The Murder Trial of ‘Black Swan’ Former Ballerina Begins in Florida

Do you remember the story of Ashley Benefield, the “Black Swan” ballerina who shot her husband, Doug Benefield? The story has been gradually unfolding since 2020, when she and her husband, Doug Benefield, arrived at her Manatee County, Florida home only for him to end up dead from a gunshot wound. 

This week, the former American National Ballet ballerina was found guilty of manslaughter with a firearm in court. Benefield was facing charges of second-degree murder for allegedly shooting her husband during a heated argument in 2020. The story garnered a huge amount of media attention, and the case was dubbed the “Black Swan” murder trial because of its eery similarities with the 2010 movie “Black Swan.”

On Tuesday, a Florida jury reached its verdict on the same day it began deliberating. They decided that the couple, who had married after meeting less than two weeks before, had engaged in a domestic fight and Benefield did, in fact, shoot and kill her husband in the process. 

Benefield expressed no emotion as the verdict was read, and perhaps that shouldn’t come as a surprise. Benefield said right from the beginning that she shot her husband, telling her neighbors, gun in hand, that she had shot him in self-defense. The incident came after Benefield accused her husband, some thirty years her senior, of poisoning his first wife who died nine months earlier. Benefield also alleged that he was poisoning her, prompting her to leave him even as she was pregnant with his child. Benefield moved in with her mother following that incident, but no charges were filed after the police conducted an investigation.

In 2018, once the child was born, the father remained out of the picture for six months. A judge eventually intervened, and in 2020, the pair had mostly reconciled and planned to move in together in Maryland. It was while they were packing their furniture into a U-Haul truck that the fatal argument erupted – and neighbors heard it all. 

The court heard that Doug Benefield had been shot twice – once in the arm and another time in the leg. One bullet entered his chest cavity and killed him. 

During the trial, Benefield recounted the whole ordeal and described how her husband repeatedly insulted her before eventually hitting her with a moving box. She said she was so afraid at the time that she believed he was going to kill her.

“I was trapped in my own house. He wouldn’t let me leave,” she said. 

It was at this point that Benefield found her gun, which was stored on top of a storage bin that had yet to be packed, and as she told him to stop, he eventually “lunged” at her. And the rest is history.

Benefield now awaits sentencing.