Ex-ballerina arrested for killing husband amid custody battle
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A former professional ballet dancer was arrested for fatally shooting her estranged husband amid a bitter custody battle over their daughter, authorities in Florida said.
Ashley Benefield, 28, allegedly opened fire while her 58-year-old hubby, Doug Benefield, had his back to her on Sept. 27, inside a house in the gated community of Lakewoood Ranch, the Bradenton Herald reported Friday.
The ex-ballerina claimed her husband attacked her before she shot him — but detectives found no sign that she had been physically abused or that she was acting in self-defense, the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office said.
The couple had been separated and Ashley was staying with her mother in a neighborhood of the community called Central Park.
Doug, who lived elsewhere, showed up at the home that night, and the two of them were the only ones inside when the shooting took place, deputies said.
Detectives said Ashley fired four times with a .45-caliber handgun, hitting Doug twice, with two other bullets found lodged in a wall, according to an affidavit obtained by the Herald.
Investigators said that based on where Doug was hit, “it does not appear that he was facing Ashley when she began shooting,” the court doc states.
Deputies also did not find any signs of a struggle on Ashley, save for a small scratch she apparently got the day before, the affidavit says.
Court records show the dancer began to file domestic violence reports against Doug about two years ago, soon after she realized she was pregnant.
“It appears that the main focus of these complaints was to keep the child away from Douglas,” the affidavit states.
Recently, Ashley had tried to file an injunction to keep Doug away from their daughter, but the judge in the case found that her story of abuse did not have “a scintilla of truth,” the court document states.
The judge ordered that Doug could visit their child and “at this point, it appeared Ashley had exhausted all legal means to keep the child away from Douglas before the shooting,” the affidavit states.
When deputies arrived, Doug was still alive, with a bullet in his leg and another that had grazed his right arm and entered his chest. He was taken to a hospital, where he died.
After weeks spent reviewing the case and finding nothing to back up Ashley’s claims of violence, investigators issued an arrest warrant and she turned herself in Wednesday night.
She was charged with second-degree murder and remains behind bars without bond pending a later court date.
Before moving to Florida, the couple had lived in Charleston, South Carolina, where they founded the short-lived dance company American National Ballet in 2017, according to the Post and Courier.
Doug, who had worked in the defense and private equity sectors, served as CEO and tried to get the ballet off the ground. He later stepped away from the enterprise, which had imploded by 2018.
In a statement to WFLA-TV, Doug’s cousin Tommie Benefield described him as “caring, kind, sweet, loving.”
“My family and I are very relieved that the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, with nothing but evidence, was able to bring her to this arrest …,” the statement said. “That gives us some hope for justice that his murder will be accounted for.”
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