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