In a shocking case involving a former scout for the Titans, serious allegations have emerged. He stands accused of lethally poisoning his pregnant girlfriend with cocaine.
As revealed by court documents examined by Oxygen, Blaise Taylor faces charges including two counts each of first-degree and felony murder in connection to the deaths of Jade Benning and her unborn child in 2023. His indictment was filed in 2024, and his trial has just commenced this week.
According to CourtTV, Taylor has entered a plea of not guilty. Meanwhile, his legal representatives have yet to issue a statement in response to queries from Oxygen.
Benning became pregnant in November 2022 after a few months of dating Taylor. During the trial’s opening statements on June 23, prosecutors claimed Taylor was reportedly troubled by news of the pregnancy, as detailed by WSMV.
The couple experienced a brief split before getting back together. Upon realizing his potential paternity, Taylor displayed increased involvement in the pregnancy, according to his lawyer, as reported by NewsNation.
On Feb. 25, 2023, while Benning was five months pregnant, the couple was eating dinner at home when she became suspicious that her drink had been contaminated, according to WSMV. Benning called her best friend Nijaiha Jackson to share her belief and started slurring her words.
“She was saying, ‘My drink tasted funny, I can’t even walk straight, you did this so something could happen to the baby,’” Jackson, who had visited with the couple earlier that evening, said in court, according to WTVF.
The defense denied that Benning ever accused Taylor of tampering with her drink, WSMV reported, and stated that Jackson never called 911 after getting off the phone with Benning.
“There was only one person that night that called 911,” defense attorney Quinones-Hollins said in court, according to NewsNation. “With all of this medical emergency, all of these things that were going on with this young lady, there was only one person who called the police, who called for help, and that was Blaise.”
In a recording of the 911 call played in court, Taylor said Benning might have had an allergic reaction, according to WSMV.
“We had cookies and pasta,” he told dispatch. “I don’t know what she’s done…I don’t know what to do.”
Taylor appeared to follow instructions to keep Benning positioned on her side and answered questions about her medical condition.
Emergency responders allegedly found Benning lying face-down on her bed, with pink foam around her mouth, WSMV reported.
She was rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where a doctor later testified that she was clinically dead and had been placed on oxygen, according to WSMV.
Benning’s unborn baby died on Feb. 27. She then died of acute cocaine toxicity on March 6, which was also her 25th birthday, prosecutors said.
During an April 2024 hearing, a medical examiner testified Bennet had an unusually high amount of cocaine in her system, WSMV reported. Prosecutors further alleged the cocaine had been dissolved into a liquid before it was ingested, according to WKRN.
Taylor moved to Utah after the deaths, prosecutors said, where he was arrested on March 14, 2024, and returned to Tennessee.
He could face life in prison if convicted on all charges, according to KARK.