December 7, 2024 • 41 mins
Ballerina and aspiring model Ashley Benefield stood trial for shooting her then-husband, Doug Benefield, to death. After her self-defense claim failed, a court sentenced her to 20 years in prison.
The couple married just 13 days after meeting. They had one child, but their relationship was tumultuous, with frequent arguments reported between Ashley and Doug.
Ashley Benefield alleged that Doug was abusive and volatile. As her pregnancy progressed, she moved in with her mother, denying Doug access to information about the baby, including the child's birth.
Ashley planned to move out. Doug arrived at Ashley's home with a U-Haul truck to help pack for a move to Maryland. He believed he would move with the family but intended to live in a separate home.
Ashley claimed that Doug became angry while loading the truck, "body-checked" her twice, struck her hip with the corner of a box, and caused her head to hit a wall. Fearing for her safety, she ran to her bedroom and retrieved a gun.
She alleged that Doug was standing in the doorway and lunged at her. Ashley fired the gun, hitting him twice—once in the leg and once in the chest. The chest wound caused lung damage and severe bleeding. Investigators determined that Doug was not directly facing Ashley at the time of the shooting.
JOINING NANCY GRACE TODAY
- Brian Foley – Board-certified Criminal Defense Attorney, Former Chief Prosecutor in Harris County, (Houston) Texas; Author: “What Prosecutors Don’t Tell You”; Instagram @brianfoleylawpllc/ YouTube – @brianfoleylawyer/X: @brianpllc
- Dr. Chloe Carmichael – Clinical Psychologist, Women’s Health Magazine Advisory Board;’ Author: ‘Nervous Energy: Harness The Power of Your Anxiety;’ X: @DrChloe
- Chris Byers – Former Police Chief -Johns Creek Georgia, Private Investigator and Polygraph Examiner
- Joe Scott Morgan – Professor of Forensics: Jacksonville State University, Author, “Blood Beneath My Feet,” and Host: “Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan;” Twitter/X: @JoScottForensic
- Sophia Vitello – Reporter WWSB - ABC 7 News Sarasota, Florida Insta - @sophiavitellotv; FB - Sophia Vitello
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
In the Last Hours, a so called black Swan ballerina
Ashley Bennifil has a date in court with Lady Justice
after she's charged with murdering her husband. I'm Nancy Grace,
this is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.
That's right. In the Last Days, Ashley Banifil, dubbed the
(00:29):
Black Swan, showed no emotion a cold reaction in court
as she is sentenced for murdering her husband. The former
ballerina sentenced to twenty years behind bars after she's found
guilty of.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Fatally shooting the husband.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Benifield, convicted of manslaughter, has thirty days to appeal her
sentence after a drefinds she killed Doug Banifield in her
Florida home in septemb She claimed the act was self defense.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Okay, what exactly happened?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Faney County nine on one?
Speaker 4 (01:05):
What is the address of your emergency? All right? My
address is White Rock Terrorst. Okay, can you dress for
me to make sure I have it? Correcly, the house
next to honey? What's your address? Okay? As luis right next.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Door to me.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
She just came over her strength husband attacked her, and
she says she shot him. Now we's not gone over
there yet. A doctor, okay, what is his name?
Speaker 5 (01:35):
Heard?
Speaker 4 (01:36):
His name is Doug fed Afield.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
What happened?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Having worked at the Battered Women's Center for nearly ten
years while I was a prosecutor, I'm always suspicious when
I hear people say she claimed self defense?
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Is there some issue? Let's listen to more of that
nine to one one call.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
I had not gone over to her home. Okay, I
double that. I don't want you to go over there
and line. Just one moment, I'm gonna steck you over
the sheriff's dispatchoking. Okay, okay, one moment.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Calm down, Colm don What is your name, sir? My
name's John samp So.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
I live next summer. But this guy's on recording line.
This is Gabby. How can I help you? Okay, Gabby,
it's Karen on the one one three, two seven. A
John singer on the phone. He's saying, the neighbor came over,
a female neighbor. It was a domestics.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
She shot her husband, so where's the gun? Listen?
Speaker 3 (02:34):
She came in.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
She was quite hysterical. I didn't know who was then
when the door, said that he attacked her and she
shot him. Okay, I'm just getting that on the screen.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Okay, okay, go ahead, ma'am.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Where's the gun? Is it with her? Or is it
just I have it right here? Ma'am is sitting on
the floor inside the door, and my door's locked in
case she isn't, we can't get off.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
But I'm also on restauran Tia harm hosts, so everybody knows.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Don't worry, he's not coming after her. He's dead.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
With me an all star panel to make sense of
what we are learning in the so called Black Swan
homicide trial claims that this young ballerina mom.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Is also a killer.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Straight out to Sophia Vottello, joining US investigative reporter WWSB,
joining us out of Sarasota in this jurisdiction. Sophia, thank
you for being with us.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Start at the beginning, what happened.
Speaker 6 (03:36):
Very beginning of it all.
Speaker 5 (03:37):
I just want to start with the two met in
twenty sixteen out of dinner, Okay, at a Republican dinner.
She was twenty four, he was fifty four, So that's
already a first red flag right there.
Speaker 6 (03:48):
They fall in love and in just thirteen.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Days, Stott, Sophia Vittello, wwsb, you got me drinking from
the fire hydrant here, too much, too fast? Okay, held on, Well, okay,
first of all, you said the age difference is a
red flag.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Tell me the age difference again.
Speaker 6 (04:05):
Twenty four Ashley fifty four, Doug.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Okay, okay, probably not a red flag for him, did
I hear correctly? In thirteen days they're married. I don't
mean just like they have their first sleepover. I mean
they're married. They've done the deed.
Speaker 6 (04:24):
Yes, no engagement.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
I mean we don't even know if they were fully
calling each other girlfriend and boyfriend. They had the ring
and got married thirteen days after meeting.
Speaker 6 (04:33):
Thirteen days.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Let me ask you another quick question, Saphia Matello. Is
he rich?
Speaker 6 (04:37):
I do believe he's well off. Let's just say that.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
And I do know that Ashley was struggling with a
career in modeling that was not working out for her,
so that can also be noted in the beginning of
this relationship.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Okay, right, She also start her own ballet company that's
not cheap, and then suddenly, poof presto, here comes money bags. Okay, guys,
when I start a murder case, if at all possible,
I like to play the nine one one call in
the opening statement. Brian Foley is with me board certified
(05:09):
critical defense attorney, former Chief Prosecutor Harris County, and author
of What Prosecutors Don't Tell You. I don't know about that,
but Brian Foley, in order to play a nine to
one one call in an opening statement, you must first
offer a profit and get it admitted into evidence before.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
You play it for a jury. But do you agree
or disagree that only a nine one one call.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Can take you back to the moment of the incident,
unlike any witness can.
Speaker 7 (05:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Absolutely.
Speaker 8 (05:37):
When I was a prosecutor, we love playing nine one
one calls, you know, if it sounds good. We hear
a little bit at the beginning of that quirk that
happens in nine one calls where the operator is stopping
the drama and asking, well, what's the address? And that
always that always ruffled my feathers because you can get
transported back. You can hear her sobbing, you can hear
(05:58):
the neighbor saying they're that and consoling her. It really
it helps paint an audio picture for the jury. Sometimes
I would ask the jury to close their eyes while
we played it, and their mind would create the scene
for me.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Okay, so hey right there. Following up what Brian Foley
and guys hees a veteran trial lawyer out of Houston,
Sophia Vittello, was there any acting in her background?
Speaker 5 (06:25):
You know, we can't prove that, but what I can
say is that watching the trial and she put on
a show.
Speaker 6 (06:33):
She testified for four hours on.
Speaker 5 (06:36):
Friday with the same facial expression, hysterically crying for four hours.
And you know, I don't know if there's acting in
her background, but she definitely had this.
Speaker 6 (06:48):
She's seemingly she had this practice. I mean, she had
this specific look that she presented to this jury.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Okay, hold, but I'm making notes as fast as I
can specific.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Look presented to jury.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Did this so called black Swan ballerina murder her wealthy
husband or was it self defense?
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Okay, let's listen to more than I will one call.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
I'm kind of concerned with her mother and the little
girl and might get back there.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Don't go out there, Honda. Come on, I know, I know,
I know, come on, I know.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
Yeah, all right, I just want you guys to stand
the phone with me. Okay, No, I'm right here with him.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I'm just with her.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
You hear the neighbor who is consoling. We're calling her
the ballerina. Her name is Ashley Bennifield. She was twenty
eight at the time of the shooting. At the time,
her husband, then husband, Doug Benefield, was shot dead. Straight
back out to Sophia Vittello investigator reporter WWSB, tell me
(08:06):
about the location of the shooting, the specific location.
Speaker 5 (08:11):
Okay, so this is right after you got to remember
Ashley had left South Carolina, that was where they lived together.
She moved into this Bradenton home that was her mother's
house in what we would call here Lakewood Ranch. Pretty
nice area, I gotta say, nice house in a clean,
safe area.
Speaker 6 (08:28):
Okay. So she was in her mother's home. Doug was
there to help her move. That raises another question. If
you are in a relationship with domestic.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
Violence, why did you invite the man who you say
abused you to help you move. So that's another situation
we have going on at her mother's house.
Speaker 6 (08:47):
That is the situation.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Okay, let me understand something joining me is doctor Chloe Carmichael,
clinical psychologist and author of Nervous Energy Harness The Power
of Your Anxiety. I'm trying to do that right now,
doctor Chloe Carmichael, because after ten years, nearly eleven years
in the pit, trying at felonies, violent felonies in inner
(09:09):
city Atlanta and at night working at the Battered Women's Center,
I never once heard of one of those ladies once
they had finally made it out, which is a huge
hurdle in itself, getting out of the home, successfully leaving
the home and establishing yourself in another domicile here with
her mother. I've never heard of one of the ladies
(09:33):
that I dealt with anyway over the course of nearly
ten years, inviting the perpetrator, the abuser. She's so afraid
of that she actually moves out back to help move
help me out.
Speaker 9 (09:48):
Yes, as a clinical psychologist, Nancy, I actually have seen
that before, so that back and forth can certainly happen. Also,
as a clinical psychologist working in New York City for
a decade, I've also wear with New York City ballerinas,
and I can tell you indeed they do have acting training.
They're quite skilled that portraying, you know, the dramatic arts.
(10:09):
I do also have a couple of questions for Sophia.
I'm curious with this very quick marriage and of course
having a child, as we're exploring, what is the financial background, Nancy,
you had asked about if this if this gentleman was wealthy.
I'm curious as well about if they had a pre
nuptial agreement and if we know anything about the life
insurance or if there could have possibly been any financial
(10:33):
component to this, just so we know the context.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Okay, you know what very interesting that you said that,
doctor Chloe. My next question for our investigative reporter Sevia Fatel.
It's life insurance. That's what's scrolled right there. Nice insurance.
What do we know about that Sophia hotel? Have we
heard anything about that in the courtroom?
Speaker 5 (10:55):
That is something that I have been looking into and
no one has been mentioning it. I've been finding that
a lot of things are kind of tight wrapped or
tight lipped here. Even with you could think of the
restraining order that was out in South Carolina. We can't
know anything about that either, you know. So there's a
lot of things that are secret. What I do know
is that Doug was very much in love with Ashley.
(11:17):
So what I can tell you is that leading up
to the day of the shooting, he was trying with
everything that he could, every fiber and is being to be.
Speaker 6 (11:23):
With her and make the marriage work. So if there
was any life insurance, her name was on it.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
This and plus you've got the child. He has a
child with her of whirlwind romance. These two actually.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Marry thirteen days after meeting at some political fundraiser.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
They're married, the date is done.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
As a matter of fact, he has a vasectomy reversed
ouch so he and she can have a baby, and
they do have a baby girl. What about all the
forensics I'm going to bring in Joseph Scott Morgan, professor
of forensics joining us in Jasonal State University. But first,
(12:09):
a tiny tiny bit of evidence from our friends at
Inside Edition.
Speaker 10 (12:15):
Do you believe that your father was abusive toward his wife?
Speaker 6 (12:19):
Absolutely not. He was the furthest thing from abusive in innue.
Speaker 11 (12:23):
Do you think she intended to shoot and kill him?
Speaker 9 (12:26):
Yes, I believe that it was actually intentional and it
was planned prior to her shooting.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, Welcome back in the last days.
The so called Black Swan ballerina Ashley Benefield's cold reaction
in court as she is sentenced for murdering her husband.
In court, Doug Benefield, her husband daughter, spoke saying quote,
(13:03):
you have managed to orphan not one, but two young girls,
referring to herself and the ballerina's young daughter. She goes
on to say in court, Ashley, since the day you
shot my father, I've only had one question to ask you.
Why Why did you end my dad's life? Knowing he
was my only living parent and the only person I
(13:25):
could confide in and count on for everything I needed
as I turned into a young adult. Of course, during
the trial, the Black Swan ballerina Ashley of Benefeld took
the stand to tell her side of the story, breaking
down in tears when recounting her let me just say
volatile relationship with husband Doug, which she claimed included abuse
(13:48):
leading up to the deadly shooting. Now, according to the timeline,
the two stopped living together after she became pregnant with
his child that.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Turned out to be a daughter. What the jury learn?
What happened? Joining me right now?
Speaker 2 (14:03):
As I mentioned, renowned death investigator Joseph Scott Morgan, Professor
forensis Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet
on Amazon and starting a hit series, Body Bags with
Joseph Scott Morgan.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Joe Scott, this issue comes up.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Over and over and over, self defense or murder.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
What have you learned by studying the case.
Speaker 10 (14:27):
It's fascinating to me, Nancy, that they're talking about self
defense here when you have the police stating that he
was shot in the back, and out of all the
homesuds that I've worked relatives to, particularly firearms, it almost
like it's like threat level reduces at that point in time.
(14:47):
So you wait until the individual turns away from you
if they are in fact an aggressor, and then you're
going to place six fire shots or three fire shots
into his back. That doesn't marry up with this idea
of the individual being an aggressor at that moment in time,
(15:09):
at that acute moment, it's almost like they're in retreat
at that moment time.
Speaker 7 (15:13):
If this had happened, we've got gunshot.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
When I'm looking at the autopsy right now, And can
I tell you, Joe Scott, as if you don't.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Know, and I know, you know Brian Foley.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Chris Buyer is also joining us, former police chief in
John's Creek. You guys know how critical the autopsy is. Okay,
if you look at it line by line, you learn
everything there is to know about what you're going to try.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
To prove or what you're not going to try to
prove at trial.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
We've got a gunshot wound to the chest and gunshot
wound to the right leg.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
How did that happen? Blunt impact of head?
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Now, wait a minute, wait a minute, blunt impact of
head containe, it's abrasion and soft tissue scalp contusion. So
is he hitting the head and shot multiple times? Just
got help me out here. With the gunshot wound to
the chest, it says perforation of right lateral chest wall
(16:17):
with confluent chest tube incision.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
What does that mean?
Speaker 10 (16:22):
Well, what that means is that his lung has obviously
been clipped in this round with this round, and so
his chest, the chest is actually filling with blood. So
if there is an attempt to you know, depressurize that
area where you have blood that's kind of surrounding the
lung and treatment, you'd have to drop a line in
(16:43):
there because it's the pressure that's building up as a
result of the blood contained in the chest cavity is
inhibiting his ability to breed. And this is something that
happens all the time.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Let me just break it down.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
I know it's hard for you not to talk like
a professional, but are you saying his lung was clipped?
You kept me to that moment, but then I think
you're saying that as lung started filling out with blood
or his chest cavity started filling out with blood and
he couldn't breathe, so they inserted a.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Tube to try to save him. Is that what you're saying.
Speaker 10 (17:17):
And yeah, and one more thing that's really frustrating forensics
sometimes when we're trying to examine these insults like this,
they will actually use and it's no fault of their own,
they have to do what they have to do. But
the people that are saving the life will actually use
the gunshot wound itself as the place where they're going
to put a tube in because there's no need in
(17:39):
going in and creating another defect in the body where
you can simply use this.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Which totally ruins your trajectory investigation.
Speaker 7 (17:48):
Yeah, it can it can. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Yeah, we also got perforation of right, fifth and left
tenth ribs and T ten vertebrae in unnuts shall dummy
down for me, Joe Scott dummy down?
Speaker 1 (18:02):
What does that mean?
Speaker 7 (18:03):
Well?
Speaker 10 (18:04):
T ten that's you're talking about the thoracic vertebra at
that point in time. And also this is I'm unclear
if they have clipped along or clipped a rib and
it doesn't really give you directionality. One more thing here,
they're saying chest. Most people don't understand. We have an
antierior chest and we have a post her chest. So
(18:27):
you hear the term chest and automatically from the front
and back, and if it's lateral, then this can be
the back that gives you an idea of orientation and
presentation of the target.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Stop place, ears, hurting, ears bleeding.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Now, I'm just asking you, T ten vertebra there's a
perforation that's your spine.
Speaker 7 (18:50):
Correct, Yes, it is.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
So if he's shot with spine, can he even move well?
Speaker 10 (18:54):
It all depends on how compromised that vertebral body is. Now,
if it went into the area where the spinal cord
goes down drops through the little hole that's in there
the foremen as it's referred to. Yeah, that can be compromised,
and it can compromise your ability of mobility.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
I've got a.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Small isolated blast laceration of A order, the A order.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
What do you mean, aren't there's several A order in
the body.
Speaker 10 (19:20):
So what is this A order singular? It's the largest
vessel in the body and it literally runs if you front,
we're talking about front, right, the front of the spine. Okay,
the order runs down the length of the spine until
it bifurcates into our legs where it becomes the femeral arteries.
And so yeah, you see this associated with spinal trauma
(19:42):
many times where the order will actually be clipped as well.
That can lead to that space around the lungs and
even the dominal cavity filling with blood too. It becomes
very complicated.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
I'm just trying to get my head around the fact
that he's shot in T ten vertebra.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
That's your spine.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
I'm wondering if he couldn't even move that projectile bullet
is recovered. But now I've got a gunshot wound to
the right leg. Sophia Matello. How many times is the victim.
Speaker 6 (20:13):
Shot three times three times.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Okay, and we've got perforations of lungs. Gunshot wound to chest.
That's the cod cause of death. Three separate gunshot wounds.
At trial, the so called Black Swan Ballerina insisted her
husband attacked her in her home and she was forced
(20:39):
to shoot him in self defense. Her testimony was, and
I stayed verbatim. I just held a gun like in
front of me, and I said stop. And he turned
and he got into this almost like a fighting stance.
He started moving his arms and his hands around. He
started coming toward me, and he lunched at me, and
I just pulled the trigger. Wow, thats a lot like
(21:00):
what Jodi Arius said on her third or fourth version
of quote her truth to the jury. They didn't buy
it either. Prosecutors in the Black Swan Ballerina case said
the altercation was very different than what Ashley Benefil says.
The prosecutors say the shooting happened after she the ballerina,
(21:24):
tried to win a custody battle and wanted victory at
all costs.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Prosecutors also pointed out.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Husband Doug was not armed in the night he was
shot dead. They argue the motive was sole custody and
that equals murder.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
What more happened that night?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
So Joskott Morgan, Professor FORENSAC Jacksonville State University death investigator
with over one thousand deaths investigated by him, says that
the victim was shot in the back. Our investigative reporter
joining us today from WWSBABC seven and Sarasota says there
(22:12):
were three gunshot wounds. Okay, I think the word overkill
may come into play right here, but having worked at
the Battered Women's Center for so many years, I do
not want to dissuade the consideration that she may have
been a battered woman. Let's look at the relationship. Let's
(22:34):
move away from the forensics, the gunshot residue, the trajectory
path of the bullets, What do we know about them?
As a couple listened.
Speaker 12 (22:44):
Still grieving the sudden loss of his wife, and Doug
Bennifield is rubbing elbows with the rich and powerful of
a GOP fundraiser at the Florida home of doctor Ben
Carson when he's introduced to a former ballerina, Ashley Byers,
as a swimsuit model and she and Benifield are smitten
with each other, and neither one seems to notice or
care about their thirty year age gap.
Speaker 13 (23:04):
Ashley tells Doug she wants to have a ballet company
using dancers of all sizes and genders. Doug wants to
make her dreams come true. Doug returns from a trip
in thirteen days after they meet. Doug Benefield Mary's Ashley
buyers it is a shocking turn of events for a
man with a teen daughter, just nine years younger than
(23:25):
his new wife.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Okay, let me understand something, Sophia Vittello.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Hold on, when you said model, you didn't tell me
she was a swimsuit model.
Speaker 6 (23:34):
I mean, she's a gorgeous girl. She's a gorgeous girl.
But what I do know is, you know, swimsuit model.
We got to use it lightly. Her career was not
blowing up. You know. I'm not to say that she
was in a position seeking money. We don't know that specifically,
but we do know that Doug was vulnerable.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
In that video, it says sudden dealing with a sudden
loss of his wife.
Speaker 6 (23:53):
Guys, it was less than a year. It was less
than a year. His wife had just died.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Yes, and isn't it correct to Tello that his daughter
by his first wife came home and found mommy dead
on the floor from a heart ailment.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Yes, so this guy is reeling mm hmm.
Speaker 6 (24:13):
Yes, he's reeling it, and so's his daughter. And Eva
says that she had.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
Talked to her dad and he said, oh, I'm I'm
not going to get into anything.
Speaker 6 (24:21):
You know, I'm I'm not going to get into anything fast.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
And next thing, you know, Eva says her dad was
married and it really shocked her.
Speaker 6 (24:28):
That's another thing shocked her.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Okay, very quickly after the wedding, things turned sour Lissen.
Speaker 12 (24:36):
In the first days of their wedded bliss, Doug and
Ashley Benifield argue loudly. Doug's daughter Eva asks if one
of her friends can move in with them for a while.
And now Doug has two teen girls in the house
and a wife who not only wants to create a
ballet company that Doug says he will help finance, she
also wants a baby. Doug starts making calls about the
ballet and about having his best sectomy reversed.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Okay, what do you have to do to have a
sec tomy? Reversehous got Morgan in a nutshell.
Speaker 10 (25:02):
You have to go back in and actually reattach the
vast deference and so that they're functional at that point
in time.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
The vast difference.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
I don't even know what you're saying, man, what go
back into what the penis? It's anatomical you can say penis. Okay,
so you.
Speaker 10 (25:20):
Know I'm not talking about penis, Nancy, I'm not talking
about penis. I wouldn't have to ask, Well, we'll talk
about testicles. How's that instead of penie, we're talking about attachment.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Scott, I don't care. I know that the peanut gallery
may yiggle. But you meet a man in thirteen days
you're married, and you convince him to have surgery on
his testicles.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Okay, that's love. So he has surgery on his testicles.
He has the best sake.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
To me, it's kind of a snip, snip in and
out correct.
Speaker 10 (26:00):
The best sectomy is yes, But now you're talking about
a reattachment to make it functional once again. And you know,
all I have to say is, if that's the case,
she must have been quite beguiling and bewitching, because this
is a really quick decision to make.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
So how difficult is it and what does the man
have to undergo to have a vasectomy reversal?
Speaker 1 (26:23):
And again there's no giggling. This is real.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
The guys did he shot three times, once in the back.
It's not holding together from me, but into the thinking,
the thinking of these two.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
I just want to know how difficult.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
It is and what a man must endure to have
a asectomy reversal.
Speaker 7 (26:46):
It's not very difficult at all.
Speaker 10 (26:48):
It's done all the time, literally, and it can be
done actually on an outpatient basis. Most guys would like
to remain in the hospital if they could. There is
pain associated with this, make no mistake about that, a
lot of post operatives, swelling and this sort of thing.
So yeah, it takes tom and it is a painful
(27:08):
process to go through. So obviously you felt like she
was worth it.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Joining me right now, private investigator, owner of Buyers Investigative Services,
But for my purposes, Former police Chief John's Creek twenty
five years in l E Law enforcement, Chris Byer's It'll
be a cold day, cold frigid, cold day in HG
(27:34):
double L that I do not support a battered woman's
right to defend herself against her abuser.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Right, absolutely, absolutely, But.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
I cannot turn away from physical forensic evidence. Forensic evidence
unless it's been tampered with, does not lie.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
Now what do you think?
Speaker 11 (28:00):
Absolutely in any of these cases, that's what you do.
You follow the evidence. And from what I'm hearing on
this as well, the three shots shot in the back,
it does not present as someone who was about to
receive imminent death or great bodily harm, which is what
you need for this self defense. So yes, with what
I'm hearing about the forensics of this, Yeah, that's a
(28:23):
far stretch to show self.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Defense crime stories with Nancy Grace. Oh what a tangled
web we weave when first we practice to deceive. The
(28:46):
Black Swan Ballerina Ashley Benefield married her husband when she's
twenty four, after just knowing him two weeks. His wife
had passed away just nine months earlier, when he was
fifty four, thirty year age difference. Their marriage included a
(29:06):
very difficult attempt to start a ballet company.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
What more do we know about their poem?
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Let me say to multus relationship, Okay, we know that
very quickly after the meet up at a political fundraiser,
the two get married within thirteen days, and she announces
not only does she want her husband to fund a
ballet company, which is not a cheap endeavor, that things
(29:34):
go south. Not only does she want the ballet company,
she also wants her husband to reversif s sectomy so
she can have a baby, which he does. Everything's going sideways,
including money woes.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Listen.
Speaker 12 (29:49):
Doug Benifield, trying to hold together the ballet company that
was his wife's dream, arrives to find that Ashley and
her mother drive from Florida to Charleston, pack up Ashley's
personal belongings and leave a note for Doug the marriage
is over, calling him possessive and controlling. In the note,
she says she is fearful for her life and the
safety of her unborn child.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Okay, so she moves in with the mom. Listen.
Speaker 14 (30:10):
Ashley Bennifield moves in with her mother in Florida and
begins a process to prevent Doug Bennifield from being involved
in the life of his own child. Frustrated, Doug Minnifield
uses an attorney to reach out to Ashley Bennefield by email.
Ashley has not kept Doug informed of anything with regard
to her pregnancy, and one day after receiving the email
from Doug's lawyer, Ashley Bennifield has labor induced even though
(30:31):
she's weeks away from her due date. Ashley then refuses
to communicate with Doug. He isn't even aware his daughter
is born for six weeks.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Oh my stars, Okay, Sophia Vittela joining US investigative reporter WWSB.
So she kept the birth of the baby a secret
and did not tell the husband.
Speaker 5 (30:49):
Yeah, and this is really the state's entire argument here
that Ashley decided she wanted to be a single mother
the second she got pregnant. That's their whole argument against her,
saying that it was self defense because there have been
all of these instances where she got pregnant.
Speaker 6 (31:08):
She immediately moved right.
Speaker 5 (31:10):
And then she made sure that he didn't even know
that the baby was born until six weeks after. So
she wanted him to have nothing to do with the
child that they share.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Talking about psychological warfare, doctor Chloe Carmichael with US clinical
psychologist Way and doctor Chloe.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Yes, thank you, Nancy.
Speaker 9 (31:28):
I've just been bursting over here, so thank you for
playing that tape of the daughter. I just think it's
really important. When we look at the daughter testifying as
to her opinion regarding her father, we have to remember
a couple of things. First of all, the daughter herself
may have a financial motive. So, especially when you have
an opposite sex child, so a daughter in this case
(31:51):
whose father has now married another woman, there can actually
be a lot of rivalry between the daughter and the stepmother, right,
and so we even saw some of that reflected in
the text messages. Additionally, there could even be a financial
motivation because if perhaps we don't know a lot about
the life insurance or the estate, but if that was
(32:12):
set to go to Ashley, unless Ashley's a murderer, then
perhaps it would go to Ava, the daughter. And we
could also see through the text messages that the daughter
was indeed a source of conflict and Nancy, of course,
I agree with you that we don't want you to
disbelieve a battered woman.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
On the other.
Speaker 9 (32:34):
Hand, I think it can cheapen cases of battered women
when we don't do our due diligence and understand that
sometimes and I'm not saying it's the case here, but
women can have ulterior motives for sometimes actually being untruthful
and we just don't know what happened here.
Speaker 7 (32:50):
Now.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
I want you to hear what is so called black
swan by the way, she doesn't like that.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Moniker has to say. Listen, Douglas Benefield was a violent abuse.
Speaker 14 (33:00):
I said stop, and he like turned and he got
into this lake.
Speaker 6 (33:06):
It's like a fighting stance.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Don't you gonna kill me? He started coming towards me
and then he lunched at me. Her bully the trigger.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Okay, again from our friends at Inside Edition. But Joe
Scott Morgan, did you hear what she just said? This
is critical, Joe Scott. She said he lunged at her.
If he lunged at her, the bullet should be front
to back.
Speaker 10 (33:31):
Yeah, what he lunged at her with his shoulder blade.
That doesn't make sense at all. The calculus doesn't work
out here. Lunging means that you're moving toward the individual. Uh.
The indication is what we're hearing, is that he was
shot post heially. Now we don't know the precise the
precise trajectories here, but it just does. It just doesn't mesh.
(33:53):
And I got to tell you, Nancy, from a forensic standpoint,
this is one of the major benchmarks as to why
the police move forward with this case.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
What do you mean one of the benchmarks as to
why police move forward?
Speaker 7 (34:05):
The science doesn't say.
Speaker 5 (34:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 10 (34:07):
The beauty of this is that the science doesn't lie.
She's actually saying that he lunged toward her, and all
indications are is that these gunshot wounds, that this man
has sustained our posterior on his backside or at least lateral,
that it doesn't marry up with this so called fighter
(34:27):
stance whatever whatever the hell that means that he goes into.
According to her, the science doesn't marry up here. And
that's one of the big we use the term red
flag of moment ago for an investigator. That's a big
red flag when you've got when the police have spoken
with the EME, which I guarantee they did that day,
(34:47):
and try to marry.
Speaker 7 (34:48):
This up with a statement that she's giving. The two
things just don't mesh okay.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
I want to go back to Sophia Vittillo joining US
investigative reporter WWSB. Are we correct that at least one
of the shots was to front.
Speaker 5 (35:00):
According to dozens of hours, honestly of testimony from this
past week everything that we have heard in court was not.
Speaker 6 (35:10):
He was facing the other way, and the defense has
tried to disprove that.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Right.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Are you saying he was shot in the back?
Speaker 5 (35:16):
Very simply according to medical examiner's testimony, Yes, he was
shot in the back.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Okay, then what she's saying cannot be true. And you know,
let me understand, Brian fully joining me, renowned criminal defense
attorney and author, Brian, it is possible that he is
shot in the back and.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Was attacking her.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
He could have attacked her and then turned to get
a weapon. He could have attacked her and tried to
push off a dog. There are many reasons he could
have turned his back and still be the aggressor. However,
her story is impossible based on the bullet path trajectory.
Speaker 8 (36:02):
Yes, and when we listen to a defendant give a
statement about a very traumatic event, these things really happen
a lot faster than people think. You don't have time
to react in between shots. You know, some people say, well,
why did you have to shoot him two more times
if he'd already been shot. He's not, you know, the
other two bullets aren't self defense, even if.
Speaker 7 (36:24):
The first one was.
Speaker 8 (36:25):
But these all happened way too fast for that to
be the case. And one thing I wanted to add
is the prosecution doesn't have to prove that she lied
about how it happened. You know, if the forensic evidence
shows that her statement is an accurate, that doesn't mean
that she's not doing it in self defense. They have
to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there's no other
(36:45):
possibility that it was in self defense. And nunc you
hit the nail on the head. They said she had
to run back.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
That's not true.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Nobody has to prove no possibility beyond any doubt whatsoever,
just to a mathematical certainty like two and two pluses
four two and two eqals four. Now, that's not the
legal standard. The legal standard is beyond a reasonable doubt.
She has raised the affirmative defense of self defense, which
(37:13):
means affirmative defense. I did it, but I'm excused because
self defense, because accident, because insanity, different reasons.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
But the state only has to pierce that.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Beyond a reasonable doubt, not to a mathematical certainty.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
And the fact that while an attacker can.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
Rarely be shot in the back and still be the aggressor,
never happens. It's possible her story does not coincide.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
With the wounds. That's what I'm saying, Brian Foley.
Speaker 8 (37:47):
Well, her story does coincide a little bit there in
the fact that he has an abrasion on his head.
That would tend to show that there was a struggle,
maybe even an attack on her, and so that could
have happened before he was killed. You know, we don't
have the exact photos or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
It is okay, you know what, let's follow through with that,
Brian Foley. Did she say, Cyphia Vtello, that there was
a physical struggle and then somehow she hit him in
the head.
Speaker 5 (38:13):
No, she said that he was trying to strike her
for the first time and she fired.
Speaker 6 (38:20):
So it is believed that he did not he did
not reach her.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Josky Morgan, what were you saying.
Speaker 10 (38:27):
Yeah, one of the things that's very troubling to me, Nancy,
are these head injuries that he has sustained, because they're
calling one of them a laceration. As you well know,
that's blunt force trauma. And one of the things that
we think about when someone holding a weapon, if weapons
like this can be used almost like a hammer, they're
very blunted. And that's where you I can't imagine her
(38:49):
as quote unquote athletic as she may have been, that
she's going to score a hit to his head that's
going to generate a laceration that's severe blunt force trauma.
I'm wondering if there are trace elements of his blood
on this weapon, and did they try to match this
up with the injury he sustained to his head, because
how's she going to get in close enough in order
(39:11):
to generate that kind of force with her bare hands.
I think there's a high probability that once he's down,
she may have struck him in the head.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
In other words, simply put bare handed.
Speaker 10 (39:21):
Maybe stomping on somebody, but not bare handed.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
No, yeah, got it. One thing that's very disturbing.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
I got a lot of eminent stating that this is
not self defense, but Selvia Matello, isn't it true that
Evans is that he the victim, hit the dog and
the cat out of anger.
Speaker 5 (39:43):
Yeah, So those are some things we have to look at,
and that is where the defense is pushing their entire argument.
Speaker 6 (39:51):
We have his abuse. We don't know how many times
or what the situation specifically was towards the Pats.
Speaker 5 (39:58):
We have a fists in the wall, we have a
bullet mark in the ceiling of their house. Okay, so
we see here that maybe there was some moments of
anger and we don't know exactly what happened, but that's
where the defense is using.
Speaker 6 (40:16):
Hey, Doug was violent. Look he hit the dog, he
punched the wall. Why couldn't it have been Ashley Sophia.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
I think this text purportedly is from him. I pussed
the dog because you got me so mad, like you
wouldn't stop about Eva always, Eva, every argument.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Eva? Who is Eva Sophia.
Speaker 5 (40:38):
Eva is Doug's daughter, And I'd like to add have
talked to her several times and she tells me that
they were constantly together, touching each other, lovey dovey, And
so maybe there was a bit of jealousy on Ashley's end,
because I did not pick it up from Eva's end
while I was interviewing her.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
So there you have it.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
The Black Swan Ballerina Ashley Benefield sinist to hard jail
time twenty years behind bars in the shooting death of
husband Doug.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Her cold reaction.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
In court as she sentenced says it all. I'm not
sorry I did it. I'm just sorry I got caught.
I don't think we've seen the last of the Black
Swan ballerina Ashley Bennefield.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
Goodbye friend,
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
In the Last Hours, a so called black Swan ballerina
Ashley Bennifil has a date in court with Lady Justice
after she's charged with murdering her husband. I'm Nancy Grace,
this is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.
That's right. In the Last Days, Ashley Banifil, dubbed the
(00:29):
Black Swan, showed no emotion a cold reaction in court
as she is sentenced for murdering her husband. The former
ballerina sentenced to twenty years behind bars after she's found
guilty of.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Fatally shooting the husband.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Benifield, convicted of manslaughter, has thirty days to appeal her
sentence after a drefinds she killed Doug Banifield in her
Florida home in septemb She claimed the act was self defense.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Okay, what exactly happened?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Faney County nine on one?
Speaker 4 (01:05):
What is the address of your emergency? All right? My
address is White Rock Terrorst. Okay, can you dress for
me to make sure I have it? Correcly, the house
next to honey? What's your address? Okay? As luis right next.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Door to me.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
She just came over her strength husband attacked her, and
she says she shot him. Now we's not gone over
there yet. A doctor, okay, what is his name?
Speaker 5 (01:35):
Heard?
Speaker 4 (01:36):
His name is Doug fed Afield.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
What happened?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Having worked at the Battered Women's Center for nearly ten
years while I was a prosecutor, I'm always suspicious when
I hear people say she claimed self defense?
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Is there some issue? Let's listen to more of that
nine to one one call.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
I had not gone over to her home. Okay, I
double that. I don't want you to go over there
and line. Just one moment, I'm gonna steck you over
the sheriff's dispatchoking. Okay, okay, one moment.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Calm down, Colm don What is your name, sir? My
name's John samp So.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
I live next summer. But this guy's on recording line.
This is Gabby. How can I help you? Okay, Gabby,
it's Karen on the one one three, two seven. A
John singer on the phone. He's saying, the neighbor came over,
a female neighbor. It was a domestics.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
She shot her husband, so where's the gun? Listen?
Speaker 3 (02:34):
She came in.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
She was quite hysterical. I didn't know who was then
when the door, said that he attacked her and she
shot him. Okay, I'm just getting that on the screen.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Okay, okay, go ahead, ma'am.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Where's the gun? Is it with her? Or is it
just I have it right here? Ma'am is sitting on
the floor inside the door, and my door's locked in
case she isn't, we can't get off.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
But I'm also on restauran Tia harm hosts, so everybody knows.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Don't worry, he's not coming after her. He's dead.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
With me an all star panel to make sense of
what we are learning in the so called Black Swan
homicide trial claims that this young ballerina mom.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Is also a killer.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Straight out to Sophia Vottello, joining US investigative reporter WWSB,
joining us out of Sarasota in this jurisdiction. Sophia, thank
you for being with us.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Start at the beginning, what happened.
Speaker 6 (03:36):
Very beginning of it all.
Speaker 5 (03:37):
I just want to start with the two met in
twenty sixteen out of dinner, Okay, at a Republican dinner.
She was twenty four, he was fifty four, So that's
already a first red flag right there.
Speaker 6 (03:48):
They fall in love and in just thirteen.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Days, Stott, Sophia Vittello, wwsb, you got me drinking from
the fire hydrant here, too much, too fast? Okay, held on, Well, okay,
first of all, you said the age difference is a
red flag.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Tell me the age difference again.
Speaker 6 (04:05):
Twenty four Ashley fifty four, Doug.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Okay, okay, probably not a red flag for him, did
I hear correctly? In thirteen days they're married. I don't
mean just like they have their first sleepover. I mean
they're married. They've done the deed.
Speaker 6 (04:24):
Yes, no engagement.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
I mean we don't even know if they were fully
calling each other girlfriend and boyfriend. They had the ring
and got married thirteen days after meeting.
Speaker 6 (04:33):
Thirteen days.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Let me ask you another quick question, Saphia Matello. Is
he rich?
Speaker 6 (04:37):
I do believe he's well off. Let's just say that.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
And I do know that Ashley was struggling with a
career in modeling that was not working out for her,
so that can also be noted in the beginning of
this relationship.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Okay, right, She also start her own ballet company that's
not cheap, and then suddenly, poof presto, here comes money bags. Okay, guys,
when I start a murder case, if at all possible,
I like to play the nine one one call in
the opening statement. Brian Foley is with me board certified
(05:09):
critical defense attorney, former Chief Prosecutor Harris County, and author
of What Prosecutors Don't Tell You. I don't know about that,
but Brian Foley, in order to play a nine to
one one call in an opening statement, you must first
offer a profit and get it admitted into evidence before.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
You play it for a jury. But do you agree
or disagree that only a nine one one call.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Can take you back to the moment of the incident,
unlike any witness can.
Speaker 7 (05:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Absolutely.
Speaker 8 (05:37):
When I was a prosecutor, we love playing nine one
one calls, you know, if it sounds good. We hear
a little bit at the beginning of that quirk that
happens in nine one calls where the operator is stopping
the drama and asking, well, what's the address? And that
always that always ruffled my feathers because you can get
transported back. You can hear her sobbing, you can hear
(05:58):
the neighbor saying they're that and consoling her. It really
it helps paint an audio picture for the jury. Sometimes
I would ask the jury to close their eyes while
we played it, and their mind would create the scene
for me.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Okay, so hey right there. Following up what Brian Foley
and guys hees a veteran trial lawyer out of Houston,
Sophia Vittello, was there any acting in her background?
Speaker 5 (06:25):
You know, we can't prove that, but what I can
say is that watching the trial and she put on
a show.
Speaker 6 (06:33):
She testified for four hours on.
Speaker 5 (06:36):
Friday with the same facial expression, hysterically crying for four hours.
And you know, I don't know if there's acting in
her background, but she definitely had this.
Speaker 6 (06:48):
She's seemingly she had this practice. I mean, she had
this specific look that she presented to this jury.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Okay, hold, but I'm making notes as fast as I
can specific.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Look presented to jury.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Did this so called black Swan ballerina murder her wealthy
husband or was it self defense?
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Okay, let's listen to more than I will one call.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
I'm kind of concerned with her mother and the little
girl and might get back there.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Don't go out there, Honda. Come on, I know, I know,
I know, come on, I know.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
Yeah, all right, I just want you guys to stand
the phone with me. Okay, No, I'm right here with him.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I'm just with her.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
You hear the neighbor who is consoling. We're calling her
the ballerina. Her name is Ashley Bennifield. She was twenty
eight at the time of the shooting. At the time,
her husband, then husband, Doug Benefield, was shot dead. Straight
back out to Sophia Vittello investigator reporter WWSB, tell me
(08:06):
about the location of the shooting, the specific location.
Speaker 5 (08:11):
Okay, so this is right after you got to remember
Ashley had left South Carolina, that was where they lived together.
She moved into this Bradenton home that was her mother's
house in what we would call here Lakewood Ranch. Pretty
nice area, I gotta say, nice house in a clean,
safe area.
Speaker 6 (08:28):
Okay. So she was in her mother's home. Doug was
there to help her move. That raises another question. If
you are in a relationship with domestic.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
Violence, why did you invite the man who you say
abused you to help you move. So that's another situation
we have going on at her mother's house.
Speaker 6 (08:47):
That is the situation.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Okay, let me understand something joining me is doctor Chloe Carmichael,
clinical psychologist and author of Nervous Energy Harness The Power
of Your Anxiety. I'm trying to do that right now,
doctor Chloe Carmichael, because after ten years, nearly eleven years
in the pit, trying at felonies, violent felonies in inner
(09:09):
city Atlanta and at night working at the Battered Women's Center,
I never once heard of one of those ladies once
they had finally made it out, which is a huge
hurdle in itself, getting out of the home, successfully leaving
the home and establishing yourself in another domicile here with
her mother. I've never heard of one of the ladies
(09:33):
that I dealt with anyway over the course of nearly
ten years, inviting the perpetrator, the abuser. She's so afraid
of that she actually moves out back to help move
help me out.
Speaker 9 (09:48):
Yes, as a clinical psychologist, Nancy, I actually have seen
that before, so that back and forth can certainly happen. Also,
as a clinical psychologist working in New York City for
a decade, I've also wear with New York City ballerinas,
and I can tell you indeed they do have acting training.
They're quite skilled that portraying, you know, the dramatic arts.
(10:09):
I do also have a couple of questions for Sophia.
I'm curious with this very quick marriage and of course
having a child, as we're exploring, what is the financial background, Nancy,
you had asked about if this if this gentleman was wealthy.
I'm curious as well about if they had a pre
nuptial agreement and if we know anything about the life
insurance or if there could have possibly been any financial
(10:33):
component to this, just so we know the context.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Okay, you know what very interesting that you said that,
doctor Chloe. My next question for our investigative reporter Sevia Fatel.
It's life insurance. That's what's scrolled right there. Nice insurance.
What do we know about that Sophia hotel? Have we
heard anything about that in the courtroom?
Speaker 5 (10:55):
That is something that I have been looking into and
no one has been mentioning it. I've been finding that
a lot of things are kind of tight wrapped or
tight lipped here. Even with you could think of the
restraining order that was out in South Carolina. We can't
know anything about that either, you know. So there's a
lot of things that are secret. What I do know
is that Doug was very much in love with Ashley.
(11:17):
So what I can tell you is that leading up
to the day of the shooting, he was trying with
everything that he could, every fiber and is being to be.
Speaker 6 (11:23):
With her and make the marriage work. So if there
was any life insurance, her name was on it.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
This and plus you've got the child. He has a
child with her of whirlwind romance. These two actually.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Marry thirteen days after meeting at some political fundraiser.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
They're married, the date is done.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
As a matter of fact, he has a vasectomy reversed
ouch so he and she can have a baby, and
they do have a baby girl. What about all the
forensics I'm going to bring in Joseph Scott Morgan, professor
of forensics joining us in Jasonal State University. But first,
(12:09):
a tiny tiny bit of evidence from our friends at
Inside Edition.
Speaker 10 (12:15):
Do you believe that your father was abusive toward his wife?
Speaker 6 (12:19):
Absolutely not. He was the furthest thing from abusive in innue.
Speaker 11 (12:23):
Do you think she intended to shoot and kill him?
Speaker 9 (12:26):
Yes, I believe that it was actually intentional and it
was planned prior to her shooting.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, Welcome back in the last days.
The so called Black Swan ballerina Ashley Benefield's cold reaction
in court as she is sentenced for murdering her husband.
In court, Doug Benefield, her husband daughter, spoke saying quote,
(13:03):
you have managed to orphan not one, but two young girls,
referring to herself and the ballerina's young daughter. She goes
on to say in court, Ashley, since the day you
shot my father, I've only had one question to ask you.
Why Why did you end my dad's life? Knowing he
was my only living parent and the only person I
(13:25):
could confide in and count on for everything I needed
as I turned into a young adult. Of course, during
the trial, the Black Swan ballerina Ashley of Benefeld took
the stand to tell her side of the story, breaking
down in tears when recounting her let me just say
volatile relationship with husband Doug, which she claimed included abuse
(13:48):
leading up to the deadly shooting. Now, according to the timeline,
the two stopped living together after she became pregnant with
his child that.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Turned out to be a daughter. What the jury learn?
What happened? Joining me right now?
Speaker 2 (14:03):
As I mentioned, renowned death investigator Joseph Scott Morgan, Professor
forensis Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet
on Amazon and starting a hit series, Body Bags with
Joseph Scott Morgan.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Joe Scott, this issue comes up.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Over and over and over, self defense or murder.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
What have you learned by studying the case.
Speaker 10 (14:27):
It's fascinating to me, Nancy, that they're talking about self
defense here when you have the police stating that he
was shot in the back, and out of all the
homesuds that I've worked relatives to, particularly firearms, it almost
like it's like threat level reduces at that point in time.
(14:47):
So you wait until the individual turns away from you
if they are in fact an aggressor, and then you're
going to place six fire shots or three fire shots
into his back. That doesn't marry up with this idea
of the individual being an aggressor at that moment in time,
(15:09):
at that acute moment, it's almost like they're in retreat
at that moment time.
Speaker 7 (15:13):
If this had happened, we've got gunshot.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
When I'm looking at the autopsy right now, And can
I tell you, Joe Scott, as if you don't.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Know, and I know, you know Brian Foley.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Chris Buyer is also joining us, former police chief in
John's Creek. You guys know how critical the autopsy is. Okay,
if you look at it line by line, you learn
everything there is to know about what you're going to try.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
To prove or what you're not going to try to
prove at trial.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
We've got a gunshot wound to the chest and gunshot
wound to the right leg.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
How did that happen? Blunt impact of head?
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Now, wait a minute, wait a minute, blunt impact of
head containe, it's abrasion and soft tissue scalp contusion. So
is he hitting the head and shot multiple times? Just
got help me out here. With the gunshot wound to
the chest, it says perforation of right lateral chest wall
(16:17):
with confluent chest tube incision.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
What does that mean?
Speaker 10 (16:22):
Well, what that means is that his lung has obviously
been clipped in this round with this round, and so
his chest, the chest is actually filling with blood. So
if there is an attempt to you know, depressurize that
area where you have blood that's kind of surrounding the
lung and treatment, you'd have to drop a line in
(16:43):
there because it's the pressure that's building up as a
result of the blood contained in the chest cavity is
inhibiting his ability to breed. And this is something that
happens all the time.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Let me just break it down.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
I know it's hard for you not to talk like
a professional, but are you saying his lung was clipped?
You kept me to that moment, but then I think
you're saying that as lung started filling out with blood
or his chest cavity started filling out with blood and
he couldn't breathe, so they inserted a.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Tube to try to save him. Is that what you're saying.
Speaker 10 (17:17):
And yeah, and one more thing that's really frustrating forensics
sometimes when we're trying to examine these insults like this,
they will actually use and it's no fault of their own,
they have to do what they have to do. But
the people that are saving the life will actually use
the gunshot wound itself as the place where they're going
to put a tube in because there's no need in
(17:39):
going in and creating another defect in the body where
you can simply use this.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Which totally ruins your trajectory investigation.
Speaker 7 (17:48):
Yeah, it can it can. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Yeah, we also got perforation of right, fifth and left
tenth ribs and T ten vertebrae in unnuts shall dummy
down for me, Joe Scott dummy down?
Speaker 1 (18:02):
What does that mean?
Speaker 7 (18:03):
Well?
Speaker 10 (18:04):
T ten that's you're talking about the thoracic vertebra at
that point in time. And also this is I'm unclear
if they have clipped along or clipped a rib and
it doesn't really give you directionality. One more thing here,
they're saying chest. Most people don't understand. We have an
antierior chest and we have a post her chest. So
(18:27):
you hear the term chest and automatically from the front
and back, and if it's lateral, then this can be
the back that gives you an idea of orientation and
presentation of the target.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Stop place, ears, hurting, ears bleeding.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Now, I'm just asking you, T ten vertebra there's a
perforation that's your spine.
Speaker 7 (18:50):
Correct, Yes, it is.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
So if he's shot with spine, can he even move well?
Speaker 10 (18:54):
It all depends on how compromised that vertebral body is. Now,
if it went into the area where the spinal cord
goes down drops through the little hole that's in there
the foremen as it's referred to. Yeah, that can be compromised,
and it can compromise your ability of mobility.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
I've got a.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Small isolated blast laceration of A order, the A order.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
What do you mean, aren't there's several A order in
the body.
Speaker 10 (19:20):
So what is this A order singular? It's the largest
vessel in the body and it literally runs if you front,
we're talking about front, right, the front of the spine. Okay,
the order runs down the length of the spine until
it bifurcates into our legs where it becomes the femeral arteries.
And so yeah, you see this associated with spinal trauma
(19:42):
many times where the order will actually be clipped as well.
That can lead to that space around the lungs and
even the dominal cavity filling with blood too. It becomes
very complicated.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
I'm just trying to get my head around the fact
that he's shot in T ten vertebra.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
That's your spine.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
I'm wondering if he couldn't even move that projectile bullet
is recovered. But now I've got a gunshot wound to
the right leg. Sophia Matello. How many times is the victim.
Speaker 6 (20:13):
Shot three times three times.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Okay, and we've got perforations of lungs. Gunshot wound to chest.
That's the cod cause of death. Three separate gunshot wounds.
At trial, the so called Black Swan Ballerina insisted her
husband attacked her in her home and she was forced
(20:39):
to shoot him in self defense. Her testimony was, and
I stayed verbatim. I just held a gun like in
front of me, and I said stop. And he turned
and he got into this almost like a fighting stance.
He started moving his arms and his hands around. He
started coming toward me, and he lunched at me, and
I just pulled the trigger. Wow, thats a lot like
(21:00):
what Jodi Arius said on her third or fourth version
of quote her truth to the jury. They didn't buy
it either. Prosecutors in the Black Swan Ballerina case said
the altercation was very different than what Ashley Benefil says.
The prosecutors say the shooting happened after she the ballerina,
(21:24):
tried to win a custody battle and wanted victory at
all costs.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Prosecutors also pointed out.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Husband Doug was not armed in the night he was
shot dead. They argue the motive was sole custody and
that equals murder.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
What more happened that night?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
So Joskott Morgan, Professor FORENSAC Jacksonville State University death investigator
with over one thousand deaths investigated by him, says that
the victim was shot in the back. Our investigative reporter
joining us today from WWSBABC seven and Sarasota says there
(22:12):
were three gunshot wounds. Okay, I think the word overkill
may come into play right here, but having worked at
the Battered Women's Center for so many years, I do
not want to dissuade the consideration that she may have
been a battered woman. Let's look at the relationship. Let's
(22:34):
move away from the forensics, the gunshot residue, the trajectory
path of the bullets, What do we know about them?
As a couple listened.
Speaker 12 (22:44):
Still grieving the sudden loss of his wife, and Doug
Bennifield is rubbing elbows with the rich and powerful of
a GOP fundraiser at the Florida home of doctor Ben
Carson when he's introduced to a former ballerina, Ashley Byers,
as a swimsuit model and she and Benifield are smitten
with each other, and neither one seems to notice or
care about their thirty year age gap.
Speaker 13 (23:04):
Ashley tells Doug she wants to have a ballet company
using dancers of all sizes and genders. Doug wants to
make her dreams come true. Doug returns from a trip
in thirteen days after they meet. Doug Benefield Mary's Ashley
buyers it is a shocking turn of events for a
man with a teen daughter, just nine years younger than
(23:25):
his new wife.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Okay, let me understand something, Sophia Vittello.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Hold on, when you said model, you didn't tell me
she was a swimsuit model.
Speaker 6 (23:34):
I mean, she's a gorgeous girl. She's a gorgeous girl.
But what I do know is, you know, swimsuit model.
We got to use it lightly. Her career was not
blowing up. You know. I'm not to say that she
was in a position seeking money. We don't know that specifically,
but we do know that Doug was vulnerable.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
In that video, it says sudden dealing with a sudden
loss of his wife.
Speaker 6 (23:53):
Guys, it was less than a year. It was less
than a year. His wife had just died.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Yes, and isn't it correct to Tello that his daughter
by his first wife came home and found mommy dead
on the floor from a heart ailment.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Yes, so this guy is reeling mm hmm.
Speaker 6 (24:13):
Yes, he's reeling it, and so's his daughter. And Eva
says that she had.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
Talked to her dad and he said, oh, I'm I'm
not going to get into anything.
Speaker 6 (24:21):
You know, I'm I'm not going to get into anything fast.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
And next thing, you know, Eva says her dad was
married and it really shocked her.
Speaker 6 (24:28):
That's another thing shocked her.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Okay, very quickly after the wedding, things turned sour Lissen.
Speaker 12 (24:36):
In the first days of their wedded bliss, Doug and
Ashley Benifield argue loudly. Doug's daughter Eva asks if one
of her friends can move in with them for a while.
And now Doug has two teen girls in the house
and a wife who not only wants to create a
ballet company that Doug says he will help finance, she
also wants a baby. Doug starts making calls about the
ballet and about having his best sectomy reversed.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Okay, what do you have to do to have a
sec tomy? Reversehous got Morgan in a nutshell.
Speaker 10 (25:02):
You have to go back in and actually reattach the
vast deference and so that they're functional at that point
in time.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
The vast difference.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
I don't even know what you're saying, man, what go
back into what the penis? It's anatomical you can say penis. Okay,
so you.
Speaker 10 (25:20):
Know I'm not talking about penis, Nancy, I'm not talking
about penis. I wouldn't have to ask, Well, we'll talk
about testicles. How's that instead of penie, we're talking about attachment.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Scott, I don't care. I know that the peanut gallery
may yiggle. But you meet a man in thirteen days
you're married, and you convince him to have surgery on
his testicles.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Okay, that's love. So he has surgery on his testicles.
He has the best sake.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
To me, it's kind of a snip, snip in and
out correct.
Speaker 10 (26:00):
The best sectomy is yes, But now you're talking about
a reattachment to make it functional once again. And you know,
all I have to say is, if that's the case,
she must have been quite beguiling and bewitching, because this
is a really quick decision to make.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
So how difficult is it and what does the man
have to undergo to have a vasectomy reversal?
Speaker 1 (26:23):
And again there's no giggling. This is real.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
The guys did he shot three times, once in the back.
It's not holding together from me, but into the thinking,
the thinking of these two.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
I just want to know how difficult.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
It is and what a man must endure to have
a asectomy reversal.
Speaker 7 (26:46):
It's not very difficult at all.
Speaker 10 (26:48):
It's done all the time, literally, and it can be
done actually on an outpatient basis. Most guys would like
to remain in the hospital if they could. There is
pain associated with this, make no mistake about that, a
lot of post operatives, swelling and this sort of thing.
So yeah, it takes tom and it is a painful
(27:08):
process to go through. So obviously you felt like she
was worth it.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Joining me right now, private investigator, owner of Buyers Investigative Services,
But for my purposes, Former police Chief John's Creek twenty
five years in l E Law enforcement, Chris Byer's It'll
be a cold day, cold frigid, cold day in HG
(27:34):
double L that I do not support a battered woman's
right to defend herself against her abuser.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Right, absolutely, absolutely, But.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
I cannot turn away from physical forensic evidence. Forensic evidence
unless it's been tampered with, does not lie.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
Now what do you think?
Speaker 11 (28:00):
Absolutely in any of these cases, that's what you do.
You follow the evidence. And from what I'm hearing on
this as well, the three shots shot in the back,
it does not present as someone who was about to
receive imminent death or great bodily harm, which is what
you need for this self defense. So yes, with what
I'm hearing about the forensics of this, Yeah, that's a
(28:23):
far stretch to show self.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Defense crime stories with Nancy Grace. Oh what a tangled
web we weave when first we practice to deceive. The
(28:46):
Black Swan Ballerina Ashley Benefield married her husband when she's
twenty four, after just knowing him two weeks. His wife
had passed away just nine months earlier, when he was
fifty four, thirty year age difference. Their marriage included a
(29:06):
very difficult attempt to start a ballet company.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
What more do we know about their poem?
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Let me say to multus relationship, Okay, we know that
very quickly after the meet up at a political fundraiser,
the two get married within thirteen days, and she announces
not only does she want her husband to fund a
ballet company, which is not a cheap endeavor, that things
(29:34):
go south. Not only does she want the ballet company,
she also wants her husband to reversif s sectomy so
she can have a baby, which he does. Everything's going sideways,
including money woes.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Listen.
Speaker 12 (29:49):
Doug Benifield, trying to hold together the ballet company that
was his wife's dream, arrives to find that Ashley and
her mother drive from Florida to Charleston, pack up Ashley's
personal belongings and leave a note for Doug the marriage
is over, calling him possessive and controlling. In the note,
she says she is fearful for her life and the
safety of her unborn child.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Okay, so she moves in with the mom. Listen.
Speaker 14 (30:10):
Ashley Bennifield moves in with her mother in Florida and
begins a process to prevent Doug Bennifield from being involved
in the life of his own child. Frustrated, Doug Minnifield
uses an attorney to reach out to Ashley Bennefield by email.
Ashley has not kept Doug informed of anything with regard
to her pregnancy, and one day after receiving the email
from Doug's lawyer, Ashley Bennifield has labor induced even though
(30:31):
she's weeks away from her due date. Ashley then refuses
to communicate with Doug. He isn't even aware his daughter
is born for six weeks.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Oh my stars, Okay, Sophia Vittela joining US investigative reporter WWSB.
So she kept the birth of the baby a secret
and did not tell the husband.
Speaker 5 (30:49):
Yeah, and this is really the state's entire argument here
that Ashley decided she wanted to be a single mother
the second she got pregnant. That's their whole argument against her,
saying that it was self defense because there have been
all of these instances where she got pregnant.
Speaker 6 (31:08):
She immediately moved right.
Speaker 5 (31:10):
And then she made sure that he didn't even know
that the baby was born until six weeks after. So
she wanted him to have nothing to do with the
child that they share.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Talking about psychological warfare, doctor Chloe Carmichael with US clinical
psychologist Way and doctor Chloe.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Yes, thank you, Nancy.
Speaker 9 (31:28):
I've just been bursting over here, so thank you for
playing that tape of the daughter. I just think it's
really important. When we look at the daughter testifying as
to her opinion regarding her father, we have to remember
a couple of things. First of all, the daughter herself
may have a financial motive. So, especially when you have
an opposite sex child, so a daughter in this case
(31:51):
whose father has now married another woman, there can actually
be a lot of rivalry between the daughter and the stepmother, right,
and so we even saw some of that reflected in
the text messages. Additionally, there could even be a financial
motivation because if perhaps we don't know a lot about
the life insurance or the estate, but if that was
(32:12):
set to go to Ashley, unless Ashley's a murderer, then
perhaps it would go to Ava, the daughter. And we
could also see through the text messages that the daughter
was indeed a source of conflict and Nancy, of course,
I agree with you that we don't want you to
disbelieve a battered woman.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
On the other.
Speaker 9 (32:34):
Hand, I think it can cheapen cases of battered women
when we don't do our due diligence and understand that
sometimes and I'm not saying it's the case here, but
women can have ulterior motives for sometimes actually being untruthful
and we just don't know what happened here.
Speaker 7 (32:50):
Now.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
I want you to hear what is so called black
swan by the way, she doesn't like that.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Moniker has to say. Listen, Douglas Benefield was a violent abuse.
Speaker 14 (33:00):
I said stop, and he like turned and he got
into this lake.
Speaker 6 (33:06):
It's like a fighting stance.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Don't you gonna kill me? He started coming towards me
and then he lunched at me. Her bully the trigger.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Okay, again from our friends at Inside Edition. But Joe
Scott Morgan, did you hear what she just said? This
is critical, Joe Scott. She said he lunged at her.
If he lunged at her, the bullet should be front
to back.
Speaker 10 (33:31):
Yeah, what he lunged at her with his shoulder blade.
That doesn't make sense at all. The calculus doesn't work
out here. Lunging means that you're moving toward the individual. Uh.
The indication is what we're hearing, is that he was
shot post heially. Now we don't know the precise the
precise trajectories here, but it just does. It just doesn't mesh.
(33:53):
And I got to tell you, Nancy, from a forensic standpoint,
this is one of the major benchmarks as to why
the police move forward with this case.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
What do you mean one of the benchmarks as to
why police move forward?
Speaker 7 (34:05):
The science doesn't say.
Speaker 5 (34:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 10 (34:07):
The beauty of this is that the science doesn't lie.
She's actually saying that he lunged toward her, and all
indications are is that these gunshot wounds, that this man
has sustained our posterior on his backside or at least lateral,
that it doesn't marry up with this so called fighter
(34:27):
stance whatever whatever the hell that means that he goes into.
According to her, the science doesn't marry up here. And
that's one of the big we use the term red
flag of moment ago for an investigator. That's a big
red flag when you've got when the police have spoken
with the EME, which I guarantee they did that day,
(34:47):
and try to marry.
Speaker 7 (34:48):
This up with a statement that she's giving. The two
things just don't mesh okay.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
I want to go back to Sophia Vittillo joining US
investigative reporter WWSB. Are we correct that at least one
of the shots was to front.
Speaker 5 (35:00):
According to dozens of hours, honestly of testimony from this
past week everything that we have heard in court was not.
Speaker 6 (35:10):
He was facing the other way, and the defense has
tried to disprove that.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Right.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Are you saying he was shot in the back?
Speaker 5 (35:16):
Very simply according to medical examiner's testimony, Yes, he was
shot in the back.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Okay, then what she's saying cannot be true. And you know,
let me understand, Brian fully joining me, renowned criminal defense
attorney and author, Brian, it is possible that he is
shot in the back and.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Was attacking her.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
He could have attacked her and then turned to get
a weapon. He could have attacked her and tried to
push off a dog. There are many reasons he could
have turned his back and still be the aggressor. However,
her story is impossible based on the bullet path trajectory.
Speaker 8 (36:02):
Yes, and when we listen to a defendant give a
statement about a very traumatic event, these things really happen
a lot faster than people think. You don't have time
to react in between shots. You know, some people say, well,
why did you have to shoot him two more times
if he'd already been shot. He's not, you know, the
other two bullets aren't self defense, even if.
Speaker 7 (36:24):
The first one was.
Speaker 8 (36:25):
But these all happened way too fast for that to
be the case. And one thing I wanted to add
is the prosecution doesn't have to prove that she lied
about how it happened. You know, if the forensic evidence
shows that her statement is an accurate, that doesn't mean
that she's not doing it in self defense. They have
to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there's no other
(36:45):
possibility that it was in self defense. And nunc you
hit the nail on the head. They said she had
to run back.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
That's not true.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Nobody has to prove no possibility beyond any doubt whatsoever,
just to a mathematical certainty like two and two pluses
four two and two eqals four. Now, that's not the
legal standard. The legal standard is beyond a reasonable doubt.
She has raised the affirmative defense of self defense, which
(37:13):
means affirmative defense. I did it, but I'm excused because
self defense, because accident, because insanity, different reasons.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
But the state only has to pierce that.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Beyond a reasonable doubt, not to a mathematical certainty.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
And the fact that while an attacker can.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
Rarely be shot in the back and still be the aggressor,
never happens. It's possible her story does not coincide.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
With the wounds. That's what I'm saying, Brian Foley.
Speaker 8 (37:47):
Well, her story does coincide a little bit there in
the fact that he has an abrasion on his head.
That would tend to show that there was a struggle,
maybe even an attack on her, and so that could
have happened before he was killed. You know, we don't
have the exact photos or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
It is okay, you know what, let's follow through with that,
Brian Foley. Did she say, Cyphia Vtello, that there was
a physical struggle and then somehow she hit him in
the head.
Speaker 5 (38:13):
No, she said that he was trying to strike her
for the first time and she fired.
Speaker 6 (38:20):
So it is believed that he did not he did
not reach her.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Josky Morgan, what were you saying.
Speaker 10 (38:27):
Yeah, one of the things that's very troubling to me, Nancy,
are these head injuries that he has sustained, because they're
calling one of them a laceration. As you well know,
that's blunt force trauma. And one of the things that
we think about when someone holding a weapon, if weapons
like this can be used almost like a hammer, they're
very blunted. And that's where you I can't imagine her
(38:49):
as quote unquote athletic as she may have been, that
she's going to score a hit to his head that's
going to generate a laceration that's severe blunt force trauma.
I'm wondering if there are trace elements of his blood
on this weapon, and did they try to match this
up with the injury he sustained to his head, because
how's she going to get in close enough in order
(39:11):
to generate that kind of force with her bare hands.
I think there's a high probability that once he's down,
she may have struck him in the head.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
In other words, simply put bare handed.
Speaker 10 (39:21):
Maybe stomping on somebody, but not bare handed.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
No, yeah, got it. One thing that's very disturbing.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
I got a lot of eminent stating that this is
not self defense, but Selvia Matello, isn't it true that
Evans is that he the victim, hit the dog and
the cat out of anger.
Speaker 5 (39:43):
Yeah, So those are some things we have to look at,
and that is where the defense is pushing their entire argument.
Speaker 6 (39:51):
We have his abuse. We don't know how many times
or what the situation specifically was towards the Pats.
Speaker 5 (39:58):
We have a fists in the wall, we have a
bullet mark in the ceiling of their house. Okay, so
we see here that maybe there was some moments of
anger and we don't know exactly what happened, but that's
where the defense is using.
Speaker 6 (40:16):
Hey, Doug was violent. Look he hit the dog, he
punched the wall. Why couldn't it have been Ashley Sophia.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
I think this text purportedly is from him. I pussed
the dog because you got me so mad, like you
wouldn't stop about Eva always, Eva, every argument.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Eva? Who is Eva Sophia.
Speaker 5 (40:38):
Eva is Doug's daughter, And I'd like to add have
talked to her several times and she tells me that
they were constantly together, touching each other, lovey dovey, And
so maybe there was a bit of jealousy on Ashley's end,
because I did not pick it up from Eva's end
while I was interviewing her.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
So there you have it.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
The Black Swan Ballerina Ashley Benefield sinist to hard jail
time twenty years behind bars in the shooting death of
husband Doug.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Her cold reaction.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
In court as she sentenced says it all. I'm not
sorry I did it. I'm just sorry I got caught.
I don't think we've seen the last of the Black
Swan ballerina Ashley Bennefield.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
Goodbye friend,
Host
Nancy Grace
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