Ashley Benefield, the 32-year-old former dancer accused of murdering her husband, Doug Benefield, has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. The verdict was announced in a Manatee County, Florida, courtroom on Tuesday, July 30. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled for a later date.
Benefield, originally charged with second-degree murder, was found guilty of the lesser offense. The judge sent her to the custody of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office and revoked her $100,000 bail, according to NBC News.
The case, known as the “Black Swan Murder Trial” after the 2010 film starring Natalie Portman, has attracted widespread attention. Benefield was charged with fatally shooting her 58-year-old husband at her mother’s Lakewood Ranch home in September 2020.
Prosecutors argued that Ashley killed her ex-husband to gain sole custody of their infant daughter and get him out of their lives. “This case is about a woman who very early in her pregnancy decided that she wanted to be a single mother,” Assistant State Attorney Suzanne O’Donnell told jurors, according to Mail and Messaging“And she did not want the father of this child to have any visitation (and) … she would stop at nothing to achieve that goal.”
By contrast, Ashley’s defense attorney claimed she acted in self-defense. “Thirty years Ashley’s senior, he was obsessed with her and successfully portrayed himself as if he wasn’t in an effort to win her hand in marriage,” defense attorney Neil Taylor argued, according to the court. Women’s Construction Workers Association (WFLA)“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.”
The couple met at a Republican Party fundraiser in 2016, when Ashley was a 24-year-old ballet dancer and Doug was a 54-year-old Navy veteran and technology consultant. They married just 13 days later, and Ashley soon became pregnant with Doug’s child. However, their relationship quickly soured.
Prosecutors said Ashley wanted to get rid of Doug and accused him of emotional abuse, even claiming he tried to poison her with heavy metals, according to Fox 13She reportedly did not notify Doug when their son was born and he only found out when she filed a restraining order against him. The two fought over visitation rights, and Doug was eventually granted visitation rights in July 2018.
On September 27, 2020, Doug visited Ashley’s mother’s home to help her pack for her and her daughter’s move to Maryland, where Doug also planned to move. Police responded to a 911 call and found Doug fatally shot on a bedroom floor, bleeding in three places. Ashley told police that her husband had tried to attack her and that she shot him in self-defense.