What led former ballerina Ashley Benefield to fatally shoot her husband?

This story beforehand aired on Sept. 7, 2024. It was up to date on July 26, 2025.

After almost 4 years, the trial of Ashley Benefield, the previous ballerina charged with second-degree homicide for capturing her estranged husband Doug, started in the summertime of 2024. Within the lead-up to the trial, a small group appeared close to the courthouse to assist Ashley’s claims of self-defense.

Among the many supporters was Ashley’s mom Alicia and Ashley and Doug’s 6-year-old daughter Emerson, who stopped to talk to a reporter.

Emerson: It seems like I am standing up for the best factor and that I am doing the best factor for her.

Emerson’s public present of assist caught the eye of her half-sister, Doug’s daughter Eva Benefield. Eva, often known as “evathefreakindiva” on TikTok, let her half million followers know simply how she felt.

EVA BENEFIELD (On TikTok): So, I believe that we must always most likely cease shoving cameras in 6-year-old’s faces after they don’t know what is going on on …

A JURY CONSIDERS: DID ASHLEY BENEFIELD KILL IN SELF-DEFENSE OR WAS IT MURDER?

Lead prosecutor Suzanne O’Donnell stated she believes Ashley killed Doug to ensure she’d at all times be No. 1 in Emerson’s life.

Suzanne O’Donnell: I believe Ashley wished sole custody of her baby and was very afraid that she was going to lose custody altogether.

In her opening assertion to jurors, O’Donnell outlined the state’s concept of the case.

SUZANNE O’DONNELL (in court docket): This was a custody battle that this mom was going to win in any respect prices. And the associated fee was the lifetime of Doug Benefield. And that’s homicide.

Protection lawyer Neil Taylor made his argument that Ashley shot Doug in self-defense after he bodily assaulted her.

NEIL TAYLOR (in court docket): Douglas Benefield was a violent abuser. Ashley Benefield’s efforts to placate him was completely in step with what abused ladies do.

For the primary time ever, Ashley would inform a jury what she says occurred that night time.

The trial came about in Bradenton, Florida, close to the place Ashley was dwelling along with her mom when she killed Doug. It was the fruits of an extended and complex relationship.

SUZANNE O’DONNELL (in court docket): … and it goes all the way in which again to after they met, again in 2016.

In 2016, Doug was dwelling in Charleston, South Carolina, and was a guide for expertise corporations. At 54 years previous, Doug was 30 years older than Ashley however, as she informed the jury, she was nonetheless smitten with him.

ASHLEY BENEFIELD (in court docket): He was humorous. Very sensible. Charming. We simply immediately clicked.

The couple met at a political dinner. On the time, Ashley was working within the Sarasota marketing campaign workplace of Donald Trump and typically helped fire up the crowds at his rallies.

Ashley additionally had completed some swimsuit modeling and for a time had danced with the Maryland Youth Ballet. Simply 13 days after assembly, they married.

Stephanie Murphy is Doug’s civil legal professional.

Stephanie Murphy: Lots of people ask … why on earth did they get married so quick? I imply, come on … when Doug first met her, she was each single bit as lovely as these modeling photographs will present … She was a knockout!

NEIL TAYLOR (in court docket): Describe the person you thought you’d married.

ASHLEY BENEFIELD: He was very loving and attentive …We laughed lots and (crying) he made me really feel very particular and beloved.

Doug invited nearly nobody to the marriage, not even his teenage daughter Eva.

Jim Axelrod | “48 Hours” contributor: He loves this woman, his 15-year-old daughter … he goes and will get married and would not even inform her.

Tommie Benefield: Yeah.

Tommie Benefield is Doug’s cousin.

Tommie Benefield: …it is bewildering … I might’ve talked him out of it. Eva definitely would’ve talked him out of it. 

Eva was nonetheless coping with an unspeakable trauma. 9 months earlier, her mom, Doug’s then-wife, had died. It was Eva who found the physique of 56-year-old Renee Benefield of their house, useless from an undiagnosed coronary heart ailment.

Eva Benefield: … after my mother died, he actually took, sort of, a motherly function together with a fatherly function.

Jim Axelrod: Wow.

And he made his daughter a promise.

Eva Benefield: And I stated, “are you gonna remarry, are you gonna begin relationship? … Are you gonna produce other children?” Like, “what’s gonna occur?” and he stated, “No, Eva. I am right here for you. I do not plan on doing any of that.”

However simply 9 months later, Doug informed his daughter he had married his new girlfriend.

Jim Axelrod: That is lots.

Eva Benefield: It’s a lot.

Doug inspired Ashley to attempt to mom a reluctant Eva who was solely 9 years youthful.

Eva Benefield: … he mainly informed her that I wanted any person … I wanted a motherly function in my life. And I did not assume that I wanted that.

Ashley would later inform jurors there was stress in the home and simply months into their marriage the couple had a significant argument about Eva.

ASHLEY BENEFIELD (in court docket): He pulled the gun out and maintain it to his head. He stated that he’s gonna blow his f—— brains out and I used to be gonna have to look at him. After which he pulled the set off and he shot a gap within the ceiling within the kitchen.

Doug’s good friend Journey Cormeny remembers Doug being embarrassed when he informed Cormeny that he fired a gun in the home.

Journey Cormeny: In his phrases he stated, “I did the dumbest factor I’ve ever completed in my life.” 

However Ashley did not depart Doug after that incident. As an alternative, two days later, Doug and Ashley went forward with a proper marriage ceremony reception. The newlyweds have been additionally planning for the longer term. Ashley had a grand plan to create a nationwide ballet firm.

Journey Cormeny: I do not know that Doug may spell ballet earlier than he met Ashley. 

And so they wished to begin a household.

Journey Cormeny: , while you love any person, what do you wanna do? You wanna make her completely satisfied. 

ASHLEY BENEFIELD’S LETTER TO HER HUSBAND AND AN ALLEGATION OF POISON

Though there was a rising stress at house between Ashley and Eva —

Eva Benefield : He promised me that issues — issues have been going to be OK finally. 

— Doug went forward with serving to Ashley comply with her dream — establishing a ballet firm in Charleston with a novel mission. Athena Nikolakopulos interviewed with Ashley and beloved what she heard about her imaginative and prescient for the brand new firm, the American Nationwide Ballet.

Athena Nikolkopulos: She did not need a cookie cutter firm … She wished women that have been tall, women that have been brief.

As they labored to get the corporate off the bottom, Ashley centered on her different dream of turning into a mom. There was one downside. Doug had a vasectomy, however he agreed to have it reversed. Then earlier than lengthy, Ashley was pregnant.  Jim Axelrod: How did that sit with you?

Eva Benefield: It did not sit properly in any respect. … He stated he wasn’t planning on doing any of that  … so this kinda felt like one other stab within the again.  In the summertime in 2017, some 40 dancers from everywhere in the world started arriving in Charleston to work with Ashley. However Ashley was nowhere to be discovered.

Athena Nikolkopulos: We get there and we’re like, “The place is she?” And Doug proclaims that she’s bedridden with a very tough being pregnant.

On the finish of August, Ashley went again to Florida to dwell along with her mom, whereas Doug tried to make the ballet work in Charleston.

ASHLEY BENEFIELD (in court docket): We determined collectively. He stated that he could not deal with me. He was too busy and that my mother may deal with me higher, so I used to be completely satisfied to go.

However one September night when Doug was out, Ashley and her mom got here again to the home in Charleston. Ashley would inform the jury about that night time. 

ASHLEY BENEFIELD (in court docket): I had determined I used to be going to depart him and so I went again to get my issues. … I left him a letter saying why I used to be leaving.

Within the letter, Ashley known as Doug “possessive, controlling and manipulating.” She wrote about that incident the place he’d “shot a gap within the ceiling within the kitchen” and wrote that his conduct “has left me fearful for my life and security in addition to that of my unborn baby.” She informed the jury why she was so afraid of him.

ASHLEY BENEFIELD (in court docket): He would throw issues or break issues or smash issues. He would come at me like he was gonna hit me. He informed me I used to be fortunate that he punched partitions as an alternative of me.

Practically a 12 months after Doug’s dying, “48 Hours” spoke to his household lawyer Stephanie Murphy concerning the letter Ashley left Doug.

Stephanie Murphy: I actually assume that Ashley thought that that was gonna be it. Simply pack up her stuff, depart a observe, and it was gonna be over.

However the letter did not deter Doug. He despatched textual content after textual content, begging Ashley to rethink. As an alternative, she reported Doug to the authorities.

Eva Benefield: She obtained Baby Protecting Companies concerned from Florida.

Ashley informed police that Doug had anger points and was violent. Investigators interviewed Eva.

Eva Benefield: I used to be continually having folks come as much as my door and questioning if my dad was a great dad. And it simply made me so indignant as a result of he was.

After an investigation, Doug was cleared. However Ashley additionally started asking questions concerning the dying of Doug’s earlier spouse — Eva’s mom Renee.

Ashley texted Doug: “Wait what did she die of once more?”

Doug replied that Renee had a 75% artery blockage.

Ashley texted again: “I believed I’ve heard you say one thing about medicines or one thing…? Like dangerous medicine…?”

Doug’s cousin Tommie says Ashley informed him she thought Doug had poisoned Renee.

Jim Axelrod: What was your response? You have to’ve been, like, “What?”

Tommie Benefield: It — it is out of left area. … I’ve learn the post-mortem report. It is clear. Died of a coronary heart assault, basically.

However Ashley, who stated she was extra nauseous than she would have anticipated as a pregnant girl, was suspicious.

Stephanie Murphy: Ashley believed that Doug has been poisoning her whereas she was pregnant with their daughter. They have been each massive tea followers … and she or he hearkened again to the occasions that Doug was bringing her tea in mattress.

After she left him, Doug despatched her a bundle of tea for her birthday.

ASHLEY BENEFIELD (in court docket) Once I opened it, there was an awesome odor, like an actual sturdy chemical odor and I obtained like an prompt headache.

NEIL TAYLOR: Did you report it to the police?

ASHLEY BENEFIELD: Sure.

In keeping with a detective, it was decided that “the substance that was mailed to the sufferer was simply tea.”

NEIL TAYLOR (in court docket): What was the end result?

ASHLEY BENEFIELD: No prices.

By the beginning of 2018, Doug closed the ballet and was out of communication with Ashley. However he wished to be a part of his new child’s life and requested Stephanie Murphy to ship Ashley a letter permitting him to be there for the delivery. As an alternative, the following day, Ashley checked into the hospital with out telling Doug. It was three weeks earlier than her due date.

Stephanie Murphy: She was at Tampa Normal Hospital … claiming … the kid had been uncovered to heavy metals in utero as a result of her husband had poisoned her.

Ashley informed hospital staffers that when Doug discovered she was pregnant, he hit her and locked her in a room again in Charleston. She additionally stated he had stalked her in Florida. No prices have been filed, however the hospital took precautions and registered her below her center identify: Christina. Three days later, docs carried out a C-section and Ashley gave delivery to a child woman. Doug was not notified.

Stephanie Murphy: I believe that Ashley’s proposal from the very starting was, “You will don’t have anything to do with this baby.”

BENEFIELD VS. BENEFIELD

The information that Ashley had given delivery to a child woman in March 2018 took greater than a month to succeed in Doug. Ashley stated she nonetheless believed he had poisoned her and the infant, so she signed them up for 26 consecutive days of therapy in a hyperbaric chamber.

Robert Cederoth: It could possibly detox the physique of heavy metals and different toxins.

Security Director Robert Cederoth says Ashley and her 3-month-old daughter Emerson spent 40 hours in complete within the chamber. She was the youngest affected person ever handled right here.

Robert Cederoth: Ashley’s daughter was actually small … And so, we ended up taking this — ring and we put it round her waist. It was like — she was like a bit of ballerina … and so half of her physique was truly inside the hood.

In the summertime of 2018, the poisoning allegations got here to a head when the Benefield’s squared off in a Bradenton, Florida, courtroom. Doug wished to see his daughter and Ashley was requesting an injunction to maintain him far-off.

An audio recording was manufactured from the continuing. Ashley accused Doug of poisoning her and informed the decide about that incident when Doug fired a gun into the ceiling.

Doug admitted to firing the gun and defined to Ashley’s legal professional that in an argument, he wished Ashley to cease talking. 

ATTORNEY: So, at this level, you determined that the following means you are going to do to maintain her from speaking about something is to shoot the gun?

DOUG BENEFIELD: Yeah — there’s not a number of nice methods to — to determine what I used to be pondering. It was undoubtedly to place a cease to the dialog.

However Doug denied poisoning Ashley. In September 2018, the decide dominated in Doug’s favor, granting joint custody. She stated she did not imagine something Ashley needed to say. JUDGE DIANA MORELAND [Court audio]: There’s completely not a single scintilla of credibility that I am attaching to something that was testified to – at the very least on this listening to of Ms. Benefield.

Days later, Doug and Ashley met on the sheriff’s workplace so he may see his 6-month-old daughter for the primary time. Murphy says Ashley instructed that the three of them — Doug, Ashley and Emerson — spend time collectively.

Stephanie Murphy:  And Doug stated, “OK, certain” as a result of Doug wished to make the transition as straightforward for his daughter as potential as a result of, to her, he was a stranger.

Over the following 12 months, the three of them have been collectively ceaselessly.