181: Dark Secrets: The Black Swan Murder Case & Controversy | Deep Dive of Ashley Benefield
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Hey everybody, welcome back to an all new episode of Serialistly with me, Annie Elise. I hope you guys are all doing well today. We are going to be doing a super, super deep dive into this case. It's one that not only have a lot of you been requesting the deep dive of, but it's one that actually just wrapped. The trial just wrapped and there's a verdict. Now when this trial was going on, people were glued to their screens and there

There was a lot of opinions out there, a lot of differing opinions. People thought she was guilty. People thought that she wasn't. People thought it was self-defense. And then we got the verdict. And when the verdict came, when I tell you people are divided on this case who have been following it, like,

the people are divided. There are a lot of people who think that great, yes, justice was done. And there are a lot of people who are arguing that. And to understand why, you have to really know this case inside and out. Like you need to know the full history, the behavior, the patterns, because what we see so many times in a lot of these trials is that even though they're televised, you're only getting like certain amounts of what,

was going on, what the dynamic was of a relationship, what the dynamic was maybe of a situation, because only so much is allowed to be brought in as evidence. Only so much is allowed to be brought in as testimony. So you're not really peeling back the onions, so to speak, of like what really was the dynamic in these relationships.

So that's why a lot of people are arguing now and why a lot of people don't agree with this verdict. Again, a large amount does, but there are quite a few people who don't. So if you haven't guessed by now, this is the Black Swan murder trial. That's what the media is dubbing it. That is not what I'm dubbing it, guys. But it is Ashley Benefield, and she was on trial for murder. So what I want to do is before we get into the verdict, you may already have been following this case. You may already know. I want to go back. I want to talk about

the relationship, what happened in their history, what kind of led up until the murder. And I want to know from you at the very end, do you think that the correct verdict was reached? Why or why not? So let's jump back and start from the beginning to really illustrate what this situation is. To paint the picture of this story, we are going to start with the main person involved.

Doug Benefield. He was a very intriguing man. Doug was a devoted man of God, a visionary, a loving father, a caring brother, a servant leader, and a loyal friend to many.

He grew up in Huntsville, Alabama. He was a champion wrestler during his years in junior and senior of high school, and after graduation, Doug attended Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. After college, Doug joined the Navy and completed the Aviation Officer Candidate School to become a naval flight pilot. He completed flight school and served as naval flight officer and pilot in an S-35A

3B Viking aircraft for nearly three years off of Navy aircraft carriers out of San Diego. He then served for three years as a mine warfare instructor in Charleston, South Carolina, where he ended up relocating to. Then he transitioned to the Navy intelligence community and retired from the Navy as a lieutenant commander in 1999. Doe

Doug dabbled in quite a few different business ventures in Charleston for several years while also working as a security and communication technology consultant for the U.S. government.

During his early years in Charleston, he met, dated, and married the absolute love of his life. Her name was Renee Cozar Benefield. Renee had been married before and had two sons that she brought into the marriage. Then in 2001, Doug and Renee were blessed with the birth of their daughter, Eva. As Eva grew up, she looked just like her mother, Renee, because they were both were beautiful, stunning, and had blonde hair.

They were just the perfect family and lived just outside of Charleston in Mount Pleasant. Doug was a lifelong believer in the importance of the health of his mind, body, and spirit, and he was very active in fitness training with Iron Tribe and CrossFit. Everything was great in this family. They loved each other. They were a happy couple, happy marriage, happy family. Fast forward 15 years. Now it is August of 2016, and

And Doug's marriage to Renee had recently ended with Doug becoming a widow.

Renee had tragically and suddenly passed away nine months earlier from an undiagnosed heart condition. And the worst part of it all? Doug was out of town for work when she died. And the couple's now 15-year-old daughter, Eva, is the one who found her mom, deceased in their home, lying face down on her bed. So now Doug and Eva were left to pick up the pieces, which would be extremely hard for any 15-year-old. But

But luckily, Eva and her dad always had a very close relationship. So out of this tragedy, it's not surprising that the two of them became even closer in the months afterward. After the sudden loss of Renee months earlier in 2015, Doug was a dedicated single father while continuing to work with defense and private equity ventures supporting government missions.

Doug was widely recognized as a quantum physics expert and futuristic technologies creator. A very smart man. And luckily for Eva, Doug told her not to worry about him remarrying someone new anytime in the future because that was not his focus at all anymore. But not so fast. Because in that summer of 2016, Doug Benefield met Ashley Byers and their lives collided for the very first time.

Their meeting spot? The beachy backyard of Ben Carson's Palm Beach home, just as his presidential campaign was winding down.

When Ashley first met Doug, she didn't know about any of the details about his life that I just told you about. All she knew was that Doug had a magnetic charm about him. And she loved his salt and pepper hair, his looks, everything just kind of was appealing to her. He looked very well put together, very mature, very professional, very successful. And after all, Doug was in shape for his age.

and Ashley thought that he was just extremely handsome, charming, and she was absolutely smitten by him.

Ashley herself was a very attractive girl. She was 24 years old and full of youthful radiance and beauty. She had bright blue eyes, shiny brown hair, and looked like one of those people that once you see them, you just kind of assume that they have had a great body their entire lives without ever even having to try to do that. Ashley Byers was born in Texas but raised in Maryland by her mother. Throughout her childhood and her teen years, Ashley loved ballet and

and she devoted her entire life to it. Ashley had danced for many professional ballet companies along the East Coast, but eventually, like many sports or hobbies, sometimes you just age out of them if you aren't lucky enough to pursue it professionally, or at least pursue it professionally in a long-term sort of way, especially with something like ballet, which is extremely competitive and doesn't have a massive amount of professional job openings to begin with.

Ashley was a beautiful dancer, but the reality of it was she was 5'9", and her height really limited opportunities for her, because some dance companies only wanted a specific look and a specific body type.

and 5'9 was considered on the tall side to some of them. So at the end of the 2014-2015 season, after dancing professionally for almost six years, she announced her official retirement from the dance world, all so she could pursue a full-time career in modeling in Sarasota, Florida, where she lived with her mother. But there was more to just the beautiful weather and beaches that Ashley loved about Florida.

She also had a very big interest in politics. According to Florida voting records, she had been registered as a Republican since she was 21 years old, which explains why she was at Ben Carson's Palm Beach home for that Republican event. And get this, Ashley had actually been a part of the Donald Trump 2016 campaign team.

hitting the road for rallies and grinding away in the Florida office. Specifically, Ashley was the director of the Women for Trump office in Florida. Now, you know we don't get too political on here, guys, so please be respectful to each other in the comment section on the YouTube side of this and leave the debates at home. But apparently, Ashley had written in some journals about Donald Trump and things that he had said to her.

And this is all a direct quote from Ashley's journals. And a lot of people think that she might be a little bit crazy here, and you'll understand why later, but here we go. Ashley wrote,

Now, Donald Trump was shown a picture of her and him together during the campaign at an event and was asked about her. And he claimed, and this is, again, a direct quote, I have no idea who that person is. So either Ashley was fabricating all of these journal entries or she didn't make a long lasting impact on Trump.

Who's to say what the truth is? I don't know. You decide. Anyways, Doug on his part was buddies with some of Ben Carson's deep-pocketed donors, so he was invited to Ben Carson's event where they met. While there, Ashley and Doug hit it off. Even though at the time, Doug was 30 years older than Ashley. She was 24 years old. He was 54 years old. What they both had in common, though, was a deep love for their faith and a strong belief in the Second Amendment.

According to Ashley, she says once we got to talking, the conversation just flowed. And Doug was enamored with Ashley's beauty and thought that she was one of the most beautiful women in the world. As he spent more time talking to her, he realized that there was more to her than meets the eye and thought that she sounded like an amazing person. The day they met was August 25th, 2016.

Remember this date. After their first meeting, they exchanged phone numbers and began to text each other and continue on their flirtatious rendezvous. By the next day on the 26th, Ashley was addressing Doug as my dear and texted him that she was thanking God for bringing him into her life. And after that, the flirtation kicked up a notch and it continued with the two of them texting back and forth incessantly.

It was clear at this point that they had an almost immediate infatuation with each other that neither of them could deny, and neither of them was even trying to deny it.

By the 27th, Doug was flying to Israel for a week-long work trip. But that didn't stop the love train of flirty texts at all. He and Ashley continued to text all the time. Every single day, he was gone non-stop. On September 1st, just a mere six days after they met, they were texting each other and saying, I love you. And when Doug got back from his work trip, they decided they were going to get married. Which, yeah,

That timeline is correct. According to one of Doug's friends, Doug didn't want to have sex with Ashley before they were married. But here's the thing. It wasn't like they decided to get married while they continued to date, be engaged, and plan the wedding for later on in the future. Instead, they got married five days later at St. Michael's Church in Charleston. The wedding was on September 6th, and there were no guests except for a witness and Doug's friend, Tripp.

who was officiating the wedding. Now, it's certainly not uncommon for people to elope and get married without guests. Maybe less common to elope 13 days after meeting someone, but whatever, we know it happens. Still, there was one more detail that made this marriage different, and that's because Doug didn't tell anybody that he was getting married, except for his friend that officiated the wedding. Other than that, it was a secret.

It seemed that Doug didn't want to tell people that he was remarried after his wife had just passed away several months earlier, or that he was seeing someone in general, and that included not telling his 15-year-old daughter, Eva. Not only that, but remember, Doug had comforted Eva in the wake of losing her mother and promised her that marriage wasn't even in the realm of things that he was considering doing.

And now he just married someone that was only eight and a half, nine years older than his 15-year-old daughter. According to an article from Vanity Fair, which by the way was amazing and I sourced a lot of information from them since the writer had a ton of inside knowledge.

When Doug and Ashley got married, his cousin later stated that Doug believed that this was a chance to essentially rescue someone and that there wasn't really any doubt that Ashley saw him as a rescuer and a solution to her life situation.

See, Ashley had been married and divorced and had opened up to Doug about a very traumatic past that she had, which included her dad leaving her and her mom at a very young age and a rocky first marriage. Something I've always kind of referred to in situations like this is the term Captain Save-A-Ho, where it's like these guys come in with

kind of like a God complex of sorts where it's like when the guy goes into the strip club and he wants to get her off the pole. He wants to save her from that life. And she sees the knight in shining armor and she thinks that this is a fairy tale. And it can become toxic very quick because they both go into it romanticizing this idea of what the relationship is going to be and what it's going to become. Sometimes it works out.

And more often times than not, it's not a pretty woman type ending, which I'm not saying Ashley was a stripper. Obviously, she was not. She was a ballerina. But still, this mentality of, oh, she's this younger woman who needs help, who's had a hard life. I'm going to sweep her off of her feet, take care of her and save her. Mm.

Therefore, the term, my term, at least, Captain Sabaho. And as a side note, I just want to say I'm not judging their age difference at all, but I think that we can all agree that for his 15-year-old daughter, it may have been a lot and it may have bothered her. And it actually did. It bothered her quite a bit and not just about Ashley's age.

Okay, listen up guys. I know all you little sewer rats want a story time. So I'm gonna give it to you. I even pulled up my chair. And so first of all for this comment, short answer, yes. Long answer, no. Okay, so when I was 15, my mom died of an underlying heart condition. And then my, so basically my dad was out of town and

Then I came home from school and I found her. So that was the start of a lot of trauma. And then after that, my dad came home and he specifically told me, don't worry, Eva, I'm never going to get married again. Well, he didn't use those exact words, but that's how I remember it.

And then after that, nine months later, he married. He was like, it was a Friday after school and he married. No, it was a Friday after school. And he was like, so I'm seeing this girl. And I was like, OK. And then he picked her up from the airport the next day and I met her. And he was like, she's super cool. She's a model and a ballerina. And I was like, OK, like, cool. She's kind of hot, but I don't see the hype. She's 23, dude. Like, come on.

But then I was like, all right, well, you're allowed to date. Like you're a single man. I get it. And then the next day he was like, we need to have a family meeting. And I was like, no, because we're not a family. And the only thing that you would should have to tell me is if you propose. And as soon as those words came out, he goes, we're married. And I was like, what?

So I drove myself, even though I only had my permit. If you're a cop, please don't arrest me. This was years ago. I only had my permit and I drove myself to my best friend's house. And I was like, guys, my dad's actually married to this little skank. And they were like, what? And then I was like, yeah. And I told I have two older, like half brothers. They're on my mom's side, though.

I told them and they're like, she's younger than us. And I was like, I know. And so then after that, I just kind of like tried to get used to her. But she was like, totally not that nice. She was cool at first, but then she wasn't. And here's why. I only have three minutes. Anyways, this is like, there's gonna be part two. Don't worry. But, um, I was like,

So, fuck, hold on. So then, um, I tried to get used to her because I was like, okay, well, like, this is reality. He's married. And so then, um, she, at first she was nice and then she kind of would, like, twist my words and make my dad get mad at me. Even when me and my dad were, like, very close. Like, since my mom died, we, me and my dad were always close. I was always, like,

Like, my dad's, me and my dad were just best friends. I was close to my mom, too, but, like, me and my dad, like, had a different level kind of bond. And so when she did this, it really, like, affected me and my dad's relationship.

Ashley did not get a job at the White House like she was expecting after the election in 2016. And now with modeling on hold since she had relocated to Charleston, she was at a standstill.

She began trying a few things here and there, but nothing was really sticking. She was out of a job and was still reeling over not having a passion in her life anymore, where ballet was that thing for her for so much of her life. The other thing she wanted was to be a mother, but Doug had a vasectomy years earlier.

As I mentioned before, Doug considered himself a venture capitalist of sorts, an entrepreneur, frequently dabbling in different projects and business ventures. So when he and Ashley got married, one of the things that they started talking about was the possibility of opening up a ballet company in Charleston. For Ashley, this was her dream. She could still pursue her passion, but this time in a different way. This time she could help other young men and women achieve their goals in ballet.

She had the idea of making her ballet company different than the rest, vowing to be an inclusive place for dancers to come, so that other people who were like her, maybe not the perfect height or weight or whatever it was according to other ballet companies, they could come find a home at her company and still be given opportunities from their hard work and their talent, and not just based on their physical appearances. So this sounds like an amazing idea, obviously.

And Doug had the money to invest and to start up this dance company. Although they would of course need more funding from investors since this was a huge project. But they knew that this was something that they wanted to make a reality. So that's exactly what they did. Doug had the business smarts and Ashley had the dancing experience. And now together, they had one dream. To shake things up in the ballet world by giving a chance to dancers who didn't fit the usual mold.

In the world of ballet, job opportunities are hard to come by. And when an offer does appear, it can feel like a golden ticket for these dancers, regardless of where that offer is coming from.

According to Vanity Fair, A&B planned to redress not only height and size discriminations, but the notorious whiteness of classical ballet. Each new hire, at the behest of their new bosses, posted a photo on Instagram with a hashtag, or,

or A&B Family. Christopher Charles McDaniel had spent years as the only Black dancer at Los Angeles Ballet before deciding to join A&B. There was so much hope for what could happen with this new company, he had said. And in a world where even the most established companies struggle for funding...

A&B seemed to have no shortage of cash. The fledging trope 47 dancers in all reportedly had an annual budget of $2.5 million, and its dancers were promised eight-month contracts, health insurance, and for those who had been recruited from Germany or Argentina or Estonia, American visas. While Ashley and Doug and several other people who worked for A&B were working to get the ball rolling on this new venture,

Things with Ashley and Doug in their home life weren't going quite as well. You see, Doug really wanted Ashley to be a mother figure to his daughter, Eva. Initially, Ashley tried to extend an olive branch to Eva by having more of a friendship-type relationship.

Ashley tried to bond with Eva by showing her some of her favorite dance videos, and they even had a therapeutic day of houseplant shopping together, followed by an afternoon repotting them in mason jars on the porch. But the truth is, when you're 15 years old, there's a good possibility that you don't want your dad's new wife, who isn't even old enough to be your biological mother, stepping on your toes and trying to act like your new mom, and wanting you to pretend like everything is normal when, in fact,

It's not normal at all. But Doug and Ashley didn't get that, and Doug was frustrated that Ashley and Eva weren't connecting on the level that he had envisioned for them. Ashley would complain to Doug about Eva and almost treated it as a competition of who could have Doug's attention or who could be number one. And for Eva, she began to get frustrated that her dad was essentially letting someone come in and sabotage their father-daughter relationship.

Just one month after their marriage, Ashley's insecurities began to surface. In a frantic state, she called Tripp, Doug's friend, the one who officiated Doug and Ashley's wedding, and she told him that she was scared Doug's affection might be swaying toward Eva instead of toward her. Tripp said she was just hysterical, and I said, Ashley, what is the bottom line here? What are you so upset about? And she replied,

I just want him to pick me. Which let me just say this, if you are ever in a relationship with someone who has children and your new partner or spouse or whatever it is, is demanding that you choose them over your own child, that is a huge red flag. Huge, huge.

Also, who could blame Eva for being a little resistant to someone that was forcing herself and expecting to be treated like she was her mother? Months had passed, and it was now June of 2017. And Ashley found Eva's diary. And for some screwed-up reason, she decided that it would be a really good idea to read it. Talk about an invasion of privacy. And she had no idea that what she was about to read would feel like a punch in the gut.

But what the hell was she really expecting? You don't go snooping in somebody's diary, especially a teenage girl, and not find something that you probably weren't looking for. And personally, I feel like she was kind of searching for dirt to try to use against Eva, to paint Eva in a weird light to her dad since they were in this weird fight for Doug's love over his daughter. I don't know. It is bizarre. Anyways, she reads the diary, and Eva had written that she hated Ashley and that she couldn't stand her.

Which let me just say, going through someone's diary is fucked up. But I guess if you're going to, maybe don't tell anyone so that they don't know how psychotic and gross you are. I don't know. But no.

Ashley was pissed and determined to make it known. So she went straight to Doug and told him, and they began arguing. They were yelling and screaming at each other, and in the heat of the moment, Doug grabbed one of their guns and threw it at the wall. And there was another big fight about Eva that escalated between Doug and Ashley, where this time, Doug was so angry that he punched a hole in the wall. And the fights just kept getting worse and worse over time. And

and they were always about his daughter, Eva. And on one occasion in particular, things came to a terrifying head. Doug and Ashley were arguing about Eva once again, and Doug lost his temper and fired a gun into the ceiling of their home. And this happened while Eva and a friend of hers that was living with them at the time were both at the house. That same day, Doug reportedly punched their dog, Sully, the golden retriever.

But outside of their home, they tried to show a different picture of their lives, a more perfect picture that wasn't real at all. For example, just a few days after Doug put a bullet in the ceiling, they threw a party for themselves, a wedding reception. Ashley was quoted in an interview that took place later saying, "'I'm a ballet dancer. I can put on a good face no matter what's going on in my life. Trust me, I can put on one heck of a show.'"

Which, first of all, Ashley, you are a child for that statement, and I'm really embarrassed for you. It's a little bit cringe. But also, you have all of this fighting going on at this house, and you have Ashley being unbelievably immature and selfish and demanding these unrealistic expectations of Doug. You have Ashley being

You have Doug, who is trying to make his wife happy and keep his daughter happy as well. He's also on top of that, having major anger issues, all while they are pretending like everything is perfectly fine and trying to keep up this facade while trying to launch their ballet company. Not a good situation at all. One month after the wedding reception, another secret was about to be revealed.

And poor Eva was in for an even bigger surprise. About a month and a half before A&B was supposed to open, Ashley found out that she was pregnant. Ashley had always wanted to experience motherhood, and somehow that led to Doug getting a reverse vasectomy. And this news was devastating to Eva.

This may be hard to understand, but I do have a friend who went through something extremely similar. And she said that news like that can feel like the ultimate betrayal in the moment. For Eva, one day she had both parents and then suddenly lost her mom. So her dad was the only thing left of their family unit that she grew up with. And then now you have her dealing with the fact that her dad, who she trusted and who promised wouldn't get remarried, had a vasectomy.

got married, and all of this suddenly backtracked all of those promises he made. That can be extremely hurtful because usually parents don't betray or lie to their children. And now it felt like he was starting a whole new family and one that she would not be included in given her relationship with Ashley.

And I do want to be clear that I don't think it was Doug's intention to hurt his daughter, Eva, but more likely that he lost sight of how that could affect her without talking to her about it first, since he had promised her that that wasn't even an option.

As Ashley's pregnancy progressed, it turned into an extremely hard pregnancy for her. She started having major nausea and other pregnancy-related symptoms, and she didn't expect to have issues like this, especially with the opening of the A&B company around the corner. She told Doug about the nausea, and he tried to do what he could to help. Unfortunately, Ashley's hard pregnancy forced her to take a step back from the dance company so that she could stay home and try to rest and get better.

Now Doug had to handle everything related to the company, in addition to his other business responsibilities. But Ashley kept getting worse, and so did Ashley and Doug's fighting. Ashley eventually moved back to Florida and moved into her mom's house so that her mom could take care of her and be there for her all of the time. Doug had agreed to this plan and thought that it would be best for Ashley to stay with her mother because of the stress at the house and her difficult pregnancy.

In the beginning, after they separated, Doug and Ashley's text messages to each other were almost like they were back in the honeymoon phase of their relationship. Doug would send texts like, I miss you so much, it's making me sick, and there are no words to say how much I miss you. And Ashley would reply with messages like, I love and miss you too. However, Doug didn't know that Ashley's plan was quite different than what he was told. Ashley was straight up leaving him.

On September 18th, a day that they had been waiting for, the launch of the American National Ballet Company, Doug was at the studios welcoming the new dancers. Meanwhile, Ashley was on a secret 500-mile trip back to South Carolina, and Doug had no clue that she was coming. She went to the house when she knew that he wouldn't be there. She packed her clothes and left him a four-page note

The letter started by saying, I can tell you straight up that I am totally heartbroken. In the next four pages, she listed 21 points, all of the things that she couldn't put up with anymore. His temper, the way he yelled and cursed at her, the things that he had thrown and broken, including a loaded gun that left a huge hole in the wall, and Doug shooting the ceiling, all of these things. She also wrote about how unhappy she was with the condition of the house.

the black mold on the walls, the unsafe tap water, and the exposed outlets.

She ended the letter by saying, All of these things and more I have overlooked and I have lived with now for over a year because I love you. But even since finding out I was pregnant, you have continued to display psychotic, irrational, and unsafe behavior that has left me fearful for my life and safety as well as that of my unborn child. I have come to get only what belongs to me. Do not harass me or try to follow me.

or I will call the police and have a restraining order against you. I will talk with you only via text starting Tuesday, September 19th. Do not call me or my mom. We will not pick up.

Thank you for understanding, Ashley. When Doug got home, he was surprised by all of this and he read the note and he was devastated. So he texted Ashley saying, I just finished reading your note. I don't even know where to begin. I'm sorry for not being a stronger, better man throughout all of this. I swear I'll never act like how you described ever again.

He sent another text to her, letting her know that he was planning on going to therapy, and even said that he was going to lock his guns away in the safe. The texting continued, with Doug saying, I'll never raise my voice at you again. A week later, he texted again, Thank you, amazing woman of God for being you. I'm constantly sending angels to protect you and our baby. But at this time, his apology was going unanswered and falling on silence.

Which let me just say this too, the sending angels to protect you and our unborn baby, I guess he was trying to be sweet in this like weird way, but that sounds a little too much like Chad Daybell to me. It's a little too like cultish. So I was like not ready to be hearing that. It was too soon for me. So Ashley only responded when it came to ballet contracts or to thank him for depositing money into her account. But Doug was persistent.

He texted, we're perfect together, just out of the blue on October 2nd to her. And then on October 9th, he texted, I've just never loved this deeply before. I lost control. I admit it and I acknowledge it. Meanwhile, over at the dance company, dancers were moving to Charleston and they were super excited about their new opportunities. Before arriving, dancers were encouraged to sign leases at a luxury apartment complex nearby that would be super close to the ballet studios.

In emails, A and B said, "...the best part is you can see the main studios from the apartments, not even a two-minute walk. But wait, there's more. We are building a rehearsal studio space on the ground level of the apartments." Then on the day when the dancers arrived in Charleston, the dance company had a film crew for a photo shoot on standby and through a pizza party.

and the dancers all seemed to be so excited about kicking off the start of the new dance studios. As some dancers had interviews and posed for the cameras, some of the others weren't as excited and tried to ignore some of the red flags that they were beginning to see.

Over the past few months leading up to the opening, many dancers emailed A&B about various questions, scheduling, etc., and they were only receiving vague emails in response. But on A&B's Facebook page, the company always posted things like, there are big things in store for A&B and we are changing the face of ballet, we will be making a lot of announcements in the upcoming weeks, promise after promise after promise.

But those announcements never came. And now that these dancers were in Charleston, the dancers noticed that there wasn't a studio at all, not on the ground level of their apartments, and not even one that was a two-minute walk away, as promised. They were told that there were a few reasons that they were having trouble with the construction, and that in the meantime, they would just use a studio that was five miles away.

And a lot of the dancers were even more confused because Ashley, the founder and the face of the dance company, was nowhere to be found. And they had no idea that she had moved to Florida. A few weeks passed and the cracks in A&B really started to show. And it felt as if maybe A&B wasn't this great idea that they were once sold.

But at this point, nobody had any solid proof that something shady was going on. That was until one day when they all got a clear warning sign that nobody could ignore. On payday, nobody got paid. The truth was that this $2.5 million budget was just a pipe dream. And Doug had held onto the hope that he could gather the funds before the cat was out of the bag.

He took out hefty loans amounting to tens of thousands of dollars just to meet the first payroll. And then when payment eventually came, it wasn't in the form of direct deposits or checks because Doug had to scrape up the money to pay them himself.

So instead, the dancers were just given bundles of cash in envelopes. Barely a month after their arrival on Friday, October 20th, the dancers were brought in and given non-disclosure agreements to sign. One of the dancers had said that they were told that something grand and fantastic was about to occur and that they had to sign the NDA in order to learn what that was.

So all of the dancers signed the NDA. But then three days later, almost half of the dancers were laid off.

A and B made up an excuse about how they now wanted to go in a different direction. But nobody believed it. And they all began to think that this was something bigger. All of these dancers had traveled across the country to move to Charleston. Some even came from overseas and got their visas. They signed leases and they were promised all of the things. And now it was all falling apart right before their eyes.

The truth was, the money to fund this dance company just wasn't there. A&B had overpromised and significantly underdelivered. And now Doug, who had invested $100,000 of his own money, was about to watch everything crumble.

According to ex-business partners of Doug's, this wasn't the first project that he led that had these issues. And that in his past experience, Doug would try to get more investors by saying, oh, this person invested this amount of money, et cetera, in hopes that they may be swayed to invest. But the money never was invested in the first place. And at the end, all of the big talk and false promises was ending in nothing. Now, Ashley, who claimed she hadn't been informed about the layoffs, was livid.

She texted Doug expressing her frustration about the situation because, hello, this was the very issue that they had pledged to combat in the ballet world. On the A&B Facebook page, Ashley issued a statement, her first public communication since the season had started.

In this statement, she wrote, a note from the founder of American National Ballet. I want to start by saying that I publicly disavow my support for American National Ballet and its leadership. I have been on personal leave and out of the state since the end of August, and I heard secondhand about the devastation that took place on October 23rd.

As the founder, I am completely devastated by what has been done and the way it was done. The new leadership has destroyed all that we worked so hard to build and I cannot stand behind them or their actions. A&B was created to be different from any other company and was supposed to set a new standard in how it treated its dancers. Everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves for how this was handled. My heart goes out to all of those affected by recent changes.

Each and every dancer brought on possesses amazing talent and potential. The original group assembled was truly diverse in every way, and this is a huge loss for America and for art lovers around the world. As I am no longer associated with this organization in any way, please feel free to share your concerns with A&B's leadership. And then she put the COO's email address.

Doug pleaded with Ashley to remove her Facebook post, telling her that she was making the problem worse and adding more stress for the dancers that weren't laid off yet at this point. But Ashley shot back, and she sent him a text message saying, A few days later, Doug admitted to Ashley what had happened.

He sent her a text message saying, After this, Ashley called CPS on Doug for leaving Eva at home for long periods of time that he would go to work, saying that she was home alone a lot and that he was neglecting her.

Which really infuriates me because CPS actually conducted a full-blown investigation for neglecting a child, who was at the time 15 years old, almost 16, and perfectly cared for. Of course, that claim was dismissed because Eva was never really alone all of the time.

Her older half-brothers, who were now adults, frequently came with their wives to look after Eva and to just spend time with her since they had lost their mom. Back in Florida, Ashley's health showed no signs of improvement. She was experiencing severe sharp pains in her stomach as well as chest pains. Despite consulting doctors and taking medications to help alleviate some of her pain, nothing seemed to work. Some days, she could hardly muster the strength to get out of bed.

She didn't know what could be the problem, and she was starting to get extremely worried by this, wondering what was wrong. So she decided to send a hair sample to a lab for testing. The lab indicated that her body contained hazardous amounts of aluminum, cobalt, zinc, tin, and barium. Ashley was shocked, and paranoia began to set in.

Furthermore, in the lab report, it was suggested that Ashley had been intentionally and consistently exposed to these toxins by someone that they referred to as the poisoner.

A specialist in toxicology cautioned Ashley that her pregnancy may have exacerbated the situation, explaining that a pregnant woman takes in seven times more air and nutrients compared to a non-pregnant woman, which increased the chances of toxin absorption. Ashley thought back to the hot tea that Doug used to make her every single morning to help her feel better, and she began to wonder if maybe her own husband could be the culprit.

the poisoner. But could all of this be true? Was Ashley really being poisoned? The Carlson Company, the lab that Ashley used for the testing, was no stranger to the spotlight.

The tragic death of actress Brittany Murphy at age 32 years old led her grieving father to reject the official cause of death, which was ruled as pneumonia. So he also had sought out the Carlson Company's services, sending them a snippet of Brittany's hair for testing. The result? The report concluded that Brittany, similar to Ashley's case, fell prey to intentional heavy metal poisoning.

This finding made headlines and was huge, but it also received a lot of flack for not being credible. Another renowned toxicologist reviewed the report and dismissed the claim as unfounded and absurd. So if the claims were unfounded and absurd, why would a company make stuff like that up? Your guess is as good as mine. Now, in the background of all of this happening, Doug sent Ashley a GIF.

That included Teavana tea bags, that same tea that Ashley thought Doug was using to poison her. So Ashley didn't drink the tea and actually took it straight to the Manatee County Sheriff's Office for testing. She wanted it inspected by a hazardous materials response team specialist. And when the tea was analyzed, nothing was done to the teas at all.

Then in March of 2018, at eight months pregnant, Ashley checked herself into Tampa General Hospital, and she told the nurses that she had been a victim of intentional poisoning and that she was in danger and worried that her baby was poisoned as well. So the hospital immediately got ready for an emergency C-section, which was okay since Ashley was due in just a few weeks anyway.

Ashley did not tell Doug anything about this, and since Ashley came into the hospital saying, hey, my husband poisoned me, she was booked in the hospital under a different name so that her attacker couldn't find her. In June of 2018, Ashley went to the Hyperbaric Center of Southwest Florida and scheduled 26 oxygen chamber sessions for her now three-month-old daughter because she was concerned that the baby had been poisoned while she was pregnant.

Now, I'm not sure if the baby was experiencing any symptoms at all or was sick, but hyperbaric oxygen therapy is commonly used for treating scuba divers with decompression sickness or firefighters suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning. It is not a light-scale treatment. Now, to be honest, I don't really know what to make of all of this. Was she poisoned or not? What was up with the results? Were they made up? I don't know.

Once she had the baby, Doug did eventually find out that she was born. But in any event, Ashley had no intention of sharing any type of custody at all. So Doug filed with the courts in Florida, where Ashley was living, to have access to see his new daughter and to get shared custody. This hearing was in July of 2018, and it had now been 10 months since Doug and Ashley last saw each other.

Ashley wanted to fight Doug's request for custody, and she accused Doug of domestic abuse from the incidents that had happened earlier in their relationship. She combined that with her new accusation of attempted poisoning, among the numerous other allegations that she had made in attempt to secure a restraining order to keep Doug far away from her and her baby.

Doug's attorney tried to discredit Ashley's claims by going through the plethora of lovey-dovey text messages that she had sent to Doug when all of these domestic abuse incidents occurred, insinuating that maybe she was exaggerating or lying about things because her text messages seemed to show that things were fine. Ashley explained that she had just been trying to placate Doug because she was scared of him.

This hearing lasted eight hours, and it ended with the judge denying Ashley's request and ruled for joint custody. Specifically, the judge said, there is not a single piece of credible evidence that Ms. Benefield has ever been poisoned or suffered from any illness of any poison. But then things took an even weirder turn. Despite all of the crazy shit that I just told you, Ashley and Doug somehow found their way back to each other.

In November of 2018, they sought the guidance of a marriage counselor and decided to rekindle their romance. Which, like number one, if Ashley truly thought that he was poisoning her while pregnant, girl, run. Run far and fast. And while I'm on that note, I wonder if Ashley ever got a mold test done in the home that she shared with Doug.

Because maybe that was the contributing factor and why she had these weird toxin levels. In that letter that she wrote to him, mold was one of the things that she was pretty pissed about. So if there really was mold, maybe that's what was causing her so many health problems. Mold poisoning can affect some people that live together in a house, but oftentimes it doesn't affect everyone in the household. Everyone is different and it just depends on your body.

So I'm not sure if mold will lead to all of those substances showing up in her lab report. So I'm definitely not saying that it was the mold, but I know that it can cause someone to have pretty intense side effects. So I'm just wondering if everything was ruled out before she jumped to accusing her own husband of poisoning her and her unborn child, his unborn child as well. But aside from that, number two, how could she go back with Doug after all of the things that Ashley had written in the notes?

She was in fear for her life. She was in fear for her unborn baby's life. So what had changed? Did Ashley make that stuff up? Or did all of this happen? Was this the case of a woman believing that a man will be better and just trying to give it another go? Was she so psychologically abused that she couldn't get away from her abuser, even though it seemed that she already had?

I don't know, maybe. But also number three, did we forget about the gun shooting into the ceiling and Doug punching the dog and according to Ashley, knocked the dog out cold? Nothing was ever done that would make tension and heated fighting just go away. So again, what's the difference now? Is this truly a domestic abuse situation that was extremely toxic even though there wasn't any physical harm to each other?

And maybe that's why they kept coming back together even when most people would have already just hit the road by now.

Or was this, again, just a psychological thing for her? I don't want to be misconstrued here and it to be taken as victim-shaming in any way if this abuse really was happening, because I know it takes many people several times to get out of a situation like that. But it appeared Ashley already was out of that situation, and safely. So why willingly get back into it? And again, it's not us to judge in that regard because we don't know what she was feeling, what she was being told, and things of that nature.

But we're going to get into some more details that give me pause. Despite trying to patch things together and make it work, it quickly became clear that Ashley still harbored some serious resentment and serious doubts about Doug. She couldn't get the thought of him being the culprit of her poisoning out of her mind. Then, Ashley's mind started racing with thoughts about Eva's mother, Renee. Did Doug poison her too? Remember, Renee was 56 years old when she was found unresponsive.

If you were to judge her by her pictures, she seemed like the epitome of health and happiness. But when the police looked into her tragic death, one of the things that they investigated was her cell phone. Apparently, her text messages showed a wildly different side to her and Doug's marriage than what it appeared from the outside. They discovered that Renee and Doug had their fair share of fights as well. In

An investigation report said that Renee had expressed to Doug how he had kicked her during their New Year's Eve honeymoon, and it also pointed out instances of Doug threatening himself with a gun.

After she died, Doug explained that Renee hadn't been in the best of health in the year leading up to her death and that she had experienced fainting spells twice in the past year. The coroner ruled that she had died due to a heart condition. Ashley brought this up to Doug and he denied it and he swore on everything that of course he had nothing to do with Renee's death and how could he since he was out of town anyways.

During the Easter weekend of 2019, they all went out for dinner. At this dinner, Ashley and her mother pulled Eva aside, and they went to confront her with this new information about her mom and how her mom died. And according to Eva, she says,

I attempted multiple times to neutralize the situation by assuring them that my dad has been nothing but a pillar of support. After that incident, leading into the summer months, Doug's suspicions about Ashley began to surface. He noticed her becoming more elusive and acting extremely secretive. So he put a tracking device on her car and hired a private investigator. I mean, can you just say like the most toxic relationship of...

toxic relationships. You're both now spying on each other, have suspicions against each other. It is time to probably cut the cord. The investigator tracked Ashley down and followed her and came back to Doug to let him know that Ashley was having an affair with someone. And this time, Doug was furious and deeply hurt. And he was the one who finally decided that they should separate for good this time.

But Doug couldn't stay mad at Ashley for long. He still clung to the dream that they could reconcile, move in together, and reestablish their family life. Even while Ashley kept pushing for full custody, Doug expressed his gratitude toward his estranged wife in his text messages, praising her for being an extraordinary woman and for bringing their precious baby into the world. He forgave her for the affair and pleaded with her to withdraw her accusations in court.

But Ashley was now somehow more convinced than ever that he had for sure poisoned her and that he 100% poisoned his first wife, Renee. And on top of this, in November of 2019, their couples counselor discovered that Doug was secretly recording their therapy sessions, which was a violation of their client contract. So the therapist put an end to their couples counseling, but did continue to see just Ashley on her own.

Six months later, in May of 2020, Ashley seemed to have the change of heart that Doug had been hoping for. So she texted Doug and said that she really wanted to talk about things and that she was considering going to a genuine trauma therapist with Doug. And Doug was basically like, say no more. Yes, let's do it. And what do you know? They started dating again.

They liked to go to restaurants, go to the beach, spend time with their daughter, all of that. And they all continued to do it. But then one day, Ashley had an idea. She thought that maybe it would be a good idea for Doug, the baby, and her to move to Maryland, where Doug was starting a new job and where she grew up. She was hoping that a change in scenery might be just what they needed for a fresh start together. And over the next few months, that became the plan.

But Doug's lawyer, Stephanie Murphy, warned Doug that maybe Ashley had a hidden agenda in all of this. In an email on August 31st, she said, I've long believed, and I'm sorry, I know it's not what you want to hear, that Ashley could be using this chance to switch up the jurisdictions, seeking a new state and new judge where she can bring up her case again since she has not been successful here. And Doug responded to this email by saying, I share the same worry. I

I can't trust her at all, no matter how much I wish she would change. But for some reason, in mid-September, Doug went ahead and rented the U-Haul and continued his plans to move with Ashley.

Why? The relationship is still toxic. You don't trust each other. It seems like you guys hate each other. Why continue this? You're even confiding in your attorney that you don't trust her. What is going on? But everything would come to a screeching halt because the day before they were supposed to move with that U-Haul loaded nearly all the way up or ready to go the next day,

The unexpected happened. No, I want you to just wait for the police, okay? So they were in an argument?

Ashley shot Doug with a .45 caliber handgun, an act that took the life of Eva's only surviving parent.

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Despite Ashley's initial claim of self-defense, two months later, she ended up being charged with second-degree murder. She was initially held on bail but was eventually released on bond with an ankle monitor and restrictions.

So what was the evidence that led police to believe that this was no longer self-defense? According to court documents, a search warrant was obtained for the residents and during the execution, it was discovered that a total of four shots were fired. Four .45 caliber casings were located on the floor in Ashley's bedroom. A loose projectile was also found on the floor and two more were found embedded in the walls of the residence.

Ashley was transported to CID by patrol for an interview. Prior to her arrival, Ashley's legal counsel had already arrived. Ashley and counsel advised that she did not wish to make a statement at this time. Ashley did, however, make a spontaneous statement to me advising that her ears were still ringing.

Ashley was shown to the interview room so that she could confer with her counsel. As we walked to the interview room, I did not observe Ashley to have any injuries, nor did I observe any ripped, torn, or stretched out clothing. A search warrant was obtained for photographs as well as DNA from Ashley's person. I reviewed the photographs and spoke with the crime scene technician. No injuries other than a minor scratch on her right side were visible. The scratch appeared to be old and very minor.

Upon further investigation, a witness explained that Ashley had obtained the scratch on her right side the day before the shooting, when she was inadvertently scratched when someone walked by her carrying a box. Douglas was found to have been shot twice. One of the rounds entered the outside of his right leg and exited the inside of his right leg. The other round appeared to have skipped across the right bicep and entered his chest cavity from the right side.

No signs of stifling were observed on Douglas or his clothing, indicating that the firearm was several feet away when it was fired.

Based on the entry wounds on Douglas, it does not appear that he was facing Ashley when she began shooting. It also does not appear that Douglas had taken any kind of defensive or combative stance. After being shot, Douglas fell to the ground and it appears that he may have struck his head on the way down. Douglas did have an abrasion on the back of his head, which was the same as a small patch of disturbed drywall on the eastern wall of the bedroom.

Douglas was not found to have any weapons on his person or near him. On October 1, 2020, a second search warrant for photographs was executed on Ashley for any delayed injuries that may not have been visible on the night of the shooting. No injuries were observed. Numerous requests have been made through Ashley's legal counsel to set up an interview to discuss what happened and what occurred in that room that night.

During this investigation, it was found that since the time Ashley found out she was pregnant with the child that she and Douglas share, she has made several allegations against Douglas. While looking into the outcomes of the numerous cases, it was found that they had never resulted in criminal charges and were furthermore closed as unfounded. None of the cases involved the allegation of physical domestic violence.

Based on these cases and Ashley's actions leading up to the murder of Douglas, it appears that the main focus of these complaints was to keep the child away from Douglas. In one of the most recent cases, Ashley and Douglas went before the Honorable Judge Moreland for an injunction hearing. During the hearing, Judge Moreland openly advised that she did not find Ashley's story to possess a tiny fraction of the truth.

Judge Moreland further ordered Douglas to have access to the child for visitation. At this point, it appears that Ashley had exhausted all legal means of keeping the child away from Douglas before the shooting. So Ashley was charged and booked back in November of 2020. Florida is a stand-your-ground state, and Ashley claims that she acted in self-defense.

Florida's stand your ground law is that the statute states that a person in his or her dwelling, residence, or occupied vehicle has the right to stand his or her ground and use or threaten to use deadly force if he or she reasonably believes such force is necessary to prevent imminent death, great bodily harm, or prevent the commission of a forcible felony.

So is it possible that Ashley acted in self-defense? In February of 2023, Ashley's lawyer filed a lengthy motion to dismiss and request for immunity. And this court document that I found, it says, After meeting in 2016, Douglas Benefield and Ashley were married following a 13-day whirlwind romance. 30 years her senior, Mr. Benefield portrayed himself as everything that she was waiting for her entire life.

In reality, Mr. Benefield's presentation was a complete fraud. On the day of the homicide, September 27, 2020, Ms. Benefield knew the following about her husband. A. He fired a handgun into the ceiling of their kitchen in an effort to intimidate her. B. He threw a loaded gun at her. C. He punched their dog in the face hard enough to render the canine unconscious. D. He regularly carried a loaded, concealed firearm.

E. He unlawfully placed a tracker on her car and Ashley frequently observed him tailing her car. F. He was caught by a neighbor at night standing in her backyard and peering into her home. G. He punched numerous holes in the wall of their home. H. His previous marriage had a history of domestic violence. Then they say...

While physical conditioning played a larger role in Ashley's career as a ballerina, she was no match for Douglas Benefield. In sharp contrast to Miss Benefield's little structure, Doug was a former naval officer, admittedly skilled in hand-to-hand combat, who stood 5'9", weighed 169 pounds, and was in prime shape. And they attached exhibits of Doug working out and taking selfies.

During their relationship, the deceased frequently represented to Ashley that he worked for government agencies, such as the CIA, was a technical expert in advanced classified fields that required a security clearance, and trained with both active and retired special forces in hand-to-hand and close-quarters combat at a secret location in the United States called the Ranch Moody and Unpredictable.

He would also frequently go between calm and rage, and Ashley would never know what would set him off. He would often tell Ashley, you haven't seen the warrior side of me and you never want to. Then it says that the weeks before the incident, Ashley, her mother, and daughter were preparing to move to Maryland and that Doug leased a local apartment and that he too was moving to Maryland.

and it was made clear to him and he understood that the parties would not be cohabitating upon their arrival at this new destination. Which is news to everyone, right? It says that when he got to the house, Doug's mood was consistent with prior behavior, being happy and then all of the sudden being extremely agitated and angry. Then, Ashley and Doug were talking about how to load the U-Haul truck, saying that since they would be living in different places and unloading different places,

Ashley's stuff would need to go and last to be unloaded first. Allegedly, this annoyed Doug, and he expressed frustration and anger by stating, it should not be a your house, my house arrangement. We are moving together as a family, making a fresh start, but you're dividing us. And then Ashley claims that this is when things began to escalate, because Doug told her it's time that she began acting like a wife.

Otherwise, he would have to pack her in the pod, like a moving pod. And then she claims that this threat was something that Doug had said before, saying on several occasions that he would say, if you don't cooperate, I will ship you in the pod and you won't like it because you will be hot and it'll be slow. And if you're going to be difficult, you're going to go the slow way to Maryland, like this torture threat.

So then Doug started trying to open the pod and make room. And Ashley said, hey, it's full already. Don't mess with it. But Doug tried anyways. And when he tried to open it and it was locked, he became even more angry, especially when Ashley said she didn't know where the key was. Then it says that Doug started confronting Ashley, moving in close, crossing his arms and glaring at Ashley. And this is a direct quote, concluding,

concluding she was defiant, he grew tense, shoulders raised, fists clenched, heavy breathing, and sharp stature, with nasty comments spewing back and forth. As in South Carolina, Ashley was concerned for her safety and wanted to avoid antagonizing Doug. She had tried to attempt to de-escalate the situation by redirecting the conversation and calming him down by speaking softly and positively. He would have none of it,

and in an effort to protect herself, she moved away from him to the rear of the garage and resumed packing. Then Doug responded by growing increasingly aggressive and threatening and began to hover over the top of Ashley in a very intimidating manner, all while she was bent over packing boxes in the garage.

Fists clenched, arms jingling, as if getting ready for physical contact. Ashley thought he may lash out, so she tried to tell Doug, hey, I'm exhausted, I'm finished for today, so that maybe he would leave. The filing goes on to say that Doug didn't listen and continued to pack in a passive-aggressive way.

It says that Ashley would try to move to the opposite sides of the garage as well as in the house, but that Doug kept coming up to her and body-checking her instead of going around her when he needed to walk by. Ashley said that Doug was mumbling under his breath and clearly hostile. Then, while Doug was carrying a box, he again body-checked her, and this time deliberately hitting her with the box, leaving scratches on the side of Ashley's body.

Afterwards, while in the baby's room, Doug stood in the doorway blocking Ashley from leaving while puffing his chest, clenching his fists, and glaring at her. And that's when Doug yelled that he knew what she was doing and accused her of trying to force him to leave, get rid of him, and that he was not leaving and he could stay if he wanted to, and also spend the night if he wanted to, because he was her husband. So as things were starting to escalate even more,

Doug moved out of the way and Ashley ran through the house to try to go to the front door. And Doug grabbed her, yanked her back, and said, where do you think you are going? Then he once again aggressively confronted her, thereby blocking her path to the front door while wagging his finger in her face and exclaiming, you can't leave me.

Ashley found the strength to tell him outright, I am done. You need to leave now. Now terrified, Ashley braced herself for what she believed would be certainly physical impact. Her instincts were allegedly correct. Raising his right hand with a closed fist, Doug drove his knuckles into the left side of Ashley's head.

while exclaiming, I am not done. The impact resulted in a sharp, numbing pain, which caused Ashley to stumble to her right side, after which she fled to her bedroom. Her worst fears were

realized. Ashley now believed her life was in danger. Never before had Doug actually struck her. In the past, he psychologically abused her and sought to intimidate her by, among other things, holding her against her will, punching holes in the wall, harming their domestic animals, and shooting and throwing guns in the house. But this was different. Any restraint had been abandoned. As she entered her bedroom, she swung the door behind her in an unsuccessful effort to close it.

The door remained ajar. Then it says that Ashley had a laundry basket in the corner of her room that had a gun on top of it. When Doug came in her room, he was upset, very visibly upset. And that's when Ashley held the gun to him and told him to stop. But instead, she claims that Doug was postured like a martial arts fighter, with his hands parallel to his chest, his shoulders moving, and he started advancing toward her.

Now terrified and fully believing that she was about to suffer great bodily harm, if not death, she fired the weapon. Doug continued advancing apparently toward Ashley. In fear for her life, she frantically moved in an effort to put more distance between them. Still, he did not stop coming toward her, and she continued firing. In what seemed like slow motion, she saw Doug's legs go up in the air as if his feet slipped out from underneath him.

and then he fell backward. The exhibits included transcripts from interviews from Ashley and Doug's legal battles and in the transcripts with Doug's version of events in many of the incidents that happened in their home. Then an exhibit was shown of Ashley's face after the incident. There was also transcripts of the neighbor who believes that she saw Doug peeping into Ashley's backyard.

In the exhibits, there was a text message that Renee Benefield had sent to Doug while they were married, which were included to show his previous history of abuse and being a fraud.

It's a little cut off at the top, but the part you can see is when she says, "...deeply disappointed that you distorted who you really were when I married you. I loved you through finding out you weren't really what you pretended to be. You kicking me so hard on New Year's Eve on our honeymoon because you were having trouble functioning in certain areas. You holding a gun to your head twice in my home that I opened to you with my children that still love you."

having to sell everything down to my wedding ring, finding out that you were on Viagra, which all you had to do was tell me, you know I wouldn't care, trying to film us making love on our honeymoon, finding out that you were eye pencil, on and on. I loved you so much. And then it cuts off and then it says, that's why I cut off to think you would take pictures of me without asking.

Doug, I wouldn't do that to you. I love you. There are a lot of people saying that Ashley was not the victim of any type of abuse and that she made this whole thing up to kill Doug and eliminate the threat of him taking her daughter away. Doug's attorney also said that Ashley did this three days before a custody hearing was scheduled for the 30th.

where a psychologist's evaluations of Ashley and Doug were set to be released. And they went on to say that Ashley did this because whatever would have come back in that report could have affected her custody with her daughter. The last part may 100% be true, but that doesn't change the fact that if what Ashley said happened in all of those events, which it seems like Doug admitted to all of them too, that it would make her a victim of domestic abuse, even though up until the day she shot and killed Doug,

He had never physically harmed her. So Ashley's trial was originally supposed to take place in July of 2023. Then it got moved to October of 2023, which also, of course, got pushed back. So Ashley's team had filed a motion to dismiss in February of 2023. Well, on September 18th, 2023, the judge wrote an order essentially agreeing with the state's charges against her, which threw Ashley's motion to dismiss, you know, right out the window. The order stated...

The competent and substantial evidence presented by the state proves clearly and convincingly that the defendant is not entitled to court-ordered immunity from criminal prosecution, as she was not justified in using deadly force against the victim on September 27, 2020.

So in less fancy terms, the judge ruled that Florida's stand-your-ground law that I mentioned earlier does not apply in this case, and that Ashley will still be going to trial as originally planned. Her team filed an appeal, but it just wasn't happening. So the whole back-and-forth was still the state claiming that Doug was not facing Ashley when she shot him. Therefore, it was not self-defense.

Then we have Ashley's team saying that he was actually coming at her. He was coming face on in her direction and that she had to do what she had to do in order to protect herself and that it was self-defense. Now, on top of all of that, the defense also got an expert named Dr. Russell Vega. He testified during a hearing which took place last summer. And Dr. Vega is not just like some random expert that the defense hired. No, he was the chief medical examiner who conducted Doug's autopsy.

and shockingly, he was on their side. Dr. Vega essentially stated that he believed what Ashley's team was saying about Doug facing her, and that he was coming at her in her direction when she shot him, and that all of that was true based on his professional opinion.

So that detail and that testimony and statement alone made me very, very intrigued for this entire trial to start. All of the hearings and everything that took place over the past year or so were definitely a good look into what Ashley's trial was going to look like. Both sides, of course, had completely different opinions, but they also had educated professional people backing them up. And like most trials, it was just going to be a matter of whose side of the story was more convincing at the end of the day.

So after all of the appeals and whatnot, Ashley's trial kept getting pushed back, but then it was officially scheduled to start on July 23rd, 2024. So meanwhile, as we were all waiting for this trial to start, just eagerly anticipating what was going to happen, there was plenty of content for us to consume via TikTok because Doug's daughter was posting nonstop. She had been openly talking about what this whole thing has been like from her side of things.

And as funny as her humor is in a lot of these videos, my heart really does break for her at the end of the day because you can just tell that posting to TikTok and laughing about some of these things is her way of coping. And I don't blame her for that at all, not in the least. She lost both of her parents at such a young age. And on top of that, both of the deaths were extremely unexpected and extremely traumatic.

Now, in one of the videos that she posted, she gave an update as to what was going on with the trial. And more specifically, she talked about how she saw her dad's autopsy photos during a hearing back in 2023. And she says that because of those photos that she saw, it resulted in her starting therapy afterwards, which just puts a pit in my stomach for her. But go ahead and listen to this clip for yourself.

I'm prepping y'all up on my iced coffee and I'm sitting here waiting for my sourdough cookies. I'm making another batch and I am having to preheat the oven so I'm waiting around and I thought that I would just update everybody on like the trial stuff I guess. There's not really a whole update other than they set the date for the actual trial which is so sick.

But I'm like not going to do well because the hearing, it was one day last year. And within that day, I saw my dad's autopsy pictures unwarranted, which was so cool. And I actually went to therapy for the first time ever after that. But regardless of that,

that it will be happening in July. I actually filed something with a ghostwriter, um, because I'm writing a MMR, if y'all didn't know, and she, my ghostwriter keeps up with all, like, the dockets and stuff, and, um,

that Ashley had filed to go to... She's on house arrest, for everybody that doesn't know. For almost four years later, after murdering somebody, you can still be on house arrest. Shocker. But she filed with the court to see if she could stay out until 2 a.m. So she could take her daughter to Disney on her birthday, which I think is today. So watch out, Disney-goers. If you're in Disney World today, there's probably a murderer walking fucking loose. No.

Now, again, this next video that his daughter posted is one of those videos where it's funny because of what she says and how she says it. But it's also 1000 percent not funny at all, which at least she has a good sense of humor. And that's her coping mechanism getting her through this. But take a listen. I didn't know if I was legally allowed to talk about this for a while until I talked to the Florida State Attorney's.

The Florida General State Attorney, the attorney that's defending my dad during the trial when...

the murder trial happens. But I was talking to her about it and I was like, can I talk about this? And she was like, yeah, you can like say I was subpoenaed around my birthday in April. So my whole drunk bit that entire weekend was getting people to spell subpoenaed because that's one thing I can't do. And I thought it was funny. A lot of my friends just kept telling me to shut the fuck up. What else am I supposed to do?

So,

So the TikToks didn't stop there. I was scrolling on, I was just scrolling, you know, as one does. And I saw this one post and it was like, when you get a hinge notification from a man that says dinner reservations at six and then three months later you're married walking in Home Depot. And all the comments were like, ma'am, that's a stranger. Like, I would never marry somebody in three months. That's crazy. You don't know him.

My dad and the lady that ended up killing him, Ashley, got married after 13 days of knowing each other. So that should have been the red flag from the start.

So as Ashley's trial started getting closer and closer, his daughter's TikTok videos began getting a bit more serious, having a little bit more of a weighted tone to them, like this one that I'm going to show you from July 10th. As much as I'm trying to clear my head before I have to go in a week and a half and testify in my father's murder trial, I was shown this article today about a woman who had a rally to support her because she shot and killed her husband.

This is the article. It's basically y'all can probably find it. Well, there's a lot of things that I could say. I don't feel like saying them. Honestly, I want to save my words. But I there's two main points that I want to get at, which one they show my father's other daughter that he had with this woman who shot and killed him, Emerson. And she is six years.

This happened almost four years ago, so she was roughly two years old when her mother shot and killed my dad, our dad. Emerson had no idea what is going, she doesn't know what happened, and she has no idea what's going on now either. So I think that we should probably stop shoving cameras in six-year-olds' faces when they have no idea what's going on. This is all just probably to taint the jury pool.

The other point that I would like to make is there are signs saying that she is being punished for protecting herself because this entire time she's claimed self-defense because my dad was attacking her. Now, I've...

looked at the evidence. I've seen the evidence pictures. I've heard everything I need to know. I've talked to all the detectives I need to talk to to understand that my dad was not attacking her at the time that she shot him. She shot him from behind. One of the bullets went in through his rib cage. He was turned to the side. He was picking up another box. He was not attacking her. There wasn't a piece of evidence or there wasn't any DNA of hers on my dad and there was no DNA

As a woman who is adamant about women's rights, Ashley's making this a whole lot fucking harder for women who are actually in abusive relationships to get the help that they need.

She cried wolf too many times, and then she killed my dad. She went to the court time and time again, and she lied to the point where there's an actual audio clip from one of the custody hearings that my dad and Ashley both attended, where the judge said that there is not one centella of evidence that proves Doug Benefield is guilty of any of Ashley's allegations against him.

That's all I'm going to say on that right now. I don't have a lot of energy like this. This all is it's becoming a lot. It's very surreal. But yeah, that's just kind of where I wanted to touch on because that that video made me really fucking angry. And the fact that I really do think that it's all just to taint the jury pool and and whatever, make her look like she's a victim in all of this, when in reality, my dad was the victim of rape.

Ashley's trial finally began on July 23rd, and I'm not going to go over every single little detail and every day of the trial because we would be here all the live long day if I did that, but I am going to go over some of the bigger things that really stuck out. So let's jump into that. Day one.

Day one began with jury selection and with the opening statements from the prosecution and from the defense. Even though the entire day was covered by the usuals like court TV, we got a little behind the scenes vlog action from Doug's daughter as well. Good morning. The jury, the trial has started. It's jury selection now. As y'all can see, it's live on court TV. You probably saw us sitting back there. Now I'm walking to my car to get something because I desperately need it. And, um,

We are vlogging today. They're starting jury selection. The court just ruled against a continuance, which is sick. I mean, I wasn't really worried, but...

You know, I don't know. Sometimes there's always that question of whether or not they're going to or not. But yeah, he just kind of was like, yeah, no continuance. The trial starts now and now they're doing it. Next up was the witness testimony. And there was a lot on day one. But the most important testimony, or I should say the most talked about testimony, came from not only Doug's daughter, but also his first cousin, Tommy.

Tommy was up first, and he testified about how Doug and Ashley's relationship looked as somebody who spent a lot of time with them. He had kind of like this insider's perspective. And from his perspective, Doug was always kind, respectful, and very in love with Ashley. Throughout the time that you saw Doug and Ashley together, how did Doug act? In particular on the opening night and all the way through their relationship, opening night, totally in love.

Both of them in love with each other. Doug was always very respectful. He was very, very respectful with her in front of me, both that initial night and then the next weekend, I believe in May, that I spent down in Sarasota Bradenton with them. Every time he was respectful of her.

They were in love. They never showed anything in front of me other than caring for each other. That was going to be my next question. So did you see anything other than that? No, ma'am. Okay. Thank you. I have no further questions. It wasn't until we got into the cross-examination that things started to get really messy. The defense really came at not only Tommy, but his credibility. And they came at him really hard.

It started with screenshots of texts and call logs where Tommy was seen continuing to reach out to Ashley even after she moved to Florida. And some of those text messages are things like how he was a fan of hers and supported her, which, okay, that's great. It's not too terrible. Like, what are they exactly trying to prove here?

But then the defense asked Tommy if he ever recalled telling Ashley that she, quote, married the wrong Benefield. He testified that he did not recall that ever happening, but he was shown a series of texts which he did confirm were between them. But he said he never saw that exact phrasing in the texts that were provided. So it turned into this bunch of this like back and forth.

Ashley's lawyer was basically saying Doug had told Tommy why his wife had left him. And she was kind of then inferring that Tommy was swooping in on Ashley because he knew exactly how she was going to be the most vulnerable, how he could work his way in, something like that.

The assistant state attorney was kind of like, hey, I get it, but nowhere in those texts did he ever specifically say, like, hey, you married the wrong Benefield. Implied, maybe, possibly, outright said, not in those text messages. In fact, there was so much back and forth going on when they were arguing this that the judge ended up having to get involved and basically just say, like, hey, you need to keep your legal arguments, do factual things, remain professional, no name calling, nothing like that, like,

Almost splitting up these two people who are like going at it on the playground. That's what it felt like. So needless to say, because of all of that, Tommy's testimony kind of just turned into one big hot mess. It ended with him clarifying that he did not think that Ashley married the wrong Benefield. And he claimed that the text and the communication all came from a good place, a pure place. And it was because he wanted to keep the communication going with Ashley for the sake of Doug.

Now, next up was Doug's daughter. Her testimony started off pretty similar to Tommy's. She testified that she never witnessed any kinds of verbal or physical fights between her father and Ashley, only that Ashley would, quote, strongly voice her opinions over and over and over again.

And during the cross-examination, she was asked to confirm three things. Whether or not there was a small bullet-sized hole in the kitchen ceiling. Whether or not there was a hole the size of a fist in the wall at some point before Doug ever patched it. And lastly, if her dad had ever practiced close-quarter combat.

And his daughter confirmed all three things. So the defense was definitely playing smart and knew what angles to hit, in my opinion, because those things directly correlated to some of the things in the motion to dismiss, which we saw last year. They were huge key players in the defense claiming that Doug had for a very long time been an abusive partner who Ashley deeply feared, which then, of course, resulted in her eventually killing him in self-defense, according to her.

So after leaving the courtroom, his daughter posted to TikTok. I just testified. Y'all don't know what it's like to have to testify in your dad's murder trial and know that your crush is watching you back home on TV. That's nerve wracking. Day two gave us some really valuable information that we hadn't known before. I had mentioned in a previous video that I did about this case that we weren't sure how Doug found out that Ashley had given birth. But on day two, we learned exactly how it all went down.

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Stephanie Murphy, Doug's family law attorney, took the stand. She testified that she sent a letter on Doug's behalf after Ashley moved to Florida, basically asking for there to be an open discussion about whether or not Doug could be present for their child's birth.

She testified that there was no response for weeks. But remember, Ashley had also ended up giving birth early, so even though there was no response, they hadn't figured out whether the baby had been born or not yet. But then, instead of a response to Stephanie's letter, they got a domestic violence injunction against Doug. And that was how they learned that the baby had already been born. And just like all of the other witnesses, Ashley's team came at Stephanie hard.

They actually tried to even get her impeached as a witness, claiming that she lied on the stand at one point. They even started raising questions about a mistrial during this. The judge shut down both of those, and they ruled that impeaching Stephanie as a witness was improper, and the motion for a mistrial was also denied. There were a lot more witnesses, but I want to mention one in particular that stood out to me.

This witness was a man named Chris Gillum, who was a detective for the domestic violence unit for the county sheriff's office in Florida during December of 2017. He testified that his first contact with Ashley was that month in 2017, when she reported that Doug had violated the injunction by sending her a tea set in the mail, which violated the restraining order.

After that first call, the sheriff testified that Ashley would call him anywhere from three to four times every week asking when Doug was going to be arrested for violating the injunction. And then he testified that in May of 2018, Ashley did something that he would never forget.

She demanded that he arrest Doug when they were all inside of a courtroom in front of the judge. This was apparently a very big deal to Chris and it stood out because he said that he had never experienced somebody asking him to arrest somebody in court, and especially not in front of a judge.

And that wasn't it, though. Chris claimed that even after he calmly explained it to Ashley that he couldn't do that, she began yelling at him, saying that she couldn't believe that he would allow Doug to kill her and her baby. Then it was followed by this very damning statement made by Ashley in which she said, I'll do anything I have to do to keep my baby you blank.

But Chris wasn't the only one taking center stage here on day three. Doug's daughter was actually called back to the stand over whether she violated the rules of being sequestered by giving an interview on TV. And again, Ashley's defense went in on her hard. I know that she's 23 years old now, but I think it should be taken into consideration, you know, that she was just a child when both of her parents died. So I can't help but feel awful for her. And at one point, the defense even point blank asks her like,

hey, what made you think that you could even give an interview like that to begin with? At the end of your testimony, do you recall Judge White instructing you about having contact with anyone because you were to remain under subpoena? Do you recall that? I recall. Okay. Okay.

And you were here today because the state requested that you remain as a potential rebuttal witness. Correct. Now, what did you think Judge White's directions to you meant? Well, I was told I wasn't allowed to speak on any of the witnesses in my testimony while in the courtroom. So, I'm sorry, did you finish? I'm finished. All right. Did you...

Realize that when you decided to have a conversation with the reporter. Yes, sir. All right. Tell us if you would. I'm just trying to get an explanation. Tell us if you would what you were thinking that... Objection. Overruled. What you were thinking that you felt allowed you to do exactly that which Judge White cautioned you not to.

I was caught off guard in the hallway when I was under extreme emotional distress after being here, hearing different testimonies about my father's murder. And when I spoke to the reporter, I made sure not to talk about any of the testimonies or anything that happened in the courtroom or my testimony. What did you discuss with the reporter? Just how I felt about the situation and...

who my dad's character was as I saw him. When you say about the situation, you mean about the case, the trial? Not about the trial. What situation were you referring to? My emotional state. Okay. You post on social media? I do. TikTok? Yes. Any others? No.

Following your testimony here last Tuesday, did you make any posts? I did. Tell us, how many? Three. Three. And tell us one at a time, were all three of them on Tuesday afternoon, Tuesday evening? One was on Tuesday. And when were the other two? Yesterday. Okay. And tell us, as to the first post, what was it about?

I said that I testified. Okay, and did you have anything to say about your testifying? I talked about it being on live television. Mm-hmm. What else? That somebody back home was watching.

I assume you have copies on your phone? I do. You have your phone with you here today? I do not. Not on me. Where is it? It's over in the benches. In the bushes? In the benches. In the benches here in the courtroom? Yes, sir. With the court's permission, may she retrieve it so we can see exactly what it was that she posted? She said I'm going to object if he knows clearly they have the post. Well, I don't know. It's an invasion of her privacy.

Not if it's on social media, but we started off talking about just some, speaking with some reporter, and now we're talking about a social media post. If you've seen it, and if she's violating the rules, just, let's just get it out. After all of the chaos and all of the back and forth, the judge ultimately denied the defense's motion to strike his daughter as a rebuttal witness.

Then on day three, we also saw Dr. Russell Vega, who I mentioned earlier, and I think we were all kind of expecting him to make another appearance after what he had to say at Ashley's hearings the year before. So he still stood by what he had previously said. He agreed with the defense for Doug's chest shot.

The weapon would have had to have been pointed at his chest from the front. And then finally, on day four, Ashley herself testified. I wasn't sure if she was going to testify or not, but she did. And as you can imagine, they covered a lot. Some of the things we've talked about, some of the things are a little bit different than what we've been hearing all of these years. But instead of trying to go into every single detail, we can hear it in her own words instead of mine. So take a listen what Ashley has to say for all of this herself. Oh.

A friend of his had come to town to visit, and we went out to dinner with him. And when we went to leave, Doug had had all too much to drink, and so I said that I would drive home. And he instantly got really mad at me. He was offended. He started screaming at me, and it continued all the way home. And when we got inside, I told him that he was drunk and he just needed to go to bed.

And that really set him off. And he tried to flip over the dining room table. He threw a chair at me. He kept screaming at me until he stopped. And then he apologized. And then he said it would never happen again. He said he was really sorry. And Ashley, did it happen again? Yes. Explain what happened. Um...

We had gone to church one Sunday. And after service, after everyone was leaving, we talked to the pastor in the lobby area in front. And at one point, Doug stormed off. And by the time I caught up with him, he was in the parking lot. And he started cussing at me, calling me names. And when we got in the truck,

He accused me of having a thing for the pastor, and he said I was a slut and a whore. And he screamed at me all the way home. Ashley, was he aggressive and threatening like that in other instances? It started happening more and more with me and with our animals. He would hurt our pets. On approximately how many occasions was he cruel to your pets? A handful.

How would Doug react following a dark episode? Well, he was either really up or really down. And after, he would be very sweet and apologetic. And he'd be kind and things would be good. And it was kind of like a flip of a switch and something would set him off again. I talked about him punching Sully and kicking him, throwing our cat Snuffy around.

About him trapping me, grabbing me, yanking me, tripping me, shooting the gun in the house, punching holes in the walls. He trapped me in the closet, smashed things, things like that. All right. 5-11-2020. And did you do an internet search on 5-11-23? Yes.

2020, yes. 2020, rather? Yes. And will you tell us what the subject you researched was? Domestic co-parenting with an abuser. All right. And would you go to Exhibit 4B? What's the date of 4B? 5-11-2020. Okay.

Did you do an internet search then? Yes. What was the subject you researched? Ask Amanda, how do I co-parent with an abuser? Right, and 4C? Yes.

What's the date of 4C? 5-11-2020. And did you do an internet search then as well? Yes. What was the subject? Co-parenting versus parallel parenting with an abusive ex, the Good Men Project. All right. And lastly, 4D. What's the date of 4D? 5-11-2020. Okay.

Did you do an Internet search? Yes. What was the subject? Six tips to help you co-parent with an abusive ex. All right, Your Honor, I think I'm finished if you just give me one moment.

Now, in another interesting and honestly pretty shocking turn of events, not only did Ashley testify, but she reenacted the entire shooting. Now, this had a lot of people who were following this trial and watching it very surprised. First and foremost, they didn't really expect her to testify, but nobody really expected to see a full on reenactment of the shooting, the crime, all of that.

So as Ashley's reenacting this, she is, of course, very emotional. You can see she's putting her hands up in the air as if she is, you know, holding the gun and about to pull the trigger. She's crying, she's shaking a little bit, and it's something that's very powerful, of course. Anybody, I think, who is in any sort of circumstance like this, if they're ever reenacting a moment like that, I would imagine that they are very emotional, certainly. However, as I'm sure you can imagine, a lot of people who are watching this who don't necessarily believe Ashley

felt as though this reenactment was very performative, almost as though she was trying to put on the drama and act as though she was more of a victim than she truly was in this circumstance. And look, whatever you believe, right, wrong, indifferent, there was a lot of division here. Some thought that this was genuine, authentic emotion and that it was triggering for her and she was going through this again and that is traumatizing, of course, while a lot of other people were like, no, no.

She's doing this and acting this way because it's performative. She's trying to gain the sympathy vote from the jury, and we don't believe her. But nevertheless, it was something that was very shocking and unexpected to a lot of us viewers of this trial and could have definitely played a role in what the jury ultimately decided. You claim that Doug does what? He came and slammed the door open.

He was standing in the doorway. He said, you're fucking done. He said, you're fucking done. And that made you fear for your life? Yeah. Can we turn the lights up, please? Thank you. So he says, you're fucking done, and you point the gun and you shoot. I held it out in front of me first so he could see it. And I said, stop. Judge, if I could have her step down so she can demonstrate. You ready? If you could just come down.

So Doug opens the door and does what? I'm standing in the doorway. I'm going to do this. He said, you're fucking done. And I hope he got out in front of me and said, stop. He got into this biting pose where he turned sideways. And he was moving around with his arms in his hands. And he started inching forward towards me. And he was like,

So he's... why do you call it a fighting stance? Oh, he looks like a fighter! Like a... like a ninja or something, I don't know! Okay, so he's standing there. He turns to... like this. And starts moving his arms around. Oh my god. Well, show me. What was he doing?

He didn't like that when he got like this. He was like making like fighting motions. I don't know. I'm not a fighter. I don't know. Okay. It was scary. Did he have his hands in fists? Not at that point. They were like, I don't know. Was he coming at you like this? When he lunged at me, he came like quickly. Okay. So he lunged. Was his fist up when he lunged? So you start shooting. And he does what? He kept coming at me. Okay. So then you keep shooting again.

And he falls down on his back. His legs went up in the air. Okay, where did his legs go? In the air. How high in the air? I don't know. Did they go over his head? It's like his feet slipped out. And his legs went up in the air. And were you still shooting at the time? I don't remember.

You can have a seat. So obviously, that whole thing was a lot. On one side of things, Ashley's testimony backed up everything that the defense was trying to argue. Doug was abusive for years and continued to be abusive the day that Ashley shot him in what she had considered self-defense. But on the other side of things, I don't think that the state was necessarily trying to argue that Doug had never had an abusive past.

Their focus was that Doug wasn't harming Ashley or doing anything that would have provoked her to shoot him the day that he died, which in that case would contradict her claim of self-defense. On day five, the defense witnesses consisted of a domestic violence expert,

the couple's marriage counselor, a ballistic expert, a medical examiner, and last but not least, a realtor. Now, the domestic violence expert and the marriage counselor both focused heavily on the cycle of abuse as well as the signs of abuse. And they both pretty much agreed that the couple's relationship was the perfect example of an abusive relationship. Based on the conversations with both Ashley and Doug,

Doug occurred as someone who was domineering, and the terminology that I would use at times would be super controlling. He was very dedicated to wanting the relationship to work. He was very interested despite things.

uh, conversations with some of the disparaging things that Ashley had said to him. He was very much still wanting this to work and their plans were to move to Maryland. All right. Um, did you reach any conclusions with respect to him being a real alpha male?

Do you recall? I would say that Doug occurred as somebody who was very built and well put together. And yes, I would say that he would fit the stereotype of an alpha male, in my opinion. Did you conclude whether there was an intimidation issue present? Ashley stated that she was scared of Doug. Did you reach any conclusion, Dr. Cantel, about whether...

Doug's depiction of himself as being godly was reliable. Objection outside of expertise? You can answer. Can you say that again, please? Sure. Did you reach any conclusion with respect to Doug's presentation of himself as being particularly godly? Yes, I think it was over the top.

All right. And did you reach any conclusion as to whether it was genuine? I did not think it was fully genuine. No. Did you conclude that he was never going to let her get away? I don't know whether that's true, whether or not. I don't recall that. All right. Let me pass this to you and see if it refreshes your recollection, if I may. Thank you.

Does that refresh your recollection, Dr. Kintel, as to Doug's perception of letting Ashley get away from him? Yes, I said that to the detective. I said it seemed more like I'm not going to let her get away from me. Referring to Doug? Yes, sir.

all right so after all of that day five concluded with the defense officially resting their case so on day six things wrapped up and jury deliberations began and that same day a verdict was reached at first the jury sent a note to the judge basically saying that they could not reach a unanimous verdict but the

But the judge sent them back into deliberations, and it turned into a very long night before they finally did decide on the verdict. The jury found Ashley guilty of manslaughter with a firearm. Originally, she had been charged with second-degree murder, so the manslaughter verdict was slightly less serious than what she was originally up against. Now, as for Ashley, she showed no emotion as the verdict was being read.

Yes.

Did Ashley Benefield discharge a firearm? Yes. Did Ashley Benefield, as a result of discharging a firearm, cause death to Douglas Benefield? Yes. So, say we all this 30th day of July, 2024, at Bradenton, Manatee County, Florida, Cheryl Forkerson.

Maybe she was in shock or maybe she knew that it was coming. I'm not really sure. But I think at first Doug's daughter herself was in a little bit of shock. But then after leaving the court and letting things finally kind of kick in, she was seen smiling from ear to ear. We are walking to my car from the courthouse after waiting all afternoon to get a verdict. And she was convicted of manslaughter after four years of waiting.

My dad got the justice that he deserves. I will be talking more about the trial once I have my thoughts collected. I have a lot of things I want to say. Love you guys. Good night. After the verdict was reached, the judge revoked Ashley's bond and she was taken into custody by the county sheriff's office. Now, so far, there is no set date for her sentencing. But if I had to guess, I would say that maybe we will be seeing something in the next couple of months. And I'm

I'm pretty curious to see what her sentencing is going to be in all of this. According to an article that was written by a law firm on their website, manslaughter with a firearm in Florida is considered a first-degree felony, and it is punishable with up to 30 years in prison, 30 years probation, and a $10,000 fine. So, who knows? I guess we're just going to have to wait and see. But I am curious to know what you guys think about Ashley's trial and the verdict.

Do you lean more with the defense that Ashley was truly a victim of domestic violence and she had no other choice in that moment? Or do you lean more with the prosecution, thinking that this was all just one big scheme, big plan to avoid sharing custody of their child?

And moreover, that Ashley was in no real harm the day that she pulled that trigger. Let me know what you guys think in the comment section below. Thank you guys so much for tuning into another episode of Serialistly with me. I will be back on the mic with you first thing Thursday morning with headline highlights where we are breaking down everything going on in the true crime world this week. And then of course, I will be back with you every single Monday for our deep dives into these cases.

All right. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. Don't forget to let me know what you think. I also will add a poll over on Spotify so you can let me know what you think. All right. Thanks again, guys. And until the next one, stay safe. COVID-19 and flu viruses disguise themselves to fool your immune system. That's why COVID-19 and flu vaccines are updated to protect you. Stay up to date on COVID-19 and flu vaccinations. Sponsored by Champions for Vaccine Education, Equity and Progress.

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