Ashley Benefield Wiki – Biography
Ashley Benefield, turned herself in on Wednesday night in Lakewood Ranch, Florida, after cops there found probable cause for her arrest following a five-week probe.
Ashley graduated from the Maryland Youth Ballet and is a retired professional ballerina, according to a company description on an ANB Facebook page, which is no longer in use.
Meanwhile, Doug’s family were thankful that an arrest was made after his sudden death.
“In this case, it is all evidence-based,” said his cousin Tommie Benefield.
The couple was living separately and was embroiled in a custody battle over their daughter at the time, police said. Doug Benefield had gone to the home where Ashley Benefield was staying at the time and they were the only people inside the home when the shots were fired, police said.
Doug Benefield was rushed to an area hospital but could not be saved.
Multiple reports describe Doug and Ashley Benefield as being active in the ballet scene and with the American National Ballet. A post on the American National Ballet Facebook page describes Ashley Benefield as “a proud Maryland Youth Ballet graduate and retired professional ballerina.”
Ashley Benefield allegedly told police her husband was “attacking her,” but detectives found no evidence to indicate she was acting in self-defense, police said.
A Manatee County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson told local news station WFLA investigators wanted to make sure there was “no evidence she had been abused.”
“That just did not exist in this case,” said spokesperson Randy Warren, according to the report. “We are looking for injuries, we are looking for torn clothing, we are looking for a sign of struggle, things that were inside that residence. We got a warrant, we were able to go in, we were able to examine that closely. There was no evidence there that this was an act of self-defense.”
Ashley Benefield Age
Ashley Benefield is 29-years-old.
Charged & Arrested
A former ballet dancer has been arrested and charged with second degree murder for the fatal shooting of her husband in a home in a gated community in Florida in September.
Ashley Christina Benefield, 28, turned herself in to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday.
After a five-week investigation, detectives in the sheriff’s office informed Benefield’s attorneys that they planned to charge her with second-degree murder for the September 28 shooting of Douglas Benefield, 59.
Authorities received a report that day of a shooting at a home in the Central Park section of Lakewood Ranch, about 50 miles south of Tampa.
Investigation
Ashley told investigators that she shot Doug in self-defense during a ‘domestic argument.’
But detectives were unable to find evidence to support her claims.
‘These things take a little bit of time,’ Manatee County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Randy Warren told WFLA-TV.
‘We really have to look to make sure there is no evidence she had been abused and that just did not exist in this case.
‘We are looking for injuries, we are looking for torn clothing, we are looking for a sign of struggle, things that were inside that residence.
‘We got a warrant, we were able to go in, we were able to examine that closely.
‘There was no evidence there that this was an act of self-defense.’
At the time of the shooting, the couple was separated while in the midst of a custody battle over their two-year-old daughter.
Investigators said Ashley and Doug were the only two people in the home at the time of the shooting.
County court records indicate that Ashley has on several occasions filed petitions accusing her husband of domestic violence.
‘In each of these cases, it did not appear that she was being abused,’ Warren said.
‘We could not find anything there that would have led us to arrest her husband for whatever these claims were even some involving their child.’
Doug was a Navy veteran who founded a ballet startup along with his wife in Charleston, South Carolina, three years ago.
Doug was CEO while Ashley took on the role of executive director.
But shortly after the company’s founding, it was sued by dancers and choreographers who alleged their contracts were breached when they were fired just weeks after their hiring.
Ashley Benefield turned herself in to Manatee County Jail on Nov. 4. Police said the case is still being investigated.
