A jury in Florida convicted Ashley Benefield of manslaughter on Tuesday night over the fatal shooting of her husband in 2020 after more than six hours of deliberations.
The 33-year-old former ballerina was accused of shooting and killing her estranged husband, Douglas Benefield, who was 59 at the time of his death. She had been charged with second-degree murder with a firearm, but was convicted on Tuesday of manslaughter, a lesser crime.
At the time of the shooting, authorities say that the couple were in the midst of a child custody battle over their young daughter.
Benefield’s lawyers have argued that she was acting in self-defense after suffering domestic violence from Douglas and that her use of deadly force was justified given the circumstances.
During the trial, which local media has dubbed the “Black Swan murder trial”, NBC News reported that Benefield testified that she feared for her life when she shot her husband and that he blocked her from leaving her home that day, striking her and lunging at her while she had a gun drawn.
Prosecutors argued that the evidence from the day of the killing did not match Benefield’s description of the confrontation, and that Benefield had been upset about the custody battle. They alleged she wanted sole custody of their daughter and killed Douglas to prevent him from learning that she had no intention of reconciling their marriage.
“This was a custody battle that this mother was going to win at all costs,” prosecutors said during the trial, according to video footage of the trial. “And the cost was the life of Doug Benefield, and that is murder.”
Authorities said that after the shooting on 27 September 2020, Benefield ran to a neighbor’s house and told her neighbor that she had shot her husband after he had attacked her, according to the original complaint filed in 2020.
Douglas was found on the floor of Benefield’s bedroom, per court documents, with two visible gunshot wounds. He was taken to the nearest hospital and pronounced dead shortly after. Authorities say that based on the wounds found on Douglas, it did not appear that he was facing Benefield when the shooting began, and they have alleged that it did not appear that Douglas had taken “any kind of self-defense or combative stance”, per NBC News.
Her sentencing has not yet been scheduled.