The stormy relationship between Doug and Ashley Benefield, the star-crossed couple at the heart of the notorious “Black Swan” murder case, began and ended with a .45 caliber gun, according to what was revealed publicly over the years.
During testimony at Ashley Benefield’s murder trial in July 2024, she said that the evening she met Doug Benefield at an upscale political dinner, she was carrying a .45 caliber gun in her bra.
Assistant State Attorney Suzanne O’Donnell, who prosecuted the homicide case for Manatee County, Florida, put this question to Ashley during the trial: “You actually bragged … about having guns, correct?”
“Yes,” Ashley Benefield replied.
“During the time that you met Doug at a political event, you had one of the guns in your bra?” O’Donnell asked.
“Yes. That’s where I conceal it, carry it,” Ashley Benefield testified.
The story of Ashley and Doug Benefield will be featured in a two-hour broadcast, “The Case of the Black Swan, Part 1 and Part 2,” airing on “48 Hours” Saturday, Sept. 7, from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET/PT, and will also stream on Paramount+. The special broadcast, reported by “48 Hours” contributor Jim Axelrod, will give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the couple’s seesaw relationship from the time they met in 2016 until the night in September 2020 when Ashley killed Doug, allegedly in self-defense.
At her murder trial in July 2024, Ashley Benefield testified for the first time about what she says happened the night she shot and killed Doug Benefield. In emotionally charged testimony, she claimed the shooting was in self-defense after Doug hit her and cornered her in a bedroom. She said that’s when she reached for her nearby .45 caliber gun that was on top of a storage bin.
“I just held the gun like in front of me and I said, stop, and he like turned and he got into this like almost like a fighting stance. He started like moving his arms and his hands around…he started coming towards me and he lunged at me, and I just pulled the trigger,” Ashley Benefield testified at her trial.
Ashley Benefield’s lawyer Neil Taylor then said, “Tell the ladies and gentlemen of the jury why you shot Doug.”
“I was scared to death,” she said. “I thought he was gonna kill me.”
State prosecutors called Ashley Benefield a “manipulator” and claimed she killed Doug Benefield as part of her plot to gain sole custody of their now-6-year-old daughter, Emerson.
When investigators and crime scene technicians searched the house after the shooting, they found two other loaded guns. One of Ashley Benefield’s guns was found in her backpack hanging in the closet of the bedroom where the shooting took place. A third gun belonging to Ashley’s mother was found in a kitchen pantry, according to the testimony of a crime scene technician for the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.
At the time, Doug Benefield was helping Ashley and her mother pack for a move to Maryland.
“Why does anyone need three loaded guns, unsecured, in a house with a 2-and-a-half-year-old?” asked Stephanie Murphy, Doug Benefield’s family lawyer. “There’s no answer to me other than the obvious, which is that she planned to kill Doug that night.”
But Ashley’s lawyer Neil Taylor had a different take, as he told Axelrod when Axelrod asked Taylor, “What caused her to have three loaded guns in the house, the night she shot and killed Doug?”
According to Taylor, it was all part and parcel of the fear Ashley Benefield felt around Doug Benefield as an abused woman. “What might you think would precipitate such a circumstance?” Taylor responded. “Do you think fear, anticipation?”
Ashley Benefield admitted on the stand that Doug Benefield had never struck her before she alleges he did so on the night of the shooting. But in earlier court hearings when Doug Benefield was still alive, he did admit to an episode early in their marriage when he fired a gun into their kitchen ceiling in order to stop Ashley Benefield from arguing with him. He also admitted striking their family dog, named Sully. Ashley Benefield claimed Doug Benefield punched the dog and knocked him out but Doug said he only had pushed the dog when it climbed into his lap while he was having an argument with Ashley.
Ashley Benefield, a former ballerina, was found guilty of manslaughter in July 2024 for shooting her estranged husband Doug Benefield twice with her .45 caliber gun inside her Florida home in September 2020. She faces up to 30 years in prison. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 22.
Ashley Benefield’s lawyers are claiming there was prosecutorial and juror misconduct during the trial and have asked for a new trial. The prosecution denies that any misconduct took place. A hearing on those motions will be held Sept. 16 in Manatee County.