Gabriela SzymanowskaSarasota Herald-Tribune
A two-day Stand Your Ground hearing in the case of a former ballerina accused of killing her estranged husband and then claiming self-defense concluded Friday morning in the Manatee County Judicial Center.
Manatee County Circuit Judge Stephen Whyte said it will take some time before he can write his order as he needs to wait for transcripts from the court reporter's office for his ruling. Both the prosecution and defense will need to wait for the judge’s ruling before either side can appeal.
Ashley Benefield, 31, was arrested and charged with murder in the second degree with a firearm in November 2020, a little over a month after investigators responded to a call from a neighbor who said Ashley Benefield had told him she'd been attacked by her husband, Doug Benefield, and that she had shot him, according to an affidavit.
Day 1: Former ballerina accused of killing estranged husband in court for Stand Your Ground
Previous reporting: Former Florida ballerina evokes 'Stand Your Ground' in 2020 homicide of estranged husband
In February, Ashley Benefield filed a motion to dismiss the case and requested a declaration of immunity, claiming she fired the gun because she feared for her life. The motion placed the burden on assistant state attorneys Suzanne O'Donnell and Rebecca Freel to make a case before the judge proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Ashley Benefield did not act in self-defense.
Under Florida's Stand Your Ground Law, a person isallowed to use or threaten to use deadly force against another person if they reasonably believe they need to protect themselves against immediate threat and they don't have a "duty to retreat."
State aims to prove motive while the defense argues self-defense
During her closing Friday, O'Donnell said that there has been no substantive evidence that the shooting was self-defense besides Ashley Benefield telling her neighbor that her husband had attacked her. Photographs taken after the shooting didn't show extensive injuries beyond minor scratches.
Testimony from Chief Medical Examiner of the 12th Circuit, Dr. Russell Vega, found that Doug Benefield had sustained at least two gunshot wounds, one to the chest and one to the right knee and calf.
O'Donnell said the injuries could indicate that Doug Benefield was turning to leave the room instead of advancing on Ashley Benefield when the gun was fired.
Ashley Benefield's attorney Neil Taylor questioned whether the lack of defensive wounds on Doug Benefield completely ruled him out as being the agitator, or if it was possible he could have been the offender and not sustained any defensive injuries. Taylor pointed to the fact that Vega said Doug Benefield was most likely facing Ashley Benefield when he was shot in the chest.
O'Donnell said Ashley Benefield didn't want Doug to have contact with their young daughter and was worried about a report by a clinical psychologist who observed the Benefields that was set to be published days after the shooting. O'Donnell said that the report would have shown Ashley Benefield had no intention of reconciling with her husband, despite her telling him otherwise.
O'Donnell further described Ashley Benefield as being manipulative, telling Doug Benefield they'd be together while telling everyone else she was afraid of him.
Taylor countered that it was Doug Benefield who was controlling and jealous, as well as prone to violent behaviors and that his client had appeased her husband to protect her child.
Taylor argued the state hadn't addressed what Ashley Benefield knew about Doug Benefield at the time of the shooting which justified her actions, including the fact that Doug Benefield had once shot a gun at the ceiling to get his wife to stop talking, punched a hole or holes in a wall out of frustration, placed a tracker on her car and threw a loaded gun at her.
He said the lead detective in the case misrepresented the facts in the affidavit he turned used for the arrest warrant by omitting to identify Doug Benefield as the person who scratched Ashley Benefield with a box, and that within 75 minutes of learning about the shooting in the first place, wrote the reason for the search warrant for the house was murder, not homicide.
Whirlwind romance, allegations of abuse
In 2016, Ashley and Doug Benefield met for the first time, and following a 13-day "whirlwind romance," the two were married, according to previous Sarasota Herald-Tribune reporting. At the time, Ashley Benefield was 24 years old, while Doug Benefield was 54, according to media reports.
It’s a fact that both seemed to take pride in, Doug Benefield’s first cousin, Tommie Benefield Jr., said to the judge Thursday. He recalled that his cousin seemed starstruck and enamored with his wife, especially when Tommie Benefield saw the couple together for the first time in April 2017 in their Mount Pleasant home in South Carolina.
During his initial meeting with the couple, he learned Ashley Benefield wanted to start a non-judgmental and non-stereotypical ballet company, seeing as she was a former ballet dancer. Doug Benefield seemed to support her.
“He talked like any proud husband,” Tommie Benefield said about Doug Benefield’s interest in founding the American National Ballet. The ballet was founded on paper in February 2017, had an informal launch in May, and was shuttered by the end of the year, he added.
In July 2017, Ashley Benefield became pregnant with the couple's daughter, and she moved by herself to Florida to live with her mother, Tommie Benefield said.
After moving to Florida, Doug Benefield hired family law attorney Stephanie Murphy in 2018 to help him connect with Ashley Benefield about the birth of their daughter, Murphy said Thursday. A few days after hiring Murphy, the two learned Ashley Benefield had given birth when she filed an injunction, Murphy added.
Murphy represented Doug Benefield in court for the injunction and his own petition that he filed for a parenting plan.
The injunction wasn't granted, and the family court judge ruled that Doug Benefield should be able to spend time with his daughter which would slowly increase to include overnight and weekend stays.
Murphy said that for some time there was peace between the two parents as they coparented their daughter, but it didn't last, and Ashley Benefield again began filing complaints against her husband.
In other Manatee court news: Hardee County man found guilty of second-degree murder in 17-year-old Manatee cold case
'Take Care of Maya': Netflix documentary gives voice to Venice family suing hospital
Take matters into her own hands: Psychologist testifies about his observations
Dr. Brad S. Broeder, a clinical psychologist who serves as a consultant for the Sarasota and Manatee counties’ Child Protection Team, said he was contacted after Ashley Benefield had lodged several abuse complaints. The complaints accused Doug Benefield of sexual and physical abuse towards their toddler daughter, according to testimony from witnesses.
Broeder met with the Benefields, both individually and together, over the course of two months to observe how each parent interacted with their daughter and with each other.
During his evaluation, Broeder said Ashley Benefield expressed to him that she had no intention of ever reconciling with her husband and that the plan was for her, her mother, and her daughter to all move to Maryland without Doug.
However, Doug Benefield appeared to be under a different impression, Broeder said, indicating he wanted to move to Maryland and eventually move into Ashley’s home when she was ready.
Broeder added that Ashley Benefield said she was afraid that Doug Benefield couldn’t parent their daughter and that he was prone to becoming very angry and controlling.
She had also told the doctor about Doug Benefield’s previous violent outbursts at their home in South Carolina and added that she tried to appease her husband to protect her daughter, Broeder said.
As the evaluation period concluded, Broeder said that Ashley Benefield told him she felt no one was helping her — not the sheriff’s detectives she’d lodged complaints with or the Manatee County judge who denied her injunction previously and mandated Doug Benefield be able to visit with his daughter, or even Broeder.
“She indicated they were running out of time,” Broeder said, adding that Ashley Benefield said she would have to take the issue into her own hands.
Yet, Broeder said he didn’t have any concerns for Ashley Benefield’s or the toddler’s safety and submitted his report in mid-September 2020.The report was to be published at the end of the month, according to testimony in court.
Days before the shooting, it appeared Doug and Ashley Benefield were on good terms, at least according to text messages shown in court Thursday and read aloud by Manatee County Sheriff’s Detective Justin Warren, the lead detective on the case.
In texts between the two, Doug Benefield sent his wife bible verses and "Good Morning" texts, discussed picking up more packing boxes and a U-Haul truck, scheduled a meeting at Panera, and spoke about resolving the injunctions they’d each filed through a mediation meeting.
The last text Doug Warren appeared to have sent Ashley Benefield was at 5:32 p.m. on Sept. 27, 2020, indicating he was on his way to her home. A little more than an hour later, a 911 call alerting law enforcement to the shooting was called in.
Gabriela Szymanowskacovers the legal system for the Herald-Tribune in partnership with Report for America.You can support her work with atax-deductible donation to Report for America.Contact Gabriela Szymanowska atgszymanowska@gannett.com, or onTwitter.
