'Black Swan' Trial Ends With 20-Year Sentence

UPDATE Dec 3, 2024 2:44 PM CST

A woman convicted of killing her estranged husband in a high-profile Florida murder in 2020 has been sentenced to 20 years in prison, reports NBC News. Ashley Benefield, a former ballerina, faced a maximum sentence of 30 years after her manslaughter conviction. She claimed it was self-defense.

Jul 31, 2024 10:50 AM CDT

A former ballerina who wed a man 30 years her senior within days of meeting him at a 2016 political fundraiser was just found responsible for his shooting death. Ashley Benefield, 33, claimed she fatally shot Doug Benefield in self-defense when he attacked her inside her mother's Florida home on Sept. 27, 2020. She testified her estranged husband lunged at her and struck her in the face during an argument witnessed by no one else. But prosecutors said there was no evidence Benefield had been struck. "She did not have to shoot him," said Suzanne O'Donnell, assistant state attorney for Florida's 12th Judicial Circuit, per NBC News. "She had an agenda. She got what she wanted."

Benefield's lawyer suggested it was a tragic end to an abuse case in which authorities failed to act. After Doug Benefield threw a loaded gun at his wife and tried to poison her with heavy metals, Benefield filed "complaint after complaint after complaint calling Doug Benefield's behavior to the attention of authorities with no results," Neil Taylor said during closing arguments of what became known as the "Black Swan" murder trial, per People and NBC. O'Donnell, meanwhile, accused Benefield of lodging "unfounded" allegations of abuse against her husband in an effort to obtain sole custody of their daughter. Prosecutors noted she only notified her husband about the birth when filing a restraining order.

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"This case is about a woman who, very early on in her pregnancy, decided she wanted to be a single mother," O'Donnell said, per ABC News. "Everything she did from that point on was to attain that goal." "The cost was the life of Doug Benefield, and that is murder," O'Donnell added, per NBC, alleging that the fatal bullet pierced Doug Benefield's side, contradicting Benefield's account that he was advancing on her. Charged with second-degree murder, Benefield was convicted by a jury late Tuesday of the lesser charge of manslaughter. The judge revoked her $100,000 bond and remanded her into custody ahead of sentencing, to follow at an undisclosed date. She faces up to 30 years in prison, per ABC. (More Florida stories.)