Former Arkansas State football standout Blaise Taylor has been sentenced to two consecutive life terms after being convicted of poisoning his pregnant girlfriend, killing both her and their unborn child.
Taylor, 30, who later worked as a scout for the Tennessee Titans, was sentenced Wednesday after being found guilty of second-degree murder, first-degree murder and two counts of first-degree felony murder.
Prosecutors said Taylor secretly put a deadly amount of cocaine into the pink lemonade of his girlfriend, Jade Benning, in February 2023.
Benning was five months pregnant at the time.
Her unborn daughter, Ivy, died two days later. Benning died from acute cocaine poisoning on March 6, 2023 — her 25th birthday.
Taylor had maintained his innocence, and his attorneys suggested Benning may have taken the cocaine herself.
Jurors rejected that argument, reportedly deliberating for less than three hours before convicting him in July.
Prosecutors said the motive centered on Benning’s pregnancy.
Months before her death, Benning reportedly sent a text message to a friend saying Taylor wanted her to have an abortion.
“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 testimony presented in court.
In another message sent directly to Taylor about three months before her death, Benning reportedly told him that she would raise the child without him if necessary.
“You said how you felt and stated that moving forward you want no part, so I will let it be that,” she wrote.
“I will not involve you at any point. I will love this child unconditionally with or without you.”
Taylor’s defense argued that he later reached out and wanted to repair their relationship.
Prosecutors, however, argued that Taylor did not want to become a father and ultimately decided to poison Benning.
On Feb. 25, 2023, Taylor called 911 and told authorities that Benning appeared to be suffering from an allergic reaction.
Investigators later determined that she had been poisoned with cocaine.
During Taylor’s sentencing hearing, the court received 87 letters from people who vouched for his character.
Nashville Assistant District Attorney Jan Norman said many of the letters described Taylor as honorable, honest and deeply religious.
But prosecutors pointed out what the letters did not mention.
“Not one mentioned Jade Benning, not one of them mentioned baby Ivy, and not one single letter out of the 87 letters mentioned anything about what Blaise Taylor did,” Norman said.
Taylor’s attorney, Letitia Quinones-Hollins, said the defense plans to appeal.
“We are extremely disappointed but not surprised by the harsh sentence,” she said, calling the trial “flawed” and the case “tenuous.”
Taylor was once a standout defensive back at Arkansas State, where he played from 2014 through 2017 and served as team captain.
He later joined the Tennessee Titans’ scouting department and went on to work in college football, including stops at Utah State and Texas A&M.
Taylor was arrested less than a week after news broke that he was joining Texas A&M as a defensive analyst.
Under Tennessee law, Taylor reportedly will not become eligible to seek parole on his first life sentence until he is 81 years old.
Even if parole were eventually granted, he would then begin serving his second life sentence.
