Ashley Benefield showed no apparent emotion as a Manatee County Circuit Court judge sentenced her to 20 years in prison for the shooting death of her estranged husband Doug Benefield in her Lakewood Ranch home in 2020.
The sentencing came four months after a jury found the former ballerina guilty of manslaughter. As the judge made his ruling, a comforting hand wrapped around Eva Benefield, Doug’s oldest daughter from a previous marriage, as she sat on the left side of the gallery surrounded by her family and her late father’s supporters.
Previous reporting: Former Florida ballerina’s sentencing postponed. She seeks new trial for husband’s killing
Ashley Benefield Verdict: Jury makes decision in ballerina case
Ashley Benefield was initially charged with second-degree murder. Court records stated a neighbor called the police after a distraught Ashley pounded on his door moments after the shooting while still holding the gun.
Ashley Benefield’s attorney Neil Taylor claimed his client shot her estranged husband in self-defense following a tumultuous and abusive relationship that lasted four years.
While Judge Matt Whyte said he believed Ashley Benefield had been under extreme duress and showed remorse for the shooting that happened on Sept. 27, 2020, he did not grant her a reduced sentence.
Her attorney said the decision will be appealed.
Ashley Benefield had been scheduled for sentencing in October, but Whyte rescheduled it after arguments from both her attorney and the prosecution related to several motions, including one requesting the opportunity to interview the jurors, which Whyte granted.
Whyte interviewed all six jurors individually, asking a series of questions related to whether a cell phone had been present in the jury room during deliberations the night the verdict was reached. Whyte also questioned Juror 15 about the juror’s questionnaire.
In a motion submitted by the defense, Neil Taylor accused Juror 15 of potential misconduct for not disclosing her history of domestic violence.
The defense found at least three cases in the Manatee County court system where Juror 15 was either the victim or respondent in a domestic violence case.
In an order filed on Nov. 27, Whyte denied the motions for new trial, prompting the sentencing to continue as planned.
Ashely Benefield enters the courtroom Tuesday morning, Dec. 3, 2024 for her sentencing hearing at the Manatee County Judicial Center. Benefield was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison for the 2020 killing of her husband, Doug Benefield in Lakewood Ranch. Benefield claimed the shooting was in self-defense, but a jury convicted her of manslaughter.
Whyte also sentenced the 32-year-old to 10 years of probation following her time in prison. Within 60 days of starting her probation, Ashley Benefield will need to obtain a mental health evaluation and complete any recommended treatment. Whyte ordered that Ashley Benefield must also forfeit the gun used in the shooting.
“I think both sides have … talked about lenses and perspectives,” Whyte said. “And I think this is a good example of exactly that where, whatever lens you view this case from can really affect how you view the players, the results, the participants and the outcome.”
Family tries to focus statements on positive characteristics of Doug Benefield
Outside the Manatee County Judicial Center, Tommie and Eva Benefield stopped to speak to reporters.
“The sentencing means we know what it’s going to cost her, finally, as opposed to what it’s cost their daughter, Ashley and Doug’s daughter, (and) what it’s cost Eva every day in her life,” said Tommie Benefield, Doug Benefield’s cousin.
He added that the sentencing was a good step in seeing Ashley Benefield pay a price.
Tommie Benefield added that his family and the prosecution will fight avidly during the appeals process to keep Ashley Benefield in jail since they believe her to be a flight risk.
Tears glazed Eva Benefield’s eyes as she stood before the judicial center. Two red hearts stood out against her dark brown plaid suit jacket — one stitched on the left side below her heart, the second stitched onto her back on the right side.
Eva Benefield, daughter of Doug Benefield, returns to her seat after presenting her victim impact statement in court Tuesday at the sentencing for Ashley Benefield at the Manatee County Judicial Center. Ashley Benefield was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the 2020 killing of her husband, Doug Benefield in Lakewood Ranch. Benefield claimed the shooting was in self-defense, but a jury convicted her of manslaughter.
The hearts, she said, were a symbol of where her father had been shot.
Earlier in the courtroom, Eva Benefield recalled her memories of her loving father: the two of them enjoying a Valentine’s Day dinner, the good morning texts with Bible verses she’d wake up to from her father, his efforts to attend all her extracurricular activities and his driving an hour out of his way to drop off coffee for her and her friends.
Her father was always a phone call or text away, Eva Benefield said, and would always answer the phone if she called, especially after her mother’s death. He knew how anxious Eva would get if he didn’t pick up.
“I watched my dad paint over every memory and every corner of that house, changed the furniture, rid the house of every bit of my mom that was left so you could enjoy life without the remnants of my dad’s late wife and soulmate,” Eva Benefield said. “I had to come home from school to see you barely clothed, sitting on the countertops my mom used to cook our family dinner on. I had to live in a house stripped of memories I still cling to so I can remember the happy childhood that my parents gave me.”
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Tommie Benefield touched on his cousin’s accomplishments while in the military and how his work was now used in 5G networks all across the country.
“What saddens me personally is the loss of Doug to our family, to Eva in particular … The worst part of it is that there’s a 6-year-old that will grow up not knowing the man that we’ve known all our lives,” he said.
“The loss to this country and to the Western world of the brain, the smarts, the ability to problem-solve in a way no one thought possible, that all the engineers said couldn’t happen, was something unique to Doug Benefield that was stolen from us, our family, his daughters and the world.”
Doug Benefield’s brother, Wes Benefield, in his statement offered Ashley Benefield forgiveness, adding that he did not hate her. Instead, he grieved for what her actions have already and will in the future cost his family.
Defense moves for downward departure
Defense attorney Taylor sought for his client to be given a downward departure in her sentencing, but Judge Whyte declined.
While Whyte said that Taylor had proven that Doug Benefield was an initiator, willing participant, aggressor or provoker of the incident and that the defendant was under extreme duress that night, he didn’t find that a downward departure was appropriate.
The only witness that Taylor called on Tuesday to speak before the court was Dr. Barbara Russell, a clinical social worker and mental health professional, who evaluated both Doug and Ashley Benefield before the shooting.
Defense attorney Neil Taylor concludes his arguments for a downward departure from sentencing guidelines during the sentencing hearing for his client Ashley Benefield on Tuesday at the Manatee County Judicial Center.Ashley Benefield was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the 2020 killing of her husband, Doug Benefield in Lakewood Ranch. Benefield claimed the shooting was in self-defense, but a jury convicted her of manslaughter.
Russell told the judge that Ashley Benefield suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder that was caused by complex trauma, with the root cause being “the abusive relationship with Douglas Benefield, from the time the abuse began in their marriage up to the incident of the attack that went into the shooting on Sept. 27.”
Assistant State Attorney Suzanne O’Donnell, the lead prosecutor on the case, pointed out to Russell that Ashley Benefield had also been diagnosed with histrionic personality disorder, a mental health condition that leads people to act in dramatic and emotional ways for attention.
Russell said she was aware of the “false diagnosis” and explained that women who have been victimized by intimate partner violence are often mischaracterized as having the disorder, especially if the individual evaluating them doesn’t have a proper understanding of the complete picture.
Taylor further stated that the jury didn’t get the chance to have a full understanding of the case since he argued that Whyte blocked certain evidence from being submitted.
In particular, Taylor had wanted to subpoena another judge’s assistant to testify about when a report by Dr. Brad Broeder, a local psychologist who interviewed the couple, would have been released. The state argued that the hearing was supposed to take place days after Doug Benefield was killed, and that Ashley Benefield had shot him to prevent him from learning the truth that she had no intention of making their marriage work.
Taylor argued that had the assistant testified, the jury would have found out that the report wasn’t supposed to be released at the hearing, but at a later date, refuting the state’s argument.
Taylor also urged Whyte to focus on Doug Benefield’s admissions in a deposition that established a prior history of domestic violence, and a letter Ashley Benefield had left behind three years prior for her husband when she’d left him to move to Florida.
Gabriela Szymanowska covers the legal system for the Herald-Tribune in partnership with Report for America. You can support her work with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America. Contact Gabriela Szymanowska at gszymanowska@gannett.com, or on X: @GabrielaSzyman3.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Ballerina Ashley Benefield sentenced to 20 years for killing husband
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