BRADENTON, Fla. — Former ballerina Ashley Benefield, standing trial in the shooting death of her husband, took the witness stand Friday morning as her defense team began its case.
Tearful most of the first 20 minutes of her testimony, Benefield explained to the court what led up to the shooting.
"Doug was standing in the doorway. His face was red like the veins were bulging in his neck when he was looking at me. He didn't even look like Doug, his eyes were black," Ashley Benefield said on the stand.
Benefield told jurors that on Sept. 27, 2020, while moving some items at her mom's Lakewood Ranch home for a planned move to Maryland, Doug Benefield started an argument with her.
"We ended up in our daughter's bedroom and he started screaming at me. He said, 'Shut the f*** up.' He started calling me names and he said, 'I can see what you're doing, you're trying to get me to leave.' He said 'I don't have to leave. I can stay and spend the night if I want to because I'm your husband'," Benefield recalled.
She said she told her husband to leave several times but instead, he hit her with a moving box, "body-checked" her, and got more aggressive.
"I was scared to death. I thought he would kill me. I had nowhere to go. I was trapped in my own house. He wouldn't let me leave," she said.
Benefield said it was in those tense moments that she grabbed her gun which was in a storage bin on a laundry basket among the last things she had brought out of her drawer before it was moved out.
"I held the gun in front of me and I said stop and he turned and got into a fighting stance," Benefield said.
Despite that, she said Doug would not leave and instead moved towards her.
"He started coming towards me and then he lunged at me, and I started pulling the trigger and he just kept coming and I remember trying to move to get away from him, but he kept coming at me," she said.
She described what happened next after she fired the shots.
"It was like his feet slipped out from under him, and his legs went up in the air," Benefield said.
"When Doug hits the floor, what is your immediate reaction?" Neil Taylor, her defense attorney, asked.
"I ran to get help," Benefield responded.
"Can you tell us how many shots you fired?" Taylor asked.
"I have no idea. I was in a panic," Benefield said.
"As you sit here today, Ashley, how do you feel about what happened?" he asked.
"Horrible. He is the father of my child," she responded, sobbing.
The court took a break for her to compose herself after she got emotional and resumed her testimony shortly after.
On cross-examination, the prosecution probed further, inquiring into the state of the couple's relationship, a restraining order from a South Carolina judge, text messages between the two, her pregnancy, their child custody issues and the eventual shooting.
"Did he have his hands in a fist?" Suzanne O'Donnell, the state prosecutor, asked.
"Not at that point. They were like...I don't really know," Benefield responded.
"Was he coming at you like this?" O'Donnell continued, demonstrating for clarity.
"He lunged at me really quickly," Benefield said.
"OK, so he lunged? Was his fist up when he lunged?" O'Donnell demanded.
"I don't remember," Benefield responded, sobbing again.
The judge at this point called for another recess for the defendant to compose herself.
Douglas Benefield's family members were in court throughout the day watching and listening to Ashley's testimony. The victim's daughter later walked out of the courtroom.
Also taking to the stand on Friday was a social worker with Manatee County and a domestic violence expert.
The local case gained national attention as the "Black Swan Murder" after "48 Hours" showcased the investigation during an episode.
On Thursday, the prosecution rested their case after some revealing testimonies including from the state medical examiner, who testified about Douglas Benefield's fatal wounds, as well as a ballistics expert. The court got to see some of the couple's text messages among other testimonies.
RELATED: 'Black Swan murder' trial: Day 3 of court sees text messages between Ashley, Doug Benefield
A data forensics detective with the Manatee County Sheriff's Office technical services unit reviewed text messages between Doug and Ashley. The texts were sent within the week leading up to the shooting including ones sent around 5 p.m. on Sept. 27, just hours before the shooting.
"2:52. She laughed at the image 2:53. She responds with 'Ha ha! OMG' 2:54. He responds with 'trucker on the way' and that's at 5:32 pm," said Brian Quiles, Manatee County Sheriff's Office.
"At 5:32 p.m. was that the last communication between these two?" asked state prosecutor Suzanne O'Donnell.
"I believe so yes," Quiles responded.
The state prosecutor hoped to lay out a cordial, loving, and light-hearted conversation between the victim and the defendant which would be in sharp contrast to her claims of abuse and aggression.
The most visually compelling testimony presentation for the court Thursday was from the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy on Doug Benefield's body including removing some of the bullets lodged in his body.
Dr. Russell Vega talked about and showed photos and a demonstration of how the victim was positioned and the direction of the bullets penetrating the victim.
"The path of travel was one entering the right side of the chest, striking the fifth rib on the right side, the right long, the 10th, the body in the middle of the spine, then the left rib and the tissues in the back until it stopped where it is," said Dr. Russell Vega, chief medical examiner.
Before those key testimonies, both sides discussed some major housekeeping and dispensing of motions including what text messages could be admissible as evidence.
Some concerned conversations that, according to the defense team, would show the tension between the couple and Ashley Benefield's internet searches about dealing and co-parenting with an abusive partner.
Also, there was a reprimand for the victim's daughter over a non-descriptive social media update and a brief chat with a reporter about how she was feeling about the trial.
"I was caught off guard in the hallway when I was under extreme emotional distress after being here hearing different testimonies about my father's murder and when I spoke with the reporter, I made sure not to talk about any of the testimonies or anything that happened in the courtroom with my testimony," said Eva Benefield, the victim's daughter.
"What did you discuss with the reporter?" asked Neil Taylor, the defense lawyer.
"Just how I felt about the situation and who my dad's character was as I saw him," Benefield said.
The judge being informed of the context and nature of the conversation admonished Eva Benefield, reminding her of the subpoena conditions. He then proceeded to deny the defense's motion to strike her out as a rebuttal witness.
The defense also moved a motion for a judgment of acquittal saying that the state had failed to raise credible evidence against his client's self-defense claim or that she acted with ill will or hatred against the victim but had instead shown evidence supporting that she was in fear of him. However, the judge denied that motion.