'Black Swan Murderer' sobs as neighbor's chilling 911 call is played in court after she shot husband who she married after just 13 days

The so-called 'Black Swan murderer' was seen sobbing in court on Tuesday as she listened to the 911 call a neighbor made in the minutes after she killed her estranged husband. 

Ashley Benefield, now 32, ran to her neighbor's home in Bradenton, Florida on September 27, 2020 after she shot and killed Douglas Benefield, 59, whom she had married in 2016 after dating for just 13 days.

'I heard a very loud pounding on my door,' neighbor Josh Sant testified on Tuesday, 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 on Tuesday.

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

As the audio was played in court, Ashley - a former ballerina - was seen crying.    

She is now claiming that she was simply acting in self-defense, as her attorneys paint Doug - the father of her daughter - as a domestic abuser. 

The pair 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. 

In the early days of their relationship, 'They were just with each other all the time,' Doug's daughter 23-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, Eva, testified.

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

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 claims.

She said Ashley moved from their home in South Carolina to Brandenton 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.

Prosecutors now argue that killing Doug was 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. '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.' 

The prosecutors argue Doug was doing everything in his power to rectify their marriage and keep their family together. 

On the day of Douglas' death, Ashley was preparing to move her and her young daughter to Maryland to live with her mother.

Doug was also planning to move to the Old Line State, but would live separately from his wife and daughter.

He had arrived at Ashley's Bradenton home to help them pack when he was shot four times in Ashley's bedroom.

In a previously-filed motion obtained by Law & Crime, defense attorneys argue Doug arrived 'happy, hyper  and animated,' but eventually became 'agitated, sullen and intimidating.'

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

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

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

'Thirty years older than Ashley, he was obsessed with her, and he successfully portrayed himself as he was not in an effort to win her hand in marriage,' Taylor said of their relationship.

'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 then told the jury that Doug 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. 

Taylor also took note of Doug's 'previous marital history of domestic violence,' Law & Crime reports.

He said that prior incidents would be supported by law enforcement.

The defense is even apparently planning to call O'Donnell as a witness because she declined to press charges against Doug after Ashley's earlier claims of abuse, Court TV reports.

'Ashley Benefield feared him,' Taylor claimed of the deceased.

'She left him a letter when she moved out three years prior to the homicide detailing how scared she was of him because of all these acts. She feared for herself and for her unborn child.'

The defense has even filed documents indicating they will be presenting evidence that Ashley suffers from 'battered spouse syndrome.'

He added: 'The only thing that is going to have been established here beyond a reasonable doubt is that Douglas Benefield was a violent abuser, Ashley Benefield's efforts to placate him was absolutely consistent with what abused woman do, especially when a child is involved, and that Ashley's result and resource to deadly force was justified under the circumstances.'

Outside of the Florida courthouse on Monday, protesters showed their support for the former ballerina.

'We really are standing for Ashley,' her pastor, Mike Brown, told Fox 13.

'We have a group of domestic violence survivors who are standing with us, ready to see justice prevail.'

But before jurors took their seats on Monday, the defense tried to delay Ashley's trial by 60 days, arguing that recent rulings by the court had severely impaired their ability to present an effective defense.

Judge Matt Whyte denied the motion, saying the legal team has more than enough time to prepare in the three and a half years since Ashley was charged.

The team had also previously sought to get the second-degree murder charges against Ashley dropped.

But Whyte refused to dismiss the charges at a hearing last year.

In his ruling, Whyte wrote that the evidence 'proves clearly and convincingly that the defendant is not entitled to court-ordered immunity from criminal prosecution, as she was not justified in using deadly force against the victim.'

Ashley now faces a minimum sentence of 25 years behind bars and a maximum sentence of life in prison if she is found guilty of Doug's murder following the two-week-long trial.