A bond hearing has been set in the new year for the former Florida ballerina sentenced to 20 years in prison for manslaughter in connection to the shooting death of her estranged husband.
Ashley Benefield is being held at the Manatee County Jail until the hearing in January before Manatee County Circuit Court Judge Matt Whyte. Her defense filed a motion asking that she be released on bond pending her appeal.
The 33-year-old was found guilty of manslaughter with a firearm, a lesser offense, by a six-person jury in July. She was initially charged with murder in the second degree for shooting her estranged husband, Doug Benefield, in her Lakewood Ranch home in 2020.
In early December, Whyte sentenced Ashley Benefield to 20 years in prison followed by 10 years of probation.
Ashley Benefield has claimed from the beginning she shot Doug Benefield in self-defense because she feared for her life following a tumultuous and abusive four-year marriage.
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The prosecution claimed the former ballerina shot and killed her husband in an attempt to gain sole custody of the couple’s young daughter, taking matters into her own hands after the courts and law enforcement did not help her. Ashley Benefield had previously filed injunctions against Doug Benefield, including a South Carolina injunction that was granted by a judge.
Court records stated a neighbor called the police on Sept. 27, 2020, after a distraught Ashley pounded on his door moments after the shooting while still holding the gun.
The defense claimed that while the two were packing, Doug Benefield became aggressive towards Ashley Benefield, body checking her with boxes, blocking her from exiting a room and then the house, and after she told him to leave, punching her on the left side of her head.
Fearing for her life based on previous domestic violence incidents the couple had, the defense previously said that Ashley Benefield went into her bedroom, grabbed her firearm and pointed the weapon at Doug Benefield who followed her into the room, allegedly advancing toward her. That prompted her to fire.
In the motion for release on bond, Ashley Benefield’s defense attorney William Ponall states that the law permits a person to be released while their conviction is being reviewed at the discretion of either the trial court or appellate court.
Ponall states that his client’s appeal “is taken in good faith on grounds which are not frivolous but fairly debatable” which were outlined in her motion for a new trial. The defense argued that a new motion should have been granted based on multiple instances of prosecutorial misconduct during closing argument and juror misconduct by one of the jurors.
Whyte previously denied the motion for a new trial days before Ashley Benefield’s sentencing.
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The motion states that the Florida Supreme Court established factors for consideration for post-trial bond including the habits of the defendant as to respect for the law, the defendant’s local attachments to the community, the severity of the punishment imposed and any other circumstances relevant to whether the defendant would be tempted to leave the area if bond was granted.
Ponall states his client has shown respect for the law, has no prior felony convictions and had been previously released on a $100,000 bond and pretrial supervision from Nov. 20, 2020, until the verdict was given. As part of the pretrial release, Ashley Benefield had electronic monitoring, a curfew, surrendered her passport, had a child safety plan and was prohibited from owning firearms or contacting the State’s witnesses.
“Ms. Benefield is dedicated to proving her innocence and that she acted in justifiable self-defense in a second trial,” the motion states.
Gabriela Szymanowska covers the legal system for the Herald-Tribune in partnership with Report for America. You can support her work with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America. Contact Gabriela Szymanowska at gszymanowska@gannett.com, or on X: @GabrielaSzyman3.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Former Florida ballerina seeks to be released on bond pending appeal