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 Legal professional Suzanne O’Donnell, who prosecuted the murder case for Manatee County, Florida, put this query to Ashley through the trial: “You truly bragged … about having weapons, right?”
“Sure,” Ashley Benefield replied.
“In the course of the time that you just met Doug at a political occasion, you had one of many weapons in your bra?” O’Donnell requested.
“Sure. That is the place 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, Half 1 and Half 2,” reairing Saturday, July 26, from Sep 11 p.m. ET/PT on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. Reported by “48 Hours” contributor Jim Axelrod, the particular broadcast will give viewers a behind-the-scenes have a look at the couple’s seesaw relationship from the time they met in 2016 till the night time 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 night time she shot and killed Doug Benefield. In emotionally charged testimony, she claimed the capturing was in self-defense after Doug hit her and cornered her in a bed room. She mentioned that is when she reached for her close by .45 caliber gun that was on prime of a storage bin.
“I simply held the gun like in entrance of me and I mentioned, cease, and he like turned and he obtained into this like nearly like a combating stance. He began like transferring his arms and his arms round…he began coming in direction of me and he lunged at me, and I simply pulled the set off,” Ashley Benefield testified at her trial.
Ashley Benefield’s lawyer Neil Taylor then mentioned, “Inform the women and gents of the jury why you shot Doug.”
“I used to be scared to loss of life,” she mentioned. “I believed he was gonna kill me.”
State prosecutors known as Ashley Benefield a “manipulator” and claimed she killed Doug Benefield as a part of her plot to realize sole custody of their now-6-year-old daughter, Emerson.
When investigators and crime scene technicians searched the home after the capturing, they discovered two different loaded weapons. One in all Ashley Benefield’s weapons was present in her backpack hanging within the closet of the bed room the place the capturing happened. 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 anybody want three loaded weapons, unsecured, in a home with a 2-and-a-half-year-old?” requested Stephanie Murphy, Doug Benefield’s household lawyer. “There is no reply to me aside from the plain, which is that she deliberate to kill Doug that night time.”
However Ashley’s lawyer Neil Taylor had a special take, as he instructed Axelrod when Axelrod requested Taylor, “What brought on her to have three loaded weapons in the home, the night time she shot and killed Doug?”
In line with Taylor, it was all half and parcel of the concern Ashley Benefield felt round Doug Benefield as an abused lady. “What may you assume would precipitate such a circumstance?” Taylor responded. “Do you assume concern, 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 night time of the capturing. However in earlier court docket 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 so as 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 found guilty of manslaughter in July 2024 for capturing 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 happened. The decide denied the protection movement.
