The sound of handcuffs clicking shut reverberated by way of a Manatee County courtroom late Tuesday evening on the conclusion of the Ashley Benefield trial.
For the household of Doug Benefield, a naval pilot officer who was shot and killed by his estranged spouse in Lakewood Ranch in September 2020, the sound was of ringing justice.
“The sound was nearly as good because the sight,” Tommie Benefield, Doug Benefield’s cousin and a witness within the trial, stated about watching Ashley Benefield be handcuffed, taken into the custody of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Workplace and led out of the courtroom.
After virtually seven hours of deliberations, a six-person jury returned with a verdict of responsible of manslaughter, a lesser offense than the second-degree homicide cost for Ashley Benefield, 32. They discovered that the previous ballerina possessed and discharged a gun and in consequence killed Doug Benefield.
The decision was learn out in a largely empty courtroom — with Doug Benefield’s household filling half the gallery — in comparison with how full the benches had been simply hours earlier than and all through the trial.
After 5 days of testimony, sidebars and objections the prosecution and protection gave closing arguments early Tuesday afternoon.
In a case that has captured public curiosity, the previous ballerina claimed she shot her estranged husband in self-defense, fearing for her life. The prosecution argued Ashley Benefield killed her husband to be able to forestall him from studying she had no intention of reconciling their marriage and that her objective was to be a single mom with sole custody of their daughter.
The jury, made of 5 girls and one man, started deliberations round 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon as slashing, torrential rain and dime-sized hail pelted exterior the Manatee County Judicial Heart. They have been tasked with deciding whether or not Ashley Benefield shot and killed her estranged husband in chilly blood or whether or not she acted in self-defense as a girl determined to flee home abuse.
After six hours of deliberations, the jury stated they could not attain a unanimous verdict. The choose requested in the event that they wished to come back again within the morning to proceed deliberations, however the jury determined to remain.
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Lower than an hour later, they delivered their verdict.
Doug Benefield’s household reacts to verdict, protection declines remark
Ashley Benefield’s protection legal professional Neil Taylor inched nearer to his shopper when the decision was learn by the court docket clerk, providing her consolation and help.
Ashley Benefield remained solemn as the decision was learn. Her face revealed not one of the feelings she’d displayed on the stand 4 days earlier.
Because the protection and prosecution made arguments about whether or not to remand her to the custody of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Workplace, the Lakewood Ranch mom bent her head over a bit of paper, scribbling a notice.
Taylor tried to maintain his shopper out on bond earlier than the sentencing listening to, arguing she has connections to the group, no prior prison historical past and she or he’d appeared at each court docket listening to as much as the trial. Assistant State Legal professional Suzanne O’Donnell identified that Ashley Benefield had extra at stake with the conviction as she probably faces as much as 30 years in jail.
Manatee County Circuit Court docket Decide Matt Whyte ordered that Ashley Benefield be taken into custody till the sentencing listening to, which is predicted to be scheduled inside the subsequent few months.
Following the conclusion of the trial, Taylor walked previous members of the media exterior the judicial middle declining to remark.
Doug Benefield’s 23-year-old daughter, Eva, Tommie Benefield, and Doug Benefield’s youthful brother, Dave, all took time to remark.
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“I apologize to all the ladies who’ve gone by way of home violence conditions,” Eva Benefield stated. “I believe what Ashley was doing was unfair to them. They deserve justice and I’m very completely happy that my dad acquired the justice he deserves.”
Tommie Benefield stated the household is completely happy Ashley Benefield was taken into custody as she’d solely spent 17 days in jail following her arrest earlier than she bonded out. He added they have been grateful the lesser cost was included for the jury to contemplate.
The household expressed their gratitude to the state attorneys, sufferer’s advocates, court docket personnel and the choose for the whole lot they’d carried out.
Tommie Benefield acknowledged that the case was additionally arduous on Ashley Benefield and that it’ll be tough for her to be other than her younger daughter, who will stay with Ashley Benefield’s mom.
Dave Benefield recalled attending to spend just a few days along with his brother 5 weeks earlier than his dying, and he stated that Doug Benefield had beloved his spouse, his daughters and he wished to be there for them.
“I’m so grateful for justice, your complete course of was merely wonderful. However Doug, his coronary heart can be, ‘I wish to see my household healed, I might wish to see my household complete,’” Dave Benefield stated.
As for the 4 lengthy years of ready for this verdict, Tommie Benefield stated his household by no means gave up on the system. He and different members attended each listening to they may. Whereas he acknowledged that you simply hate when something takes that lengthy to get to, it was value it in the long run when carried out proper.
‘She will not be the sufferer’: Prosecutors state Ashley Benefield wasn’t home violence sufferer
“Home violence is completely an actual drawback,” O’Donnell stated. “There are numerous, many ladies which are in horrendous conditions. Girls, and typically males, which are in conditions which are being abused and crushed frequently. Individuals who really feel like they can not get out, no technique to get out. This isn’t this defendant, and it by no means was.”
O’Donnell argued that Ashley Benefield used home violence and allegations to realize her objective of gaining sole custody of her and Doug Benefield’s little one in any respect prices. O’Donnell detailed how Ashley Benefield repeatedly made complaints and filed home violence injunctions towards her husband, utilizing the identical claims again and again regardless of not having lived or been along with Doug Benefield for 3 years.
The prosecutor acknowledged that Doug Benefield wasn’t an angel and that his previous behaviors hadn’t been acceptable; nonetheless, O’Donnell identified that the conduct had occurred three years previous to the taking pictures.
By September 2020, Ashley Benefield had been dwelling in her own residence along with her mom in Florida, Doug Benefield hadn’t bodily harmed her in that point, he wasn’t controlling her comings and goings, and he couldn’t have used intimidation to regulate her since they hadn’t been collectively in three years.
Starting with their 13-day whirlwind romance and marriage, O’Donnell stated that in keeping with Ashley Benefield’s testimony, regardless of her husband turning into controlling and having indignant outbursts, the couple determined Doug Benefield would have a vasectomy reversal to start out a household.
Regardless of shifting away to Florida in August 2017, Ashley Benefield started a marketing campaign of complaints towards Doug Benefield, O’Donnell stated. The choose granted a mutual injunction in South Carolina, which meant there was no discovering of fault, however the household court docket choose in Florida denied Ashley Benefield’s home violence injunction and granted Doug visitation rights.
O’Donnell stated MCSO Det. Chris Gillum’s testimony proved Ashley’s motive when she adamantly urged him to arrest Doug Benefield earlier than a choose to assist her “preserve her child.”
The prosecution claimed Ashley Benefield was conscious that her charade of reconciling along with her husband was over and her feedback of time working out and taking issues into her personal palms within the days main as much as the taking pictures proved the place her frame of mind was the evening Doug Benefield came visiting to assist pack.
Assistant State Legal professional Rebecca Freel hammered residence one phrase to the jury over the past a part of the prosecution’s closing arguments: “Manipulate.”
Ashley Benefield tried to govern the Courts, legislation enforcement and varied therapists, and now she was now making an attempt to govern the jury, Freel stated.
Freel identified that in Ashley Benefield’s testimony, it wasn’t till the choose identified that there have been tissues to the best facet of the stand, that Ashley Benefield grabbed one.
“She’d been crying for quarter-hour. Did not want a tissue,” Freel stated. “That is manipulation. That is her effort to govern you and make you imagine that she was a sufferer. She will not be the sufferer. Douglas Benefield was the sufferer on this case.”
‘I’m going to give up her destiny to you’
“The problem to be resolved on this case: was the pressure used justified,” Taylor questioned the jury, his already quiet voice gruffer from being sick.
Taylor harkened again to his opening statements the place he informed the jury that Doug Benefield “was a really sick man” and that his shopper’s actions on Sept. 27, 2020, have been “completely justified.”
The protection’s closing arguments centered on proof that confirmed Ashley Benefield was a sufferer of home violence and the way the prosecution’s principle of motive switched midway by way of the case.
Taylor reminded the jury that the prosecution’s case relied on the motive that Ashley Benefield allegedly killed Doug Benefield to stop him from seeing a report that was presupposed to be launched on Sept. 30, three days after the taking pictures happened. The report was the results of an agreed upon psychological analysis by Dr. Brad Broeder as a part of a home violence injunction.
Taylor identified that Stephanie Murphy, the household legislation legal professional employed by Doug Benefield to signify him within the injunction, had testified that the report was presupposed to be launched on the thirtieth. Nonetheless, an e-mail chain between Murphy, Ashley Benefield’s household legal professional and a choose’s judicial assistant confirmed that the listening to was merely for the home violence injunction, not the discharge of the report.
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Additional, the identical psychologist stated that Ashley Benefield had no violent tendencies and wasn’t vulnerable to contemptuous acts, Taylor stated. Her solely concern in regards to the report, in keeping with testimony, was that if Doug came upon what she’d stated about him, he would take it out on her or their little one.
For 4 years, Ashley Benefield did what any law-abiding citizen was anticipated to do, Taylor stated. She filed criticism after criticism about her estranged husband’s conduct to legislation enforcement, to no avail. Taylor questioned why she’d make the sudden leap to kill.
Turning to Bruce Ferris’ testimony, Taylor identified how the psychological well being counselor listed points of Doug Benefield’s previous that aligned with an abuser’s tendencies. He threatened to kill himself in entrance of Ashley, he punched the canine so arduous he knocked him unconscious, he threw a loaded gun at his spouse, positioned a tracker on her automobile, he drove from South Carolina to Florida to trace his spouse, and he cursed, yelled and belittled his spouse, Taylor stated.
“If that is not dedication, what’s? If that is not fixation, what’s? If that is not obsession, what’s?” Taylor questioned.
Taylor argued that his shopper exhibited the traits of a sufferer of home violence by appeasing her estranged husband by going alongside to get alongside to be able to defend her little one. He stated whereas she might have seemed completely happy and content material, she was in compliance mode to maintain Doug Benefield at bay.
“For the final a number of years, I’ve walked hand-in-hand with Ashley,” Taylor stated. “I’m going to give up her destiny to you.”
Gabriela Szymanowska covers the authorized system for the Herald-Tribune in partnership with Report for America. You may help her work with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America. Contact Gabriela Szymanowska at [email protected], or on X: @GabrielaSzyman3.