Girl Admits Kidnapping Mom-to-Be, Making an attempt to Reduce Fetus Out to ‘Declare’ as Her Personal

“The sound was nearly as good because the sight,” Doug’s cousin Tommie Benefield suggested the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, of seeing Ashley taken into custody. After seven hours, the jury returned a accountable verdict.

Ashley was found accountable of manslaughter, a lesser price than the second-degree murder price the prosecution was trying to find. Her safety was that she was showing in self-defense, nonetheless the jury clearly didn’t buy it.

Whereas her authorized skilled tried to have her out on bond until her sentencing, the state argued she has incentive to flee going by means of as a lot as 30 years in jail. The resolve ordered her held in custody until sentencing.

Doug’s 23-year-old daughter Eva didn’t buy Ashley’s story of being a sufferer of house abuse, each, telling the media, “I apologize to all the ladies who’ve gone via home violence conditions. I believe what Ashley was doing was unfair to them. They deserve justice and I am very joyful that my dad received the justice he deserves.”

Assistant State Lawyer Suzanne O’Donnell, who tried the case in opposition to Ashley, talked about, “Home violence is totally an actual drawback. There are a lot of, many ladies which might be in horrendous conditions.”

“Ladies, and generally males, which might be in conditions which might be being abused and overwhelmed regularly,” she continued. “Individuals who really feel like they can’t get out, no technique to get out. This isn’t this defendant, and it by no means was.”

All by means of the week-long trial, the prosecution painted 32-year-old Ashley as an opportunistic killer who murdered her husband so she is perhaps a single guardian after making an attempt to disclaim him shared custody, nonetheless her safety launched a definite picture.

All by means of this earlier week, Ashley’s authorized skilled Neil Taylor shared the story of a partner terrified of her husband after allegedly enduring many instances of emotional abuse. Ashley shot and killed Douglas on September 27, 2020.

Ashley herself took the stand on Friday and tearfully testified that whereas she had killed her husband, it was executed in self-defense after he turned bodily abusive.

One witness, Bruce Ferris, a psychological nicely being expert specializing in house and family traumas, testified that Ashley’s displayed behaviors match the pattern of any person who’s a sufferer of house abuse. He referred to as them “methods of compliance, not eager to poke the bear.”

Dr. Jason Quintal, who’d labored with the couple beforehand, described Doug as “someone who was domineering” and “super-controlling.” A realtor, Vincent Vizzaccaro, testified that Doug had wanted to buy a house straight behind the one Ashley was dwelling in all through their separation.

Lastly, a forensics educated, Michael Haag, took the stand and talked about bullet trajectories from the crime scene. He testified that Ashley wanted to have been transferring by means of the taking footage, which sits in stark distinction to the prosecution saying she shot her husband from behind.

In accordance with the prosecution, Ashley murdered her husband so she is perhaps a single mother.

“This case is a couple of lady who very early on in her being pregnant determined she needed to be a single mom,” argued Assistant State Lawyer Suzanne O’Donnell. “She would cease at nothing to acquire that aim.”

They launched their very personal proof in regards to the taking footage, as properly. “Primarily based on entry wounds on Douglas it doesn’t seem that he was going through Ashley when she started taking pictures,” the Manatee County Sheriff’s Workplace talked about in an affidavit obtained by The New York Submit.

“It additionally doesn’t seem that Douglas had taken any type of defensive or combative stance. He was not discovered to have any weapons on his particular person or close to him,” the affidavit continued.

It is conclusion: “Detectives discovered no proof that she was appearing in self-defense when she fired a number of pictures at her husband.”

Ashley and Douglas first met in 2016 at a GOP fundraiser in Palm Seaside when she was 24 years earlier. A talented dancer, Ashley shared her aspirations to open her private ballet agency. Two weeks after they met, the couple was married and he was funding her studio.

In accordance with the prosecution, points took a flip when the money started to expire and Ashley’s ballet agency faltered. An ensuing divorce battle turned ugly with allegations of infidelity on either side and abuse.

Whereas they’ve been solely married for 4 years, Ashley filed allegations of abuse in opposition to Douglas various situations, along with a story that he’d shot a gun on the ceiling to “shut her up,” that he’d kicked their canine unconscious, and that he’d even tried to poison her whereas she was pregnant.

All by means of the trial, it was revealed that the couple was estranged when their daughter, now six, was born with Doug solely uncover out Ashley had given starting when she filed a restraining order in opposition to him, per WTVT.

A resolve beforehand found no proof of abuse by Douglas in relation to these allegations, the NY Submit reported. The prosecution argued that each one of this was part of a calculated approach by the defendant to obtain sole custody of their toddler. And when that didn’t work, she took rather more extreme measures.

They cherished a interval of reconciliation after that, per the outlet, until Ashley shot and killed her husband in September 2020.