The ballet boss murdered by his glamorous ballerina wife had an ‘evil side’, former members of their dance studio have revealed.
Ashley Benefield, 32, was found guilty of manslaughter in what the media dubbed her ‘Black Swan’ murder case after shooting and killing her husband Doug Benefield, 59, on September 27, 2020.
Ashley has insisted she acted in self-defense against Doug, who she married in 2016 after dating for 13 days.
Now, two former members of the American National Ballet — the Charleston, South Carolina-based dance company the couple opened in 2017 — have revealed that Doug had a “very angry side.”
Hanna Manka and Sarah Walborn spoke about their experiences at the then-groundbreaking dance school in a recent Law & Crime podcast “Black Swan Murder” episode and revealed that Doug, the father of Ashely’s daughter, often raised his voice.
Ballet boss Doug Benefield, 59, (pictured) murdered by his glamorous ballerina wife Ashley Benefield, 32, had an ‘evil side’ according to fellow ballerinas
Ashley was found guilty of manslaughter in what the media dubbed her “Black Swan” murder case after shooting and killing Doug Benefield on September 27, 2020. (photo: the former couple)
“Doug came out with a very angry side – this was the first time I’d seen him angry,” Walborn said, recalling a previous interaction with him.
“And at the time I thought it was strange that he was so passionate about this conversation that was being had. And it painted a picture of the future encounters I would have with him along the way.”
Manka said she sensed something was wrong when she arrived at the theater the company would use for its planned gala performance and saw no advertising for the debut event.
‘Absolutely nothing on the agenda. That’s a little strange,” Manka said.
Walborn agreed with that idea, saying the studio was full of “a lot of charades” with no “ultimate goal.”
She added that Doug often tried to paint a different picture and even made a video full of “a lot of inspirational quotes from people” to show to the dancers.
After a year of marriage, Doug, a retired Navy officer, helped Ashley realize her dream of starting a ballet company, using his own money and contacts.
Pictured: The stacks of hundred dollar bills the dancers receive after begging the Benefield’s to be paid
“He had us all sitting in the room…to look at it and…had tears in his eyes…and said, ‘Look, this is what we’re working towards,'” Walborn explained.
Aside from what they experienced in the studio, Walborn added that artists were not paid and Ashley was often absent.
Despite not being paid, Doug came to the studio one day with wads of money and handed it out to the dancers “one by one,” with Walborn adding that he hoped it would “solve everything.”
During this strange conversation, Walborn recalled another dancer speaking out and insisting that everyone “keep your records and receipts of what’s going on to protect yourselves because this is strange.”
The dancer’s response quickly infuriated Doug as he said, “You don’t have to keep receipts – don’t worry about that. I arranged it,” Walborn said.
Other former ballerinas have also shed light on the dark truth behind the dance company, as they exclusively told DailyMail.com how the whole botched operation ‘felt wrong’.
Sophie Williams, who was 20 years old at the time, told DailyMail.com that she distrusted the business early on, especially when it came to getting paid.
After hearing Ashley’s side of the story in court, where she insisted she was the victim and not her late husband, the jurors decided to convict her not of murder, but of manslaughter.
Former dancers said Doug often raised his voice and tried to paint a different picture of the failing ballet studio
She remembered waiting outside a small hallway next to other American National Ballet dancers in alphabetical order for their names to be called.
No one was told why they had to gather there, only that there was a chance to finally receive a paycheck.
When Williams, now 27, was called into the small office in Charleston, South Carolina, she came face to face with a strange sight.
Doug Benefield sat behind a suitcase full of hundred dollar bills.
At his command she sat down.
Williams said, “He just started counting down hundreds of stacks.”
Doug told Williams that the money was for everything the company had promised the dancers but never delivered: health insurance, pointe shoes, travel expenses and her total salary.
She walked out of the office almost $5,000 richer. But the exchange made her feel even more uncomfortable about what was happening within the dance company.
Ashley met Doug, a recently widowed father, at Ben Carson’s home in Palm Beach, Florida, in August 2016, when she was 24 and he was 54. She had campaigned for then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
They married just 13 days later and founded the American National Ballet company soon after.
In the early days of their relationship, “they were just together all the time,” Doug’s 23-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, Eva, testified.
“They were into each other all the time, PDA. They never left each other’s sides,” she said.
After a year of marriage, Doug, a retired naval flight officer, helped Ashley realize her dream of starting a ballet company, using his own money and contacts.
He acted as CEO of the company, while Ashley took on the role of executive director.
But shortly after the company’s founding, the company was sued by dancers and choreographers who claimed their contracts were breached when they were fired just weeks after being hired.
Doug also reversed his vasectomy and Ashley became pregnant three months later with their daughter Emerson, now six years old.
Then everything changed, Assistant State’s Attorney Suzanne O’Donnell claimed in court in July.
She said Ashley moved from their home in South Carolina to Florida to live with her mother when she started experiencing morning sickness, and from then on she never lived with Doug again.
“They continued a long-distance relationship when she first moved to Florida and continued to try to stay together and communicate, but at about the same time the ballet [company] collapses, Ashley Benefield begins complaining to the victim,” O’Donnell told jurors.
She began accusing Doug of poisoning her and of non-physical domestic violence.
Doug also reversed his vasectomy and Ashley became pregnant three months later with their daughter Emerson, now six years old.
Ashley said Doug kept bringing her tea that she thought contained poison, CBS News reported.
But Manatee County Sheriff’s Office detectives conducted a five-week investigation and were unable to find any evidence to support her claims of abuse.
Prosecutors argued that Doug’s murder was a last-ditch effort to gain custody of their daughter, who was two years old at the time of the shooting.
“This is a case about a woman who decided early in her pregnancy that she wanted to be a single mother,” O’Donnell argued. ‘She didn’t want this child’s father to have visitors.
“This is a long story. This was a custody battle that this mother was going to win at all costs, and the price was Doug Benefield’s life.”
Prosecutors argued that Doug did everything he could to fix their marriage and keep their family together.
After hearing Ashley’s side of the story in court, where she insisted she was the victim and not her late husband, the jurors decided to convict her not of murder, but of manslaughter.
She currently faces between 11 and 30 years in prison and is expected to appear at her sentencing hearing on October 22.