The sound of handcuffs clicking shut reverberated via a Manatee County courtroom late Tuesday night time 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 pretty much as good because the sight,” Tommie Benefield, Doug Benefield’s cousin and a witness within the trial, mentioned about watching Ashley Benefield be handcuffed, taken into the custody of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Workplace and led out of the courtroom.
After nearly 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 consequently 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 with the intention to stop him from studying she had no intention of reconciling their marriage and that her aim 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 mentioned they could not attain a unanimous verdict. The choose requested in the event that they needed 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 consumer 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 consumer out on bond earlier than the sentencing listening to, arguing she has connections to the group, no prior felony historical past and he or she’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 doubtlessly faces as much as 30 years in jail.
Manatee County Circuit Courtroom Choose Matt Whyte ordered that Ashley Benefield be taken into custody till the sentencing listening to, which is anticipated to be scheduled throughout the subsequent few months.
Following the conclusion of the trial, Taylor walked previous members of the media exterior the judicial heart 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 via home violence conditions,” Eva Benefield mentioned. “I feel what Ashley was doing was unfair to them. They deserve justice and I’m very glad that my dad acquired the justice he deserves.”
Tommie Benefield mentioned the household is glad 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 all the pieces they’d accomplished.
Tommie Benefield acknowledged that the case was additionally laborious on Ashley Benefield and that it’ll be troublesome 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 together with his brother 5 weeks earlier than his dying, and he mentioned that Doug Benefield had cherished his spouse, his daughters and he needed to be there for them.
“I’m so grateful for justice, the whole course of was merely superb. However Doug, his coronary heart can be, ‘I need to see my household healed, I’d need to see my household entire,’” Dave Benefield mentioned.
As for the 4 lengthy years of ready for this verdict, Tommie Benefield mentioned his household by no means gave up on the system. He and different members attended each listening to they might. Whereas he acknowledged that you simply hate when something takes that lengthy to get to, it was price it ultimately when accomplished 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 mentioned. “There are lots of, many ladies which might be in horrendous conditions. Girls, and typically males, which might be in conditions which might be being abused and crushed regularly. Individuals who really feel like they can’t get out, no solution 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 attain her aim 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 in opposition to 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 habits had occurred three years previous to the capturing.
By September 2020, Ashley Benefield had been dwelling in her own residence together 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 mentioned that based on 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 in opposition to Doug Benefield, O’Donnell mentioned. 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 mentioned 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 “hold her child.”
The prosecution claimed Ashley Benefield was conscious that her charade of reconciling together 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 capturing proved the place her way of thinking was the night time Doug Benefield came to visit 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 mentioned.
Freel identified that in Ashley Benefield’s testimony, it wasn’t till the choose identified that there have been tissues to the suitable aspect of the stand, that Ashley Benefield grabbed one.
“She’d been crying for quarter-hour. Did not want a tissue,” Freel mentioned. “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 drive 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 consumer’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 via the case.
Taylor reminded the jury that the prosecution’s case relied on the motive that Ashley Benefield allegedly killed Doug Benefield to forestall him from seeing a report that was imagined to be launched on Sept. 30, three days after the capturing passed off. 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 characterize him within the injunction, had testified that the report was imagined to be launched on the thirtieth. Nevertheless, 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 mentioned that Ashley Benefield had no violent tendencies and wasn’t vulnerable to contemptuous acts, Taylor mentioned. Her solely concern in regards to the report, based on testimony, was that if Doug came upon what she’d mentioned 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 mentioned. She filed criticism after criticism about her estranged husband’s habits 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 facets 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 laborious he knocked him unconscious, he threw a loaded gun at his spouse, positioned a tracker on her automotive, he drove from South Carolina to Florida to trace his spouse, and he cursed, yelled and belittled his spouse, Taylor mentioned.
“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 consumer exhibited the traits of a sufferer of home violence by appeasing her estranged husband by going alongside to get alongside with the intention to shield her little one. He mentioned whereas she might have regarded glad 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 mentioned. “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 possibly can help her work with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America. Contact Gabriela Szymanowska at gszymanowska@gannett.com, or on X: @GabrielaSzyman3.