Former Arkansas State football star-turned-NFL scout Blaise Taylor allegedly pressured his girlfriend to get an abortion just months before she died from cocaine poisoning, a court has heard.
Taylor was arrested in March 2024 on four counts of murder after prosecutors say he intentionally gave Jade Benning a fatal dose of cocaine by slipping it into her pink lemonade while she was five months pregnant with their child in February 2023.
The 30-year-old, who worked in the scouting department of the Tennessee Titans, is currently on trial in Nashville and jurors this week heard the case for the prosecution as he waits to learn his fate.
They allege that Benning sent a heartbreaking text to her close female friend in the months before she died, in which she appeared to reference Taylor’s 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,’ the message stated, according to an investigator who read it aloud to the court on Thursday.
In a separate message to Taylor himself three months before her death, she said: ‘You said how you felt and stated that moving forward you want no part, so I will let it be that.
Blaise Taylor is seen in court this week as he faces the potential of life in prison with no parole
Taylor is accused of poisoning his pregnant girlfriend, killing both her and their unborn baby
‘I will not involve you at any point. I will love this child unconditionally with or without you.’
Taylor’s defense team allege that he later reached back out to Benning and said he wanted to work on their relationship, but prosecutors argue his lack of desire to father the child ultimately led to his decision to poison the victim in early 2023.
On February 25, 2023, Taylor allegedly called 911 and reported that Benning was having an allergic reaction.
Benning’s fetus – who was going to be named Ivy – died two days later on February 27, while Benning herself passed away on March 6, her 25th birthday.
Following months of investigations by police, scientists, and the medical examiner, local authorities determined Benning had been ‘poisoned without her knowledge’ after Taylor visited her home.
In the courtroom on Friday, a medical examiner broke down the autopsy report and told the court she had never before seen the levels of cocaine that were found in Benning’s body.
‘I could not recall anything this high,’ Dr Erin Carney said of the sample, which revealed 1,787 nanograms of cocaine per milliliter of blood.
‘The circumstances surrounding [Benning’s] ingestion of cocaine were very concerning, that she ingested this unknowingly. Acute cocaine toxicity caused Miss Benning to die.’
Benning was rushed to the hospital for what Taylor called an ‘allergic reaction’ in 2023
Taylor, pictured at a press conference during his college football career, is awaiting his fate
The specific cause of death of the unborn baby ‘could not be determined’, though Carney believes cocaine was likely a factor.
‘Cocaine is one of the only drugs that we know can cause pregnancy loss because it can cause placental abruption,’ she told the jury.
Taylor posted a $2.5 million bond set by a judge in April 2024 and has since been required to wear a GPS monitor.
The prosecution is seeking life in prison without parole if he is convicted. Taylor has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
