The jury returned its verdict after seven hours of deliberating whether Ashley Benefield shot and killed her husband in self-defense or as part of a calculated effort to remove him from office so she could be a single mother.
After the prosecution and defense presented completely different stories about the alleged shooting of her husband Doug Benefield, Ashley Benefield was led away in handcuffs Tuesday night as her trial concluded.
“The sound was almost as good as the sight,” said Doug’s cousin Tommie Benefield. Sarasota Herald-Tribuneto see Ashley being taken into custody. After seven hours, the jury returned a responsible verdict.
Ashley was found liable for manslaughter, a lower charge than the second-degree murder charge the prosecution was seeking. Her defense was that she was acting in self-defense, but the jury clearly didn’t buy it.
While her attorney tried to have her released on bail until her sentencing, the state argued that she has an incentive to flee and face up to 30 years in prison. The judge ordered her held in custody until sentencing.
Doug’s 23-year-old daughter Eva didn’t believe Ashley’s story of being a victim of domestic abuse, telling the media: “I apologize to all the women who have experienced domestic violence. I believe what Ashley was doing was unfair to them. They deserve justice and I’m so happy that my father got the justice he deserves.”
Assistant State’s Attorney Suzanne O’Donnell, who tried the case against Ashley, said: “Domestic violence is a real problem. There are many, many women who are in horrendous conditions.”
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“Women, and often men, who are in situations where they are being abused and overwhelmed on a regular basis,” she continued. “People who feel like they have no way out, no way to get out. That’s not who this defendant is, and it never has been.”
Throughout the week-long trial, the prosecution portrayed Ashley, 32, as an opportunistic killer who murdered her husband so she could be sole guardian after trying to deny him joint custody, but her defense presented a different picture.
All last week, Ashley’s attorney Neil Taylor shared the story of a wife who was afraid of her husband after allegedly suffering multiple instances of emotional abuse. Ashley shot and killed Douglas on September 27, 2020.
Ashley herself took the witness stand on Friday and tearfully testified that although she killed her husband, she did so in self-defense after he became physically abusive.
One witness, Bruce Ferris, a psychological wellness expert who specializes in domestic and family trauma, testified that the behaviors Ashley exhibited fit the pattern of someone who is a victim of domestic abuse. He referred to them as “methods of compliance, not wanting to poke the bear.”
Dr. Jason Quintal, who worked with the couple previously, described Doug as “domineering” and “super controlling.” A real estate agent, Vincent Vizzaccaro, testified that Doug had to buy a house directly behind the one Ashley lived in during their separation.
Finally, a forensic expert, Michael Haag, took the witness stand and spoke about the trajectories of the bullets at the crime scene. He testified that Ashley had to be moving when the shots were fired, which is in stark contrast to the prosecution’s claim that she shot her husband from behind.
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According to the prosecution, Ashley murdered her husband so she could be a single mother.
“This case is about a woman who, very early in her pregnancy, decided that she needed to be a single mother,” Assistant State’s Attorney Suzanne O’Donnell argued. “She would stop at nothing to achieve that goal.”
They presented their own evidence about the photos taken, too. “Based on the entry injuries on Douglas, it does not appear that he was walking past Ashley when she began taking photos,” the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office said in an affidavit obtained by The New York Shipment.
“Furthermore, it does not appear that Douglas assumed any type of defensive or combative posture. He was not found to have any weapons on or near him,” the affidavit continued.
The conclusion is: “Detectives found no evidence that she acted in self-defense when she fired a series of shots at her husband.”
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Ashley and Douglas met in 2016 at a Republican Party fundraiser in Palm Beachside when she was 24. A skilled dancer, Ashley shared her aspirations of starting her own ballet company. Two weeks after they met, the couple was married and he was funding her studio.
According to the indictment, things changed when the money began to run out and Ashley’s ballet company faltered. A subsequent divorce battle turned ugly with allegations of infidelity on both sides and abuse.
Although they had only been married for four years, Ashley had repeatedly come forward with allegations of abuse against Douglas, including a narrative that he had shot at the ceiling to “shut her up,” that he had kicked their dog until she was unconscious, and that he had even tried to poison her while she was pregnant.
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Throughout the trial, it was revealed that the couple had separated when their daughter, now six, was born. Doug only found out that Ashley had given birth when she filed a restraining order against him, for WTVT.
A judge previously found no evidence of abuse by Douglas in relation to these allegations, NY Submit reported. The prosecution argued that this was all part of a calculated strategy by the defendant to gain sole custody of her son. And when that didn’t work, she took much more excessive measures.
They went through a period of reconciliation after that, according to the outlet, until Ashley shot and killed her husband in September 2020.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or visit thehotline.org. The hotline is available 24/7 in over 170 languages; calls are confidential and free of charge.