Jurors heard this week that former college football player Blaise Taylor allegedly pressured his pregnant girlfriend to obtain an abortion before he poisoned her and their unborn child to death. The 30-year-old ex-Arkansas State player is facing four counts of murder.
Prosecutors allege that Taylor intentionally administered a fatal dose of cocaine to Jade Benning in her Tennessee apartment on February 25, 2023, killing her and their unborn daughter, who was reportedly to be named Ivy. Benning, who was five months pregnant at the time of her death, sent text messages to a friend that appeared to reference Taylor's alleged desire for her to terminate the pregnancy. "I’m going to tell him today that I’m not having the abortion…so he can just get it out of his head," one message stated, according to an investigator who testified. Another message sent to Taylor three months before her death read, "You said how you felt and stated that moving forward you want no part, so I will let it be that... I will not involve you at any point. I will love this child unconditionally with or without you."
Taylor's defense team stated that he re-established contact with Benning approximately two months after she sent that message, expressing a desire to work on their relationship. Prosecutors contend that Taylor's unwillingness to become a father motivated him to allegedly serve Benning a drink containing a deadly dose of cocaine and then falsely report to 911 that she was experiencing an allergic reaction as she lost consciousness. EMTs reportedly found Benning unresponsive in her bed about 20 minutes after the call. Benning died on March 6, which would have been her 25th birthday. The unborn baby died in the hospital on February 27, 2023.
A medical examiner testified Friday that an autopsy revealed Benning had extremely high levels of cocaine in her system, totaling 1,787 nanograms per milliliter of blood. Dr. Erin Carney, the medical examiner, described the level as unprecedented in her career, stating, "I could not recall anything this high." Carney added that the circumstances surrounding Benning's ingestion of cocaine were concerning and that oral administration of cocaine is uncommon. The cause of Benning's death was determined to be acute cocaine toxicity. The manner of death for the five-month-old baby could not be determined, although cocaine was likely a contributing factor. The medical examiner explained that cocaine can cause pregnancy loss by inducing placental abruption, which disrupts blood flow to the fetus, leading to death.
Taylor, a former Tennessee Titans scout, faces life in prison without parole if convicted of the top murder charges. He has pleaded not guilty and was required to wear a GPS monitor after posting $2.5 million bond in April 2024.