A ballet boss murdered by his glamorous dancer wife had an “angry side”, former members of his dance studio have revealed.
Ashley Benefield, 32, was found guilty of manslaughter in what the media called her ‘Black Swan’ murder trial after she shot and killed her husband Doug Benefield, 59, on September 27, 2020. .
Ashley has insisted she acted in self-defence against Doug, whom she married in 2016 after dating for 13 days.
Now, two former members of American National Ballet, the Charleston, South Carolina-based dance company the couple opened in 2017, have revealed that Doug had a “very angry side.”
Hanna Manka and Sarah Walborn spoke about their experience at the then-pioneering dance school on a recent episode of the Law & Crime podcast ‘Black Swan Murder’ and revealed that Doug, the father of Ashely’s daughter, often raised his voice.
Ballet boss Doug Benefield, 59 (pictured), murdered by his glamorous dancer wife Ashley Benefield, 32, had an “angry side” to him, according to his fellow dancers.
Ashley was found guilty of manslaughter in what the media called her ‘Black Swan’ murder trial, after she shot and killed Doug Benefield on September 27, 2020 (pictured: the former couple).
“Doug came out with a very angry side; this was the first time I saw him angry,” Walborn said, recalling a past interaction with him.
‘And at the time, I found it strange that he was so passionate about this conversation that was being had. And it painted a picture of the future encounters I had with him along the way.”
Manka said he sensed things were wrong when he arrived at the theater the company was supposed to use for its planned gala performance and saw no advertising for the debut event.
‘Absolutely nothing in the program. “That’s a little strange,” Manka said.
Walborn agreed with that idea, saying the study was full of “a bunch of charades” with “no end goal.”
She added that Doug often tried to paint a different picture, and even put together a video filled with “a bunch of inspirational quotes from people” to show the dancers.
After being married for a year, Doug, a retired naval flight officer, helped Ashley achieve her dream of starting a ballet company, using his own money and contacts.
Pictured: The wads of hundred-dollar bills the dancers receive after begging the Benefields to pay them.
“He sat us all down in the room… to watch it and… he had tears in his eyes… saying, ‘Look, this is what we’re working toward,'” Walborn explained.
Aside from what they experienced in the studio, Walborn added that the artists were not paid and that Ashley was often absent.
Despite not being paid, Doug showed up at the studio one day with wads of cash and handed them to the dancers “one by one,” with Walborn adding that he hoped he would “fix everything.”
During this strange exchange, Walborn recalled another dancer speaking up and insisting that everyone “keep their records and receipts of what’s happening to protect themselves because this is weird.”
The dancer’s reaction quickly angered Doug, who said, ‘You don’t need to keep the receipts, don’t worry about it. I take care of everything,” says Walborn.
Other former dancers have also shed light on the dark truth behind the dance company, as they exclusively told DailyMail.com how the whole botched operation “felt wrong”.
Sophie Williams, who was 20 at the time, told DailyMail.com that she was suspicious of the company from the beginning, especially when it came to payment.
After hearing Ashley’s side of the story in court, where she insisted that she was the victim, not her late husband, the jury decided not to convict her of murder, but of involuntary manslaughter.
Former dancers said Doug often raised his voice and tried to paint a different picture of the failing ballet studio.
He recalled waiting outside a small hallway with other American National Ballet dancers in alphabetical order to have their names called.
No one was told why they had to meet there, only that there was a chance to finally receive a paycheck.
When Williams, now 27, was called to the small office in Charleston, South Carolina, he came face to face with a strange sight.
Doug Benefield was sitting behind a briefcase stuffed with hundred-dollar bills.
She sat at his orders.
Williams said, “He just started counting bundles of hundreds.”
Doug told Williams that the money was for all the things the company had promised the dancers but never delivered: health insurance, pointe shoes, the travel stipend, and their overall salary.
She left the office almost $5,000 richer. But the exchange made her feel even more uncomfortable about what was happening within the dance company.
Ashley 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 founded the American National Ballet company.
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 affectionate, PDA all the time. They never separated,” he said.
After being married for a year, Doug, a retired naval flight officer, helped Ashley achieve her dream of starting a ballet company, using his own money and contacts.
He acted as CEO of the company, while Ashley took over as CEO.
But soon after the company was founded, it was sued by dancers and choreographers who alleged that their contracts had been breached when they were fired just weeks after being hired.
Doug also reversed his vasectomy and Ashley became pregnant three months later with their daughter Emerson, now six years old.
That’s when everything changed, Assistant State’s Attorney Suzanne O’Donnell told the court in July.
He said Ashley moved from her home in South Carolina to Florida to live with her mother when she started experiencing morning sickness, and from then 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) collapses, Ashley Benefield begins to complain against the victim,” O’Donnell told the jury. .
She began accusing Doug of poisoning her and non-physical domestic violence.
Doug also reversed his vasectomy and Ashley became pregnant three months later with their daughter Emerson, now six years old.
Ashley said Doug constantly brought her teas that she thought 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 argued that killing Doug was a last-ditch effort to gain custody of his daughter, who was two years old at the time of the shooting.
“This is the case of a woman who, early in her pregnancy, decided she wanted to be a single mother,” O’Donnell argued. ‘She didn’t want this child’s father to have visitors.
“This is a long story, it was a custody battle that this mother would win at all costs, and the cost was Doug Benefield’s life.”
Prosecutors argued that Doug was doing everything he could to rectify his marriage and keep his family together.
After hearing Ashley’s side of the story in court, where she insisted that she was the victim, not her late husband, jurors decided not to convict her of murder, but of involuntary manslaughter.
He currently faces between 11 and 30 years in prison and is expected to attend a sentencing hearing on October 22.
