A former ballerina has been found guilty of killing her estranged husband – in a case dubbed the “Black Swan” trial.
Ashley Benefield was convicted of manslaughter at a Florida court on Tuesday over the fatal shooting of Doug Benefield in September 2020, Sky’s US partner NBC News reported.
The 33-year-old had been charged with second-degree murder but jurors convicted her of the lesser charge.
The media’s nickname for the case came from the 2010 film Black Swan about a psychologically disturbed ballet dancer, starring Natalie Portman.
Benefield told the court last week that she feared for her life and acted in self-defence, when she fatally shot her husband during what she described as a terrifying confrontation with him at her home south of Tampa.
But prosecutors said evidence from the day of the killing did not match her description of the confrontation.
“She did not have to shoot him,” the prosecution argued – and accused Benefield of using “unfounded” allegations of domestic abuse against her husband to obtain sole custody of their child.
“She had an agenda. She got what she wanted,” Suzanne O’Donnell, assistant state attorney for Florida’s 12th Judicial District, told jurors.
Benefield’s lawyer, Neil Taylor, countered that she filed “complaint after complaint after complaint calling Doug Benefield’s behaviour to the attention of authorities with no results”.
Benefield told the court her husband blocked her from leaving her home, hit her in the face, and lunged at her while she had her gun drawn and was pleading with him to stop.
The pair were alone when he was shot and there was no video of the confrontation.
But Ms O’Donnell said there was no evidence that Benefield had been struck in the face, and she described her evidence as “evasive”.
The prosecutor said the fatal bullet travelled sideways through Mr Benefield’s body, casting doubt on Ashley Benefield’s testimony that he was moving towards her when she pulled the trigger.
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Benefield described her husband as “controlling and volatile” and alleged he fired a bullet into the ceiling of their home during an argument in which he threatened suicide, threw a loaded gun at her and punched their dog in the face so hard it knocked the animal unconscious.
Ms O’Donnell said prosecutors weren’t trying to convince the jury “that Doug Benefield was an angel” – but the killing accomplished something that she said Ashley Benefield had sought – sole custody of their daughter.
The judge revoked Benefield’s $100,000 (£78,000) and remanded her in custody.
A date has not yet been set for her sentencing.
