Dancer Allegedly Killed Rich Donor Husband So She Might Be Single Mother: Prosecutors

That was the argument of the prosecution within the case in opposition to 32-year-old Ashley Benefield, who has admitted that she killed her 59-year-old husband, Douglas Benefield on September 27, 2020.

Benefield’s protection lawyer, Neil Taylor, painted a distinct footage for jurors within the courtroom earlier this week throughout opening statements in what’s been dubbed the ‘Black Swan’ homicide trial. “She was in worry for her life when she was pressured to shoot him,” Neil argued.

However the prosecution says the proof of the crime scene paints a distinct image of what occurred — and proof going again even additional paints a distinct image of Ashley Benefield than the protection is presenting.

“This case is a couple of girl who very early on in her being pregnant determined she needed to be a single mom,” argued Assistant State Lawyer Suzanne O’Donnell. “She would cease at nothing to acquire that objective.”

On September 27, 2020, when police arrived on the scene to seek out his physique on the bed room flooring, Ashley mentioned that he’d tried to assault her and that is why she shot him.

However prosecutors argued with forensic proof that Douglas was going through away from Ashley when she shot him for the primary of 3 times.

“Based mostly on entry wounds on Douglas it doesn’t seem that he was going through Ashley when she started capturing,” the Manatee County Sheriff’s Workplace mentioned in an affidavit acquired by Thew New York Put up.

“It additionally doesn’t seem that Douglas had taken any type of defensive or combative stance. He was not discovered to have any weapons on his particular person or close to him,” the affidavit continued.

It is conclusion: “Detectives discovered no proof that she was performing in self-defense when she fired a number of pictures at her husband.”

On Thursday, the state offered textual content messages as a part of the closure of their arguments. In preparation of a transfer from Florida to Maryland, the messages confirmed a pair working peacefully collectively, discussing packing packing containers and furnishings.

Douglas’ last message to his spouse was “trucker on the way in which,” per WTVT. That message got here at 5:32 p.m. on September 27, 2020. In response to Ashley, it was shortly after this that she claimed she shot her husband in self protection.

The protection argued that the cooperative nature of the messages was indicative of “an abused girl’s worry.” Taylor argued, “Right here now we have in her quiet, most non-public second. What’s she doing 5 months earlier than the capturing? She is trying to find how one can get together with an abusive ex-spouse.”

The choose, nevertheless, disallowed these searches from being present to the jury, saying they have been rumour, per WTVT. After the prosecution rested its case on Thursday, Ashley’s protection will begin on Friday morning.

Ashley and Douglas first met in 2016 at a GOP fundraiser in Palm Seaside when she was 24 years outdated. A skilled dancer, Ashley shared her aspirations to open her personal ballet firm. Two weeks after they met, the couple was married and he was funding her studio.

In response to the prosecution, issues took a flip when the cash began to expire and Ashley ballet firm faltered. An ensuing divorce battle turned ugly with allegations of infidelity on either side and abuse.

Whereas they have been solely married for 4 years, Ashley filed allegations of abuse in opposition to Douglas a number of instances, together with a narrative that he’d shot a gun on the ceiling to “shut her up,” that he’d kicked their canine unconscious, and that he’d even tried to poison her whereas she was pregnant.

All through the trial, it was revealed that the couple was estranged when their daughter, now six, was born with Doug solely discover out she’d given start when she filed a restraining order in opposition to him, per WTVT.

In response to an lawyer Douglas had employed in an effort to be part of his kid’s start culminated in a gathering between the 2 when the newborn was six months outdated and Ashley’s abrupt choice to go together with Douglas.

A choose beforehand discovered no proof of abuse by Douglas in relation to those allegations, the NY Put up reported. The prosecution argued that each one of this was a part of a calculated technique by the defendant to achieve sole custody of their little one. And when that did not work, she took much more excessive measures.

They loved a interval of reconciliation after that, per the outlet, till Ashley shot and killed her husband in September 2020.