she also talked about the firearm and how Ashley had always carried it with her even before she met Doug Battlefield moved in with you when she was
pregnant yes okay and she was married at the time but it was just Ashley that moved in yeah he brought her down okay and yes and yeah and she moved in with you yeah he he told me I needed to take care of her he dropped her off okay so she um stayed with you from that time on correct yes does Ashley have a concealed weapons permit yes does she own firearms she doesn't now no did she own firearms then okay how many um two I think yeah two did she ever go to the firing
range or I'm sorry yes okay how frequently would she go um well we did all the courses to the other important witness was Dr Barbara Russell who was a licensed clinical psychologist with whom Ashley Benfield stayed together with after the event of the shooting she talked about Ashley's mental health and how she suffered terribly from the constant emotional abuse during her relationship with Doug Benfield did Ashley Benfield look like that when you saw her prior to the day of the homicide prior to the day no okay what was different about her when I saw her
after the incident there was edema SW swelling on the side of her face okay and that did that include her right eye it included her left eye left eye rather yes okay and when you saw her before the homicide did she have swelling on the left side of her face on her cheek and her eyelid she never had no when you saw her immediately following the incident that that morning at about 1:00 a.m. um was there any indication that by Ashley that her head was hurting objection here suain oh spontaneous statement your honor from Doug's
side his previous defense attorney during the family court drama for the issues between the couple and the custody of the child was Stephanie Murphy I saw that Miss Benfield had filed a petition for protection against domestic violence on I think it was April 23rd so about 2 weeks prior to me finding out she had filed the petition and in that filing there was um she identified the birth date of the child as well as I think the child's name which is the first time we learned about that she testified the whole drama that had occurred
between Doug and Ashley and how the child custody case went with Ashley falsely accusing Doug only to be later disproven and forced to have Doug meet their daughter on a specific visitation schedule all these testimonies only made the more complicated from what have been portrayed until now it was clear that Doug Benfield had some sort of anger issues but Ashley Benfield had also lied in the past to paint Doug as the villain but failed the trial went on for four more days until around July 30th of 2024 I look at the bases for the downward
departure and I consider all of the facts and evidence that have been presented to me so with that said the sentence of the Court will be as follows I'm good to senten you to 20 years in Florida State Prison that's be to be followed by 10 years of probation upon your release andate prison the jury had finally announced that Ashley Benfield was guilty of killing her husband and was charged with a lesser crime of manslaughter with a firearm on December 3rd due to her lawyer pleading a lower sentence on her behalf Ashley's original sentence of
30 years was reduced to 20 years in prison followed by 10 years of probation the sentence was a bit unacceptable to Duck's family especially his daughter who told the press that she wishes that Ashley would just rot in jail until the end of her life but she eventually accepted the ruling and was at peace with her father finally getting the justice that he deserved this case caused a huge wave across the country with many news journalists calling it The Black Swan murder case in reference to the 2010 movie Black Swan it was the perfect name
for his case since in the movie The Artist was mentally tortured and became broken which is quite similar to how Ashley Benfield was a former ballerina and yet she became a cold-hearted killer now serving 20 years in prison unfortunately this whole event left many lives ruined two daughters lost their father a mother saw her daughter turning into a murderer a husband leaving this world at the hands of his beloved wife and the Beloved wife who ruined everything with her own hands that she had built everything with
