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The troubled marriage of Ashley and Doug Benefield
The seesaw marriage between the former ballerina and her much older husband only lasted four years, until she shot him on Sept. 27, 2020.
Ashley Byers met Doug Benefield at a dinner in Florida in August 2016 and sparks flew immediately. Ashley was 24 and a former ballerina and swimsuit model.
A whirlwind romance
Doug was 54 and worked as a consultant for technology companies and government contractors. The couple married 13 days later in his hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, in front of very few guests
Previous tragedy
Doug didn’t tell Eva, his 15-year-old daughter from his previous marriage., that he and Ashley had married. Eva’s mother Renee had died of an undiagnosed heart ailment nine months earlier.
Family struggles
Ashley struggled to get along with Eva, right, and her friend, Sydney, who moved in with the family.
Heated argument
During an argument with Ashley about Eva, Doug fired his gun into the kitchen ceiling.
Ballet dreams
But Doug continued to support Ashley in her dream of building a ballet company in Charleston. The American National Ballet would be a more inclusive home to dancers who were considered unconventional.
Building a family
While they were building the ballet company, Ashley became pregnant. She began to suffer from nausea and returned to Florida so her mother could take care of her.
Is the marriage over?
A month later, in September 2017, Ashley and her mother returned to Charleston. She packed up her belongings and left a scathing note. Ashley called Doug “possessive” and “controlling.” She wrote that the incident when Doug had fired a gun into the ceiling as well as other unsafe behavior had left her fearful for her life and the safety of her unborn child.
The ballet crumbles
In October, Ashley left the ballet company and new leadership fired half of the dancers. Ashley posted on the ballet’s social media pages that she was devastated, and that the new leadership destroyed all that they worked so hard to build.
Initial allegations
Ashley then told authorities about the gun incident. Child Protective Services investigated and interviewed Eva. Doug was evaluated by a psychologist and ultimately cleared.
Were they poisoned?
Ashley also claimed Doug poisoned her and his first wife, Renee. Renee’s autopsy says she died of coronary artery sclerosis, a heart condition.
Secret birth
Ashley had no contact with Doug for the rest of her pregnancy despite his pleas to be involved. In March 2018, three weeks before her due date, she checked into the hospital and said her husband had poisoned her. Doctors performed a C-section and delivered a healthy baby girl. Doug didn’t know she’d been born.
Custody battle
After Ashley filed court documents to keep Doug away from her and their daughter, a judge weighed in on the case. She found “There is not a single scintilla of credible evidence that Ms. Benefield has ever been poisoned or suffered from any illness of any poison.”
Doting dad
Doug and Ashley began sharing custody of their daughter when she was 6 months old.
A reconciliation
Doug and Ashley appeared to put their differences behind them, and reconciled for much of 2019. The two spent time together with their daughter
Marriage in crisis
In August 2019, Ashley showed up to drop off their daughter; she was wearing an engagement ring. Doug hired a private investigator, who said Ashley was seeing someone else. Doug filed for divorce. Ashley then accused him of physically and sexually abusing their daughter. Doug denied the allegations and CPS found no evidence of abuse.
Unlikely reunion
In the summer of 2020, Ashley and Doug suddenly reconciled again and announced they were moving to Maryland with their daughter and Ashley’s mother. On September 27, 2020, Doug was packing a U-Haul with the family’s possessions.
The shooting
That night a neighbor called 911 to report a shooting at the home. Ashley had walked to his house holding a .45 caliber gun and said Doug had attacked her and she shot him. Doug died an hour later at a local hospital.
Ashley’s arrest
Ashley was arrested on Nov. 4, 2020 and charged with second-degree murder. She posted bond a few weeks later and is awaiting trial. She pleaded not guilty.
A trial and verdict
On July 30, 2024, Ashley Benefield was found guilty of manslaughter with a firearm in the shooting death of her estranged husband Doug Benefield.
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.
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Sean “Diddy” Combs at same Brooklyn detention center that held R. Kelly, Sam Bankman-Fried, other high-profile inmates
A second judge refused to grant bail to Sean “Diddy” Combs on Wednesday and he could remain in federal custody at a Brooklyn detention center until his trial for sex trafficking charges. Combs joins other high-profile inmates, such as singer R. Kelly, fallen cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, rapper Ja Rule —even Al Sharpton served a brief stint— who were held at the same federal detention center.
Notorious for its horrible conditions —inmates won a $10 million class action settlement after enduring frigid conditions during an 8-day blackout in 2019— the waterfront industrial complex, MDC Brooklyn, houses 1,200 inmates.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images
Violence and corruption have long plagued the facility; U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown of the Eastern District of New York wrote the detention center had “dangerous, barbaric conditions” in a recent sentencing opinion. Two inmates were stabbed to death in recent months and several correction officers have been convicted for smuggling contraband and accepting bribes.
Combs joins a list of high-profile personalities that have landed at the MDC Brooklyn, partly because the city’s other federal detention center, MDC New York, closed in 2021, also due to horrible conditions. The disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in his cell there in 2019. “Numerous and serious” instances of misconduct among corrections staff gave Epstein the opportunity to kill himself, a subsequent federal watchdog investigation found.
Kelly sued the federal detention center in 2022 for wrongly putting him on suicide watch after his sentencing. Kelly sought $100 million because he said the detention center knew he wasn’t suicidal after he was convicted in 2021 for racketeering and violating the Mann Act, which bars transporting people across state lines for prostitution.
Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Former crypto billionaire Bankman-Fried survived on bread, water and sometimes peanut butter when he was in the MDC Brooklyn, his attorney said, because the detention center continued to serve him a “flesh diet” despite requests for vegan dishes.
Ja Rule stayed at the MDC Brooklyn for a brief time before being released after serving most of his two-year sentence for illegal gun possession. Most of his prison time was spent in a state prison in New York.
Sharpton served a 90-day sentence in 2001 and went on a hunger strike for protesting the U.S. Navy bombing of the island of Vieques, in Puerto Rico.
Combs was taken into custody on Monday and according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday he was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution.
His attorney Marc Agnifilo told CBS News, “It’s impossible to prepare for a trial from where he is,” after a first federal judge denied Combs bail on Tuesday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky agreed with prosecutors who argued the hip-hop mogul, who is accused of using his business empire as a criminal enterprise to conceal his alleged abuse of women, is a flight risk and poses an ongoing threat to the safety of the community.
Agnifilo said the part of the detention center where Combs is being held is “a very difficult place to be.”
contributed to this report.
