The stormy relationship between Doug and Ashley Benefield, the star-crossed couple on the coronary heart of the infamous “Black Swan” homicide case, started and ended with a .45 caliber gun, based on what was revealed publicly over time.
Throughout testimony at Ashley Benefield’s homicide trial in July 2024, she mentioned that the night she met Doug Benefield at an upscale political dinner, she was carrying a .45 caliber gun in her bra.
Assistant State Lawyer Suzanne O’Donnell, who prosecuted the murder case for Manatee County, Florida, put this query to Ashley through the trial: “You actually bragged … about having guns, correct?”
The troubled marriage of Ashley and Doug Benefield
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“Yes,” Ashley Benefield replied.
“During the time that you met Doug at a political event, you had one of the guns in your bra?” O’Donnell requested.
“Yes. That’s where I conceal it, carry it,” Ashley Benefield testified.
The story of Ashley and Doug Benefield is featured in a two-hour broadcast, “The Case of the Black Swan, Part 1 and Part 2,”now streaming on Paramount+. Reported by “48 Hours” contributor Jim Axelrod, the particular broadcast will give viewers a behind-the-scenes take a look at the couple’s seesaw relationship from the time they met in 2016 till the evening in September 2020 when Ashley killed Doug, allegedly in self-defense.
At her homicide trial in July 2024, Ashley Benefield testified for the primary time about what she says occurred the evening she shot and killed Doug Benefield. In emotionally charged testimony, she claimed the taking pictures was in self-defense after Doug hit her and cornered her in a bed room. She mentioned that’s when she reached for her close by .45 caliber gun that was on high of a storage bin.
“I just held the gun like in front of me and I said, stop, and he like turned and he got into this like almost like a fighting stance. He started like moving his arms and his hands around…he started coming towards me and he lunged at me, and I just pulled the trigger,” Ashley Benefield testified at her trial.
Ashley Benefield’s lawyer Neil Taylor then mentioned, “Tell the ladies and gentlemen of the jury why you shot Doug.”
“I was scared to death,” she mentioned. “I thought he was gonna kill me.”
State prosecutors referred to as Ashley Benefield a “manipulator” and claimed she killed Doug Benefield as a part of her plot to achieve sole custody of their now-6-year-old daughter, Emerson.
When investigators and crime scene technicians searched the home after the taking pictures, they discovered two different loaded weapons. Certainly one of Ashley Benefield’s weapons was present in her backpack hanging within the closet of the bed room the place the taking pictures occurred. A 3rd gun belonging to Ashley’s mom was present in a kitchen pantry, based on the testimony of a criminal offense scene technician for the Manatee County Sheriff’s Workplace.
On the time, Doug Benefield was serving to Ashley and her mom pack for a transfer to Maryland.
“Why does anyone need three loaded guns, unsecured, in a house with a 2-and-a-half-year-old?” requested Stephanie Murphy, Doug Benefield’s household lawyer. “There’s no answer to me other than the obvious, which is that she planned to kill Doug that night.”
However Ashley’s lawyer Neil Taylor had a distinct take, as he informed Axelrod when Axelrod requested Taylor, “What caused her to have three loaded guns in the house, the night she shot and killed Doug?”
In line with Taylor, it was all half and parcel of the worry Ashley Benefield felt round Doug Benefield as an abused lady. “What might you think would precipitate such a circumstance?” Taylor responded. “Do you think fear, anticipation?”
Ashley Benefield admitted on the stand that Doug Benefield had by no means struck her earlier than she alleges he did so on the evening of the taking pictures. However in earlier courtroom hearings when Doug Benefield was nonetheless alive, he did admit to an episode early of their marriage when he fired a gun into their kitchen ceiling with a view to cease Ashley Benefield from arguing with him. He additionally admitted putting their household canine, named Sully. Ashley Benefield claimed Doug Benefield punched the canine and knocked him out however Doug mentioned he solely had pushed the canine when it climbed into his lap whereas he was having an argument with Ashley.
Ashley Benefield, a former ballerina, was discovered responsible of manslaughter in July 2024 for taking pictures her estranged husband Doug Benefield twice together with her .45 caliber gun inside her Florida house in September 2020.
On Dec. 3, 2024, Ashley Benefield was sentenced to twenty years in jail, to be adopted by 10 years of probation.
Ashley Benefield’s attorneys claimed there was prosecutorial and juror misconduct through the trial and requested for a brand new trial. The prosecution denied that any misconduct occurred. The decide denied the protection movement.
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