The investigation into Ashley Benefield and her husband's killing revealed two contrasting motivations and raised questions about domestic abuse and self-defense.
Ashley Benefield, a 33-year-old former ballerina, was charged with second-degree murder in the 2020 fatal shooting of her husband, 58-year-old Douglas Benefield. She was convicted on the lesser offense of manslaughter.
Officials launched an investigation into the shooting after arriving at the scene. Ashley Benefield was taken in for questioning. Tommie Benefield, Doug's cousin, said two lawyers were at the police station when Ashley arrived during the fifth episode of "Black Swan Murder," a podcast by Law & Crime.
The podcast can be accessed by Wondery+ subscribers on the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox, Pocket Casts and Overcast. New episodes of the 6-podcast are released on Mondays.
"Anyone else that you've ever heard of who had to shoot a human being and kill them is going to talk to the 911 operator, she did not; going to tell the story to the police, she did not; is not going to have a lawyer at the crime scene minutes after it happens," Tommie said. "That is not self-defense."
One piece of evidence used by both prosecutors and defense to prove their case was a gunshot wound on Doug Benefield's body.
"The testimony of the medical examiner was shot from the front, and the bullet entered right underneath the right nipple," Neil Taylor, Ashley Benefield's lawyer, said.
However, prosecutors argued that Doug Benefield was shot from a different angle.
"This is a bone of contention, but it was side to side, and the defense keeps saying front to back, but it went in on the side and came and rested in his back, so it was side to side," Prosecutor Suzanne O'Donnell said. "And that's a huge piece of physical evidence, because she claimed he was coming at her, which would be straight on. And if he was straight on, then if she shot him, it would go straight through."
Throughout the investigation, Ashley Benefield seemed unwilling to tell her side of the story to officials.
"Their hands were tied behind their back as well because she wasn't speaking," O'Donnell said. "It's really difficult to investigate a self-defense claim when nobody's telling you what the self-defense was."
Investigators found no signs of a struggle or evidence suggesting self-defense at the crime scene. No defensive wounds were found on Ashley Benefield when she was brought in for questioning.
An affidavit from the incident was read on the podcast.
"During this investigation, it was found that since the time Ashley found out she was pregnant with a child that she and Douglas share, she has made several allegations against Douglas," the affidavit states. "While looking into the outcomes of numerous cases, it was found that they never resulted in criminal charges, and furthermore, closed as unfounded. It appears that the main focus of these complaints was to keep the child away from Douglas."
The arrest warrant was issued about six weeks after Doug Benefield was killed, on November 4, 2020.
Taylor said that when he came onto the case, he found evidence to support that Ashley Benefield was being abused by her husband.
"I was really taken by surprise at the extent of the abuse that I was able to document," Taylor said.
Taylor said he even found evidence of abuse in Doug's first marriage to Renee Benefield.
"Beginning with his first wife, who left the text message on one of their old phones explaining how hard he had kicked her on their honeymoon and how disappointed she was in the fact that he was not who he had presented himself to be at all," Taylor said.
The defense requested a "Stand Your Ground" hearing. Under the Florida law, an individual is justified in using deadly force if he or she believes that using or threatening to use that force is necessary to prevent imminent death.
The hearing was held on July 6. While the defense presented all the evidence of domestic violence they had uncovered, they did not call any witnesses, including Ashley.
"If you're going to testify, you ought to do it in the Stand Your Ground trial, except that can be used against you in the murder trial," Tommie said.
The judge presiding over the proceeding, Judge Stephen Whyte did not side with the defense's claim of self-defense.
Ashley Benefield's trial began on July 23. While the court had not sided with Ashley, a grassroots campaign did. A "We Stand With Ashley" movement gained traction online and supporters gathered to protest outside of the courthouse as the trial began. Among the crowd with homemade signs and T-shirts was Ashley's pastor, mother and child.
While the defense dug into Ashley's background, there were aspects of it that were not allowed to be presented during the trial.
"There were several things that we litigated heavily before trial that the defense was not allowed to talk about this, not allowed to talk about that," O'Donnell said.
One of those pieces of evidence was a four-page message Ashley Benefield left her husband before moving out of their home.
"I can honestly tell you that I am completely heartbroken," the note reads. "Please do not be rash. Hear me out and read all the way to the end of this letter. Over the past year, we have had good times, yes, but you've also displayed scary and irrational behavior with sudden bursts of rage and fits of anger, extremely uncontrollable anger. This has left me constantly stressed to the point of nausea and scared for my safety."
Despite this, O'Donnell said the defense brought up some of these off-limits topics anyway.
"This attorney was very good at that, at saying things without backing up a lot of things," O'Donnell said. "But once they're spoken, they're spoken. We always say in this business that you can't unring that bell."
Ashley Benefield is scheduled to be sentenced on December 3. She is facing 11 to 30 years in prison.
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