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"BLACK SWAN" BALLERINA LOSES SELF-DEFENSE BID: SENTENCED 20 YEARS · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: In the Last Hours, a so called black Swan ballerina
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Ashley Bennifil has a date in court with Lady Justice
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: after she's charged with murdering her husband. I'm Nancy Grace,
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: this is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: That's right. In the Last Days, Ashley Banifil, dubbed the
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Black Swan, showed no emotion a cold reaction in court
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: as she is sentenced for murdering her husband. The former
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: ballerina sentenced to twenty years behind bars after she's found
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: guilty of.
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  Speaker 1: Fatally shooting the husband.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Benifield, convicted of manslaughter, has thirty days to appeal her
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: sentence after a drefinds she killed Doug Banifield in her
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  Speaker 2: Florida home in septemb She claimed the act was self defense.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Okay, what exactly happened?
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  Speaker 3: Faney County nine on one?
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  Speaker 4: What is the address of your emergency? All right? My
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: address is White Rock Terrorst. Okay, can you dress for
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: me to make sure I have it? Correcly, the house
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: next to honey? What's your address? Okay? As luis right next.
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  Speaker 2: Door to me.
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  Speaker 4: She just came over her strength husband attacked her, and
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: she says she shot him. Now we's not gone over
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: there yet. A doctor, okay, what is his name?
• 1:35
  Speaker 5: Heard?
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  Speaker 4: His name is Doug fed Afield.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: What happened?
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Having worked at the Battered Women's Center for nearly ten
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  Speaker 2: years while I was a prosecutor, I'm always suspicious when
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: I hear people say she claimed self defense?
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Is there some issue? Let's listen to more of that
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: nine to one one call.
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: I had not gone over to her home. Okay, I
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: double that. I don't want you to go over there
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: and line. Just one moment, I'm gonna steck you over
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: the sheriff's dispatchoking. Okay, okay, one moment.
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  Speaker 3: Calm down, Colm don What is your name, sir? My
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: name's John samp So.
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: I live next summer. But this guy's on recording line.
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: This is Gabby. How can I help you? Okay, Gabby,
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: it's Karen on the one one three, two seven. A
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: John singer on the phone. He's saying, the neighbor came over,
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  Speaker 4: a female neighbor. It was a domestics.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: She shot her husband, so where's the gun? Listen?
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  Speaker 3: She came in.
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  Speaker 4: She was quite hysterical. I didn't know who was then
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  Speaker 4: when the door, said that he attacked her and she
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: shot him. Okay, I'm just getting that on the screen.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: Okay, okay, go ahead, ma'am.
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: Where's the gun? Is it with her? Or is it
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  Speaker 4: just I have it right here? Ma'am is sitting on
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: the floor inside the door, and my door's locked in
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: case she isn't, we can't get off.
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  Speaker 3: But I'm also on restauran Tia harm hosts, so everybody knows.
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  Speaker 1: Don't worry, he's not coming after her. He's dead.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: With me an all star panel to make sense of
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  Speaker 2: what we are learning in the so called Black Swan
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: homicide trial claims that this young ballerina mom.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Is also a killer.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Straight out to Sophia Vottello, joining US investigative reporter WWSB,
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  Speaker 2: joining us out of Sarasota in this jurisdiction. Sophia, thank
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  Speaker 2: you for being with us.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Start at the beginning, what happened.
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  Speaker 6: Very beginning of it all.
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  Speaker 5: I just want to start with the two met in
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  Speaker 5: twenty sixteen out of dinner, Okay, at a Republican dinner.
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: She was twenty four, he was fifty four, So that's
• 3:46
  Speaker 5: already a first red flag right there.
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  Speaker 6: They fall in love and in just thirteen.
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  Speaker 2: Days, Stott, Sophia Vittello, wwsb, you got me drinking from
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: the fire hydrant here, too much, too fast? Okay, held on, Well, okay,
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  Speaker 2: first of all, you said the age difference is a
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: red flag.
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  Speaker 1: Tell me the age difference again.
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  Speaker 6: Twenty four Ashley fifty four, Doug.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, okay, probably not a red flag for him, did
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  Speaker 2: I hear correctly? In thirteen days they're married. I don't
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  Speaker 2: mean just like they have their first sleepover. I mean
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  Speaker 2: they're married. They've done the deed.
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  Speaker 6: Yes, no engagement.
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  Speaker 5: I mean we don't even know if they were fully
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  Speaker 5: calling each other girlfriend and boyfriend. They had the ring
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  Speaker 5: and got married thirteen days after meeting.
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  Speaker 6: Thirteen days.
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  Speaker 1: Let me ask you another quick question, Saphia Matello. Is
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: he rich?
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  Speaker 6: I do believe he's well off. Let's just say that.
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  Speaker 5: And I do know that Ashley was struggling with a
• 4:42
  Speaker 5: career in modeling that was not working out for her,
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  Speaker 5: so that can also be noted in the beginning of
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  Speaker 5: this relationship.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, right, She also start her own ballet company that's
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: not cheap, and then suddenly, poof presto, here comes money bags. Okay, guys,
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: when I start a murder case, if at all possible,
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: I like to play the nine one one call in
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  Speaker 2: the opening statement. Brian Foley is with me board certified
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: critical defense attorney, former Chief Prosecutor Harris County, and author
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: of What Prosecutors Don't Tell You. I don't know about that,
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  Speaker 2: but Brian Foley, in order to play a nine to
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  Speaker 2: one one call in an opening statement, you must first
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  Speaker 2: offer a profit and get it admitted into evidence before.
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  Speaker 1: You play it for a jury. But do you agree
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: or disagree that only a nine one one call.
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  Speaker 2: Can take you back to the moment of the incident,
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  Speaker 2: unlike any witness can.
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  Speaker 7: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 8: When I was a prosecutor, we love playing nine one
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  Speaker 8: one calls, you know, if it sounds good. We hear
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  Speaker 8: a little bit at the beginning of that quirk that
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  Speaker 8: happens in nine one calls where the operator is stopping
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  Speaker 8: the drama and asking, well, what's the address? And that
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  Speaker 8: always that always ruffled my feathers because you can get
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  Speaker 8: transported back. You can hear her sobbing, you can hear
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  Speaker 8: the neighbor saying they're that and consoling her. It really
• 6:02
  Speaker 8: it helps paint an audio picture for the jury. Sometimes
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  Speaker 8: I would ask the jury to close their eyes while
• 6:09
  Speaker 8: we played it, and their mind would create the scene
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  Speaker 8: for me.
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  Speaker 1: Wow.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so hey right there. Following up what Brian Foley
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: and guys hees a veteran trial lawyer out of Houston,
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  Speaker 2: Sophia Vittello, was there any acting in her background?
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  Speaker 5: You know, we can't prove that, but what I can
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  Speaker 5: say is that watching the trial and she put on
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  Speaker 5: a show.
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  Speaker 6: She testified for four hours on.
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  Speaker 5: Friday with the same facial expression, hysterically crying for four hours.
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  Speaker 5: And you know, I don't know if there's acting in
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  Speaker 5: her background, but she definitely had this.
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  Speaker 6: She's seemingly she had this practice. I mean, she had
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  Speaker 6: this specific look that she presented to this jury.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, hold, but I'm making notes as fast as I
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  Speaker 2: can specific.
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  Speaker 1: Look presented to jury.
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  Speaker 2: Did this so called black Swan ballerina murder her wealthy
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: husband or was it self defense?
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  Speaker 1: Okay, let's listen to more than I will one call.
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  Speaker 4: I'm kind of concerned with her mother and the little
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  Speaker 4: girl and might get back there.
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  Speaker 3: Don't go out there, Honda. Come on, I know, I know,
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  Speaker 3: I know, come on, I know.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, all right, I just want you guys to stand
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  Speaker 4: the phone with me. Okay, No, I'm right here with him.
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  Speaker 3: I'm just with her.
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  Speaker 1: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: You hear the neighbor who is consoling. We're calling her
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  Speaker 2: the ballerina. Her name is Ashley Bennifield. She was twenty
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  Speaker 2: eight at the time of the shooting. At the time,
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  Speaker 2: her husband, then husband, Doug Benefield, was shot dead. Straight
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: back out to Sophia Vittello investigator reporter WWSB, tell me
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  Speaker 2: about the location of the shooting, the specific location.
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  Speaker 5: Okay, so this is right after you got to remember
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  Speaker 5: Ashley had left South Carolina, that was where they lived together.
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  Speaker 5: She moved into this Bradenton home that was her mother's
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  Speaker 5: house in what we would call here Lakewood Ranch. Pretty
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  Speaker 5: nice area, I gotta say, nice house in a clean,
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  Speaker 5: safe area.
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  Speaker 6: Okay. So she was in her mother's home. Doug was
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  Speaker 6: there to help her move. That raises another question. If
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  Speaker 6: you are in a relationship with domestic.
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  Speaker 5: Violence, why did you invite the man who you say
• 8:40
  Speaker 5: abused you to help you move. So that's another situation
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  Speaker 5: we have going on at her mother's house.
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  Speaker 6: That is the situation.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, let me understand something joining me is doctor Chloe Carmichael,
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  Speaker 2: clinical psychologist and author of Nervous Energy Harness The Power
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: of Your Anxiety. I'm trying to do that right now,
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: doctor Chloe Carmichael, because after ten years, nearly eleven years
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  Speaker 2: in the pit, trying at felonies, violent felonies in inner
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  Speaker 2: city Atlanta and at night working at the Battered Women's Center,
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  Speaker 2: I never once heard of one of those ladies once
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  Speaker 2: they had finally made it out, which is a huge
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  Speaker 2: hurdle in itself, getting out of the home, successfully leaving
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  Speaker 2: the home and establishing yourself in another domicile here with
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  Speaker 2: her mother. I've never heard of one of the ladies
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  Speaker 2: that I dealt with anyway over the course of nearly
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  Speaker 2: ten years, inviting the perpetrator, the abuser. She's so afraid
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  Speaker 2: of that she actually moves out back to help move
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  Speaker 2: help me out.
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  Speaker 9: Yes, as a clinical psychologist, Nancy, I actually have seen
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  Speaker 9: that before, so that back and forth can certainly happen. Also,
• 9:55
  Speaker 9: as a clinical psychologist working in New York City for
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  Speaker 9: a decade, I've also wear with New York City ballerinas,
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  Speaker 9: and I can tell you indeed they do have acting training.
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  Speaker 9: They're quite skilled that portraying, you know, the dramatic arts.
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  Speaker 9: I do also have a couple of questions for Sophia.
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  Speaker 9: I'm curious with this very quick marriage and of course
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  Speaker 9: having a child, as we're exploring, what is the financial background, Nancy,
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  Speaker 9: you had asked about if this if this gentleman was wealthy.
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  Speaker 9: I'm curious as well about if they had a pre
• 10:26
  Speaker 9: nuptial agreement and if we know anything about the life
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  Speaker 9: insurance or if there could have possibly been any financial
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  Speaker 9: component to this, just so we know the context.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, you know what very interesting that you said that,
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  Speaker 2: doctor Chloe. My next question for our investigative reporter Sevia Fatel.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: It's life insurance. That's what's scrolled right there. Nice insurance.
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  Speaker 2: What do we know about that Sophia hotel? Have we
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: heard anything about that in the courtroom?
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  Speaker 5: That is something that I have been looking into and
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  Speaker 5: no one has been mentioning it. I've been finding that
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  Speaker 5: a lot of things are kind of tight wrapped or
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: tight lipped here. Even with you could think of the
• 11:04
  Speaker 5: restraining order that was out in South Carolina. We can't
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  Speaker 5: know anything about that either, you know. So there's a
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  Speaker 5: lot of things that are secret. What I do know
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  Speaker 5: is that Doug was very much in love with Ashley.
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  Speaker 5: So what I can tell you is that leading up
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  Speaker 5: to the day of the shooting, he was trying with
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  Speaker 5: everything that he could, every fiber and is being to be.
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  Speaker 6: With her and make the marriage work. So if there
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  Speaker 6: was any life insurance, her name was on it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: This and plus you've got the child. He has a
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  Speaker 1: child with her of whirlwind romance. These two actually.
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  Speaker 2: Marry thirteen days after meeting at some political fundraiser.
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  Speaker 1: They're married, the date is done.
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  Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, he has a vasectomy reversed
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: ouch so he and she can have a baby, and
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  Speaker 2: they do have a baby girl. What about all the
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: forensics I'm going to bring in Joseph Scott Morgan, professor
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: of forensics joining us in Jasonal State University. But first,
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  Speaker 2: a tiny tiny bit of evidence from our friends at
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: Inside Edition.
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  Speaker 10: Do you believe that your father was abusive toward his wife?
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  Speaker 6: Absolutely not. He was the furthest thing from abusive in innue.
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  Speaker 11: Do you think she intended to shoot and kill him?
• 12:26
  Speaker 9: Yes, I believe that it was actually intentional and it
• 12:30
  Speaker 9: was planned prior to her shooting.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, Welcome back in the last days.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: The so called Black Swan ballerina Ashley Benefield's cold reaction
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: in court as she is sentenced for murdering her husband.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: In court, Doug Benefield, her husband daughter, spoke saying quote,
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: you have managed to orphan not one, but two young girls,
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: referring to herself and the ballerina's young daughter. She goes
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: on to say in court, Ashley, since the day you
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: shot my father, I've only had one question to ask you.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: Why Why did you end my dad's life? Knowing he
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: was my only living parent and the only person I
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: could confide in and count on for everything I needed
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: as I turned into a young adult. Of course, during
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: the trial, the Black Swan ballerina Ashley of Benefeld took
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: the stand to tell her side of the story, breaking
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: down in tears when recounting her let me just say
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: volatile relationship with husband Doug, which she claimed included abuse
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: leading up to the deadly shooting. Now, according to the timeline,
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: the two stopped living together after she became pregnant with
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: his child that.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Turned out to be a daughter. What the jury learn?
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: What happened? Joining me right now?
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  Speaker 2: As I mentioned, renowned death investigator Joseph Scott Morgan, Professor
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: forensis Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: on Amazon and starting a hit series, Body Bags with
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: Joseph Scott Morgan.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Joe Scott, this issue comes up.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: Over and over and over, self defense or murder.
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  Speaker 1: What have you learned by studying the case.
• 14:27
  Speaker 10: It's fascinating to me, Nancy, that they're talking about self
• 14:31
  Speaker 10: defense here when you have the police stating that he
• 14:34
  Speaker 10: was shot in the back, and out of all the
• 14:36
  Speaker 10: homesuds that I've worked relatives to, particularly firearms, it almost
• 14:43
  Speaker 10: like it's like threat level reduces at that point in time.
• 14:47
  Speaker 10: So you wait until the individual turns away from you
• 14:51
  Speaker 10: if they are in fact an aggressor, and then you're
• 14:55
  Speaker 10: going to place six fire shots or three fire shots
• 14:59
  Speaker 10: into his back. That doesn't marry up with this idea
• 15:04
  Speaker 10: of the individual being an aggressor at that moment in time,
• 15:09
  Speaker 10: at that acute moment, it's almost like they're in retreat
• 15:12
  Speaker 10: at that moment time.
• 15:13
  Speaker 7: If this had happened, we've got gunshot.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: When I'm looking at the autopsy right now, And can
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: I tell you, Joe Scott, as if you don't.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Know, and I know, you know Brian Foley.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: Chris Buyer is also joining us, former police chief in
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: John's Creek. You guys know how critical the autopsy is. Okay,
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: if you look at it line by line, you learn
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: everything there is to know about what you're going to try.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: To prove or what you're not going to try to
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: prove at trial.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: We've got a gunshot wound to the chest and gunshot
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: wound to the right leg.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: How did that happen? Blunt impact of head?
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: Now, wait a minute, wait a minute, blunt impact of
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: head containe, it's abrasion and soft tissue scalp contusion. So
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: is he hitting the head and shot multiple times? Just
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: got help me out here. With the gunshot wound to
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: the chest, it says perforation of right lateral chest wall
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: with confluent chest tube incision.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: What does that mean?
• 16:22
  Speaker 10: Well, what that means is that his lung has obviously
• 16:25
  Speaker 10: been clipped in this round with this round, and so
• 16:28
  Speaker 10: his chest, the chest is actually filling with blood. So
• 16:33
  Speaker 10: if there is an attempt to you know, depressurize that
• 16:38
  Speaker 10: area where you have blood that's kind of surrounding the
• 16:40
  Speaker 10: lung and treatment, you'd have to drop a line in
• 16:43
  Speaker 10: there because it's the pressure that's building up as a
• 16:47
  Speaker 10: result of the blood contained in the chest cavity is
• 16:50
  Speaker 10: inhibiting his ability to breed. And this is something that
• 16:53
  Speaker 10: happens all the time.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Let me just break it down.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: I know it's hard for you not to talk like
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: a professional, but are you saying his lung was clipped?
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: You kept me to that moment, but then I think
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: you're saying that as lung started filling out with blood
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: or his chest cavity started filling out with blood and
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: he couldn't breathe, so they inserted a.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Tube to try to save him. Is that what you're saying.
• 17:17
  Speaker 10: And yeah, and one more thing that's really frustrating forensics
• 17:20
  Speaker 10: sometimes when we're trying to examine these insults like this,
• 17:25
  Speaker 10: they will actually use and it's no fault of their own,
• 17:28
  Speaker 10: they have to do what they have to do. But
• 17:30
  Speaker 10: the people that are saving the life will actually use
• 17:33
  Speaker 10: the gunshot wound itself as the place where they're going
• 17:36
  Speaker 10: to put a tube in because there's no need in
• 17:39
  Speaker 10: going in and creating another defect in the body where
• 17:42
  Speaker 10: you can simply use this.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: Which totally ruins your trajectory investigation.
• 17:48
  Speaker 7: Yeah, it can it can. Yeah.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we also got perforation of right, fifth and left
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: tenth ribs and T ten vertebrae in unnuts shall dummy
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: down for me, Joe Scott dummy down?
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: What does that mean?
• 18:03
  Speaker 7: Well?
• 18:04
  Speaker 10: T ten that's you're talking about the thoracic vertebra at
• 18:08
  Speaker 10: that point in time. And also this is I'm unclear
• 18:13
  Speaker 10: if they have clipped along or clipped a rib and
• 18:17
  Speaker 10: it doesn't really give you directionality. One more thing here,
• 18:20
  Speaker 10: they're saying chest. Most people don't understand. We have an
• 18:24
  Speaker 10: antierior chest and we have a post her chest. So
• 18:27
  Speaker 10: you hear the term chest and automatically from the front
• 18:32
  Speaker 10: and back, and if it's lateral, then this can be
• 18:35
  Speaker 10: the back that gives you an idea of orientation and
• 18:38
  Speaker 10: presentation of the target.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Stop place, ears, hurting, ears bleeding.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: Now, I'm just asking you, T ten vertebra there's a
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: perforation that's your spine.
• 18:50
  Speaker 7: Correct, Yes, it is.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: So if he's shot with spine, can he even move well?
• 18:54
  Speaker 10: It all depends on how compromised that vertebral body is. Now,
• 18:58
  Speaker 10: if it went into the area where the spinal cord
• 19:01
  Speaker 10: goes down drops through the little hole that's in there
• 19:04
  Speaker 10: the foremen as it's referred to. Yeah, that can be compromised,
• 19:08
  Speaker 10: and it can compromise your ability of mobility.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: I've got a.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: Small isolated blast laceration of A order, the A order.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: What do you mean, aren't there's several A order in
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: the body.
• 19:20
  Speaker 10: So what is this A order singular? It's the largest
• 19:23
  Speaker 10: vessel in the body and it literally runs if you front,
• 19:27
  Speaker 10: we're talking about front, right, the front of the spine. Okay,
• 19:31
  Speaker 10: the order runs down the length of the spine until
• 19:34
  Speaker 10: it bifurcates into our legs where it becomes the femeral arteries.
• 19:38
  Speaker 10: And so yeah, you see this associated with spinal trauma
• 19:42
  Speaker 10: many times where the order will actually be clipped as well.
• 19:45
  Speaker 10: That can lead to that space around the lungs and
• 19:48
  Speaker 10: even the dominal cavity filling with blood too. It becomes
• 19:53
  Speaker 10: very complicated.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: I'm just trying to get my head around the fact
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: that he's shot in T ten vertebra.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: That's your spine.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: I'm wondering if he couldn't even move that projectile bullet
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: is recovered. But now I've got a gunshot wound to
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: the right leg. Sophia Matello. How many times is the victim.
• 20:13
  Speaker 6: Shot three times three times.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: Okay, and we've got perforations of lungs. Gunshot wound to chest.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: That's the cod cause of death. Three separate gunshot wounds.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: At trial, the so called Black Swan Ballerina insisted her
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: husband attacked her in her home and she was forced
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: to shoot him in self defense. Her testimony was, and
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: I stayed verbatim. I just held a gun like in
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: front of me, and I said stop. And he turned
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: and he got into this almost like a fighting stance.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: He started moving his arms and his hands around. He
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: started coming toward me, and he lunched at me, and
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: I just pulled the trigger. Wow, thats a lot like
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: what Jodi Arius said on her third or fourth version
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: of quote her truth to the jury. They didn't buy
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: it either. Prosecutors in the Black Swan Ballerina case said
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: the altercation was very different than what Ashley Benefil says.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: The prosecutors say the shooting happened after she the ballerina,
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: tried to win a custody battle and wanted victory at
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: all costs.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Prosecutors also pointed out.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: Husband Doug was not armed in the night he was
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: shot dead. They argue the motive was sole custody and
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: that equals murder.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: What more happened that night?
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: So Joskott Morgan, Professor FORENSAC Jacksonville State University death investigator
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: with over one thousand deaths investigated by him, says that
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: the victim was shot in the back. Our investigative reporter
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: joining us today from WWSBABC seven and Sarasota says there
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: were three gunshot wounds. Okay, I think the word overkill
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: may come into play right here, but having worked at
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: the Battered Women's Center for so many years, I do
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: not want to dissuade the consideration that she may have
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: been a battered woman. Let's look at the relationship. Let's
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: move away from the forensics, the gunshot residue, the trajectory
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: path of the bullets, What do we know about them?
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: As a couple listened.
• 22:44
  Speaker 12: Still grieving the sudden loss of his wife, and Doug
• 22:47
  Speaker 12: Bennifield is rubbing elbows with the rich and powerful of
• 22:50
  Speaker 12: a GOP fundraiser at the Florida home of doctor Ben
• 22:52
  Speaker 12: Carson when he's introduced to a former ballerina, Ashley Byers,
• 22:56
  Speaker 12: as a swimsuit model and she and Benifield are smitten
• 22:59
  Speaker 12: with each other, and neither one seems to notice or
• 23:02
  Speaker 12: care about their thirty year age gap.
• 23:04
  Speaker 13: Ashley tells Doug she wants to have a ballet company
• 23:07
  Speaker 13: using dancers of all sizes and genders. Doug wants to
• 23:11
  Speaker 13: make her dreams come true. Doug returns from a trip
• 23:14
  Speaker 13: in thirteen days after they meet. Doug Benefield Mary's Ashley
• 23:18
  Speaker 13: buyers it is a shocking turn of events for a
• 23:21
  Speaker 13: man with a teen daughter, just nine years younger than
• 23:25
  Speaker 13: his new wife.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: Okay, let me understand something, Sophia Vittello.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: Hold on, when you said model, you didn't tell me
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: she was a swimsuit model.
• 23:34
  Speaker 6: I mean, she's a gorgeous girl. She's a gorgeous girl.
• 23:36
  Speaker 6: But what I do know is, you know, swimsuit model.
• 23:39
  Speaker 6: We got to use it lightly. Her career was not
• 23:42
  Speaker 6: blowing up. You know. I'm not to say that she
• 23:45
  Speaker 6: was in a position seeking money. We don't know that specifically,
• 23:48
  Speaker 6: but we do know that Doug was vulnerable.
• 23:50
  Speaker 5: In that video, it says sudden dealing with a sudden
• 23:52
  Speaker 5: loss of his wife.
• 23:53
  Speaker 6: Guys, it was less than a year. It was less
• 23:55
  Speaker 6: than a year. His wife had just died.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: Yes, and isn't it correct to Tello that his daughter
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: by his first wife came home and found mommy dead
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: on the floor from a heart ailment.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Yes, so this guy is reeling mm hmm.
• 24:13
  Speaker 6: Yes, he's reeling it, and so's his daughter. And Eva
• 24:15
  Speaker 6: says that she had.
• 24:17
  Speaker 5: Talked to her dad and he said, oh, I'm I'm
• 24:19
  Speaker 5: not going to get into anything.
• 24:21
  Speaker 6: You know, I'm I'm not going to get into anything fast.
• 24:24
  Speaker 5: And next thing, you know, Eva says her dad was
• 24:26
  Speaker 5: married and it really shocked her.
• 24:28
  Speaker 6: That's another thing shocked her.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: Okay, very quickly after the wedding, things turned sour Lissen.
• 24:36
  Speaker 12: In the first days of their wedded bliss, Doug and
• 24:38
  Speaker 12: Ashley Benifield argue loudly. Doug's daughter Eva asks if one
• 24:42
  Speaker 12: of her friends can move in with them for a while.
• 24:44
  Speaker 12: And now Doug has two teen girls in the house
• 24:46
  Speaker 12: and a wife who not only wants to create a
• 24:48
  Speaker 12: ballet company that Doug says he will help finance, she
• 24:51
  Speaker 12: also wants a baby. Doug starts making calls about the
• 24:54
  Speaker 12: ballet and about having his best sectomy reversed.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: Okay, what do you have to do to have a
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: sec tomy? Reversehous got Morgan in a nutshell.
• 25:02
  Speaker 10: You have to go back in and actually reattach the
• 25:05
  Speaker 10: vast deference and so that they're functional at that point
• 25:08
  Speaker 10: in time.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: The vast difference.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: I don't even know what you're saying, man, what go
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: back into what the penis? It's anatomical you can say penis. Okay,
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: so you.
• 25:20
  Speaker 10: Know I'm not talking about penis, Nancy, I'm not talking
• 25:22
  Speaker 10: about penis. I wouldn't have to ask, Well, we'll talk
• 25:30
  Speaker 10: about testicles. How's that instead of penie, we're talking about attachment.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: Scott, I don't care. I know that the peanut gallery
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: may yiggle. But you meet a man in thirteen days
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: you're married, and you convince him to have surgery on
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: his testicles.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's love. So he has surgery on his testicles.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: He has the best sake.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: To me, it's kind of a snip, snip in and
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: out correct.
• 26:00
  Speaker 10: The best sectomy is yes, But now you're talking about
• 26:03
  Speaker 10: a reattachment to make it functional once again. And you know,
• 26:07
  Speaker 10: all I have to say is, if that's the case,
• 26:09
  Speaker 10: she must have been quite beguiling and bewitching, because this
• 26:14
  Speaker 10: is a really quick decision to make.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: So how difficult is it and what does the man
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: have to undergo to have a vasectomy reversal?
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: And again there's no giggling. This is real.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: The guys did he shot three times, once in the back.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: It's not holding together from me, but into the thinking,
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: the thinking of these two.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: I just want to know how difficult.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: It is and what a man must endure to have
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: a asectomy reversal.
• 26:46
  Speaker 7: It's not very difficult at all.
• 26:48
  Speaker 10: It's done all the time, literally, and it can be
• 26:53
  Speaker 10: done actually on an outpatient basis. Most guys would like
• 26:56
  Speaker 10: to remain in the hospital if they could. There is
• 26:59
  Speaker 10: pain associated with this, make no mistake about that, a
• 27:02
  Speaker 10: lot of post operatives, swelling and this sort of thing.
• 27:05
  Speaker 10: So yeah, it takes tom and it is a painful
• 27:08
  Speaker 10: process to go through. So obviously you felt like she
• 27:11
  Speaker 10: was worth it.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: Joining me right now, private investigator, owner of Buyers Investigative Services,
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: But for my purposes, Former police Chief John's Creek twenty
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: five years in l E Law enforcement, Chris Byer's It'll
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: be a cold day, cold frigid, cold day in HG
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: double L that I do not support a battered woman's
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: right to defend herself against her abuser.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: Right, absolutely, absolutely, But.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: I cannot turn away from physical forensic evidence. Forensic evidence
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: unless it's been tampered with, does not lie.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: Now what do you think?
• 28:00
  Speaker 11: Absolutely in any of these cases, that's what you do.
• 28:03
  Speaker 11: You follow the evidence. And from what I'm hearing on
• 28:06
  Speaker 11: this as well, the three shots shot in the back,
• 28:09
  Speaker 11: it does not present as someone who was about to
• 28:12
  Speaker 11: receive imminent death or great bodily harm, which is what
• 28:16
  Speaker 11: you need for this self defense. So yes, with what
• 28:19
  Speaker 11: I'm hearing about the forensics of this, Yeah, that's a
• 28:23
  Speaker 11: far stretch to show self.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: Defense crime stories with Nancy Grace. Oh what a tangled
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: web we weave when first we practice to deceive. The
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: Black Swan Ballerina Ashley Benefield married her husband when she's
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: twenty four, after just knowing him two weeks. His wife
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: had passed away just nine months earlier, when he was
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: fifty four, thirty year age difference. Their marriage included a
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: very difficult attempt to start a ballet company.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: What more do we know about their poem?
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: Let me say to multus relationship, Okay, we know that
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: very quickly after the meet up at a political fundraiser,
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: the two get married within thirteen days, and she announces
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: not only does she want her husband to fund a
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: ballet company, which is not a cheap endeavor, that things
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: go south. Not only does she want the ballet company,
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: she also wants her husband to reversif s sectomy so
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: she can have a baby, which he does. Everything's going sideways,
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: including money woes.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: Listen.
• 29:49
  Speaker 12: Doug Benifield, trying to hold together the ballet company that
• 29:52
  Speaker 12: was his wife's dream, arrives to find that Ashley and
• 29:54
  Speaker 12: her mother drive from Florida to Charleston, pack up Ashley's
• 29:58
  Speaker 12: personal belongings and leave a note for Doug the marriage
• 30:00
  Speaker 12: is over, calling him possessive and controlling. In the note,
• 30:04
  Speaker 12: she says she is fearful for her life and the
• 30:06
  Speaker 12: safety of her unborn child.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: Okay, so she moves in with the mom. Listen.
• 30:10
  Speaker 14: Ashley Bennifield moves in with her mother in Florida and
• 30:13
  Speaker 14: begins a process to prevent Doug Bennifield from being involved
• 30:16
  Speaker 14: in the life of his own child. Frustrated, Doug Minnifield
• 30:19
  Speaker 14: uses an attorney to reach out to Ashley Bennefield by email.
• 30:22
  Speaker 14: Ashley has not kept Doug informed of anything with regard
• 30:25
  Speaker 14: to her pregnancy, and one day after receiving the email
• 30:27
  Speaker 14: from Doug's lawyer, Ashley Bennifield has labor induced even though
• 30:31
  Speaker 14: she's weeks away from her due date. Ashley then refuses
• 30:34
  Speaker 14: to communicate with Doug. He isn't even aware his daughter
• 30:37
  Speaker 14: is born for six weeks.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: Oh my stars, Okay, Sophia Vittela joining US investigative reporter WWSB.
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: So she kept the birth of the baby a secret
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: and did not tell the husband.
• 30:49
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and this is really the state's entire argument here
• 30:53
  Speaker 5: that Ashley decided she wanted to be a single mother
• 30:58
  Speaker 5: the second she got pregnant. That's their whole argument against her,
• 31:02
  Speaker 5: saying that it was self defense because there have been
• 31:05
  Speaker 5: all of these instances where she got pregnant.
• 31:08
  Speaker 6: She immediately moved right.
• 31:10
  Speaker 5: And then she made sure that he didn't even know
• 31:13
  Speaker 5: that the baby was born until six weeks after. So
• 31:18
  Speaker 5: she wanted him to have nothing to do with the
• 31:20
  Speaker 5: child that they share.
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: Talking about psychological warfare, doctor Chloe Carmichael with US clinical
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: psychologist Way and doctor Chloe.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: Yes, thank you, Nancy.
• 31:28
  Speaker 9: I've just been bursting over here, so thank you for
• 31:31
  Speaker 9: playing that tape of the daughter. I just think it's
• 31:34
  Speaker 9: really important. When we look at the daughter testifying as
• 31:37
  Speaker 9: to her opinion regarding her father, we have to remember
• 31:40
  Speaker 9: a couple of things. First of all, the daughter herself
• 31:43
  Speaker 9: may have a financial motive. So, especially when you have
• 31:47
  Speaker 9: an opposite sex child, so a daughter in this case
• 31:51
  Speaker 9: whose father has now married another woman, there can actually
• 31:54
  Speaker 9: be a lot of rivalry between the daughter and the stepmother, right,
• 32:00
  Speaker 9: and so we even saw some of that reflected in
• 32:02
  Speaker 9: the text messages. Additionally, there could even be a financial
• 32:05
  Speaker 9: motivation because if perhaps we don't know a lot about
• 32:09
  Speaker 9: the life insurance or the estate, but if that was
• 32:12
  Speaker 9: set to go to Ashley, unless Ashley's a murderer, then
• 32:18
  Speaker 9: perhaps it would go to Ava, the daughter. And we
• 32:21
  Speaker 9: could also see through the text messages that the daughter
• 32:24
  Speaker 9: was indeed a source of conflict and Nancy, of course,
• 32:27
  Speaker 9: I agree with you that we don't want you to
• 32:31
  Speaker 9: disbelieve a battered woman.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: On the other.
• 32:34
  Speaker 9: Hand, I think it can cheapen cases of battered women
• 32:38
  Speaker 9: when we don't do our due diligence and understand that
• 32:41
  Speaker 9: sometimes and I'm not saying it's the case here, but
• 32:43
  Speaker 9: women can have ulterior motives for sometimes actually being untruthful
• 32:49
  Speaker 9: and we just don't know what happened here.
• 32:50
  Speaker 7: Now.
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: I want you to hear what is so called black
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: swan by the way, she doesn't like that.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: Moniker has to say. Listen, Douglas Benefield was a violent abuse.
• 33:00
  Speaker 14: I said stop, and he like turned and he got
• 33:04
  Speaker 14: into this lake.
• 33:06
  Speaker 6: It's like a fighting stance.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: Don't you gonna kill me? He started coming towards me
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: and then he lunched at me. Her bully the trigger.
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: Okay, again from our friends at Inside Edition. But Joe
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: Scott Morgan, did you hear what she just said? This
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: is critical, Joe Scott. She said he lunged at her.
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: If he lunged at her, the bullet should be front
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: to back.
• 33:31
  Speaker 10: Yeah, what he lunged at her with his shoulder blade.
• 33:34
  Speaker 10: That doesn't make sense at all. The calculus doesn't work
• 33:37
  Speaker 10: out here. Lunging means that you're moving toward the individual. Uh.
• 33:42
  Speaker 10: The indication is what we're hearing, is that he was
• 33:45
  Speaker 10: shot post heially. Now we don't know the precise the
• 33:49
  Speaker 10: precise trajectories here, but it just does. It just doesn't mesh.
• 33:53
  Speaker 10: And I got to tell you, Nancy, from a forensic standpoint,
• 33:56
  Speaker 10: this is one of the major benchmarks as to why
• 34:00
  Speaker 10: the police move forward with this case.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: What do you mean one of the benchmarks as to
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: why police move forward?
• 34:05
  Speaker 7: The science doesn't say.
• 34:06
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 34:07
  Speaker 10: The beauty of this is that the science doesn't lie.
• 34:09
  Speaker 10: She's actually saying that he lunged toward her, and all
• 34:14
  Speaker 10: indications are is that these gunshot wounds, that this man
• 34:18
  Speaker 10: has sustained our posterior on his backside or at least lateral,
• 34:23
  Speaker 10: that it doesn't marry up with this so called fighter
• 34:27
  Speaker 10: stance whatever whatever the hell that means that he goes into.
• 34:31
  Speaker 10: According to her, the science doesn't marry up here. And
• 34:35
  Speaker 10: that's one of the big we use the term red
• 34:37
  Speaker 10: flag of moment ago for an investigator. That's a big
• 34:40
  Speaker 10: red flag when you've got when the police have spoken
• 34:43
  Speaker 10: with the EME, which I guarantee they did that day,
• 34:47
  Speaker 10: and try to marry.
• 34:48
  Speaker 7: This up with a statement that she's giving. The two
• 34:50
  Speaker 7: things just don't mesh okay.
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: I want to go back to Sophia Vittillo joining US
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: investigative reporter WWSB. Are we correct that at least one
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: of the shots was to front.
• 35:00
  Speaker 5: According to dozens of hours, honestly of testimony from this
• 35:06
  Speaker 5: past week everything that we have heard in court was not.
• 35:10
  Speaker 6: He was facing the other way, and the defense has
• 35:13
  Speaker 6: tried to disprove that.
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: Are you saying he was shot in the back?
• 35:16
  Speaker 5: Very simply according to medical examiner's testimony, Yes, he was
• 35:19
  Speaker 5: shot in the back.
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: Okay, then what she's saying cannot be true. And you know,
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: let me understand, Brian fully joining me, renowned criminal defense
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: attorney and author, Brian, it is possible that he is
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: shot in the back and.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: Was attacking her.
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: He could have attacked her and then turned to get
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: a weapon. He could have attacked her and tried to
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: push off a dog. There are many reasons he could
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: have turned his back and still be the aggressor. However,
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: her story is impossible based on the bullet path trajectory.
• 36:02
  Speaker 8: Yes, and when we listen to a defendant give a
• 36:06
  Speaker 8: statement about a very traumatic event, these things really happen
• 36:10
  Speaker 8: a lot faster than people think. You don't have time
• 36:13
  Speaker 8: to react in between shots. You know, some people say, well,
• 36:17
  Speaker 8: why did you have to shoot him two more times
• 36:19
  Speaker 8: if he'd already been shot. He's not, you know, the
• 36:21
  Speaker 8: other two bullets aren't self defense, even if.
• 36:24
  Speaker 7: The first one was.
• 36:25
  Speaker 8: But these all happened way too fast for that to
• 36:28
  Speaker 8: be the case. And one thing I wanted to add
• 36:30
  Speaker 8: is the prosecution doesn't have to prove that she lied
• 36:34
  Speaker 8: about how it happened. You know, if the forensic evidence
• 36:37
  Speaker 8: shows that her statement is an accurate, that doesn't mean
• 36:40
  Speaker 8: that she's not doing it in self defense. They have
• 36:42
  Speaker 8: to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there's no other
• 36:45
  Speaker 8: possibility that it was in self defense. And nunc you
• 36:48
  Speaker 8: hit the nail on the head. They said she had
• 36:51
  Speaker 8: to run back.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: That's not true.
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: Nobody has to prove no possibility beyond any doubt whatsoever,
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: just to a mathematical certainty like two and two pluses
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: four two and two eqals four. Now, that's not the
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: legal standard. The legal standard is beyond a reasonable doubt.
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: She has raised the affirmative defense of self defense, which
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: means affirmative defense. I did it, but I'm excused because
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: self defense, because accident, because insanity, different reasons.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: But the state only has to pierce that.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: Beyond a reasonable doubt, not to a mathematical certainty.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: And the fact that while an attacker can.
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: Rarely be shot in the back and still be the aggressor,
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: never happens. It's possible her story does not coincide.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: With the wounds. That's what I'm saying, Brian Foley.
• 37:47
  Speaker 8: Well, her story does coincide a little bit there in
• 37:50
  Speaker 8: the fact that he has an abrasion on his head.
• 37:52
  Speaker 8: That would tend to show that there was a struggle,
• 37:54
  Speaker 8: maybe even an attack on her, and so that could
• 37:58
  Speaker 8: have happened before he was killed. You know, we don't
• 38:00
  Speaker 8: have the exact photos or anything like that.
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: It is okay, you know what, let's follow through with that,
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: Brian Foley. Did she say, Cyphia Vtello, that there was
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: a physical struggle and then somehow she hit him in
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: the head.
• 38:13
  Speaker 5: No, she said that he was trying to strike her
• 38:16
  Speaker 5: for the first time and she fired.
• 38:20
  Speaker 6: So it is believed that he did not he did
• 38:24
  Speaker 6: not reach her.
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: Josky Morgan, what were you saying.
• 38:27
  Speaker 10: Yeah, one of the things that's very troubling to me, Nancy,
• 38:29
  Speaker 10: are these head injuries that he has sustained, because they're
• 38:32
  Speaker 10: calling one of them a laceration. As you well know,
• 38:35
  Speaker 10: that's blunt force trauma. And one of the things that
• 38:37
  Speaker 10: we think about when someone holding a weapon, if weapons
• 38:41
  Speaker 10: like this can be used almost like a hammer, they're
• 38:43
  Speaker 10: very blunted. And that's where you I can't imagine her
• 38:49
  Speaker 10: as quote unquote athletic as she may have been, that
• 38:52
  Speaker 10: she's going to score a hit to his head that's
• 38:55
  Speaker 10: going to generate a laceration that's severe blunt force trauma.
• 39:00
  Speaker 10: I'm wondering if there are trace elements of his blood
• 39:02
  Speaker 10: on this weapon, and did they try to match this
• 39:05
  Speaker 10: up with the injury he sustained to his head, because
• 39:08
  Speaker 10: how's she going to get in close enough in order
• 39:11
  Speaker 10: to generate that kind of force with her bare hands.
• 39:14
  Speaker 10: I think there's a high probability that once he's down,
• 39:17
  Speaker 10: she may have struck him in the head.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: In other words, simply put bare handed.
• 39:21
  Speaker 10: Maybe stomping on somebody, but not bare handed.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: No, yeah, got it. One thing that's very disturbing.
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: I got a lot of eminent stating that this is
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: not self defense, but Selvia Matello, isn't it true that
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: Evans is that he the victim, hit the dog and
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: the cat out of anger.
• 39:43
  Speaker 5: Yeah, So those are some things we have to look at,
• 39:46
  Speaker 5: and that is where the defense is pushing their entire argument.
• 39:51
  Speaker 6: We have his abuse. We don't know how many times
• 39:53
  Speaker 6: or what the situation specifically was towards the Pats.
• 39:58
  Speaker 5: We have a fists in the wall, we have a
• 40:03
  Speaker 5: bullet mark in the ceiling of their house. Okay, so
• 40:09
  Speaker 5: we see here that maybe there was some moments of
• 40:12
  Speaker 5: anger and we don't know exactly what happened, but that's
• 40:15
  Speaker 5: where the defense is using.
• 40:16
  Speaker 6: Hey, Doug was violent. Look he hit the dog, he
• 40:19
  Speaker 6: punched the wall. Why couldn't it have been Ashley Sophia.
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: I think this text purportedly is from him. I pussed
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: the dog because you got me so mad, like you
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: wouldn't stop about Eva always, Eva, every argument.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: Eva? Who is Eva Sophia.
• 40:38
  Speaker 5: Eva is Doug's daughter, And I'd like to add have
• 40:40
  Speaker 5: talked to her several times and she tells me that
• 40:43
  Speaker 5: they were constantly together, touching each other, lovey dovey, And
• 40:47
  Speaker 5: so maybe there was a bit of jealousy on Ashley's end,
• 40:51
  Speaker 5: because I did not pick it up from Eva's end
• 40:53
  Speaker 5: while I was interviewing her.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: So there you have it.
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: The Black Swan Ballerina Ashley Benefield sinist to hard jail
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: time twenty years behind bars in the shooting death of
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: husband Doug.
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: Her cold reaction.
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: In court as she sentenced says it all. I'm not
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: sorry I did it. I'm just sorry I got caught.
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: I don't think we've seen the last of the Black
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: Swan ballerina Ashley Bennefield.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: Goodbye friend,