hey everybody Dr G here I'm a licensed clinical psychologist and Body Language expert and today we're going to be analyzing the behavior and body language of ballerina Ashley Benfield Ashley Benfield is currently on trial for the murder of her husband Doug she alleges that she shot him in self-defense prosecution alleges that she shot him in order to gain custody of their child before we get started with this a couple of quick things want I wanted to make sure you know this is not a psychological evaluation of any kind these are just my opinions in addition to that this is not about guilt nor innocence it's about just providing commentary based on behavior and Body Language last thing before we get started is I do want to remind you to like And subscribe if you want to see more content just like this all right let's go today we're going to be looking at two different clips one when she's on the stand talking about the shooting with her attorney and the other when she's on the stand talking about the shooting with the prosecutor Let's Just Jump Right In it's a picture of my face what she's talking about right now is a picture that was taken after she says that she was struck by Doug is it an accurate picture of what your face looked like on that night yes sir who took that photog so we just saw a couple of emotions I'm going to go back we're going to go through what we saw is it an accurate all right so you see her chewing on her lip right now now this is a soothing Behavior so when we start feeling uncomfortable and we need to soothe ourselves often times we do things with our lips touch our lips chew on our lips lick our lips those types of things so right now what we're seeing is a buildup of anxiety as as she's talking about this picture of what your face looked like on that night yes sir who took that photograph um I don't remember her name now this right here you see the way the Brows are arched now that is a very legitimate look of sadness that is a very real look of sadness so when we think of sadness you think of the bottoms of the mouth pointing downward and you think of the brow shaped like this so to me that looks like genuine sadness as she's talking about this I don't remember her name she was at the sheriff's office at the Sheriff's Office okay now now one thing you're also probably noticing is that she's not making a lot of eye contact she looks around occasionally makes eye contact with the attorney this is something that we've seen from her throughout the trial so this is not exceptional this just seems to be her Baseline she doesn't seem to make very strong eye contact when she's speaking what is it about that photograph that shows or reflects the slap or the hit that you got to the side of your head on that day by Doug um that side of my face is Qui swen puffy and discolored around my eye and is your eyelid drooping yes on the side where you were hit yes your honor I move fence exhibit number seven into you're also seeing flashes where the bottoms of her mouth very briefly there's you'll see a flash of this you see them flash downward once again that supports the idea that there's some genuine sadness here your honor I move fence exhibit number seven into evidence received what was different on at that moment that so I stopped here to show you the the awareness of the camera that's something that we always have to consider sometimes we'll see people that constantly look at the camera you'll see somebody look at the camera and then start putting on a performance sometimes so I just want to point out that she does happen to remember the cameras are there she is looking at them she is aware that she's being filmed that's just always an important point when you're looking at all of this what was different on at that moment that Ashley than at any time in your prior relationship with Doug he had never actually hit me before so you'll notice her brow right here is very different than it looked when I talked about the sadness earlier right now this is what we typically associate with anger actually this type of brow looks like concentration or anger so it does look a little bit unusual and I've heard a lot of people I've seen a lot of people commenting that they don't believe or that they think all of this is fake and I think I think that's part of the reason why people believe that why people think that she's being inauthentic or that she's not being real because she's showing an unusual facial expression but it doesn't necessarily mean that the emotions aren't real it also doesn't necessarily mean that the trauma that she's talking about isn't real I'm going to go back we're going to keep watching and I'll explain more as it unfolds with Doug he had never actually hit me before what did you do I ran where to my room why CU I was scared Ashley did you have anything in your room that could protect you I had my gun did you grab the gun yes as you're grabbing the gun what if anything did you hear I heard the door hitting that door stop as if it is flung open yes and so watch this right here as she talks about that she heard the door hitting the door stop what if anything did you hear I heard the door hitting that doorstop as if it is so as she's talking about it she's nodding her head yes so there's this unconscious tendency for us to agree with or disagree with what we say you see sometimes people will disagree with their own statements she is agreeing with what she's saying right here once again I know that the way that she looks is not consistent necessarily with what people think but I work with a lot of trauma I see a lot of people reliving experiences talking about trauma it doesn't always look quite like you would expect and the confusion of emotions the fact that we're seeing the Angry Eyebrows maybe there is anger about this maybe she's is not only afraid or sad but there could be some anger as well but we'll keep going it's flung open yes okay and you saw her purse her lips together that's a genuine attempt to calm down and what do you see Ashley when you look up Doug was standing in the doorway his face was red like the veins were bulging in his neck way he was looking at me he didn't even look like Doug his eyes were black now if you've seen my other video you've probably heard me talk about people crying without tears and I don't really see any tears here which is unusual does that all of a sudden mean that anything and everything she said should be thrown away and that you should ignore all of her emotions and all it's all fake no but it's always worth paying attention to and that stands out right here but there are other markers that seem authentic to me and I will continue to talk about those but I just want to make sure that that I acknowledge I do see that she's not producing many if any tears right now does he yell anything at you he said you're done what does he do at that point I I held the gun like in front of me and I I said stop and he like turned and he got into this like like a fighting stance he like I got low and he started like moving his arms and his hands around he was making these like jerking motions obviously circumstances like this are high unusual so the vast majority of people have never sat and spoken with somebody who has dealt with something like this I've talked to a lot of people who have dealt with a wide variety of traumas and sometimes the look and the reactions the emotions are not quite what you would expecting when you were holding the gun out in front of you and you told him to stop I thought when he saw it he would leave did he no at that point Ashley what are you thinking I thought he was going to kill me a lot of people have been very critical about the way that she is shaking saying that it's a bad acting job saying it's an authentic I'm not entirely sure that that's true I've seen a number of people who dealt with trauma and talked about it that looked just like this now I get there's not tears I understand that piece of it but as far as the rest of the body language it looks more realistic and looks more legitimate than you might think did he no at that point Ashley what do you thinking I thought he was going to kill me tell us what so you see the lip lips pressing together there is some attempt to self soothe and to calm herself down as she's doing this and that's another thing that's important is is she trying to put on a performance or is she trying to calm herself down so that she can respond to these questions and so that she can get through this and it does look like she is actually trying to calm herself down happens now he started coming towards me now watch her eyebrows right here when we raise our eyebrows we trying to draw attention to our face he started coming towards me so he started coming towards me she raised her eyebrows right then so in some ways that seems to be tapping into something possibly very real and then he lunged at me and I start pulling the trigger and he just kept coming I remember trying to move to get away from him but he kept coming at me Ashley would you tell us why if you're holding a loaded firearm you were attempting to move away I was taking away from him I was Terri all right so you're firing he keeps advancing what happens next it was like his feet slipped out from under him and his legs went up in the air when Doug hits the floor what's your immediate reaction I ran to get home so look at her body posture she's leaning forward we often times do that to connect with the person we're speaking to her shoulders are bunched up her hands are crossed in front of her she's shaking which we often times see when somebody has a lot of adrenaline coursing through their veins we do see somebody who looks like they're in a very legitimate defensive stance right here I think it would be hard to get all of these elements true if you really were just purely acting we've seen a lot of bad acting jobs over the past years year or two and I can point out some of those but this doesn't seem like one of them to me once again you can see a little bit of a tier but the lack of volume of tears I really think and the angryl looking brow I really think that that's what's making people think that this is more of a performance because a lot of the rest of it does look very consistent with when somebody talks about a traumatic situation in this clip she's talking about when Doug punched their dog are there any incidences in particular Ashley that stand out to you yes tell us please we are having an argument all right so you see her raising her eyebrows when she's talking about this the incidences that she wants to talk about they were having an argument she wants you to focus on her face when she's talking about that that's why we raise our eyebrows it brings attention to our face we were having an argument and he came at me like it was going to hit me and our dog salty jumped up in between us and you punched him in the face so hard that he knocked him out so you see the same what appears almost looks like an angry brow that you don't see the tears coming but I feel pretty strongly that she likely does feel very sad about what she's talking about right now and her expression and her look and her overall demeanor other than her shoulders not being up looks very similar right now she looks defeated her her back is sort of rounded she looks very sad right now but I just wanted to point this out because this gives us an idea of when she cries when not talking about that night and I think that most people I would imagine most people would agree that she probably is legitimately sad about this that this is what she looks like which is remarkably similar to when she talked about the shooting between us and you punched him in the face so hard that he knocked him out I just remember screaming cuz I thought he had killed him were there other times s that Doug hurt the animals yes he had hit kicked punch Sully um he threw a cat multiple times sometime he threw Snuffy down the stairs now we're going to watch Ashley Benfield talking to the prosecutor and she's actually going to have her act out what happened that night he said you're done and that made you fear for your life yeah can we turn the lights up please no look at the brow here now when she's talking about it now as opposed to when she was talking to her own attorney her brow appears far more sad we don't see that anger that we saw before thank you so he says you're done and you point the gun and you shoot I held it out in front of me first so he could see it and I said you looking at the eyebrows once again she's talking about I held it out in front of me first she wants people to pay attention to her often times when people are lying they try to hide so basically they do less to bring attention to themselves when they can now I know if you're saying well she's putting on a performance so she has to that doesn't change the fact that the unconscious part of the body the part that raises the eyebrows the part that does these types of involuntary behaviors want to be seen right now as she's talking about this so he says you're done and you point the gun and you shoot I held it out in front of me first so we could see it and I said stop if judge if I could have her St down so she can demonstrate so Doug opens the door and does what standing in the doorway all right so you're seeing the hands twist together that's already a sign of attempting to calm herself down people that think that she's being inauthentic I think that the hand ringing the way that she's doing that appears authentic and that appears to be a genuine way to make herself feel calmer as she's doing this and I hold the gun out in front of me I said stop you got into this like fighting Lally turn sideways and he was like moving around with his like arms and His Hands also the degree of movement when she's talking about the things that he's doing the things that she's seeing now I want you to keep in mind that when people are lying often times s they try once again they try to hide when they can this doesn't seem to be hiding to me it seems to be that she's willing to do this frankly this seems torturous to me you know the the risk that the prosecutor took in having her talk about this and having her get up there and perform this out and basically show everybody what happened if she dealt with genuine trauma this is awful I personally I hate this I I understand the purpose of why it was done I get that the prosecutor wanted to show because she believes probably believes wholeheartedly that Ashley Benfield did this and wanted to show look what an actress she is and look how ridiculous this is but there's also the chance that she didn't do this there's also the chance that she's having to relive trauma in a courtroom which is extremely difficult to sit in if you've never been in one it really is so the idea of having to do this and talk about real trauma uh it's this this is hard to watch and you start like ining for dor sake so he's he he why do you call it a fighting s it's like a fighter like a like a ninja or something I don't know okay so listen to how imprecise her language is like a ninja or something I don't know she's talking about things in a way that don't sound prepared in that sense the the way that she's describing things have the right level of confusion around them that I would expect from somebody having to perform something like this in the middle a courtroom so he's standing there he turns to like this and starts moving his arms around that well show me what was he doing kind like I don't know he got like this and he was like making like fighting motions I I don't know I'm not a fighter I don't know okay it was scary did he have his hands and fists not at that point they were like I don't know was he coming at you like this he led at me came really quickly okay so he lunged was his fist up when he L I don't remember now if you've never been in court and had an attorney talking to you in an angry way it is intense it's very intense as a psychologist seeing this bothers me tremendously if I'm being completely Frank was he coming at you like this he at me came very quickly okay so he lunged was his fist up when he L I don't remember so you start shooting and he does what so right now you can see her rubbing her hands together covering her body so when we look at when somebody is telling the truth or whether or not they're lying people do tend to do self- soothing things when they're lying to calm themselves down because most people don't like to lie but it doesn't look like this the degree of trying to calm herself down to me looks like someone who is truly trying to get through talking about trauma the Comfort the way that she's moving around it I I get that people think that she's faking this I think this would be harder to fake than you than you realize I think that getting all of the different components right would be harder to do than most people probably think you're coming at me okay so then you keep shooting again and he falls down on his back his legs went up in the air okay where do his legs go in the air how high in the air I don't know so when she was saying in the air she opened her eyes why wide she looked up it was almost like she was trying to sort of look in her Mind's Eye and remember what happened once again that leads legitimacy to the fact that she is recalling something she actually saw and not just making things up I don't know did they go over his head I don't know it's like his feet slipped out okay and his feet and his legs went up in the air and were you still shooting at the time I don't remember you can have a seat you know I I think the shaking because of most people not being used to seeing people do that kind of thing it makes people feel uncomfortable they go well that's fake that doesn't look real to me most of us the point of reference for the vast majority of us for see somebody talking about something dramatic or something like this would be like movies TV shows and this isn't how an actor would probably portray this isn't what we would normally think of but for those of us that actually see trauma work with trauma talk to people that are traumatized every day this does look like somebody trying to figure out how to get themselves through this situation and how to try to calm herself down all right let's go ahead and stop here hopefully this is helping you better understand some of what You observe today and helps you better understand my perspective on why I think that she is talking about things from a way that appeared genuine when she talks about trauma when she discusses what she went through there does appear to be genuine emotion behind there her behavior definitely could be consistent with real trauma could she be faking it of course that's always a possib ability but based on what I've seen there doesn't appear to be a lot of signs of deception I know there's probably a lot of people that are going to disagree with me on this analysis and I don't mind that but if there's any thoughts you have please let me know in the comments below or if there's anything else you want me to analyze from this trial please let me know there as well last thing before we get wrapped up is I do want to remind you to like And subscribe if you want to see more content just like this all right thanks for watching