The double murder trial involving former Arkansas State football player Blaise Taylor is underway in Nashville, Tennessee, where jurors heard testimony last week that alleged he pressured his girlfriend to have an abortion before fatally poisoning her and the couple’s unborn child with cocaine.
Taylor, 30, is accused of intentionally giving Jade Benning, who was five months pregnant, a fatal dose of cocaine through a drink at her Tennessee apartment on February 25, 2023. Her unborn daughter died two days later in the hospital while Benning died on her 25th birthday, March 6, 2023. Taylor has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
An autopsy found that at the time of her death, Benning had a total of 1,787 nanograms of cocaine per milliliter of blood. A medical examiner testified that she “could not recall anything this high.” The examiner concluded Benning died of “acute cocaine toxicity,” and while the cause of death for the unborn baby could not be determined, cocaine is believed to have been a factor.
Nashville Assistant District Attorney Jan Norman told the court on Wednesday, June 24 that Benning allegedly called a friend after taking a drink she believed Taylor had spiked.
“What did you put in my drink?” Benning asked, according to friend Nijaiha Jackson. “‘I knew my drink tasted funny. You did this because you didn’t want the baby.’”
The jury also heard text messages that Benning sent to a close friend in which she accused Taylor of pressuring her into getting an abortion.
“I’m going to tell him today that I’m not having the abortion,” she wrote in one message. “So he can just get it out of his head.”
In another message sent to Taylor, she wrote, “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,” Benning continued. “I will love this child unconditionally with or without you.”
Benning’s mother, Bridget Burks, also testified, and she recalled conversations she allegedly had with her daughter that struck a similar tone.
“If she had the baby, he wanted nothing to do with the baby. He didn’t want it to have his name. He didn’t want the child to ever know who he was,” Burks said.
Taylor’s defense team argued that he later reached out to Benning again, saying he wanted to work on their relationship.
Jurors also heard testimony from Taylor’s ex-girlfriend, Apple Dennie, whom he dated in 2017. She alleged that at one point during that year, he had gotten another woman pregnant and had asked her to obtain abortion pills to slip into the woman’s drink.
“Very erratic. He, like, was upset. Didn’t want to have a baby with her,” Dennie testified.
She added, “He was Googling things. He was looking stuff up to figure out how she … if there was something you could do to make her have an abortion. And asked me if I could get the abortion pills, and he could make her take them or put it in her drink.”
Taylor played college football at Arkansas State University from 2014 to 2017 before spending a year at Duke University as a graduate assistant coach. He spent four years working for the Tennessee Titans, including from 2021 to 2023 as a full-time pro scout. He faces up to life in prison without parole if convicted.
