20-20 - The Pointe of No Return
For the first time, Ashley Benefield tells her story.
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00:00:00Tonight, a red hot court case from this summer, the so-called black swan.
00:00:05Was it murder or was it self-defense?
00:00:07David, I have the exclusive interview with the ballerina at the center of it all.
00:00:11Not on stage, but on trial for murder.
00:00:14And all new 2020 begins right now.
00:00:17I was living a nightmare at home.
00:00:22It was terrifying.
00:00:24It was like two different people, and I never knew which Doug I was going to get.
00:00:30You're 24, he's 54.
00:00:33Were you worried about her connecting with this guy who's so much older?
00:00:37Things didn't start off well.
00:00:39It was like, oh yeah, Eva, this is my new wife.
00:00:42I felt like Ashley was taking my dad away from me.
00:00:46It was all a masquerade.
00:00:49I mean, can I straight up say that?
00:00:51Doug was not who he portrayed himself to be.
00:00:54That was sort of like, what's going on?
00:00:58So you're thinking that your husband, the man who loved you and seemed to adore you, would poison you?
00:01:06I read the allegations and I thought, oh my God, this is crazy.
00:01:09Doug never poisoned Ashley.
00:01:11Is it possible that maybe you just imagined this?
00:01:14Maybe it was all in my head.
00:01:16But you know now that this sounds pretty dysfunctional.
00:01:20Doug, what are you doing?
00:01:22She tried to ruin your life.
00:01:24I don't think he could have ever guessed what was going to happen to him.
00:01:29I've never been so scared in my life.
00:01:42Growing up, Ashley Benefield wanted nothing more than to become a world-class ballerina.
00:01:50She never dreamed that one day she'd be wearing a court-ordered ankle bracelet along with her pointe shoes.
00:01:57Manhattan 911. What is the urgency?
00:02:00Okay, it was right next door to me.
00:02:02She came in, she was quite hysterical.
00:02:05She said that he attacked her and she shot him.
00:02:08Where is the gun?
00:02:09I have it right here, ma'am. It's sitting on the floor.
00:02:11Where in the house is he?
00:02:13Deputies are moving a session for him.
00:02:15A normally quiet Lakewood Ranch neighborhood turned into a bloody crime scene.
00:02:20Was it murder or self-defense?
00:02:22It's a suicide.
00:02:23It's a crime scene.
00:02:24Was it murder or self-defense?
00:02:26It's a story with a lot of twists and turns.
00:02:28The 32-year-old former ballerina alleging he attacked her in her home and that she fired back multiple times in self-defense.
00:02:36Ms. Benefield was in great fear of immediate and severe bodily harm.
00:02:41A woman out on bond still awaiting her fate.
00:02:45So many law enforcement officials said, no, this isn't adding up.
00:02:49A former ballerina at the center of the so-called Black Swan murder trial.
00:02:53Only two people know exactly what happened.
00:02:55One of them is a suspect for second-degree murder.
00:02:58The other is dead.
00:03:10Until now, Ashley has remained silent about the night of the shooting, about what happened in that house in this Florida community.
00:03:18But tonight, in her first interview, Ashley Benefield tells her story.
00:03:28Hey there.
00:03:31Your first time doing this, so here we go.
00:03:35Let's go back to your life in the beginning.
00:03:37You wanted to be a ballet dancer?
00:03:39Yeah, actually, I started when I was eight.
00:03:42A family member was dancing on Broadway, and I was very inspired by her and what she was doing.
00:03:49And what was it about ballet that captivated you?
00:03:52It's complex.
00:03:54It's something that is beautiful and powerful, but at the same time, there's a lot of control and you have to be reserved.
00:04:03I think it's just the kind of dynamic of all of the things combined.
00:04:08Ashley grew up in Maryland as an only child.
00:04:11Her mom, Alicia Byers, says they had a special bond.
00:04:15Your marriage dissolved, you split up with her father, and you raised her as a single mom.
00:04:20Mm-hmm.
00:04:21What was that like for the two of you?
00:04:23At first, it was an adjustment, but, you know, we did well.
00:04:26We're very close.
00:04:28She was blessed with a lot of talents, and so it was a real joy raising her.
00:04:33And at some point, she becomes smitten with ballet.
00:04:36Very, very, yes.
00:04:38She got to the point where she did it seven days a week.
00:04:41I was training during the day, all day.
00:04:43It was an everyday, all-day thing.
00:04:47She soon learns that it takes more than ability alone to make it as a professional dancer.
00:04:53Ashley's 5'9", and considered by most ballet companies to be too tall, something no amount of training can overcome.
00:05:01There are height ranges in companies.
00:05:03A lot of that is because of partnering and complications that can arise if you're not well-matched height-wise.
00:05:12The ballet world tends to be kind of cookie-cutter.
00:05:15It was hard finding a good fit for a company.
00:05:19With her height and then a hamstring injury holding her back, Ashley decides to hang up her pointe shoes in her early 20s.
00:05:27You begin to shift your focus a little bit.
00:05:29In 2016, you became captivated by politics.
00:05:32What led you to the Trump campaign?
00:05:34Well, I'd actually always been interested in politics.
00:05:38I wasn't looking for it.
00:05:40The opportunity came up, and I was just finishing up with one chapter of my life, and it seemed like the right thing to do, so I jumped in.
00:05:49Ashley's job for the Trump campaign was to go to rallies, and she would rile up the crowd, pray with the crowd.
00:05:57You could actually see videos of her online.
00:06:00She thought she was going to be part of the Trump team.
00:06:04In her diary entries from this time, Ashley says she felt a special bond with candidate Trump.
00:06:11She writes,
00:06:12We got to the plane early and waited for Mr. Trump to arrive.
00:06:15Ashley writes about her hopes for her future.
00:06:18She writes kind of a plea to God.
00:06:21I want to be a wife and mother.
00:06:23Please bring me to that special man you've chosen for me.
00:06:27Ashley wanted children.
00:06:30She wanted a family.
00:06:32She prayed that God would bring her a man to be with her.
00:06:37She made it clear in the diary what her plan was.
00:06:40In August of 2016, in the thick of the campaign, her prayers seemed to be answered while attending a fundraiser at Dr. Ben Carson's home in Palm Beach, Florida.
00:06:49At some point, you meet a man named Doug Benefield.
00:06:52Yes.
00:06:53What did you think of him?
00:06:54He was charming.
00:06:57Very funny.
00:07:00Really smart.
00:07:02Confident, but quiet.
00:07:04We were there for political reasons, but then also he was a man of faith, shared similar interests.
00:07:12Those common interests included politics, God, and guns.
00:07:16The first night that Doug and Ashley met, Ashley had a gun in her bra.
00:07:22Doug, who has a military background, he thought, wow, look at this girl.
00:07:26She's strong and she's powerful and she's not afraid of weapons.
00:07:30Everything about her was just great.
00:07:32He nicknamed you Ashley Oakley.
00:07:34Yeah, we both had very strong opinions about the Second Amendment.
00:07:41That was something we bonded over.
00:07:43I had a concealed carry permit.
00:07:45I wanted to be a responsible gun owner.
00:07:48We talked the whole night when the evening was over and everyone was leaving.
00:07:53We were texting and up until 3 o'clock in the morning, it just seemed like I had met my soulmate.
00:08:00We were like the perfect match.
00:08:02He kind of swept me off my feet.
00:08:05It was like a whirlwind.
00:08:07I think it was about four days in when he first told me he loved me.
00:08:11Four days?
00:08:12That's pretty quick.
00:08:14Yeah, it was quick.
00:08:20Something else Ashley says didn't bother her was the couple's significant age difference.
00:08:25You're 24.
00:08:27He's 54.
00:08:29Yeah.
00:08:30You're a young woman.
00:08:31Suddenly you're being romanced by this 54-year-old man.
00:08:35Did anybody in your life say slow down, Ashley?
00:08:38No, it just kind of happened.
00:08:44But the bliss wouldn't last.
00:08:47Ashley learns that the man she's falling for has been married before.
00:08:51Nothing was adding up.
00:08:52The more I tried to figure things out, the more the story changed.
00:08:57And she says she begins uncovering secrets,
00:09:00leading her to wonder just who Doug Benefield really is.
00:09:15In the summer of 2016, 24-year-old Ashley Benefield is on the road
00:09:20stomping for Donald Trump when she finds romance at a Palm Beach fundraiser.
00:09:25Do sparks begin to fly between you two?
00:09:29It was like an instant connection, yeah.
00:09:33We both had that evangelical background,
00:09:36so we spent a lot of time talking about that.
00:09:39Doug Benefield grew up in a Baptist family.
00:09:42Doug Benefield grew up in a Baptist family,
00:09:44the middle of three sons with a stay-at-home mom
00:09:47and a father who worked as a scientist at NASA.
00:09:51Doug graduated from high school in Huntsville, Alabama.
00:09:55He was a top wrestler in the state.
00:09:58He decided to follow his father and our family to Texas A&M.
00:10:04After graduating from college, Doug joins the U.S. Navy in Pensacola.
00:10:09He rises through the ranks quickly,
00:10:11and the Navy assigns Doug to a position in Charleston, South Carolina.
00:10:15While he's working for the Defense Intelligence Agency,
00:10:18he gets involved in renovations of old historic buildings
00:10:23with people that he meets in Charleston.
00:10:25Doug started up some businesses here, a restaurant, some other things.
00:10:29He had a group of friends and colleagues.
00:10:32He loved it there, and one of those locations that he most loved
00:10:37was out on Sullivan's Island.
00:10:39Doug found a small hole-in-the-wall Irish pub called Dunleavy's Pub.
00:10:46That same Irish pub is where he meets his wife, Renee.
00:10:49If someone were to ask me to sum up Renee in a few sentences,
00:10:56it'd be very difficult.
00:10:58She's stunningly beautiful but doesn't know it
00:11:01and loves to make people laugh.
00:11:04Doug has a pretty quick courtship with a woman named Renee Kauser.
00:11:08They marry, and in 2001, their daughter Eva is born.
00:11:13My mom was the sweetest, happiest woman you would ever meet.
00:11:20She was an angel walking on earth.
00:11:23She was never, ever, ever in a bad mood.
00:11:26She loved everybody.
00:11:29Doug's marriage to Renee, by all accounts, was a happy marriage.
00:11:34Of course, ups and downs, but generally a happy marriage.
00:11:37Doug and Renee and Eva together are just this triad.
00:11:40They're just three together all the time.
00:11:43You never saw them apart, happy, beautiful family.
00:11:48But when Eva is just 14, the happy family suffers a devastating loss.
00:11:55I was waiting in the pickup line outside of my school, and she wasn't there.
00:12:02And I went home, and nobody was answering the doorbell,
00:12:05and I didn't have my key, and my mom wasn't answering her texts.
00:12:09Eva called and said, I can't get a hold of my mom, and Dad's in Dallas.
00:12:14So I get on the phone with Doug.
00:12:17Doug asks Melody for help.
00:12:19Her husband goes next door and breaks into the house
00:12:22and finds Renee unresponsive, face down on her bed.
00:12:26I just remember going back out on the porch and seeing my neighbor's face,
00:12:30and he shook his head, and I knew that she just wasn't there anymore.
00:12:35She passed of an underlying heart condition.
00:12:38It was shocking.
00:12:41An autopsy reveals that Renee died of natural causes.
00:12:46He tried to stay really strong for me,
00:12:49and I never really saw him break down from it.
00:12:54It was different.
00:12:55It was quiet in the house.
00:12:57It was just different.
00:12:59Then just nine short months after her mother's passing,
00:13:02Eva meets a new woman in her father's life, Ashley Benefield.
00:13:08I heard about her on a Friday.
00:13:10I met her the following Saturday, and then Sunday I was up in my room,
00:13:16and my dad came upstairs and he said,
00:13:17Eva, we need to have a conversation, all three of us.
00:13:20And I said, no, I think the only thing that I would be interested in hearing
00:13:26is if you told me that you proposed to her.
00:13:29And as soon as those words came out of my mouth, he said, we're married.
00:13:33Yeah, it was a lot.
00:13:38Eva's not the only one blindsided by the quick marriage,
00:13:42which happened at a secret ceremony just 13 days after Doug and Ashley met.
00:13:49First time I hear anything about Ashley is they're married
00:13:53and she's already moved in to Doug's home in Mount Pleasant.
00:13:59How did he propose?
00:14:01Was this a formal get on his knee and propose to you?
00:14:04How did that happen?
00:14:06It was more of like, hey, you know, we should just do this.
00:14:10Like, let's get married.
00:14:12And I was like, oh, yeah, okay.
00:14:15They moved very quickly, and before you know it, they're engaged and married.
00:14:20Yeah, it was like, whoa.
00:14:22What was your wedding like?
00:14:25It was small.
00:14:27It was just me and Doug and two of his friends.
00:14:31So suddenly you're Mrs. Benefield.
00:14:33Yep.
00:14:34Were you happy?
00:14:35I was thrilled.
00:14:38Yeah, I felt like I had finally met my soulmate.
00:14:46I think a lot of it had to do with Eva.
00:14:49He really sold me on the fact that she needed a mommy person to be there,
00:14:56and I guess I felt needed and wanted.
00:15:02Eva, still grieving the loss of her mom,
00:15:04says she neither wanted nor needed a stepmom,
00:15:08especially one so close to her in age.
00:15:11The age difference between me and Ashley is eight years.
00:15:15Anytime I hung out with her and we were shopping downtown,
00:15:19we would get mistaken as sisters.
00:15:22How did you get along with Eva?
00:15:24I think things didn't start off well because she didn't really find out
00:15:29until after we were married.
00:15:31It was like, oh, yeah, Eva, this is my new wife, and it didn't go over well.
00:15:38I will just say this.
00:15:40He messed up.
00:15:42He messed up by jumping into a relationship
00:15:48and not inviting his daughter into it.
00:15:51That was, I think, a huge mistake.
00:15:55My dad seemed very excited and happy,
00:15:58and I also understood that he was grieving differently than me.
00:16:03Ashley and Doug are moving full steam ahead.
00:16:07They don't just want a romantic partnership.
00:16:09They want to be business partners.
00:16:11It seemed like we found something, once again,
00:16:13that we were both equally passionate about, so we just hit the ground running.
00:16:18But what Ashley and Doug don't realize
00:16:20is that both the romance and the business will soon self-destruct.
00:16:25You can't make promises and not live up to them.
00:16:28Like, what's going on? People were mad.
00:16:30I found out that it was all a masquerade.
00:16:56My name is Sarah Murawski.
00:16:58When I was a young girl, I saw a performance of The Nutcracker,
00:17:04and I fell in love with it right away.
00:17:07I knew right in that moment that's what I wanted to do with my life.
00:17:11After years of sacrifice and dedication, Sarah finally gets her big break.
00:17:16She's cast in the Pennsylvania Ballet's production of The Nutcracker
00:17:20in the lead role, The Sugar Plum Fairy.
00:17:23It was like it was a fairy tale in a way.
00:17:26In that moment in my life, it was everything I could have dreamed up.
00:17:29But Sarah says one night backstage, her dream is unexpectedly shattered.
00:17:34She's told that the company is going in another direction.
00:17:38The director took me aside and said,
00:17:40You're too tall.
00:17:41For me to even think that it was done was unimaginable
00:17:45after sacrificing my whole life for this moment, for this career.
00:17:50It was a few months after that that I received a message online
00:17:54from Ashley Benefield.
00:17:56Ashley says she and Doug were talking one night
00:17:59when they had the idea to start a ballet company
00:18:02that would include all kinds of dancers.
00:18:04I was a tall dancer. I'm just a tall person, I guess.
00:18:07I had just been talking about how there were things in the ballet world
00:18:12that I didn't think were right, and that, well, you know,
00:18:15if it was up to me, I would do it differently.
00:18:17And he was like, Well, why don't we do it?
00:18:19Ashley called me. We spoke.
00:18:22I remember her saying things like, I want to make a change for ballet.
00:18:27I want ballet to be able to show its beauty in the best way
00:18:33with all different kinds of dancers.
00:18:35The concept was diversity.
00:18:37I trained with beautiful dancers of all shapes, sizes, colors, backgrounds,
00:18:41you name it, and I watched them have a hard time getting a job.
00:18:46I was frustrated by that.
00:18:49You came up with the name for it, American National Ballet.
00:18:52Yep.
00:18:53So he was going to handle the business part,
00:18:55and you would be more creative.
00:18:57Yep.
00:18:58Doug had done a lot of fundraising for different companies
00:19:01for a lot of these kind of up-and-coming tech companies.
00:19:04And I remember him being like, Oh, you know, tech companies and ballet.
00:19:07Like, I'm sure we can, you know, fundraise for both.
00:19:10Doug sat down with me and directly asked me,
00:19:14I want you to work with Ashley.
00:19:16You know what you're doing to help get the basics of the company started.
00:19:20He said they were doing a ballet company,
00:19:23and I'd come home from school and Ashley was in the dining room
00:19:26with headshots laid out, sticky notes everywhere.
00:19:29When I was originally brought in, Ashley had already hired,
00:19:32there were 15 dancers in the company, which surprised me,
00:19:36because when you're first starting out, that's an awful lot of money that's going out,
00:19:41and you don't have any money coming in yet.
00:19:43That was sort of like, what's going on?
00:19:45It just seemed like a lot for a company that was starting out
00:19:48and that maybe they were biting off more than they could chew.
00:19:52Even though he doesn't have the backing yet,
00:19:55Doug is convinced that he can raise the money.
00:19:58So dozens of dancers from all over the world flock to American National Ballet
00:20:03with the promise of year-long contracts, state-of-the-art studio facilities,
00:20:07even a housing stipend for apartments in the heart of Charleston.
00:20:13The idea was remarkable.
00:20:16The execution was a little less.
00:20:19It became somewhat apparent fairly quickly that Doug was overpromising
00:20:26and not going to be able to deliver on all of this.
00:20:30In the fall of 2017, the dancers began arriving,
00:20:34only to find that the promised housing stipend isn't available
00:20:39and the original rehearsal space promised doesn't exist.
00:20:43And then I think in like mid-October,
00:20:47word started to get out that the dancers weren't quite getting paid in a traditional way,
00:20:53that they were being paid in cash.
00:20:55Doug was then pulling money from every source that he could of his own,
00:21:00money that he didn't have, to try to just fund this ballet.
00:21:03I just got worse and worse each day.
00:21:05I didn't know where the company was going.
00:21:07Adding to the chaos, Ashley is nowhere to be found.
00:21:10Not at rehearsals, not working with the dancers.
00:21:13She seems to have just vanished.
00:21:15And meantime, Doug is so financially strapped
00:21:18that American National Ballet ends up laying off nearly half of the recently hired dancers.
00:21:23It's all fine and well to conceive of an amazing, ambitious dance company.
00:21:27It's great.
00:21:28But if you can't deliver it, somebody's going to get hurt.
00:21:32And the dancers, certainly in this case, are the ones who got hurt the most.
00:21:37The very next day, after half the company's dancers are let go,
00:21:41Ashley suddenly reappears.
00:21:44Not in person, but in a post on social media,
00:21:47writing in part,
00:21:49I publicly disavow my support for American National Ballet.
00:21:53And adding, I'm no longer associated with this organization in any way.
00:21:58I was horrified.
00:22:01I didn't know all of the things that were falling apart behind the scenes.
00:22:07I didn't see it coming.
00:22:09I no longer wanted to be part of it.
00:22:15Ashley left the scene, and then Doug abandoned the scene.
00:22:19He just, like, one day, he just wasn't there anymore.
00:22:21The organization evaporated.
00:22:23People were mad.
00:22:25People were very angry.
00:22:28Because losing your job in ballet is not like,
00:22:31okay, I'm going to go on Indeed and see what's, you know, who's hiring.
00:22:36You're kind of locked out for the year until the next audition season.
00:22:42American National Ballet has hurt everyone.
00:22:46You can't make promises and not live up to them.
00:22:49Because there are people's livelihoods that are involved.
00:22:52There are people's dreams that are involved.
00:22:56Some fault Doug for mismanaging the ballet,
00:22:59and others blame Ashley for disappearing.
00:23:02Ashley's absence from the ballet company was a very significant basis for the failure.
00:23:09She was the face of this company.
00:23:11When she left, the dancers, they didn't have anything.
00:23:15But Ashley says there's a reason she left Charleston and the ballet behind.
00:23:20She claims she had to, that her very life depended on it.
00:23:25He pulled the gun out and started waving it around.
00:23:28I was living a nightmare. It was terrifying.
00:23:31It was like two different people, and I never knew which Doug I was going to get.
00:23:45In less than a year, Doug and Ashley Benefield's American National Ballet goes bust.
00:23:51What very few people knew, though, was that behind the scenes,
00:23:54the same was happening to the couple's marriage.
00:23:57Doug always explained to me that the biggest factor of growing tensions at home
00:24:02was the conflict between Ashley and Eva.
00:24:06I felt like Ashley would try and act like my mom and tell me what to do.
00:24:13And I was like, you are less than ten years older than me.
00:24:17Ashley says while American National Ballet is getting up and running,
00:24:20Doug and her arguments over Eva and the ballet become more frequent, aggressive, even scary.
00:24:27He would yell and scream and cuss.
00:24:31It was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
00:24:35Things would be happy and okay one moment, and then the next minute he was out of control.
00:24:42I never really saw a shift in their relationship,
00:24:46but that's also because I was trying to stay out of it as much as possible.
00:24:50I said, okay, if my dad's happy, I'm happy.
00:24:53On June 15, 2017, Eva is out of the house
00:24:57when a heated argument between Doug and Ashley quickly escalates.
00:25:04He pulled the gun out and started waving it around.
00:25:10He threw the gun at me.
00:25:12He said that if I left, that he was going to kill himself.
00:25:16I begged him not to.
00:25:22And then he pulled the trigger.
00:25:26And the bullet went into the ceiling.
00:25:31At a legal hearing the couple will later attend,
00:25:34you can hear Doug's own voice as he describes this incident.
00:25:38While he doesn't deny the argument or firing his 9mm,
00:25:42he disputes Ashley's characterization of the fight.
00:25:46You did discharge the gun into the ceiling, correct?
00:25:49Yeah, I did. It was a horrible decision.
00:25:52She says, he then threw the gun at me.
00:25:56That didn't happen, did it?
00:25:57No, I did not throw the gun at her.
00:25:59I just kind of spun in the chair and threw it against the wall.
00:26:02She says, Doug then grabbed the gun again and held it to his own head,
00:26:05threatening to kill myself. Did you do that?
00:26:08No, I did not.
00:26:10Ashley says at another point during that same argument,
00:26:13Doug physically abuses the family dog.
00:26:16He hit Sully.
00:26:18Your dog?
00:26:20Sully got between us and he punched him.
00:26:27At that same 2018 hearing,
00:26:29Doug tells a different version of this story to Ashley's attorney.
00:26:33You also punched the dog the day that you discharged the firearm?
00:26:37He jumped up in my lap.
00:26:40He's a big dog. I admit I hit him.
00:26:42I didn't hit him like you would hit a punching bag or anything, but I hit him.
00:26:46But yes, I was probably too physical with him.
00:26:50Were you beginning to rethink the marriage?
00:26:53After he shot the gun in the house,
00:26:57that's when I really realized that I had a problem.
00:27:02I didn't know what to do and I didn't know what was coming next.
00:27:06What comes next for the couple is a bit surprising.
00:27:10A celebration of marriage, nine months after their initial hasty I do's.
00:27:16They had a wedding ceremony right after that.
00:27:19Everyone's smiling. She's smiling.
00:27:21People had already booked their tickets and everyone was coming
00:27:24and I didn't want them to see that part of my life.
00:27:31I felt like a failure. I didn't know what else to do.
00:27:34Even with their turbulent marriage,
00:27:37Doug and Ashley decide they want to have a child together.
00:27:40In August, you find out you're pregnant.
00:27:43What do you think initially?
00:27:46I was scared.
00:27:48It was supposed to be like a happy thing, but my heart dropped.
00:27:52I'm like, what am I supposed to do?
00:27:55Here again, Doug's story differs from Ashley's.
00:27:58It wasn't an accident, of course, that she got pregnant.
00:28:01It was planned. Doug had had a vasectomy years ago.
00:28:04Ashley paid with her own credit card for Doug to have a vasectomy reversal
00:28:09and they then started to try to get pregnant.
00:28:12One thing both sides do agree on, Ashley had a difficult pregnancy.
00:28:19It was rough.
00:28:23Morning sickness?
00:28:25Yeah, and it wasn't even morning sickness.
00:28:27It was like around-the-clock sickness.
00:28:31I couldn't eat. He couldn't take care of me.
00:28:35And he drove me down to Florida and dropped me off at my mom's house.
00:28:39Doug's life is a whirlwind.
00:28:42He's got his hands full in Charleston with the ballet company
00:28:45and raising his teen daughter, Eva.
00:28:47And he's spending his free time driving to Florida to be with Ashley.
00:28:51The two are in constant communication.
00:28:55Doug was driving back and forth to take care of his family,
00:28:59spread across these two states.
00:29:01And he had to also be back in Charleston because on September 18th,
00:29:05this was going to be the big launch of the American National Ballet.
00:29:09Ashley was not going to be able to be present for the launch,
00:29:12supposedly, because she was so sick.
00:29:16But at that very moment, what Doug doesn't know
00:29:19is that Ashley and her mom are driving from Florida to Charleston
00:29:23not to attend the ballet launch, but for an entirely different reason.
00:29:28On September 18th, you decided to move your belongings out of Doug's home.
00:29:33Yeah.
00:29:34She wrote a note alleging some things were wrong in the house
00:29:37and that there had been some abuse or at least violence on his part
00:29:41and that she was therefore leaving him.
00:29:44Ashley writes,
00:29:45Do not harass or try to follow me or I will call the police.
00:29:49And then goes on to say,
00:29:50I will talk with you only via text.
00:29:53And do not call me or my mom.
00:29:55We will not pick up.
00:29:57He was completely stunned.
00:29:59He had no idea Ashley was leaving him.
00:30:02Just after learning that his wife is leaving him,
00:30:05Doug is again blindsided by a restraining order
00:30:09barring him from contacting Ashley.
00:30:11The expectant dad then hires family attorney Stephanie Murphy
00:30:15to act as an intermediary.
00:30:17Doug wanted to be present for the birth if Ashley felt comfortable.
00:30:21I sent the letter to Ashley asking,
00:30:24Can Doug be part of the birth?
00:30:26But Murphy says shortly after sending that letter,
00:30:29Ashley gives birth to a baby girl named Emerson
00:30:32three weeks before her due date.
00:30:37Did you tell Doug?
00:30:39No, there was a restraining order,
00:30:41so I couldn't legally have contact with him.
00:30:44But he's the father of the child.
00:30:48Yeah.
00:30:50Yeah.
00:30:52Did you intend for him to find out?
00:30:56I mean, I knew he would eventually.
00:31:03Doug didn't know that Ashley had given birth.
00:31:08He learned through an injunction that she filed
00:31:11that the child had been born.
00:31:13And that was several weeks after the child had been born.
00:31:16Doug's not on the birth certificate.
00:31:18She didn't even give Doug the respect of naming his daughter Benefield.
00:31:24She gave the baby's last name as her grandfather's name.
00:31:28He was devastated.
00:31:30He was devastated that he missed the birth of his child
00:31:33and that he was not able to see her.
00:31:37But Ashley says she was only doing what any mother would do.
00:31:41She believed that Doug was a danger,
00:31:43not only to her, but to her newborn daughter, too.
00:31:48At first, I attributed it to morning sickness.
00:31:52But I started to wonder if there was more to it.
00:31:56Every morning, you would make sure she drank tea.
00:31:59Why?
00:32:00Why was that so important that she drink the tea?
00:32:12It's April 2018.
00:32:15Ashley Benefield is a new mom,
00:32:17changing diapers, nursing her infant daughter.
00:32:21And at the same time, she's filing court papers,
00:32:24seeking a protection order against her husband
00:32:27and the father of her baby, Doug Benefield.
00:32:33So we would just basically put up a wall
00:32:35between Ashley and Doug.
00:32:38So we would just basically put up a wall
00:32:40between Ashley and Doug.
00:32:43It's not just that incident with the gun and the dog.
00:32:47Medical records suggest that she was in good health.
00:32:50Still, she says she had a growing suspicion
00:32:53that the terrible morning sickness she had
00:32:55wasn't just a routine part of her pregnancy.
00:32:58She wondered whether she was being poisoned by Doug.
00:33:02It seemed, like, crazy and far-fetched.
00:33:06But I realized that the tea that he had been giving me,
00:33:15if I didn't drink it, he would get really mad at me.
00:33:19And I started to wonder if he was doing something to the tea.
00:33:23She started telling me every morning
00:33:25that you would make sure she drank the tea.
00:33:28Why?
00:33:29Why was that so important that she drink the tea?
00:33:32I did some toxicology testing through hair testing.
00:33:36And what did it reveal?
00:33:37That I had been poisoned.
00:33:39The results from the lab Ashley privately hires for her hair test
00:33:43show extremely high levels of heavy metals,
00:33:46like aluminum, barium, tin.
00:33:48The tests on baby Emerson also detect toxic metals.
00:33:53So you're thinking that your husband,
00:33:56the man who loved you and seemed to adore you,
00:33:59would poison you?
00:34:02Yeah.
00:34:04Why?
00:34:06I didn't know why.
00:34:09Ashley says she became so concerned for her health
00:34:12that she resorted to some pretty serious measures,
00:34:15including more than 20 sessions inside a hyperbaric chamber like this one,
00:34:20along with her infant daughter.
00:34:23Ashley says her hope was that this high-pressure environment
00:34:26would help detoxify their blood.
00:34:29She insists that her fear that Doug had tried to poison them was real.
00:34:34Others call it fiction.
00:34:36Doug never poisoned Ashley.
00:34:38Never.
00:34:39I read the allegations and I thought,
00:34:41Oh my God, this is crazy.
00:34:42Doug's family attorney points to those medical records
00:34:46during and after Ashley's pregnancy,
00:34:49showing her to be in good health.
00:34:51The day after the baby was born, she was breastfeeding the baby.
00:34:55So which is it?
00:34:56Are you poisoned to the point that you are full of heavy metals?
00:35:01Or are you okay and therefore you're going to breastfeed your baby?
00:35:04There's always been holes in the story.
00:35:07A judge agrees, siding with Doug and his toxicology expert
00:35:11who challenged Ashley's test results.
00:35:14Her request to keep Doug away from her and their child is denied.
00:35:18There is not a single scintilla of credible evidence
00:35:24that Miss Benefield has ever been poisoned.
00:35:28The judge didn't believe you.
00:35:30Yeah.
00:35:31I started to just feel like maybe I was crazy.
00:35:35Maybe it was all in my head.
00:35:38So now Doug Benefield has moved into an apartment in Florida
00:35:41as the couple attempts to co-parent Emerson.
00:35:45But things started to deteriorate.
00:35:49He was becoming very possessive and controlling again.
00:35:55Doug has a tracking device put on Ashley's car,
00:35:59even hires a private investigator.
00:36:01His attorney says it wasn't unreasonable,
00:36:04given Ashley's past allegations.
00:36:07He never tried to hide the fact that he had put the tracker on the car.
00:36:12I think he wanted just to kind of figure out what's going on.
00:36:14Am I being lied to?
00:36:17And then new concerns from Ashley.
00:36:21She started coming home hurt.
00:36:24One day came back with her face very badly injured.
00:36:32And what were you told?
00:36:34He said that she was playing with bubbles and that she had slipped and fell.
00:36:41It was consistent with what happened.
00:36:43She fell on her face with a pacifier.
00:36:46Ashley, however, made another abuse allegation.
00:36:49The sheriff's office and Child Protective Services investigate the claims
00:36:54and conclude that there are no indicators of injury or abuse.
00:36:59None of these cases led to charges.
00:37:02The Child Protection team closed them without any findings,
00:37:05and then the sheriff's office closed them as unfounded.
00:37:08Then amidst all this tension,
00:37:11the Benefields make a decision that will confound everybody who knows them.
00:37:15He had gotten a job in Maryland,
00:37:18and so we started talking about all moving.
00:37:22Moving as a family to Maryland?
00:37:24Not as a family, but moving, like together at the same time.
00:37:33I was just stunned.
00:37:35And once again, Doug, what are you doing?
00:37:39She tried to ruin your life.
00:37:41All along, Doug would tell everyone who knew him,
00:37:45I believe I can make this work.
00:37:47How do you rationalize patching things up
00:37:51with a man who you think has been abusing your daughter?
00:37:55He was her father.
00:37:57I wanted things to be as good as they could be.
00:38:01But you know now that this sounds pretty dysfunctional.
00:38:04Yeah.
00:38:05There didn't seem to be a good option.
00:38:10So you're packing up.
00:38:12You're going to make this move.
00:38:14Doug comes over.
00:38:16Did you two begin arguing?
00:38:18He was constantly going back to this idea that we had to live together,
00:38:23telling me that it wasn't how God intended it.
00:38:26He just flipped out, and it just kept escalating.
00:38:32Escalating, she says, to the point of no return.
00:38:37When you take a good man
00:38:39and a woman who's manipulative at her professional level,
00:38:44he's not ever going to play chess with her and win.
00:38:48That bedroom was empty other than two handguns.
00:38:52We found that suspicious.
00:38:55I was extremely concerned about Ashley's safety.
00:38:58Ashley was about to knock down that house of cards.
00:39:02I don't think he could have ever guessed what was going to happen to him.
00:39:07And what happened.
00:39:20I had my gun.
00:39:23I told him to stop.
00:39:32Sorry.
00:39:35What led you to go for the gun?
00:39:37I've never been so scared in my life.
00:39:42The information that I had was that it was a domestic-related shooting.
00:39:46The husband was dead.
00:39:48The wife did the shooting, and she claimed self-defense.
00:39:50Benefield's life is taking center stage
00:39:53at what's been dubbed the Black Swan murder trial.
00:39:56Good morning, Ms. Benefield.
00:39:57There was always this little thought in the back of my head
00:39:59that said Ashley's going to do something to him.
00:40:01She said, my dad's dead, isn't he?
00:40:03And then she said she killed him.
00:40:05She killed him, didn't she?
00:40:07Why would you have a loaded gun in the house and you've got a child?
00:40:13There was a ticking clock.
00:40:14She was very, very afraid that Doug was going to take this child away from her.
00:40:18This is all part of Ashley's crazy campaign
00:40:21to just annihilate Doug in every single way.
00:40:25And starts moving his arms around.
00:40:28Well, show me. What was he doing?
00:40:30We stand with Ashley!
00:40:32We stand with Ashley!
00:40:34Even her own little daughter marching for her mom.
00:40:37We stand with Ashley!
00:40:41He told you he had killed his wife?
00:40:44And he said that he could make me disappear, too.
00:40:55In the ballet world, it's known as the pas de deux,
00:40:58a duet, a step of two.
00:41:01For Ashley and Doug Benefield,
00:41:03a former ballerina and a businessman,
00:41:06their dance begins with a 13-day whirlwind courtship,
00:41:10plans to build a ballet company,
00:41:12and later, a baby.
00:41:14But the love affair turns dark and disturbing.
00:41:17Court battles, disputed allegations of poisoning, abuse.
00:41:22And in the finale,
00:41:23Doug and Ashley, seemingly about to reconcile and start anew,
00:41:27reach a sudden and tragic end.
00:41:32What happened in the moments
00:41:34before the gunshots rang out in this Florida community
00:41:37in September of 2020
00:41:39will be scrutinized for years by investigators,
00:41:42by lawyers and the media.
00:41:44Ashley Benefield has kept quiet
00:41:46about what she says happened that night
00:41:48until she sat down with me.
00:41:51How are you doing?
00:41:53Um...
00:41:55It depends on the moment.
00:41:57Just a lot of emotion.
00:42:01Kind of like a rollercoaster.
00:42:04That rollercoaster, Ashley says,
00:42:06took a sharp turn in the fall of 2020
00:42:09when after four years of ups and downs,
00:42:12she and her husband Doug were preparing to move to Maryland.
00:42:16The plan, according to Ashley,
00:42:18was to continue living separately,
00:42:20just as they had in Florida.
00:42:22He was constantly going back to this idea
00:42:25that we had to live together.
00:42:28In these text messages from September 27th,
00:42:31the Benefields exchanged jokes, even emojis.
00:42:36Doug arrives at 5.30 with a U-Haul
00:42:39at the gated community where Ashley lives with her mom.
00:42:42Ashley's mom and daughter Emerson
00:42:44are out of the house at a nearby park.
00:42:47Ashley claims it isn't long
00:42:49before things go from friendly to fiery.
00:42:53Sounds like you guys are just agreeing to pack,
00:42:56and did you two begin arguing verbally?
00:42:59Was there yelling?
00:43:01There was a back and forth.
00:43:05She goes on to say that Doug
00:43:07becomes physically aggressive, too,
00:43:09at one point bumping into her
00:43:11with a moving box and scraping her side.
00:43:14She then says she tries to diffuse the tension
00:43:17and asks him to leave.
00:43:19He ended up trapping me,
00:43:23and I tried to leave.
00:43:26He hit me.
00:43:28Where did he hit you?
00:43:33Did he threaten you?
00:43:36He said I couldn't leave.
00:43:39I almost made it to the front door and he stopped me.
00:43:42I ran to my bedroom and he followed me there.
00:43:49I told him to stop.
00:43:53Sorry.
00:43:56What led you to go for the gun?
00:43:58He had never hit me before.
00:44:00I thought he would stop if he saw it.
00:44:03What did you think was about to happen?
00:44:05I thought he was actually going to kill me this time.
00:44:08Did he have a gun?
00:44:11Not that I could see.
00:44:16He told me I was f***ing done.
00:44:18And even though I was the one holding the gun,
00:44:20he lunged at me.
00:44:24I'm sorry.
00:44:26You fired four times.
00:44:30You missed him twice.
00:44:33And when you hit him,
00:44:36what did you think?
00:44:39I ran.
00:44:41Ashley says she races out of her house
00:44:43over to a neighbor's home.
00:44:45Two residents who were out walking their dog
00:44:47who heard the shots
00:44:49describe seeing a woman frantically running from the home.
00:44:57Okay, it's right next door to me.
00:44:59She just came over.
00:45:01Her strange husband attacked her
00:45:03and she says she shot him.
00:45:05Okay, what's his name?
00:45:07His name is
00:45:09Doug Benefield.
00:45:12They said that Doug attacked me and I shot him.
00:45:16It was all a blur.
00:45:18Did you think you had killed him?
00:45:21I didn't know if he was behind me or chasing me or what.
00:45:23I didn't know.
00:45:25I don't know.
00:45:26She came in.
00:45:27She was quite hysterical.
00:45:28I didn't know who was banging on my door.
00:45:30She said that he attacked her
00:45:32and she shot him.
00:45:35And at the end of that call,
00:45:37even though the neighbor had never seen
00:45:39Doug or Ashley fight,
00:45:41he tells the dispatcher something alarming.
00:45:45Just between you and me,
00:45:46this son of a bitch has been harassing him
00:45:48and threatening him for a long time.
00:45:50Okay.
00:45:51I probably shouldn't say that.
00:45:54When law enforcement first arrived at the house
00:45:56following the 911 call
00:45:57and they make it in the house,
00:45:58they find Doug.
00:46:00He had a gunshot wound to his calf
00:46:02through and through.
00:46:03He had a gunshot wound to his right side chest area
00:46:08that landed in his back
00:46:09across on the left-hand side.
00:46:11Paramedics arrived.
00:46:12They continued CPR and took him to the hospital,
00:46:14but he was pronounced deceased at the hospital.
00:46:18This is the man that you had loved,
00:46:21the father of your child.
00:46:23What did you make of it
00:46:24when you heard that he was dead?
00:46:28I was horrified.
00:46:34It's like the worst nightmare.
00:46:37A nightmare Ashley won't wake up from anytime soon.
00:46:42That bedroom was essentially empty
00:46:44other than two handguns.
00:46:48One of them was in a backpack
00:46:50hanging in the closet.
00:46:51One of them was just in a bin on top of a hamper,
00:46:55and we found that suspicious.
00:46:58I think that definitely gave the detective
00:47:00There was always this little thought
00:47:02in the back of my head
00:47:03that said Ashley's gonna do something to him.
00:47:05Ashley's gonna sabotage him somehow.
00:47:07There's a look in her eyes
00:47:09where she just looks like she finally got her way.
00:47:14I remember thinking to myself,
00:47:17there's something wrong here.
00:47:31Every morning, Doug reached out to Eva
00:47:47no matter where he was in the world.
00:47:49He would either text me a good morning
00:47:51or he would send me a bible verse,
00:47:53so I expected that.
00:47:56And that morning, he didn't send it.
00:47:59I texted him like 10 times,
00:48:01and then I said,
00:48:03Dad, this is scaring me.
00:48:06Monday morning, I was in the office,
00:48:08and I saw an email
00:48:10that Ashley's attorney sent,
00:48:12said we need to cancel Wednesday's hearing.
00:48:15Doug is dead.
00:48:22I had to call Doug's family.
00:48:24It was just heart-wrenching.
00:48:29The poor girl, she knew.
00:48:32She said, my dad's dead, isn't he?
00:48:35And then she said she killed him.
00:48:37She killed him, didn't she?
00:48:41And I sat my phone down,
00:48:43and I said, I don't have parents anymore.
00:48:47I was just shaking violently for like six hours.
00:48:53Doug Benefield's family and friends
00:48:55are grappling with unthinkably tragic news,
00:48:59and meantime, investigators are trying to make sense
00:49:02of what happened the night before.
00:49:05The information that I had
00:49:07was that it was a domestic-related shooting.
00:49:09The husband was dead.
00:49:11The wife did the shooting,
00:49:13and she claimed self-defense.
00:49:16Ashley is taken to the sheriff's office,
00:49:18where attorneys from her family court case are waiting.
00:49:23You didn't give a statement. Why not?
00:49:28My attorney is yelling to me in the parking lot,
00:49:33you know, don't say anything, don't say anything.
00:49:40I guess I was just following advice.
00:49:43Ashley does consent to photos
00:49:45that she says document the swelling on her face
00:49:48where she says Doug hit her.
00:49:50When I saw her that night after she left the police station,
00:49:53the left side of her face was swollen.
00:49:55She had obviously been struck.
00:49:57The next morning when she was changing a shirt,
00:49:59I saw the cut on her stomach.
00:50:02But law enforcement contends that Ashley's injuries
00:50:05don't suggest a life-or-death struggle.
00:50:09There was no swelling.
00:50:11There was no bruising.
00:50:12There was no difference in the way she looked.
00:50:15The entirety of the injury,
00:50:18the entirety of the injuries that they found that were relevant
00:50:23was a scratch on her side, and that was it.
00:50:26They got pictures of every angle,
00:50:28of every place that the attorneys wanted them to take,
00:50:32and there were no injuries except for that scratch.
00:50:36And investigators are also skeptical
00:50:38of Ashley's claims of being attacked
00:50:40because Doug was unarmed.
00:50:42She had access to two weapons.
00:50:49You said that you were a responsible gun owner,
00:50:52but why would you have a loaded gun in the house
00:50:55and you've got a child?
00:50:57Well, the purpose of having a gun is for, like, a self-defense.
00:51:02The idea is that if something were to happen
00:51:05crazy in the middle of the night,
00:51:07that it would be accessible.
00:51:09But then you've got a loaded gun
00:51:11that's basically sort of out in a bin.
00:51:13There are those who say that sounds really suspicious.
00:51:19I mean, I feel like anything can be turned
00:51:21to try to make it look a certain way.
00:51:24We found that suspicious,
00:51:26that someone would have two guns readily accessible
00:51:30in an empty room when everything else is in a U-Haul truck.
00:51:35According to the medical examiner's report,
00:51:38the fatal gunshot entered the right side of Doug Benefield's chest.
00:51:43To investigators, that doesn't fit
00:51:46with somebody who's lunging toward her.
00:51:49If someone were coming at you or attacking you,
00:51:53the entrance wound to the fatal shot would not be in the side.
00:51:58And results from the forensic lab raise even more questions
00:52:01about Ashley's claim of self-defense.
00:52:04There was no stippling on Doug's shirt,
00:52:07so that told us that the barrel of the gun
00:52:10was at least three to seven feet away,
00:52:13and that's the barrel of the gun, not even her body.
00:52:16So they were not in a combat life-or-death situation
00:52:20where they were locked together.
00:52:23Just over a month after Doug Benefield is shot and killed,
00:52:27Ashley is charged with second-degree murder.
00:52:31She pleads not guilty.
00:52:33The Manatee County woman charged with shooting
00:52:35and killing her husband...
00:52:37Suspect for second-degree murder...
00:52:39You're arrested.
00:52:41...charged with Doug's murder.
00:52:43What did you think?
00:52:45I was shocked. I was blindsided by it.
00:52:48In the minds of investigators,
00:52:50Doug Benefield's demise wasn't about self-defense.
00:52:54To them, it was Ashley's plan all along.
00:52:58The whole lie, the whole deception is coming to an end.
00:53:04Doug was getting to find out your wife is lying to you.
00:53:09There was a ticking clock.
00:53:10She was very, very afraid
00:53:11that Doug was going to take this child away from her.
00:53:14Very afraid.
00:53:15But others insist the real victim here is Ashley.
00:53:20Doug Benefield was anything but what he portrayed himself to be.
00:53:24This is someone who was a predator,
00:53:26and this is someone who was not going to be stopped.
00:53:30He told me that he had killed Renee.
00:53:32He told you he had killed his wife?
00:53:35And he said that he could make me disappear, too.
00:53:38I always try to go and sit and watch the sun set when I can.
00:54:06There's so many good memories there.
00:54:13We chose to spread my dad's ashes on Station 22 1⁄2,
00:54:19and that is the same station that my parents met.
00:54:24We held a celebration.
00:54:25We raised a toast to a life well-lived
00:54:28and a terrible ending to a life.
00:54:33His life, Doug's family insists, was cut short
00:54:36by a woman they say was driven to destroy him.
00:54:40No one at the memorial service in any way believed
00:54:46the story of Doug attacking Ashley,
00:54:49her shooting him, out of fear.
00:54:53Doug still loved Ashley in spite of what she did to him,
00:54:57in spite of all the accusations, all the allegations.
00:55:01I said, why do you keep going back?
00:55:02And he said, you know, I just want to show her
00:55:04that, like, I'm a good man and men can be good.
00:55:07And then he wanted Emerson to have a happy family.
00:55:11He was willing to do whatever he had to do
00:55:14to be a part of Emerson's life.
00:55:17And while it appears to some that the couple were trying
00:55:20for yet another fresh start,
00:55:22their family court case in Florida was still open.
00:55:25Both Ashley and Doug had been evaluated by a psychologist,
00:55:30and that report was completed just before
00:55:33the planned move to Maryland.
00:55:36Prosecutors insist the report about Ashley is crucial,
00:55:40that once released, Doug was going to learn
00:55:43that she had no intention of reconciling.
00:55:48Ashley was afraid that Doug was going to take custody away from her.
00:55:53This is a judge that did not believe her theatrics,
00:55:57and if anyone was going to do it, it was going to be this judge.
00:56:01And prosecutors believe the move to Maryland
00:56:04offers Ashley another chance and another court
00:56:08to keep Doug away from her and their child.
00:56:12I believe that she was going to start everything again in Maryland
00:56:15and hope for a different result.
00:56:18Were you thinking at all, you've got another state
00:56:20you can try to fight him for custody?
00:56:23My hope was that if something was going wrong,
00:56:27that maybe in a fresh place,
00:56:31they would take it more seriously.
00:56:34Ashley's mindset leading up to the shooting,
00:56:36prosecutors say, is critical.
00:56:39Was this a woman who truly feared for her life?
00:56:43Text messages between Doug and Ashley leading up to that day,
00:56:47in the days ahead, and then the day of the homicide were very normal.
00:56:50To say that someone couldn't have been defending themselves later in a day
00:56:55because of nice text messages that morning is absurd.
00:56:59Doug was always like a flip of a switch.
00:57:03He could turn on a dime. He could be very happy. He could be charming.
00:57:07But then, for no reason at all, he could get very upset.
00:57:12We kept on asking for help. It's been years of absolute hell.
00:57:16And we went from one abuser to a system that is abusing a victim.
00:57:23Were you an abused woman?
00:57:25Yeah. I didn't think so at first.
00:57:28I remember trying to argue.
00:57:30No, it's not like that.
00:57:32I don't have broken bones and black eyes.
00:57:40Most incidents of domestic violence are subtle,
00:57:44where the offender uses isolation, financial control, threatening, verbal abuse,
00:57:52things that the general public doesn't necessarily see.
00:57:56But these are also things that the victim doesn't always know is abuse.
00:58:02There was no evidence to indicate that she was truly a victim of abuse
00:58:06in the months leading up to the homicide when they were not even living together.
00:58:11In the months before the shooting, Ashley reaches out to a domestic violence agency
00:58:16and eventually connects with a therapist, Dr. Barbara Russell,
00:58:20who becomes a trusted friend and advocate.
00:58:24This relationship was very controlling.
00:58:26He was incessantly sending her text messages saying that all of the men
00:58:31that are probably flirting with her need to be exterminated like rats.
00:58:35And then he would shift gears and talk to her very lovingly and sweetly,
00:58:39and like most domestic violence situations, it escalated.
00:58:43He would push her. He would lock her in bathrooms.
00:58:47During one of those alleged incidents early in their relationship,
00:58:51Ashley claims Doug admitted something about his late wife that terrified her.
00:58:57He had always told me that they had this fairytale marriage,
00:59:02that they never fought.
00:59:05And then I found messages.
00:59:08The first messages, she says, reveal a side of Doug
00:59:11that Ashley claims she saw in her own marriage.
00:59:15She said one time he kicked her really hard.
00:59:18He had secretly videotaped them flirting on their honeymoon.
00:59:23One time they were having an argument, and he told me that he killed Renee.
00:59:30He told you he had killed his wife?
00:59:33And he said that he could make me disappear too.
00:59:43An investigation was done.
00:59:45There was no finding of foul play in any way.
00:59:48There was a full autopsy.
00:59:51The coroner in Renee's death investigation ruled that she died of natural causes
00:59:56due to a heart condition.
00:59:58Ashley tried to convince me that my dad killed my mom.
01:00:01I said, Dad, this is what she's doing.
01:00:03She was just kind of like, we're going to therapy where, you know, things will be okay.
01:00:06Obviously, like, I didn't kill your mom.
01:00:12This was all part of Ashley's crazy campaign.
01:00:15Ashley wanted to keep Doug away from that kid
01:00:17at the expense of everything and everyone else.
01:00:21She would not stop.
01:00:23Her goal was never to get rid of Doug.
01:00:25Her goal was to keep her daughter safe.
01:00:28That's very different than wanting to kill somebody.
01:00:33Two starkly different portraits of Ashley Benefield.
01:00:37Is she a murderer?
01:00:39Benefield taking center stage at what has been dubbed the Black Swan murder trial.
01:00:44Or a victim who stood her ground.
01:00:47He told her she was finished.
01:00:50He's coming at you, and you have nowhere to go.
01:00:53What do you do?
01:00:54You shoot to protect yourself.
01:00:57A legal strategy that could keep Ashley free.
01:01:01This is the one chance at this point that we have to end it all now.
01:01:07We stand with Ashley!
01:01:09Mother, daughter, sister, friend!
01:01:27How do you do it?
01:01:29All right, here, how about I push you this way, you ready?
01:01:31Yeah.
01:01:33So what's summer been like for you two?
01:01:35Emerson does a lot of swimming, right?
01:01:38Yeah, I can do, I can swim a lot, I'm pretty much.
01:01:41So you're getting to be a strong swimmer.
01:01:43She's doing a great job.
01:01:44Wow!
01:01:46Ashley Benefield has spent several years under house arrest,
01:01:50living with her mom and daughter Emerson, who's now five,
01:01:53while awaiting trial for second-degree murder.
01:01:56Here we are, climbing trees, catching geckos.
01:02:00This has been hanging, you know, in the balance really for years now.
01:02:05And in the same time, you know, you're trying to mother.
01:02:10It definitely wouldn't be what I would pick,
01:02:13but I'm thankful for all the good things that we have.
01:02:18She's an amazing little girl.
01:02:20I love being her mommy.
01:02:23Meanwhile, the other daughter caught in the middle,
01:02:2622-year-old Eva Benefield, found her own way to process her pain.
01:02:31When I was 15, my mom died of an underlying heart condition.
01:02:36I had been on TikTok for, like, a few months,
01:02:39and I thought, oh, that would be funny
01:02:41if I made a joke about my dad being murdered.
01:02:44I made a TikTok, and I put my phone down,
01:02:48and I went to bed, and I woke up, and it was at 700,000 likes.
01:02:52And then it just kept going and going and going.
01:02:55It got, like, 3 million likes and, like, 10 million views.
01:02:59And within two weeks, I had 100,000 followers.
01:03:02Eva has gone from grieving and stuck in trauma
01:03:09to getting help to finding an outlet in her art.
01:03:15Eva, Doug's daughter, does not support you.
01:03:19Do you want to say anything to her?
01:03:22My heart's broken for her.
01:03:26She has been through so much.
01:03:31I wouldn't even know where to start.
01:03:34In February 2023,
01:03:37Ashley's legal team files a motion to dismiss
01:03:41under Florida's Stand Your Ground law.
01:03:44The law allows the use of deadly force
01:03:47if a person believes that that force is necessary
01:03:50to prevent imminent death or to prevent a violent crime
01:03:54without any expectation to retreat.
01:03:57Doug stopped her from fleeing her home.
01:04:01Well, that would be false imprisonment,
01:04:04and that would qualify as a violent felony,
01:04:08which would give her the right to use deadly force.
01:04:12Ashley's defense filed a 105-page motion
01:04:16presenting her version of the night she shot Doug.
01:04:19For his family, it was the first time hearing her side.
01:04:23The story they've made up is as implausible
01:04:26as everything else she ever made up
01:04:28about Doug and their relationship.
01:04:31It's implausible that any of that occurred
01:04:34the way she and her lawyer have told it.
01:04:37The court found enough merit in Ashley's motion
01:04:40to grant her a hearing.
01:04:42Now the burden of proof shifts to the state
01:04:45to prove that Ashley did not act in self-defense.
01:04:49The prosecution has to basically put on a trial,
01:04:52but it's just a hearing in front of a judge.
01:04:56Well, with this hearing,
01:04:58we have the opportunity to put a stop to the proceedings.
01:05:04Then I get my life back.
01:05:07Doug's family travels to Florida to attend the hearing.
01:05:10It feels a little weird just because the last time I was here
01:05:13was when my dad was alive.
01:05:15All right, good morning, everyone.
01:05:17We are on the record in the state of Florida
01:05:19versus Ashley Benefield.
01:05:21The state calls eight witnesses,
01:05:23including Doug's family members and law enforcement,
01:05:26who testify that Ashley had no significant injuries
01:05:30to justify self-defense.
01:05:33Did you have a crime scene technician
01:05:35take photographs of her?
01:05:37We did.
01:05:38And why did you want pictures?
01:05:40I didn't notice any kind of injuries,
01:05:42things that you would typically see during a physical altercation.
01:05:47For their part, the defense relied solely on the details
01:05:50laid out in the 105-page motion filed before the hearing,
01:05:55calling no witnesses.
01:05:58There was no independent evidence
01:06:02that refuted her version of events.
01:06:06I believe this motion compels the court to grant it.
01:06:10Thank you for the court's patience.
01:06:13The judge didn't rule from the bench.
01:06:15They typically do not.
01:06:16After the hearing ended, we just had to wait for a written order.
01:06:19It would take two months, but ultimately,
01:06:22the judge would deny Ashley Benefield's stand-your-ground motion,
01:06:26saying the state had shown the shooting was not in self-defense.
01:06:30Now, out of options,
01:06:31Benefield will have to face a jury of her peers in this courthouse.
01:06:35And happening right now, potential jurors being questioned
01:06:38in what people are calling the Black Swan trial.
01:06:40The Black Swan trial.
01:06:42Black Swan murder trial.
01:06:44The Black Swan has a catchy ring,
01:06:47and it sensationalizes my life.
01:06:50And it's sad to me that people who don't even know me
01:06:55have this idea of a monster.
01:06:59But not everybody sees her that way.
01:07:02We stand with Ashley.
01:07:04We stand with Ashley.
01:07:06Dozens of protesters here at the Manatee County Courthouse
01:07:09marching in defense of Ashley Benefield.
01:07:12And the littlest supporter marching out there also
01:07:15happens to be one of Ashley's biggest defenders.
01:07:17We stand with Ashley.
01:07:19She kept on asking, Mommy, can I go, can I go?
01:07:22I want to be part of this.
01:07:23I want to stand up for my mommy.
01:07:25I don't want to be without my mommy.
01:07:28And I...
01:07:30I'm sorry.
01:07:31We stand with Ashley.
01:07:33With Ashley Benefield now facing the possibility of life in prison,
01:07:37the big question is, will the jury believe her?
01:07:41The entire dynamic of the trial shifting today
01:07:44as Ashley Benefield made her way to the stand.
01:07:47The stakes for Ashley were extremely high.
01:07:50I was hoping that they would call Ashley.
01:07:53There was nowhere to go. I was trapped.
01:07:56I really just wanted them to see Ashley for Ashley.
01:07:59I thought he was going to kill me.
01:08:13Testimony in the so-called Black Swan murder trial
01:08:16happening in Manatee County.
01:08:18Supporters rallying behind Ashley Benefield.
01:08:21Ashley Benefield is the Manatee County woman
01:08:23charged with shooting and killing her husband, Doug Benefield.
01:08:29After nearly four years,
01:08:31Ashley Benefield finally gets her day in court
01:08:34where she's hoping to prove that she shot her husband, Doug,
01:08:37in self-defense.
01:08:39This was a custody battle
01:08:42that this mother was going to win at all costs.
01:08:45And the cost was the life of Doug Benefield.
01:08:49And that is murder.
01:08:51All right, state, call your first witness.
01:08:53The prosecution gets to work building its case.
01:08:56State calls Stephanie Murphy.
01:08:58Calling Doug Benefield's family attorney to the stand.
01:09:02At the time the child was born,
01:09:04did you or Doug know that the child was born?
01:09:07No, gosh, we didn't know for a good five or six weeks
01:09:09after she was born.
01:09:11All right, who is your next witness?
01:09:13Detective Chris Gillam.
01:09:15The state also calls the detective
01:09:18when he investigated her claims
01:09:20that Doug had abused their daughter.
01:09:22She asked for me to arrest Doug
01:09:25when he came inside the courtroom in front of the presiding judge.
01:09:28And what was your reaction to that?
01:09:30That that absolutely would not occur.
01:09:32And how did she take that?
01:09:34She was upset.
01:09:36I think it was very important testimony.
01:09:39It was a snapshot into the real Ashley Benefield.
01:09:45Her tone turned very aggressive, and she says,
01:09:47you will arrest him in front of the judge
01:09:49and I will make sure you do it.
01:09:51And she says, I'll do whatever I have to do
01:09:53to keep my baby, you a-hole.
01:09:55Ashley's side insists she was only trying to protect her child
01:09:58from a man she was terrified of.
01:10:01The defense would call Dr. Jason Cantell.
01:10:05They call a mental health counselor
01:10:07who saw both Doug and Ashley.
01:10:10Did you conclude whether there was
01:10:12an intimidation issue present?
01:10:14Ashley stated that she was scared of Doug.
01:10:18Did you reach any conclusions
01:10:20with respect to Douglas Benefield?
01:10:23Doug occurred as someone who was domineering,
01:10:29and the terminology that I would use at times
01:10:33would be super controlling.
01:10:35He would fit the stereotype of an alpha male, in my opinion.
01:10:41The defense also turns to a domestic violence expert
01:10:44to explain why, even though Ashley claimed
01:10:47she was living in fear,
01:10:49it may not have always looked that way from the outside.
01:10:52How common is it, Mr. Ferris,
01:10:55for a victim of domestic violence
01:10:58to smile and act happy in the company of the abuser?
01:11:02Very much so, because they're afraid.
01:11:05They found this least resistance.
01:11:09They're trying to not poke the bear, as we'll say.
01:11:12Doug didn't verbally abuse her,
01:11:15never physically touched her.
01:11:18He would be angry over how she tried to ruin his life,
01:11:24but the anger never came out in inappropriate ways.
01:11:28Then the defense calls the one person
01:11:31they believe can convince the jury of Ashley's innocence.
01:11:36The defense calls Ashley Benefield.
01:11:42How are you feeling this morning, Ashley?
01:11:45Nervous.
01:11:47The questioning quickly turning to the night of the shooting.
01:11:50I ran to try to leave the house.
01:11:53He hit me in the side of the head.
01:11:57He had never actually hit me before.
01:12:00What did you do?
01:12:03I ran.
01:12:05Doug was standing in the doorway.
01:12:08His face was red.
01:12:11Like, the veins were bulging in his neck.
01:12:14The way he was looking at me, he didn't even look like Doug.
01:12:18His eyes were black.
01:12:21I held the gun, like, in front of me,
01:12:25and I said, stop.
01:12:28And he, like, turned, and he got into this, like,
01:12:31a fighting stance.
01:12:33I thought he was going to kill me.
01:12:38Somehow, Ashley Benefield found the strength
01:12:42to testify on her own behalf,
01:12:45and I thought she did it extremely well.
01:12:49Judge, I wonder, could we have a minute?
01:12:52Ashley used a lot of theatrics, a lot of, in my opinion, acting.
01:12:56Looking her in the face, it did not seem genuine to me.
01:13:00Ma'am, there's Kleenexes right next to you.
01:13:02Okay, thank you.
01:13:04Even though she cried hysterically numerous times,
01:13:07there was not one tear.
01:13:09In her cross-examination,
01:13:10Prosecutor Suzanne O'Donnell presses Ashley about that moment
01:13:14she says Doug hit her in the head.
01:13:17You say he slapped you?
01:13:19I wouldn't know how to classify it.
01:13:21He struck me, he hit me.
01:13:23Was his hand open or closed?
01:13:26I don't remember.
01:13:27Okay.
01:13:28In direct examination, she knew the color of his eyes
01:13:31and the way he was acting.
01:13:32And when I asked her,
01:13:33did he hit you with an open hand or a closed hand,
01:13:36she didn't know.
01:13:37Wouldn't you know if someone hit you with a fist
01:13:40versus an open hand?
01:13:41Judge, if I could have her step down so she can demonstrate.
01:13:45Excuse me.
01:13:46I absolutely wanted to get her down off of the stand
01:13:50because she would have been that much closer to the jury.
01:13:53Okay, so he's standing there.
01:13:55He turns like this and starts moving his arms around.
01:14:00Like that.
01:14:01Well, show me.
01:14:02What was he doing?
01:14:04He kind of got like this,
01:14:06and he was making fighting motions.
01:14:08I don't know.
01:14:09I'm not a fighter.
01:14:10I don't know.
01:14:11Okay.
01:14:12This was the time to show the jury
01:14:13exactly what this person was doing.
01:14:15Why were you so scared?
01:14:17And she just couldn't do it.
01:14:19And I believe that that was because it didn't really happen.
01:14:22And O'Donnell zeroes in on the physical evidence,
01:14:25arguing that it contradicts Ashley's claims of self-defense.
01:14:30So I want to talk a little bit about this trajectory.
01:14:32The fatal bullet went in the side of the chest
01:14:36and almost came out the other side of the back.
01:14:39Her story was he starts to lunge at her.
01:14:43If she then lifted the gun and shot,
01:14:45it would go in his chest and right out his back.
01:14:48It would not go side to side.
01:14:50Everybody unanimously agreed
01:14:53that the wound path of that projectile
01:14:56was from front to back, left to right.
01:14:59I don't care how much you would like to move
01:15:03front to back to the side,
01:15:05it is still front to back.
01:15:09Ashley's action on that day was absolutely justified.
01:15:15She had the right to stand her ground
01:15:18and use force, including deadly force.
01:15:23For the last several years,
01:15:26I've walked hand in hand with Ashley.
01:15:30I'm now going to surrender her fate to you.
01:15:35So all of you may now retire to consider your verdict.
01:15:39Any minute now, Ashley Benefield could learn her fate.
01:15:42I've played out, I guess, both scenarios in my mind.
01:15:47Six hours into the deliberations,
01:15:50tensions began building in the jury room.
01:15:53Then at approximately 10 o'clock,
01:15:56the jurors sent out a note.
01:15:58When they came back, I feel a sinking feeling.
01:16:01We were heavy-hearted at that moment.
01:16:16Are you envisioning what it might be like to hear guilty?
01:16:22Yeah, I've played out, I guess, both scenarios in my mind.
01:16:27I mean, part of this just doesn't seem real.
01:16:30I keep thinking maybe one day I'll wake up from the nightmare
01:16:33and realize that none of this happened.
01:16:36Jurors still deliberating after closing arguments.
01:16:39It's 10 p.m.
01:16:41The jury in Ashley Benefield's case
01:16:43has been deliberating for six hours.
01:16:46Then a message from the foreperson.
01:16:49I've received a note from you.
01:16:52It says, unable to come to unanimous verdict.
01:16:55Even worse than a not guilty would be a hung jury
01:16:58because then the family has to go through this again.
01:17:00You just need some finality.
01:17:03But the judge encourages the jurors to keep deliberating
01:17:06and try to come to a consensus.
01:17:08We'll be in recess until we get another question or a verdict.
01:17:11And less than an hour later...
01:17:13Breaking news. We have a verdict.
01:17:16When I saw that there was a verdict a half an hour later,
01:17:19my heart was in my throat.
01:17:23We, the jury, find the defendant is guilty of manslaughter
01:17:26or lesser inflated offense.
01:17:29The jury does not find Ashley guilty of second-degree murder.
01:17:33Instead, they convict her of the lesser charge of manslaughter.
01:17:38We were hopeful for a second-degree murder conviction,
01:17:41but we were very, very satisfied with a manslaughter conviction.
01:17:47Ashley learns she'll be sentenced at a later date.
01:17:54The sound was as good as the sight.
01:17:56We're very thankful that she was taken off to jail.
01:18:04If she hadn't had her gun that night,
01:18:07I know without a shadow of a doubt my daughter would be dead.
01:18:11I am sure of it.
01:18:13Why do they not believe women?
01:18:16Why should women live in fear?
01:18:19I feel that Ashley was abusing a system
01:18:24that is designed to help people that are victims.
01:18:28Sets everyone back and makes it so much harder
01:18:30for those people that really are victims.
01:18:33I'll tell you, the hardest part of that verdict
01:18:35was not in the courtroom.
01:18:37It was when we came back to our office without Ashley.
01:18:40Emerson was there waiting for her mom,
01:18:43but she wouldn't leave right around that elevator.
01:18:45She just stayed there.
01:18:48This case has always been sad to me
01:18:50because there are children involved that had nothing to do with this.
01:18:54Emerson's without her father
01:18:56and probably going to be without her mother now for a long time.
01:19:00Doug's family got justice.
01:19:02Eva's still without her father.
01:19:04Today kind of just feels like the first day of the rest of my life.
01:19:10I hope one day me and Emerson will be able to have a relationship
01:19:15where she can come to me with any questions
01:19:18and I hope that one day I'll be able to explain
01:19:20how great of a father my dad would have been to her
01:19:24and how great he was for the short amount of time
01:19:26that they got to spend together.
01:19:35Ashley Benefield is scheduled to be sentenced next month.
01:19:39David, she faces up to 30 years in prison.
01:19:41And as for Doug and Ashley's six-year-old daughter, Emerson,
01:19:44she's currently living with Ashley's mother now.
01:19:46That's our program for tonight. Thanks for watching.
01:19:48I'm David Muir.
01:19:49And I'm Deborah Roberts.
01:19:50From all of us here at 2020 and ABC News, good night.
01:20:04.