Ashley Benefield, former ballerina convicted of murdering her husband in ‘Black Swan’ case, sentenced to 20 years in prison

A former ballerina was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison for the 2020 shooting death of her estranged husband in Florida.

CBS affiliate WTSP reports that Ashley Benefield was sentenced to 20 years in prison with credit for time served, followed by 10 years of probation. The case, which became known as the Black Swan murder trial, attracted national attention, with some comparing Benefield to the protagonist of the 2010 film Black Swan.

The former ballerina was found guilty by a jury in July on manslaughter charges for shooting and killing her husband, Doug Benefield, in September 2020 after an argument.

Ashley Benefield, 32, claimed she killed her then-58-year-old estranged husband in self-defense during an argument at her mother’s home, where she had moved from South Carolina after leaving him. Authorities said she shot him twice.

“I just held the gun in front of me and said, ‘Stop,’ and he turned around and almost got into a fighting stance. He started moving his arms and hands… he came toward me and “He lunged at me and I just pulled the trigger,” Ashley Benefield said testified at her trial.

The couple married after knowing each other for less than two weeks. “48 Hours” reports. At the time of their marriage, Ashley Benefield was 24 years old and Doug Benefield, a widower whose wife had died about nine months earlier, was 54 years old.

As “48 Hours” reportsthe marriage was rocky. Tensions arose between Ashley Benefield and Doug Benefield’s teenage daughter, and an attempt to form a ballet company together failed. Ashley Benefield accused her husband of poisoning his first wife and left him when she was pregnant with their child to stay with her mother, claiming that he was now poisoning her. The claims were investigated by police and no charges were laid.

After giving birth to her child in 2018, Ashley Benefield reportedly kept the baby from her husband for six months until a judge intervened. Afterwards, the couple largely reconciled and in 2020, they planned to move to Maryland together at Ashley Benefield’s suggestion.

On September 27, 2020, the Benefields packed a U-Haul truck for the move. Ashley Benefield’s mother, Alicia Byers, went to a park with her granddaughter, leaving the couple alone in the house. A neighbor reported hearing sudden screams and called 911.

Moments later, Ashley Benefield arrived at another neighbor’s home with a gun in her hand. She reportedly told the neighbor that she shot her husband in self-defense. The neighbor called 911.

When police and emergency services responded, Doug Benefield was still alive but unable to speak. He died about an hour later at a local hospital.

Investigators determined that Doug Benefield had been shot twice, once in the leg and once in the arm. The second bullet entered his chest cavity. Investigators determined the shots were fired as he turned away from his wife.

Ashley Benefield’s attorney, Faith Brown, told police at the time that her client had been planning to leave her husband and had an escape plan that included safe housing, a burner phone and a rental car rented under a different name. Brown told police that Benefield feared her husband had “got wind” of the plan.

Ashley Benefield was arrested five weeks after the shooting.