The dancer known as the ‘Black Swan’, who is on trial for murdering her allegedly abusive husband, has criticised her nickname and claims she is the victim.
Ashley Benefield, now 32, ran into her neighbor’s home in Bradenton, Florida, on Sept. 27, 2020 after shooting and killing Doug Benefield, 59, whom she married in 2016 after dating just 13 days.
Before her trial, Ashley sat down with ABC News and explained why she doesn’t like her catchy nickname ‘Black Swan’, based on the 2010 thriller starring Natalie Portman.
‘The black swan has a catchy sound and sensationalizes my life and my situation. It’s sad to me that people who You don’t even know me for having this idea of a monster when they Think of me, he said.
Ashley, who shares a son with Doug, also insisted she was a victim of domestic violence at the hands of her husband.
Ashley Benefield (pictured), 32, who is on trial for allegedly murdering her husband Doug Benefield, 59, said she is a victim of domestic abuse and the nickname ‘Black Swan’ does not suit her.
On September 27, 2020, Ashley ran to a neighbor’s house in Bradenton, Florida, and told him she had shot and killed Doug, whom she married in 2016 after dating for just 13 days. (pictured: Doug and Ashley)
‘There are women everywhere. country, in the whole world, that have happened or are happening through difficult situations behind ‘closed doors,’ Ashley said.
Ashley She met Doug, a recently widowed father, at Ben Carson’s home in Palm Beach, Florida, in August 2016, when she was 24 and he was 54. She had been campaigning for then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
They married just 13 days later and soon after launched the American National Ballet, a dance company based in Charleston, South Carolina.
In the early days of their relationship, “they were together all the time,” testified Eva, Doug’s 23-year-old daughter from a previous marriage.
“They were very affectionate and showed affection in public all the time. They never separated,” she said.
After being married for a year, Doug, a retired naval flight officer, helped Ashley achieve her dream of founding a ballet company, using his own money and contacts.
He acted as CEO of the company, while Ashley took on the role of executive director.
But shortly after its founding, the company was sued by dancers and choreographers who claimed their contracts were breached when they were fired just weeks after being hired.
Doug also had his vasectomy reversed and Ashley became pregnant three months later with their daughter Emerson, now six years old.
That’s when everything changed, Assistant State Attorney Suzanne O’Donnell said in court Tuesday.
After being married for a year, Doug (pictured), a retired naval flight officer, helped Ashley achieve her dream of founding a ballet company, using his own money and contacts.
She said Ashley moved from her home in South Carolina to Florida to live with her mother when she began experiencing morning sickness and, from that point on, she never lived with Doug again.
“They continued a long-distance relationship when she first moved to Florida and continued to try to stay together and in communication, but around the same time the ballet company collapsed, Ashley Benefield began making complaints against the victim,” O’Donnell told jurors.
She began accusing Doug of poisoning her and non-physical domestic violence.
Ashley said Doug constantly brought her teas that she believed contained poison. CBS News reported.
But Manatee County Sheriff’s Office detectives conducted a five-week investigation and were unable to find any evidence to support her claims of abuse.
Prosecutors now argue that killing Doug was a last-ditch effort to gain custody of their daughter, who was 2 years old at the time of the shooting.
“This is a case of a woman who, early in her pregnancy, decided that she wanted to be a single mother,” O’Donnell argued. “She did not want the father of her child to have visitation rights.”
‘This is a long story, this was a custody battle that this mother would win at any cost, and the cost was Doug Benefield’s life.’
Prosecutors argued that Doug was doing everything he could to repair his marriage and keep his family together.
Eva, Doug’s 23-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, testified: “They were affectionate and showed their affection in public all the time. They were never apart.”
On the day of her death, Doug arrived at Ashley’s home to help her and her daughter pack their things when he was shot four times in Ashley’s bedroom. She ran to her neighbor and told her about the shooting.
On Tuesday, Ashley was seen sobbing as her neighbor’s 911 call from the day Doug was killed was played.
“I heard a very loud knock on my door,” neighbor Josh Sant testified, according to Fox 13“I was a little surprised.”
Ashley now faces a minimum sentence of 25 years behind bars and a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted. (pictured: her mugshot)
He said he opened the door and found Ashley, who told him her husband attacked her and she shot him.
Sant then called 911 and told officers: “She just walked in, her ex-husband attacked her and she said she shot him,” according to an audio recording played in court.
In a previously filed motion obtained by Law and crime, Defense attorneys argued that Doug arrived “happy, hyperactive and lively” but over time became “agitated, sullen and intimidating.”
After verbally abusing his wife, the defense claims, Doug rammed her with a moving box, leaving scrapes.
“Doug Benefield knew full well that day that this relationship was over,” Ashley’s lawyer Neil Taylor argued in court.
She went on to claim that Doug was manipulative and “viewed Ashley Benefield as his property.”
“Despite promoting himself as a religious, honorable and decent human being, Benefield was a manipulative, cunning and abusive man who insisted, absolutely insisted on control,” Taylor added.
He went on to tell the jury that Doug once fired a gun into the kitchen ceiling in an attempt to get Ashley to stop talking, threw a loaded gun at her, punched her dog in the face, knocking it unconscious, and regularly carried a concealed firearm that was “ready to fire.”
Protesters outside a Florida courthouse on Monday showed their support for the former dancer who accused her late husband of domestic abuse.
He also claimed that after Ashley and Doug split up, he illegally tracked her, often following her without her consent and even driving from out of state to keep an eye on her.
At least once, Doug allegedly stood in a neighbor’s backyard in the middle of the night so he could see her.
Protesters outside a Florida courthouse on Monday showed their support for the former dancer.
“We’re really standing up for Ashley,” her pastor, Mike Brown, told Fox 13.
“We have a group of domestic violence survivors who are with us, ready to see that justice prevails.”
Ashley now faces a minimum sentence of 25 years behind bars and a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of Doug’s murder following the two-week trial.
“It’s a horrible reality. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. Emerson has been through a lot,” Ashley told ABC News.
“I can’t imagine how it would affect him if things went wrong at trial.”
