Football Star Blaise Taylor Accused of Forcing Pregnant Girlfriend’s Abortion — Then Poisoning Her with Cocaine in Chilling M.u.r.d.e.r Plot
Former college football star Blaise Taylor allegedly pressured his pregnant girlfriend to have an abortion before poisoning her and their unborn child to death, prosecutors told jurors during his double-murder trial this week.
The 30-year-old former Arkansas State football player is facing four counts of murder. Prosecutors allege that he intentionally gave Jade Benning a fatal dose of cocaine inside her Tennessee apartment on Feb. 25, 2023, killing both her and the couple’s unborn daughter.
Benning, who was five months pregnant, had previously sent a chilling text message to a close friend indicating that Taylor had been urging 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,” the message read, according to an investigator who read it aloud in court on Thursday.
Jurors also heard another text message in which Benning referred to Taylor’s alleged reluctance to become a father.
“You said how you felt and stated that moving forward you want no part, so I will let it be that,” she wrote to Taylor about three months before her death, according to local outlet WSMV 4.
“I will not involve you at any point. I will love this child unconditionally with or without you,” the message continued.
Taylor’s defense attorneys argued that roughly two months later, he contacted Benning again and expressed a desire to repair their relationship.
Prosecutors contend that Taylor’s unwillingness to become a father motivated him to give Benning the deadly drink at her Nashville apartment before falsely telling a 911 dispatcher that she was suffering from an allergic reaction as she lost consciousness.
Emergency responders reportedly found Benning unresponsive and lying face down on her bed about 20 minutes after the call.
The unborn baby, who was reportedly going to be named Ivy, died at the hospital on Feb. 27, 2023.
Benning died days later, on March 6, which would have been her 25th birthday.
On Friday, the fourth day of Taylor’s trial, a medical examiner testified about Benning’s autopsy, revealing an extraordinarily high concentration of cocaine in her system.
A blood sample showed 1,787 nanograms of cocaine per milliliter of blood, a level Dr. Erin Carney said she had never encountered before.
“I could not recall anything this high,” Carney told jurors, referring to the hundreds of cocaine-related autopsies she has conducted throughout her career.
“The circumstances surrounding Miss Benning’s ingestion of cocaine were very concerning, that she ingested this unknowingly,” Carney testified, adding that cocaine administered orally is “very uncommon.”
“Acute cocaine toxicity caused Miss Benning to die,” she said.
Carney testified that the manner of death for Benning’s five-month-old unborn baby could not be determined, although cocaine was likely a contributing factor.
“Cocaine is one of the only drugs that we know can cause pregnancy loss because it can cause placental abruption,” she explained.
“That disrupts the blood flow from mom to baby, so now the baby is not getting the oxygen it needs through the blood, and then the baby dies.”
Taylor, a former Tennessee Titans scout, has been required to wear a GPS monitor since posting a $2.5 million bond in April 2024. If convicted of the most serious murder charges, he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
He has pleaded not guilty.
