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"BLACK SWAN" BALLERINA CLAIMS OF SELF-DEFENSE FAIL · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, the so called Black Swan ballerina.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: She's her hobby dead claiming self defense. I'm Nancy Grace.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. Listen,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Tana County nine on one one.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Is the address of your emergency?
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: All right?
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: My address is White Rock Terrorist.
• 0:26
  Speaker 4: Okay, can you dress for me to make sure I
• 0:28
  Speaker 4: have it?
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Fridley the house next to Honey, what's your address? Okay,
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Lrich right next door to me. She just came over
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: her strength husband attacked her and she says she shot him.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Now we've not gone over there yet, doctor.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Okay, what is his name?
• 0:50
  Speaker 5: Heard?
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  Speaker 2: His name is Doug ft Afield?
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: What happened? Having worked at the Battered Women's Center for
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: nearly ten years while I was a prosecuted I'm always
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: suspicious when I hear people say she claimed self defense?
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Is there some issue?
• 1:11
  Speaker 6: In the last days, the former mallerina was convicted of
• 1:15
  Speaker 6: manslaughter just hours after a jury began considering whether or
• 1:19
  Speaker 6: not the shooting was self defense. Benefield had been charged
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  Speaker 6: with second degree murder, but she was convicted of the
• 1:27
  Speaker 6: lesser crime of manslaughter.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: How did the whole thing start? Let's Listen to more
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: of that nine to one one call.
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  Speaker 2: I had not gone over to the home.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, I don't that.
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  Speaker 3: I don't want you to go over there.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Say I'm alining. One moment, I'm gonna expect you over
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  Speaker 2: the sheriff's dispatch. Hoky, okay, okay, one moment, Cornbell, cormbl
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  Speaker 2: what is your name? Sir Nin' John stamped and two
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  Speaker 2: I lived next summer. That's gonna recorded line. This is Gabby.
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  Speaker 7: How can I help you?
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Okay, gebby.
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: It's carrying on a one, one, three, two seven I
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: John Singer on the phone.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: He's saying the neighbor came over, a female neighbor. It
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: was at the mastics.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: She shot her husband, So where's the gun? Listen?
• 2:10
  Speaker 8: She came in.
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  Speaker 2: She was quite a sirical. I didn't know who was
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  Speaker 2: then in our door.
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  Speaker 1: Said that he had packed her.
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  Speaker 2: And she shot him.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, I'm just getting that all the straight.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, okay, honey, oil go ahead, ma'am. Where's the gun?
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  Speaker 7: Is it with her?
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  Speaker 5: Or is it?
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  Speaker 2: I have it right here. Madam's sitting on the floor
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  Speaker 2: inside the door. My door's locked in case she isn't.
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  Speaker 2: He can't get off. I'm also armed if she was
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  Speaker 2: more and high a harm hope, So so everybody knows straight out.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: To Sophia Vitello joining US investigative reporter WWSB, joining us
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  Speaker 1: out of Sarasota in this jurisdiction, Sophia, thank you for
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  Speaker 1: being with us. Start at the beginning, what happened.
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  Speaker 7: Very beginning of it all. I just want to start
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  Speaker 7: with the two met in twenty sixteen out of dinner, okay,
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  Speaker 7: at a Republican dinner. She was twenty four, he was
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  Speaker 7: fifty four. So that's already a first red flag right there.
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  Speaker 7: They fall in love and in just thirteen.
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  Speaker 1: Days, Sophia Vittello, WWSB, you got me drinking from the
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: fire hydrant here too much, too fast? Okay, hold on, well, okay,
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  Speaker 1: first of all, you said the age difference is a
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: red flag. Tell me the age difference again.
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  Speaker 7: Twenty four, Ashley fifty four, Doug Okay.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Okay, probably not a red flag for him, did I
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  Speaker 1: hear correctly? In thirteen days they're married. I don't mean
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: just like they have their first sleepover. I mean they're married,
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  Speaker 1: they've done the deed.
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  Speaker 7: Yes, no engagement. I mean we don't even know if
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  Speaker 7: they were fully calling each other girlfriend and boyfriend. They
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  Speaker 7: had the ring and got married thirteen days after meeting.
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  Speaker 7: Thirteen days.
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  Speaker 1: Let me ask you another quick question, Saphia Vittello. Is
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  Speaker 1: he rich?
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  Speaker 7: I do believe he's well off, Let's just say that.
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  Speaker 7: And I do know that Ashley was struggling with a
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  Speaker 7: career in modeling that was not working out for her,
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  Speaker 7: so that can also be noted in the beginning of
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  Speaker 7: this relationship.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, right, she was to start her own ballet company.
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  Speaker 1: That's not cheap, and then suddenly, poof, presto, here comes
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  Speaker 1: money bags. Okay, guys, when I start a murder case,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: if at all possible, I like to play the nine
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  Speaker 1: to one one call in the opening statement. Brian Foley
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  Speaker 1: is with me. Board certified criminal defense attorney, former Chief
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Prosecutor Harris County, and author of What Prosecutors Don't Tell You.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know about that, but Brian Foley, in order
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  Speaker 1: to play a nine one one call in an opening statement,
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  Speaker 1: you must first offer a profit and get it admitted
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  Speaker 1: into evidence before you play it for a jury. But
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: do you agree or disagree that only a nine one
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  Speaker 1: one call can take you back to the moment of
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  Speaker 1: the incident, unlike any witness can. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 9: When I was a prosecutor, we love playing nine one
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  Speaker 9: one calls, you know, if it sounds good. We hear
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  Speaker 9: a little bit at the beginning of that quirk that
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  Speaker 9: happens in Ninember one calls where the operator is stopping
• 5:05
  Speaker 9: the drama and asking, well, what's the address? And that
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  Speaker 9: always ruffled my feathers because you can get transported back.
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  Speaker 9: You can hear her sobbing, you can hear the neighbor
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  Speaker 9: saying they're there and consoling her. It really it helps
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  Speaker 9: paint an audio picture for the jury. Sometimes I would
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  Speaker 9: ask the jury to close their eyes while we played it,
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  Speaker 9: and their mind would create the scene for me.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, okay, so hey right there. Following up what Brian
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  Speaker 1: Foley and guys, he's a veteran trial lawyer out of Houston,
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  Speaker 1: Sophia Mattello. Was there any acting in her background?
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  Speaker 7: You know, we can't prove that, but what I can
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  Speaker 7: say is that watching the trial, you know, she's putting
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  Speaker 7: a show. She's testified for four hours with the same
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  Speaker 7: facial expression, hysterically crying for four hours, and you know,
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  Speaker 7: I don't know if there's acting in her background. But
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  Speaker 7: she's seeming like she had this practice. I mean, she
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  Speaker 7: had this specific look that she presented to this jury.
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  Speaker 1: Guys, let's listen to more than I will one call.
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  Speaker 2: I'm kind of concerned with her mother and the little
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  Speaker 2: girl and I get back there. Don't go after her,
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  Speaker 2: hon Come on, I know, I know, I know, come on,
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  Speaker 2: you know.
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  Speaker 10: I know.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, I just want you guys to stand.
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  Speaker 6: The phone with me.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, No, I'm right here with him. I'm just with her.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Okay. You hear the neighbor who is consoling. We're calling
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  Speaker 1: her the ballerina. Her name is Ashley Benifield. She was
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  Speaker 1: twenty eight at the time of the shooting. At the time,
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  Speaker 1: her husband, then husband, Doug Benefield, was shot dead straight
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: back out to Sophia Vittello. Investigator reporter WWSB, tell me
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  Speaker 1: about the location of the shooting, the specific location.
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  Speaker 7: Okay, so this is right after you got to remember
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  Speaker 7: Ashley had left South Carolina that was where they lived together.
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  Speaker 7: She moved into this Bradenton home that was her mother's
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  Speaker 7: house and what we would call here Lakewood Wrench pretty
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  Speaker 7: nice area, I gotta say, nice house in a clean,
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  Speaker 7: safe area. Okay, So she was in her mother's home,
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  Speaker 7: Doug was there to help her move. That raises another question.
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  Speaker 7: If you were in a relationship with domestic violence, why
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  Speaker 7: did you invite the man who you say abused you
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  Speaker 7: to help you move. So that's another situation we have
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  Speaker 7: going on at her mother's house. That is the situation.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Okay, let me understand something. Joining me is doctor Chloe Carmichael,
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  Speaker 1: clinical psychologist and author of Nervous Energy Harness The Power
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: of Your Anxiety. I'll try to do that right now,
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  Speaker 1: doctor Chloe Carmichael, Because after ten years, nearly eleven years
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  Speaker 1: in the pit, trying at felonies, violent felonies in inner
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  Speaker 1: city Atlanta, and at night working at the Battered Women's Center,
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  Speaker 1: I never once heard of one of those ladies once
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  Speaker 1: they had finally made it out, which is a huge
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  Speaker 1: hurdle in itself, getting out of the home, successfully leaving
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  Speaker 1: the home, and establishing yourself in another domicile here with
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  Speaker 1: her mother. I've never heard of one of the ladies
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  Speaker 1: that I dealt with anyway over the course of nearly
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  Speaker 1: ten years, inviting the perpetrator, the abuser. She's so afraid
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  Speaker 1: of that she actually moves out back to help move
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  Speaker 1: help me out.
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  Speaker 11: Yes, as a clinical psychologist, Nancy, I actually have seen
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  Speaker 11: that before, so that back and forth can certainly happen. Also,
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  Speaker 11: as a clinical psychologist working in New York City for
• 8:59
  Speaker 11: a decade, I've also worked with New York City ballerinas
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  Speaker 11: and I can tell you indeed they do have acting training.
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  Speaker 11: They're quite skilled that portraying the dramatic arts. I do
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  Speaker 11: also have a couple of questions for Sophia. I'm curious
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  Speaker 11: with this very quick marriage and of course having a child,
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  Speaker 11: as we're exploring, what is the financial background? Nancy, you
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  Speaker 11: had asked about if this gentleman was wealthy. I'm curious
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  Speaker 11: as well about if they had a prenuptial agreement.
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  Speaker 7: What I do know is that Doug was very much
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  Speaker 7: in love with Ashley. So what I can tell you
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  Speaker 7: is that leading up to the day of the shooting,
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  Speaker 7: he was trying with everything that he could, every fiber
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  Speaker 7: and is being to be with her and make the
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  Speaker 7: marriage work.
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  Speaker 1: And plus you've got the child he has a child
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  Speaker 1: with her. Crime stores with Nancy Grace, did this so
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: called black Swan ballerina murder her wealthy husband or was
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: it self defense of WorldWind Romance. These two actually marry
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  Speaker 1: thirteen days after meeting at some political fundraiser. They're married,
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  Speaker 1: the deed is done. As a matter of fact, he
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: has a vasectomy reversed ouch so he and she can
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  Speaker 1: have a baby, and they do have a baby girl.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: But what about all the forensics joining me right now?
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  Speaker 1: Renowned death investigator Joseph Scott Morgan, Professor forensis Jacksonville State University,
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  Speaker 1: author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon and starving
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: hit series Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan, Joe Scott,
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  Speaker 1: This issue comes up over and over and over self
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  Speaker 1: defense or murder. What have you learned by studying the case.
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  Speaker 4: It's fascinating to me, Nancy, that they're talking about self
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  Speaker 4: defense here when you have the police stating that he
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: was shot in the back, and out of all the
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  Speaker 4: homesides that I've worked relatives to, particularly firearms, it almost
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  Speaker 4: like it's like threat level reduces at that point in time.
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  Speaker 4: So you wait until the individual turns away from you
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  Speaker 4: if they are in fact an aggressor, and then you're
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  Speaker 4: going to place six fire shots or three fire shots
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  Speaker 4: into his back. Don't that doesn't marry up with this
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  Speaker 4: idea of the individual being an aggressor at that moment
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  Speaker 4: in time, at that acute moment, it's almost like they're
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  Speaker 4: in retreat at that moment in time.
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  Speaker 1: If this had happened, We've got a gunshot when I'm
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: looking at the autopsy right now, and can I tell
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  Speaker 1: you Jo just gott as if you don't know, and
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  Speaker 1: I know you know, Brian fully Chris Byers also joining us,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: former police chief in Johns Creek. You guys know how
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  Speaker 1: critical the autopsy is. Okay, if you look at it
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: line by line, you learn everything there is to know
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: about what you're going to try to prove or what
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  Speaker 1: you're not going to try to prove at trial. We've
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  Speaker 1: got a gunshot wound to the chest and gunshot wound
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  Speaker 1: to the right leg. How did that happen? Blunt impact
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: of head? Now wait a minute, Wait a minute, blunt
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: impact of head, continuous abrasion and soft tissue scalp contusion.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: So was he hitting the head and shot multiple times?
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Just got help me out here. With the gunshot wound
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  Speaker 1: to the chest, it says perforation of right lateral chest
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: wall with confluent chest tube incision. What does that mean, Well.
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: What that means is that his longest obvious been clipped
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: in this round with this round, and so his chest,
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  Speaker 4: the chest is actually filling with blood. So if there
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: is an attempt to, you know, depressurize that area where
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: you have blood that's kind of surrounding the lung and treatment,
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: you'd have to drop a line in there because it's
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: the pressure that's building up as a result of the
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  Speaker 4: blood contained in the chest cavity is inhibiting his ability
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  Speaker 4: to breed. And this is something that happens all the time.
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  Speaker 12: Let me just.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Break it down. I know it's hard for you not
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: to talk like a medical professional, but are you saying
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: his lung was clipped? You kept me to that moment,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: but then I think you're saying that his lung started
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: filling it with blood or his chest cavity started filling
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: out with blood and he couldn't breathe, so they inserted
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: a toe to try to save him. Is that what
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: you're saying.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, And one more thing that's really frustrating forensics sometimes
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: when we're trying to examine these insults like this, they
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: will actually use and it's no fault of their own.
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  Speaker 4: They have to do what they have to do. But
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: the people that are saving the life will actually use
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: the gunshot wound itself as the place where they're going
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: to put a tube in because there's no need in
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: going in and creating another defect in the body where
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: you can simply use this.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Which totally ruins your trajectory investigation.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah it can, it can. Yeah.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah. We also got perforation of right fifth and left
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: tenth ribs and T ten vertebra in a nutshell. Dummy
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: down for me, Joe Scott, dummy down? What does that mean?
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: Well, T ten that's you're talking about the thoracic vertebra
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: at that point in time. And also this is I'm
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: unclear if they have clipped along or clipped a rib
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: and it doesn't really give you directionality. One more thing here,
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: they're saying chest. Most people don't understand we have an
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: anterior chest and we have a post here your chest.
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: So you hear the term chest and automatically from the
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: front and back, and if it's lateral, then this can
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: be the back that gives you an idea of orientation
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: and presentation of the target.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: Stop plays ears, hurting, ears, bleeding now I'm just asking you,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: t ten vertebra that there's the perforation that's your spine.
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  Speaker 3: Correct, Yes, it is.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: So if he's shot with spine, can he even move well?
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: It all depends on how compromised that vertebral body is. Now,
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: if it went into the area where the spinal cord
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: goes down, drops through the little hole that's in there,
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: the foremen as it's referred to, Yeah, that can be compromised,
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: and it can compromise your ability of mobility.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: Got a small isolated blast laceration of a order, the
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: A order. What do you mean aren't there's several A
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: order in the body? So what is this A order singular?
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: It's the largest vessel in the body and it literally
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: runs if you front, we're talking about front right, the
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: front of the spine. Okay, the order runs down the
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: length of the spine until it bifurcates into our legs
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: where it becomes the femeral arteries.
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  Speaker 3: And so yeah, you see this associated.
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  Speaker 4: With spinal trauma many times where the order will actually
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: be clipped as well. That can lead to that space
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: around the lungs and even the abdominal cavity filling with
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: blood too. It becomes very complicated.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: I'm just trying to get my head around the fact
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: that he's shot in T ten vertebra. That's your spine,
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: and I'm wondering if he couldn't even move that projectile
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: bullet is recovered. But now I've got a gunshot wound
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: to the right leg. Sophia Matello, how many times is
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: the victim of shock?
• 16:49
  Speaker 7: Three times? Three times?
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Okay? And we've got perforations of lungs. Gunshot wound to chest.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: That's the cod cause of death, separate gunshot wounds. I'm
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: trying to make sense of what we know right now,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: but I want you to hear what a judge, Circuit
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: Court Judge Diana Morland said. From our friends at Inside.
• 17:17
  Speaker 10: Edition, We'll see that this was a custody battle that
• 17:22
  Speaker 10: this mother was going to win at all costs, and
• 17:25
  Speaker 10: the cost was the life of Doug Benefield.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: I thought he was going to kill me.
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: Black Swan ballerina Ashley Benefield testifies in her husband's murder trial.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: So Joskott Morgan, professor FORENSAC Jacksonville State University death investigator
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: with over one thousand deaths investigated by him, says that
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: the victim was shot in the back. Our investigative reporter
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: joining us today from w WSBABC seven and Sarasota says
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: there were three gunshot wounds. Okay, I think the word
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: overkill may come into play right here, but having worked
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: at the batter Women's Center for so many years, I
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: do not want to dissuade the consideration that she may
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: have been a battered woman. Let's look at the relationship.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: Let's move away from the forensics, the gunshot residue, the
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: trajectory path of the bullets. What do we know about
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: them as a couple.
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: Listen, still grieving the sudden loss of his wife, and
• 18:38
  Speaker 5: Doug Benifield is rubbing elbows with the rich and powerful
• 18:41
  Speaker 5: of a GOP fundraiser at the Florida home of doctor
• 18:44
  Speaker 5: Ben Carson when he's introduced to a former ballerina Ashley Byers,
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: as a swimsuit model, and she and Benifield are smitten
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: with each other and neither one seems to notice or
• 18:53
  Speaker 5: care about their thirty year age gap.
• 18:56
  Speaker 12: Ashley tells Doug she wants to have a ballet company
• 18:59
  Speaker 12: using dance of all sizes and genders. Doug wants to
• 19:03
  Speaker 12: make her dreams come true. Doug returns from a trip
• 19:06
  Speaker 12: in thirteen days after they meet Doug Benefield Mary's Ashley Buyers.
• 19:11
  Speaker 12: It is a shocking turn of events for a man
• 19:13
  Speaker 12: with a teen daughter, just nine years younger than his
• 19:17
  Speaker 12: new wife.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Okay, let me understand something, Sephia Vittello. Hold on, when
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: you said model, you didn't tell me she was a
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: swimsuit model.
• 19:25
  Speaker 7: I mean, she's a gorgeous girl. She's a gorgeous girl.
• 19:28
  Speaker 7: But what I do know is, you know, swimsuit model.
• 19:31
  Speaker 7: We got to use it lightly. Her career was not
• 19:34
  Speaker 7: blowing up. You know. I'm not to say that she
• 19:37
  Speaker 7: was in a position seeking money. We don't know that specifically,
• 19:40
  Speaker 7: but we do know that Doug was vulnerable. In that video,
• 19:42
  Speaker 7: it says sudden dealing with a sudden loss of his wife. Guys,
• 19:45
  Speaker 7: it was less than a year. It was less than
• 19:47
  Speaker 7: a year. His wife had just died.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Yes, And isn't it correct, Sefia Vittello that his daughter
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: by his first wife came home and found mommy dead
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: on the floor from heart ailment. Yes, so this guy
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: is reeling m hm.
• 20:04
  Speaker 7: Yes, he's reeling it, and so's his daughter. And Eva
• 20:07
  Speaker 7: says that she had talked to her dad and he said, oh,
• 20:10
  Speaker 7: I'm not I'm not going to get into anything. You know,
• 20:13
  Speaker 7: I'm I'm not going to get into anything fast. And
• 20:16
  Speaker 7: next thing you know, Eva says her dad was married
• 20:19
  Speaker 7: and it really shocked her. That's another thing shocked her.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: Okay, very quickly after the wedding, things turned sour lessen.
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: In the first days of their wedded bliss, Doug and
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: Ashley Benifield argue loudly. Doug's daughter Eva asks if one
• 20:34
  Speaker 5: of her friends can move in with them for a while.
• 20:36
  Speaker 5: And now Doug has two teen girls in the house
• 20:38
  Speaker 5: and a wife who not only wants to create a
• 20:40
  Speaker 5: ballet company that Doug says he will help finance, she
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: also wants a baby. Doug starts making calls about the
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: ballet and about having his vest sectomy reversed.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: Okay, what do you have to do to having a
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: sex to may reverse show Scott Morgan.
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: In a nutshell, you have to go back in and
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: actually reattach the vest deference and so that they're functional
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: at that point, Tom.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: The vast difference. I don't even know what you're saying, man,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: What go back into what the penis it's anatomical. You
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: can say penis. Okay, so you know I'm not.
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: Talking about penis, Nancy, I'm not talking about penis.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't have to ask.
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: Well, we'll talk about testicles.
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: How's that instead of penie, we're talking about attachment.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: Scott, I don't care. I know that the peanut gallery
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: may yiggle. But you meet a man in thirteen days,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: you're married, and you convince him to have surgery on
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: his testicles. Okay, that's love. So he has surgery on
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: his testicles. He has the best sect to me, it's
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: kind of a snip, snip in and out correct.
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: The best sectomy is yes, But now you're talking about
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: a reattachment to make it functional once again. And you know,
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: all I have to say is, if that's the case,
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: she must have been quite beguiling and bewitching because this
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: is a really quick decision to make.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: So how difficult is it? And what does the man
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: have to undergo to have a vasectomy reversal? And again,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: there's no giggling. This is real. The guys did he
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: shot three times? Once in the back. It's not holding
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: together from me, but into the thinking, the thinking of
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: these two I just want to know how difficult it
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: is and what a man must endure to have a
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: asectomy reversal.
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: It's not very difficult at all.
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: It's done all the time, literally, and it can be
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: done actually on an outpatient basis. Most guys would like
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: to remain in the hospital if they could. There is
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: pain associated with this, make no mistake about that. A
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: lot of post operatives, swelling and this sort of thing.
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: So yeah, it takes tom and it's a painful process
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: to go through, So obviously you felt like she was
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: worth it.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Joining me right now, private investigator, owner of Buyers Investigative Services.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: But for my purposes, former police Chief John's Creek, twenty
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: five years in l E law enforcement, Chris Buyers, It'll
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: be a cold day, cold, frigid, cold day in hub
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: l that. I do not support a battered woman's right
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: to defend herself against her abuser.
• 23:36
  Speaker 7: Right, absolutely absolutely, But.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: I cannot turn away from physical forensic evidence. Forensic evidence,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: unless it's been tampered with, does not lie. Now what
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: do you.
• 23:52
  Speaker 8: Think absolutely in any of these cases, that's what you do.
• 23:55
  Speaker 8: You follow the evidence. I'm from what I'm hearing on
• 23:58
  Speaker 8: this as well. The three shots shot in the back.
• 24:01
  Speaker 8: It does not present as someone who was about to
• 24:04
  Speaker 8: receive imminent death or great bodily harm, which is what
• 24:08
  Speaker 8: you need for this self defense. So yes, with what
• 24:11
  Speaker 8: I'm hearing about the forensics of this yeah, that's a
• 24:15
  Speaker 8: far stretch to show self.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: Defense crime stories with Nancy Grace to get to the
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: truth of this case. It's so called black Swan ballerina.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: What do we know? Okay, we know that very quickly
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: after the meetup at a political fundraiser, the two get
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: married within thirteen days, and she announces not only does
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: she want her husband to fund a ballet company, which
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: is not a cheap endeavor, that things go south. Not
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: only does she want the ballet company, she also wants
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: her husband to reversive s sectomy so she can have
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: a baby, which he does. Everything's going sideways, including money woes. Listen.
• 25:09
  Speaker 5: Doug Benifield, trying to hold together the ballet company that
• 25:12
  Speaker 5: was his wife's dream, arrives to find that Ashley and
• 25:15
  Speaker 5: her mother drive from Florida to Charleston, pack up Ashley's
• 25:18
  Speaker 5: personal belongings and leave a note for Doug the marriage
• 25:21
  Speaker 5: is over, calling him possessive and controlling. In the note,
• 25:24
  Speaker 5: she says she is fearful for her life and the
• 25:26
  Speaker 5: safety of her unborn child.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: Okay, so she moves in with the mom. Listen.
• 25:31
  Speaker 13: Ashley Bennifield moves in with her mother in Florida and
• 25:33
  Speaker 13: begins a process to prevent Doug Bennifield from being involved
• 25:36
  Speaker 13: in the life of his own child. Frustrated, Doug Minnifield
• 25:39
  Speaker 13: uses an attorney to reach out to Ashley Bennifield by email.
• 25:42
  Speaker 13: Ashley has not capped Doug informed of anything with regard
• 25:45
  Speaker 13: to her pregnancy, and one day after receiving the email
• 25:48
  Speaker 13: from Doug's lawyer, Ashley Bennifield has labor induced even though
• 25:52
  Speaker 13: she's weeks away from her due date. Ashley then refuses
• 25:55
  Speaker 13: to communicate with Doug. He isn't even aware his daughter
• 25:58
  Speaker 13: is born for six.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Weeks stars Okay, Sophia Vittella joining US investigative reporter WWSB.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: So she kept the birth of the baby a secret
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: and did not tell the husband.
• 26:10
  Speaker 7: Yeah, and this is really the state's entire argument here
• 26:14
  Speaker 7: that Ashley decided she wanted to be a single mother
• 26:18
  Speaker 7: the second she got pregnant. That's their whole argument against her,
• 26:22
  Speaker 7: saying that it was self defense because there have been
• 26:25
  Speaker 7: all of these instances where she she got pregnant. She
• 26:29
  Speaker 7: immediately moved right and then she made sure that he
• 26:32
  Speaker 7: didn't even know that the baby was born until six
• 26:36
  Speaker 7: weeks after. So she wanted him to have nothing to
• 26:40
  Speaker 7: do with the child that they shared.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Now, I want you to hear what the so called
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: black Swan, by the way, she doesn't like that Moniker
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: has to say. Listen, Douglas Benifield was a violent abuser.
• 26:52
  Speaker 11: I said stop, and he turned and he got into
• 26:56
  Speaker 11: this like it like a fighting stance.
• 27:00
  Speaker 5: Kill me.
• 27:01
  Speaker 11: He started coming towards me and he lunged up Merlie
• 27:08
  Speaker 11: the trigger.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: Okay, again from our friends at Inside Edition. But Joe
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: Scott Morgan, did you hear what she just said? This
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: is critical, Joe Scott. She said he lunged at her.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: If he lunged at her, the bullet should be front
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: to back.
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, what he lunged at her with his shoulder blade.
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: That doesn't make sense at all. The calculus doesn't work
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: out here. Lunging means that you're moving toward the individual.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: The indication is what we're hearing is that he was
• 27:36
  Speaker 4: shot post heially now We don't know the precise the
• 27:40
  Speaker 4: precise trajectories here.
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: But it just doesn't. It just doesn't, mesh.
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: And I got to tell you, Nancy, from a forensic standpoint,
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: this is one of the major benchmarks as to why
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: the police moved forward with this case.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: What do you mean one of the benchmarks as to
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: why police move forward?
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: The science doesn't.
• 27:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah, the beauty of this is that the science doesn't lie.
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: She's actually saying that he lunged toward her and all
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: indications are is that these gunshot wounds, that this man
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: has sustained our posterior on his backside or at least lateral,
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: that it doesn't marry up with this so called fighter
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: stance whatever whatever the hell that means that he goes into.
• 28:23
  Speaker 4: According to her, the science doesn't marry up here. And
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: that's one of the big we use the term red
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: flag a moment ago for an investigator. That's a big
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: red flag when you've got when the police have spoken
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: with the EME, which I guarantee they did that day,
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: and try to marry this up with a statement that
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: she's giving. The two things just don't mesh.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Okay, I want to go back to Sophia Vittillo joining
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: US investigative reporter WWSB. Are we correct that at least
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: one of the shots.
• 28:51
  Speaker 7: Was back to front according to dozens of hours honestly
• 28:56
  Speaker 7: of testimony, everything that we have heard, he was facing
• 28:59
  Speaker 7: the other way right.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Are you saying he was shot in the back?
• 29:02
  Speaker 7: Very simply according to medical examiner's testimony, Yes, he was
• 29:06
  Speaker 7: shot in the back.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: Okay, then what she's saying cannot be true. And you know,
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: let me understand. Brian Foley joining me, renowned criminal defense
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: attorney and author, Brian, It is possible that he is
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: shot in the back and was attacking her. He could
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: have attacked her and then turned to get a weapon.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: He could have attacked her and tried to push off
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: a dog. There are many reasons he could have turned
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: his back and still be the aggressor. However, her story
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: is impossible based on the bullet path trajectory.
• 29:48
  Speaker 9: Yes, and when we listen to a defendant give a
• 29:52
  Speaker 9: statement about a very traumatic event, these things really happen
• 29:56
  Speaker 9: a lot faster than people think. You don't have time
• 29:59
  Speaker 9: to to react in between shots. You know, some people say, well,
• 30:03
  Speaker 9: why did you have to shoot him two more times
• 30:05
  Speaker 9: if he'd already been shot.
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: He's not.
• 30:07
  Speaker 9: You know, the other two bullets aren't self defense, even
• 30:10
  Speaker 9: if the.
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: First one was.
• 30:11
  Speaker 9: But these all happened way too fast for that to
• 30:14
  Speaker 9: be the case. And one thing I wanted to add
• 30:16
  Speaker 9: is the prosecution doesn't have to prove that she lied
• 30:20
  Speaker 9: about how it happened. You know, if the forensic evidence
• 30:23
  Speaker 9: shows that her statement isn't accurate, that doesn't mean that
• 30:26
  Speaker 9: she's not doing it in self defense. They have to
• 30:28
  Speaker 9: prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there's no other possibility
• 30:33
  Speaker 9: that it was in self defense. And Nancy, you hit
• 30:35
  Speaker 9: the nail on the head. They said she had to
• 30:37
  Speaker 9: run back.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: That's not true. Nobody has to prove no possibility beyond
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: any doubt whatsoever, such as to a mathematical certainty, like
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: two and two plus is four. Two and two equals four.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: Now that's not the legal standard. The legal standard is
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: beyond a reasonable doubt. She has raised the affirmative defense
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: of self defense, which may it's au firmative defense. I
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: did it, but I'm excused because self defense, because accident,
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: because insanity, different reasons. But the state only has to
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: pierce that beyond a reasonable doubt, not to a mathematical certainty,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: and the fact that while an attacker can rarely be
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: shot in the back and still be the aggressor never happens,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: it's possible her story does not coincide with the wounds.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying, Brian Foley.
• 31:33
  Speaker 9: Well, her story does coincide a little bit there in
• 31:36
  Speaker 9: the fact that he has an abrasion on his head.
• 31:38
  Speaker 9: That would tend to show that there was a struggle,
• 31:40
  Speaker 9: maybe even an attack on her, and so that could
• 31:44
  Speaker 9: have happened before he was killed. You know, we don't
• 31:47
  Speaker 9: have the exact photos or anything like that.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: Is okay, you know what, let's follow through with that,
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: Brian Foley. Did she say, Sophia Vtello, that there was
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: a physical struggle and then somehow she hit him in
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: the head.
• 32:00
  Speaker 7: She said that he was trying to strike her for
• 32:03
  Speaker 7: the first time and she fired. So it is believed
• 32:08
  Speaker 7: that he did not he did not reach her.
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: Jessica Morgan, what were you saying.
• 32:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, one of the things that's very troubling to me, Nancy,
• 32:16
  Speaker 4: are these head injuries that he has sustained. Because they're
• 32:18
  Speaker 4: calling one of them a laceration. As you well know,
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: that's blunt force trauma. And one of the things that
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: we think about when someone holding a weapon. If we
• 32:27
  Speaker 4: have a dummy weapon here from JSU that we use
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: at Jack State to train our students with, you see
• 32:33
  Speaker 4: these very definitive edges.
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: Here right here.
• 32:36
  Speaker 4: And actually I've worked cases where weapons like this can
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: be used almost like a hammer. They're very blunted, and
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: that's where you I can't imagine her as quote unquote
• 32:49
  Speaker 4: athletic as she may have been, that she's going to
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: score a hit to his head that's going to generate
• 32:56
  Speaker 4: a laceration that's severe blunt force trauma. I wonder if
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: there are trace elements of his blood on this weapon,
• 33:03
  Speaker 4: and did they try to match this up with the
• 33:05
  Speaker 4: injury he sustained to his head, because how's she going
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: to get in close enough in order to generate that
• 33:11
  Speaker 4: kind of force with her bare hands. I think there's
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: a high probability that once he's down, she may have
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: struck him in the head.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: In other words, simply put bare handed.
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: Maybe stomping on somebody, but not bare handed.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: No, yeah, got it. One thing that's very disturbing. I
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: got a lot of eminence stating that this is not
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: self defense, but Sylvia Matello. Isn't it true that Evans
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: is coming in that he the victim, hit the dog
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: and the cat out of anger.
• 33:43
  Speaker 7: Yeah, so those are some things we have to look at,
• 33:46
  Speaker 7: and that is where the defense is pushing their entire argument.
• 33:51
  Speaker 7: We have his abuse. We don't know how many times
• 33:54
  Speaker 7: or what the situation specifically was towards the Pats. We
• 33:58
  Speaker 7: have a fists in the wall. We have a bullet
• 34:05
  Speaker 7: mark in the ceiling of their house. Okay, so we
• 34:09
  Speaker 7: see here that maybe there was some moments of anger
• 34:12
  Speaker 7: and we don't know exactly what happened, But that's where
• 34:15
  Speaker 7: the defense is using. Hey, Doug was violent. Look he
• 34:18
  Speaker 7: hit the dog, he punched the wall. Why couldn't it
• 34:21
  Speaker 7: have been Ashley Sophia.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: I think this text purportedly is from him. I pussed
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: the dog because you got me so mad, like you
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: wouldn't stop about Eva always Eva, every argument. Eva? Who
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: is Eva? Sophia.
• 34:38
  Speaker 7: Eva is Doug's daughter, and I'd like to add have
• 34:40
  Speaker 7: talked to her several times and she tells me that
• 34:43
  Speaker 7: they were constantly together, touching each other, lovey dovey, and
• 34:48
  Speaker 7: so maybe there was a bit of jealousy on Ashley's
• 34:50
  Speaker 7: end because I did not pick it up from Eva's
• 34:53
  Speaker 7: end while I was interviewing her.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: Nancy.
• 34:55
  Speaker 6: Ultimately, the jury did not believe Ashley Benifield's account that
• 34:59
  Speaker 6: she was at risk when she shot her husband and
• 35:02
  Speaker 6: killed him. In his closing argument, Benifield's defense attorney, Neil Taylor,
• 35:07
  Speaker 6: said his client did what any law abiding citizen would
• 35:10
  Speaker 6: do when dealing with an abusive partner. According to the defense,
• 35:14
  Speaker 6: she filed complaint after complaint, calling Doug Benifield's behavior to
• 35:18
  Speaker 6: the attention of authorities, with no result. No one else
• 35:22
  Speaker 6: was home when Benifield shot her husband, but according to
• 35:25
  Speaker 6: state prosecutors, there was no evidence that Benifield had been
• 35:29
  Speaker 6: struck in the face and her testimony about the event
• 35:33
  Speaker 6: had been evasive. Now, the thirty two year old Ashley
• 35:36
  Speaker 6: Benfield is facing a sentence of up to thirty years
• 35:39
  Speaker 6: in a state prison after being convicted of manslaughter. She
• 35:43
  Speaker 6: will learn her fate in October.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Mary signing off good
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: night friendl