Former Florida ballerina Ashley Benefield sentenced to 20 years in prison for shooting her husband

SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) — A former ballerina was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday for shooting her estranged husband in their Florida home in 2020.

The conviction came about four months after a six-member jury found 32-year-old Ashley Benefield guilty of manslaughter. Benefield was initially charged with second-degree murder, but the jury settled on the lesser offense of manslaughter after about seven hours of deliberation.

While Manatee County Circuit Court Judge Matt Whyte said he believed Benefield was under extreme duress and showed remorse for the Sept. 27, 2020, shooting, he did not grant her a sentence reduction. Her lawyer Neil Taylor said the decision would be appealed.

Taylor claimed his client acted in self-defense when she fatally shot her estranged husband, Doug Benefield, 58, after a tumultuous and abusive relationship that lasted four years. The shooting occurred during an argument at Ashley Benefield’s home in Lakewood Ranch, a planned community northeast of Sarasota, Florida.

An affidavit said a neighbor called police when Ashley Benefield, who appeared distraught, knocked on his door shortly after the shooting while still holding the gun.

Ashley Benefield showed no apparent emotion during Tuesday’s sentencing. As Whyte announced his decision, a comforting hand wrapped around Eva Benefield, Doug’s eldest daughter from a previous marriage, as she sat on the left side of the gallery, surrounded by her family and her late father’s supporters.

Whyte also sentenced the former ballerina to ten years probation following her prison sentence. Within 60 days of the start of her probation, Ashley Benefield must undergo a mental health evaluation and complete all recommended treatment. Whyte ordered Ashley Benefield to also return the gun used in the shooting.

“I think both sides have … talked about lenses and perspectives,” Whyte said. “And I think that’s a good example of how you look at this case from whatever perspective you look at it can have a big impact on how you look at the players, the results, the participants and the outcome.”

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Turbulent relationship

Ashley and Doug Benefield met in 2016 and married 13 days later after a whirlwind romance. She was 24 and he was 54, according to media reports at the time.

In the early years of their marriage, the couple founded the American National Ballet, but the company fell apart before it could get off the ground, according to testimony at the trial. Ashley Benefield is a graduate of Maryland Youth Ballet.

Throughout their marriage, the couple endured a tumultuous relationship that included domestic violence allegations against Doug Benefield, marriage counseling, and a series of legal battles in both South Carolina and Florida – where Ashley Benefield went to live with her mother after she became pregnant in 2017 was drawn.

Ashley Benefield had argued that the case should be dismissed based on Florida’s “stand your ground” law. In her motion to dismiss the case, she alleged that her husband was abusive and erratic, regularly carried a loaded gun and once fired a gun into the kitchen ceiling to intimidate her.

What led to the 2020 shootings?

On the afternoon of September 27, 2020, Doug Benefield arrived at the Lakewood Ranch home in a U-Haul truck to help pack for a move to Maryland. It appeared that Doug Benefield was under the impression that he, his wife and daughter were moving in together even though he was living separately, according to court documents and previous statements.

Taylor told jurors that frustration grew as the couple packed and an argument broke out. Despite Ashley Benefield’s attempts to de-escalate, according to court documents, Doug Benefield was physically assaulted – checking on Ashley Benefield with a box, blocking her from leaving a room and following her into her bedroom, where she grabbed a gun.

When Doug Benefield allegedly approached her, Ashley Benefield fired the gun, according to court documents.

Witnesses outside the home told investigators they heard six gunshots and about 30 seconds later saw Ashley Benefield running from the home to a neighbor’s house, screaming and crying, with a gun in her hand.

Family tries to focus statements on positive qualities of Doug Benefield

Outside the Manatee County Judicial Center, Tommie and Eva Benefield stopped to speak to reporters.

“The conviction means we finally know what it will cost her, as opposed to what it cost her daughter, Ashley and Doug’s daughter, (and) what it cost Eva every day of her life,” said Tommie Benefield, Doug Benefield’s cousin.

He added that the conviction was a good step towards making Ashley Benefield pay a price. Tommie Benefield said his family and prosecutors would fight diligently during the appeal process to keep Ashley Benefield in prison because they said she posed a flight risk.

Tears shone in Eva Benefield’s eyes as she stood outside the courthouse. Two red hearts stood out against her dark brown checked suit jacket – one was sewn on the left side under her heart, the second on the right side of her back.

The hearts are a symbol of where her father was shot, she said.

As the courtroom began, Eva Benefield recalled her memories of her loving father: the two enjoying a Valentine’s Day meal, the good morning texts with Bible verses she received from her father, and his efforts to participate in all of her extracurricular activities and he drives an hour to bring coffee for her and her friends.

Her father was always just a call or text away, Eva Benefield said, and he always answered the phone when she called, especially after her mother died. He knew how worried Eva would become if he didn’t answer.

“I watched my father paint over every memory and every corner of this house, changing the furniture and ridding the house of every remnant of my mother that was left so that life could be enjoyed without the remains of my father’s late wife and soulmate could,” Eva said Benefield. “I had to come home from school and see you barely dressed, sitting on the countertops where my mother cooked our family dinner. I had to live in a house where there were no more memories that I still cling to so that I could remember the happy childhood that was my parents gave it to me.

Doug Benefield’s brother Wes Benefield offered forgiveness to Ashley Benefield, adding that he doesn’t hate her.

The defense moves downfield to exit

Taylor requested a reduction in his client’s sentence, but Whyte refused. Taylor had urged Whyte to focus on Doug Benefield’s confessions in a deposition that demonstrated a history of domestic violence and a letter Ashley Benefield left for her husband three years earlier when she left him for Florida to pull.

While Whyte said Taylor had proven that Doug Benefield was an initiator, willing participant, aggressor or provocateur in the incident, he did not believe a downward move was appropriate.

The only witness Taylor called in court on Tuesday was Dr. Barbara Russell, a clinical social worker and psychologist who evaluated both Doug and Ashley Benefield before the shooting.

Russell told the judge that Ashley Benefield suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder caused by complex trauma, with the root cause being “the abusive relationship with Douglas Benefield from the beginning of the abuse in their marriage to the incident of the attack that went into that.” Shooting on September 27th.”

Assistant District Attorney Suzanne O’Donnell, the lead prosecutor in the case, pointed out to Russell that Ashley Benefield had also been diagnosed with histrionic personality disorder, a mental illness that causes people to act in dramatic and emotional ways to attract attention.

Russell said she was aware of the “misdiagnosis” and explained that women who are victims of intimate partner violence are often misrepresented as having the disorder, especially when the person assessing them doesn’t see the bigger picture understand correctly.

Contributors: Thao Nguyen and Anthony Robledo, USA TODAY

Gabriela Szymanowska covers the legal system for the Herald-Tribune in collaboration with Report for America. You can support their work with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America. Contact Gabriela Szymanowska at [email protected] or at X: @GabrielaSzyman3.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Former ballerina sentenced to 20 years in death of estranged husband