S1 Ep23: The Black Swan Murder Trial: The Finale

13th Juror Podcast

Brandi Churchwell

Society & Culture, True Crime, Documentary, News

4.6 • 897 Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2024

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Retired Navy pilot Doug Benefield lost his wife from heart complications in December of 2015, when their daughter Eva was only 14 years old.
Nine months later, Doug meets Ashley Byers at a political fundraiser. After only 13 days, the 54 year old businessman marries the 24 year old former ballerina, during a secret ceremony in Charleston, South Carolina.

Together they founded American National Ballet company, but after less than a year of marriage, Ashley walked out on Doug, and the company, on the day it was set to launch.

Less than one year together resulted in three years of court and custody battles. There were allegations of domestic violence, stalking, child abuse, and even poisoning. In September of 2020, Doug was at Ashley's mom's house, helping load a U-Haul to move across country, when Ashley shot and killed him. She claimed self-defense, though she had no injuries and said Doug had never hit her before. Was this self-defense in a toxic relationship, or a murder over custody battle?

(Finale)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Managed counting 911, what is the address of your emergency?
0:04.0	Oh no.
0:05.0	11327, White Rock Terrace.
0:08.0	The house next door to me, she just came over, her strange husband attacked her, and she
0:14.0	says she shot him.
0:15.0	His name is Doug Benefield.
0:18.0	Well, it was a rapid romance.
0:21.9	Ashley and Doug Benefield married in 2016, only 13 days after their first meeting.
0:27.0	From the outside, it appeared to be a fairy tale.
0:29.2	But four years later, Doug was shot and killed.
0:31.7	Benefield, a former ballerina, faces a charge of second-degree murder for the death of her estranged husband, retired naval lieutenant commander Doug Benefield.
0:40.3	So what we see in this case is really two competing theories on what happened on the day that he was killed.
0:46.3	The defense claimed that Ashley was defending herself from an abusive husband.
0:50.3	She came in, she was quite hysterical. I didn't know who was then.
0:54.8	The door said he attacked her and she shot him.
0:59.0	Prosecution says it was her last resort to get custody of their daughter.
1:03.3	Doug was found on the floor.
1:04.6	He had been shot twice.
1:05.9	And deputies said there was no evidence of a struggle or abuse.
1:10.2	And Doug was facing away from his wife at the time of the shooting.
1:13.6	You've got to show that you were in reasonable fear of your life at that moment,
1:17.2	not a compilation of all bad behavior over the years that he was mentally abusive,
	...

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