Florida ex-ballerina uses ‘stand your ground’ defense in hopes of clearing murder rap in husband’s death

A Florida hearing continues Friday to determine whether former ballerina and Donald Trump fundraiser Ashley Benefield will go to trial for fatally shooting her husband in what she alleges was a desperate act of self-defense.

Benefield, 31, is accused of gunning down Doug Benefield, 58, inside her Lakewood Ranch, Florida, bedroom Sept. 27, 2020, in what has become known as the Black Swan case. 

Her attorneys filed a motion earlier this year arguing that she opened fire on the Navy veteran after she had ordered him to leave her house, and he allegedly refused and hit her in the face.

The filing invokes what is known as Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, which says a person does not have to retreat before using deadly force to prevent death, serious injury and certain felonies.

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The hearing, which kicked off Thursday in the Manatee County Judicial Center in Bradenton, about 50 miles south of Tampa, will determine whether the second-degree murder charge against her will be dropped.

However, prosecutors are not buying her claims. In a criminal complaint, detectives with the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office determined that Ashley fired four shots, two of which struck Doug. 

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“Based on the entry wounds on Doug it does not appear that he was facing Ashley when she began shooting,” the complaint says. “It also does not appear that Douglas had taken any kind of defensive or combative stance.”

The detectives noted that Ashley had no noteworthy injuries. 

The couple met in 2016 at a Republican fundraiser in Palm Beach and were married 13 days later.

At the time, she was working at the Sarasota campaign office for Trump, and the duo bonded over their conservative values and love of guns, according to Vanity Fair.

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Ashley, then 24, and Doug, lived in Charleston, South Carolina, and he helped her launch her own ballet company, which quickly failed.

Their relationship soon took a similar turn. Ashley became pregnant and moved to Florida to live with her mother. After the child was born, Doug joined her in the Sunshine State, but they did not live together. 

The complaint says she repeatedly accused Doug of psychological abuse in an effort to gain sole custody of their daughter, but the allegations were never substantiated.

At the hearing Thursday, Doug’s family attorney Stephanie Murphy testified about the couple’s custody battle and Ashley’s claim that her husband had poisoned her with heavy metals while pregnant, discharged a gun in their home and punched their dog in the face.

“To Doug … Ashley’s this innocent, pure White Swan,” Murphy previously told CBS’s “48 Hours”  “But underneath those white feathers… she’s an evil woman. …She’s the Black Swan.”

 

Doug Benefield’s first wife, with whom he shares a daughter, died suddenly of a heart condition. 

Ashley Benefield is free on a $100,000 bond.