A Nashville jury has found Blaise Taylor guilty in the murder of his pregnant girlfriend, Jade Benning.
The jury convicted the former Tennessee Titans scout on all four charges after an eight-day trial on Wednesday, July 1, according to court records reviewed by PEOPLE.
Jurors convicted Taylor of second-degree murder and first-degree felony murder during the commission of a felony in Benning’s death, along with first-degree premeditated murder and first-degree felony murder during the commission of a felony in the death of their unborn child.
The jury reached the verdict less than three hours after closing arguments concluded, according to USA Today. Taylor, 30, now faces a potential sentence of life in prison.
Authorities first arrested the former Arkansas State University athlete in March 2024 on suspicion of poisoning Benning and her unborn child. The fatal incident occurred on Feb. 25, 2023. That night, Taylor called 911 around 9:38 p.m., requesting medical assistance for his girlfriend, who was five months pregnant.
On the call, he claimed she was having an allergic reaction.
When emergency responders arrived, they found Benning without a pulse, lying face down across a bed. They rushed her from her Nashville apartment to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Doctors admitted Benning in critical condition, and she was unable to speak with authorities.
She had severe brain damage, and her unborn child had a low heart rate after arriving at the hospital, a Vanderbilt physician testified. Benning’s unborn child died two days later. Benning died shortly after, on her 25th birthday, March 6, 2023.
Medical examiners testified during Taylor’s trial that a fatal combination of a large amount of cocaine dissolved in alcohol caused Benning’s death.
The trial also revealed that Taylor allegedly spiked her pink lemonade with a mixture of cocaine dissolved in alcohol, prosecutors claimed. They alleged that Taylor didn’t want her to give birth to their child, which he believed was his, per WZTV.
Ahead of the trial, during the April 2024 bond hearing, Benning’s friend, Nijaiha Jackson, claimed that Benning told Taylor she suspected her drink tasted different. Jackson recalled overhearing Benning talking to her boyfriend just before she became violently ill. “She was saying, ‘My drink tasted funny, I can’t even walk straight, you did this to do something to the baby,’ ” Jackson said at the hearing, per News Channel 5.
Prosecutors argued during the hearing that the murders were premeditated, since a cup that had been in front of Benning in a photo was missing when police searched the scene.
“It appeared there had been some cleanup done,” homicide detective Adam Reese explained during his testimony. “It’s not a spur-of-a-moment type of thing to put drugs in someone’s beverage.”
Meanwhile, during the trial, Taylor’s attorneys claimed Benning’s death was not the result of intentional poisoning, but an overdose caused by her own drug use, per WZTV. His attorneys questioned witnesses about her recreational use of marijuana and alcohol, highlighting a testimony that suggested she didn’t directly reject an offer for a marijuana gummy while pregnant.
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