A former ballet dancer in Florida has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after being found guilty of manslaughter for shooting her estranged husband in 2020.

Manatee County court records show Circuit Judge Matt White imposed the sentence Tuesday on Ashley Benefield, 32, after denying her request for a new trial based on allegations of jury misconduct.

Benefield claimed she killed her estranged husband, Doug Benefield, 58, in self-defense during an argument at her home in Bradenton, Florida. Bradenton is located about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Tampa.

The Benefields were co-founders of the US National Ballet and Ashley Benefield is a former dancer.

This case was called the “Black Swan Trial,” in reference to the film produced in 2010 Black swan In it, Natalie Portman plays a young ballerina who loses her grip on reality.

She was charged with second-degree murder, but jurors chose the lesser charge of manslaughter after nearly seven hours of deliberations in July. The maximum penalty for this crime is 30 years behind bars if a firearm is used, while the murder charge carries a life sentence.

Before sentencing, White denied defense requests for a new trial based on allegations that one juror failed to disclose a personal history of domestic violence and that one juror improperly brought a cell phone into the jury room during deliberations, which the judge found had no basis.

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Ashley Benfield’s lawyer said she would appeal the conviction and sentence.

Benefield Marriage

Ashley and Doug married in 2016 when she was a 24-year-old ballet dancer and Doug was a 54-year-old Navy veteran and counselor. The couple met at a Republican fundraiser and married just 13 days later.

Doug, 30 years older than Ashley, was recently widowed. His first wife died just nine months ago, according to CBS 48 hours.

A year after her marriage, Ashley became pregnant and soon left her husband. She allegedly ran away from the marriage after an incident in which Doug fired a gun into the ceiling of their house during an argument. Ashley then began accusing Doug of poisoning her and his first wife.

When their daughter was born in March 2018, Ashley didn’t tell Doug or put his name on the birth certificate. Doug met his daughter six months later after the judge intervened. 48 hours I mentioned. The couple eventually reconciled, and in 2020, Ashely suggested they move to Maryland together. During this time, Ashley was living with her mother in Florida while Doug lived in South Carolina.

fire

On September 27, 2020, the Benfields were alone at Ashley’s mother’s house, packing a moving truck, while Ashley’s mother took her daughter to the park. Then a neighbor reported hearing screaming. Ashley went to the neighbors’ house with a gun in her hand and told them she had shot her husband in self-defense.

Doug was still alive when emergency workers responded but was unable to speak. He died an hour later in hospital.

During the trial, Ashley testified that she and her husband were arguing and that he hit her with a moving box and “physically examined” her. She said she was “scared to death” and thought her husband was going to kill her. She grabbed her gun, pointed it at Doug, and told him to stop. When he continued to move towards her, she shot him.

Investigators determined that Doug was hit by two bullets, and that the fatal bullet struck him and penetrated his body, hitting his arm first and then moving to his chest. This suggests that Doug was walking away from his wife when he was shot, which contradicts Ashley’s testimony.

Trial

Prosecutors said Ashley’s testimony was inconsistent and that she killed her estranged husband in order to gain sole custody of their daughter.

“This case is about a woman who decided very early in her pregnancy that she wanted to be a single mother,” Assistant District Attorney Susan O’Donnell told the jury. Post and courier. “She doesn’t want this child’s father to have any visitation.”

Meanwhile, Ashley’s attorney claimed that the former ballerina was a victim of intimate partner violence and that Doug was an abusive and controlling husband.

Neil Taylor told the jury: “The evidence will show that Douglas Benefield was a very disturbed man.” “He was thirty years older than Ashley, was obsessed with her, and succeeded in portraying himself as everything he was not in an attempt to win her hand in marriage. Despite promoting himself as a religious and respectable human being, Douglas Benefield was a manipulative, cunning, and abusive man who insisted, absolutely insisted, on… control.

Prosecutors said that Ashley She did not qualify as a victim of domestic violence CBS reported that she and Doug were living separately in the period leading up to the shooting. The court also heard from a previous legal battle between the pair in which Ashley sought an injunction against her husband in 2017 over domestic violence. The injunction was denied By the judge who did not find her claims credible.

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— With files from international news

& Edition 2024 The Canadian Press