NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Jury selection begins on Monday in the trial of Blaise Taylor, the former Tennessee Titans scout who allegedly killed his pregnant girlfriend in 2023.
Taylor has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of felony murder.
Police say that Taylor is believed to have poisoned his girlfriend, 25-year-old Jade Benning, on Feb. 25, 2023. She was pregnant at the time and Taylor is alleged to have been the father of the fetus.
Blaise Taylor appears in court on Thursday, April 18, 2024.
Blaise Taylor appears in court on Thursday, April 18, 2024.(WSMV)
Taylor allegedly called 911 after the poisoning, saying that his girlfriend appeared to have had an allergic reaction. She was rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center by ambulance.
The fetus died days later and Benning died on March 6, before she was able to be interviewed by police.
Months later, Taylor was charged in their deaths and was arrested on March 26, 2024. However, he was released from the Nashville jail a month later after paying 10% of his $2.5 million bond.
Previous testimony
During an April 2024 court appearance, Nijaiha Jackson, a close friend of Benning’s, said that Taylor had initially left Benning after finding out she was pregnant. According to Jackson, Taylor had said he wasn’t going to be part of the child’s life and “made it very clear that he did not want the baby.”
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Taylor’s mother, however, said they were “considering all options.”
Jade Benning
Jade Benning(Submitted)
The couple got back together further along in the pregnancy. Jackson testified she had gone to see Benning the night her friend was allegedly poisoned. Benning seemed happy during that interaction, but Jackson testified that after she left, she got a strange call from the mother-to-be.
“When she called me, she never said hello. She never said my name. She never acknowledged that I was on the phone,” Jackson testified. “She sounded very wavy and she started to say, ‘You did this to me. You put this in my drink. I knew my drink tasted funny.’”
During that hearing, a medical examiner testified that Benning had so much cocaine in her system that it couldn’t have been recreational drug use.
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