Ashley Benefield's step-daughter Eva appears elated as jury in Black Swan murder trial finds killer ballerina guilty

The daughter of a man shot dead by his estranged wife celebrated the news that her former step-mom was found guilty of manslaughter on Tuesday.

Ashley Benefield was handed the verdict following seven hours of jury deliberations in Florida on Tuesday, Fox 13 reports.

The 32-year-old former dancer, whose case was known as the 'Black Swan murder trial', had been charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of her estranged husband, Doug Benefield, 59, in September 2020.

But the jury ruled that she was acting in self-defense when she fired the weapon at her mother's home in Lakewood Ranch - contradicting the prosecution's assertion that the shooting was premeditated.

Still, Eva Benefield, Doug's 23-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, seemed elated by the verdict.

A jury found Ashley Benefield guilty of manslaughter on Tuesday

'After four years of waiting, my dad got the justice he deserves,' she said in a TikTok video following the verdict. 

She added that she will has a lot more things to say about the weeks-long trial once she gathers her thoughts. 

As the verdict was read in court on Tuesday, Ashley showed no emotion before she was taken away. 

The judge overseeing her case revoked her $100,000 bond and remanded her to the custody of the Manatee County Sheriff's Office. 

She now faces a 15 year maximum prison sentence in Florida - but would have faced 25 years to life behind bars if she had been convicted of second-degree manslaughter.

A sentencing hearing will be scheduled at a later date. 

Eva previously testified that her father and Ashley 'were just with each other all the time' in the early days of their relationship.

'They were lovey dovey, PDA all the time. They never left each other's side,' she said. 

The two had met at Ben Carson's home in Palm Beach, Florida in August 2016. She had been campaigning for then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. 

They were married just 13 days later. 

Eva Benefield, Doug's daughter from a previous marriage, seemed elated by the news in a TikTok video following the verdict

Within just one year of marriage, Doug, a retired Naval flight officer, helped Ashley achieve her dream of starting a ballet company, using his own money and contacts.

He acted as the CEO of the company, while Ashley took on the role as executive director.

But, shortly after the company’s founding, it was sued by dancers and choreographers who alleged their contracts were breached when they were fired just weeks after their hiring.

Doug also reversed his vasectomy, and Ashley became pregnant three months later. 

That is when everything changed, Assistant State Attorney Suzanne O'Donnell argued in court.

She said Ashley moved from their home in South Carolina to Bradenton to live with her mother as she started to experience morning sickness, and from that point on, she never lived with Doug again. 

'They continued a long-distance relationship when she first moved to Florida and continued trying to keep together and communication, but about the same time as the ballet [company] collapses, Ashley Benefield starts complaining against the victim,' O'Donnell told jurors.

She began accusing Doug of poisoning her and of non-physical domestic violence. 

But detectives from the Manatee County Sheriff's Office conducted a five-week investigation and were unable to find any evidence to support her claims of abuse.

Ashley shot and killed Doug Benefield (pictured) at her home in Bradenton, Florida on September 27, 2020

The two met at a political event in 2016 and were married just 13 days later

Prosecutors tried to paint the picture that Ashley killed Doug in a last-ditch effort to gain custody of their daughter, who was 2 years old at the time of the shooting.

'This is a case about a woman who, early on in her pregnancy, decided she wanted to be a single mother,' O'Donnell argued in her opening statement. 'She did not want the father of this child to have any visitation. 

'This is a long story, this was a custody battle this mother would win at all costs, and the cost was the life of Doug Benefield.' 

But defense attorneys argued that Doug was abusive to Ashley.

Neil Taylor told the jury that he once fired a handgun into a kitchen ceiling in an attempt to get Ashley to stop talking, threw a loaded gun at her, punched their dog in the face - knocking it unconscious, and regularly carried a concealed firearm that was 'ready to fire.'

He also claimed that after Ashley and Doug were separated, he illegally tracked her, often following without her consent and even driving from out of state to keep tabs on her.

At least once, Doug allegedly stood in a neighbor's backyard in the middle of the night to get a glimpse of her.

Benefield's attorneys argued in court that she was the victim of domestic violence

The couple had even obtained a court order in South Carolina that barred them from contacting each other in 2017.

After Doug appeared to have violated the order, Taylor said, Ashley sought a domestic violence injunction in Florida that would have barred him from seeing their daughter.

The injunction, though, was denied when a judge said she did not find Ashley's abuse claims credible.

Then on the night of the shooting, defense attorneys argued that Doug showed up to Ashley's mother's house in Florida unannounced.

They claimed in court documents that he arrived 'happy, hyper and animated,' but eventually became 'agitated, sullen and intimidating.' 

After verbally insulting his wife, the defense claimed, Doug rammed her with a moving box, leaving abrasions.

'Doug Benefield knew full well on that day that this relationship was over,' Taylor argued in court.

He went on to claim that Doug was manipulative and 'viewed Ashley Benefield as his property.'

'Despite promoting himself as a religious, honorable and decent human being, Benefield was a manipulative, cunning and abusive man who insisted, absolutely insisted on control,' Taylor added. 

Her neighbor Josh Sant recounted how she ran to his house following the shooting, claiming Doug had been abusive

Following the shooting, Ashley ran to her neighbor's home in Bradenton.

'I heard a very loud pounding on my door,' neighbor Josh Sant testified last week, as Ashley faces murder charges for the veteran's death, according to Fox 13. 'It kind of startled me.' 

He said he opened the door to find Ashley, who told him that her husband attacked her and she shot him.

Sant then called 911, telling officers, 'She just came over, her estranged husband attacked her and she said she shot him,' according to an audio recording played in court.

Throughout the phone call, jurors were able to hear Sant trying to calm Benefield down, WFLA reported.

As the audio was played in court, Ashley was seen crying.