NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A former NFL scout for the Tennessee Titans was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences on Friday after a jury found him guilty of the first-degree murder of his pregnant girlfriend, a case that prosecutors argued was a calculated poisoning driven by his refusal to become a father.
Blae Taylor, 31, showed no emotion as the judge handed down the sentence for the deaths of Jade Benning, 25, and her unborn daughter, whom the family had named Ivy. The verdict, delivered after just a few hours of jury deliberation on June 23, 2026, capped a nearly three-year investigation that began when Benning collapsed in her Nashville apartment on February 25, 2023.
The case against Taylor, who was working as an NFL scout at the time of the incident, painted a chilling picture of a man who allegedly used his access to a dangerous substance to eliminate what he viewed as an obstacle to his career and personal life. The prosecution argued that Taylor slipped a lethal dose of cocaine into Benning’s drink, knowing she was five months pregnant with his child.
“She was excited to expect her very first baby,” prosecutor Aaron Carney told the jury during closing arguments. “Then suddenly she collapses. She was saying that she couldn’t feel her legs.
Her unborn baby doesn’t survive. And days later, neither would she.”
The medical evidence presented at trial showed that Benning’s blood tested positive for cocaine at the time of her death, a finding that her family and friends vehemently rejected given her healthy lifestyle and excitement about the pregnancy. The prosecution argued that the concentration of the 𝒹𝓇𝓊𝑔 in her system was so high that it could not have been self-administered, pointing instead to a deliberate act of poisoning.
The case took a dramatic turn when prosecutors called to the stand Apple Denny, a former Miss Arkansas contestant and Taylor’s ex-girlfriend, who testified about a disturbing conversation from 2017. Denny told the jury that Taylor, then a college football player, had panicked when another woman became pregnant, asking Denny if she could obtain abortion pills to slip into the woman’s drink.
“He was very erratic. He didn’t want to have a baby with her. That’s what he was telling me.
That this was something that he couldn’t do,” Denny testified, her voice trembling as she recounted the conversation. “He was googling things. He was looking stuff up to figure out how she could have an abortion.
And asked me if I could get the abortion pills and he could make her take them or put it in her drink.”
The defense, however, argued that Denny’s testimony was nothing more than a conversation from years ago, never acted upon, and that the prosecution’s case was built on circumstantial evidence and unreliable toxicology reports. Defense attorney Luke Norman hammered the medical examiner’s official finding of “undetermined” as the manner of death, suggesting that the state’s own experts could not definitively prove poisoning.
“The integrity of those vials of blood and urine were such that the results of those blood tests does not make sense,” Norman argued. “The experts are going to have to tell you that it was too much cocaine for Jade to take on her own and too much cocaine for Bla1 to have slipped in a drink and her not notice.”
The defense also sought to portray Benning as someone with a history of 𝒹𝓇𝓊𝑔 use, pointing to text messages and testimony that suggested she had used marijuana, Adderall, and even mushrooms in the past. Norman argued that the prosecution’s narrative of a clean-living expectant mother was a fabrication designed to sway the jury.
“You’ll find that Jade was involved with drugs prior to the day that this happened,” Norman said. “You’ll hear that she was involved with marijuana. You’ll hear that she was involved with Adderall.
You will hear that she was involved with the weed cartridges. You will hear that she was involved with mushrooms. And you will hear that she also drank a lot until she was drunk often times.”
The emotional heart of the prosecution’s case came from Benning’s best friend, Niga Jackson, who testified about the final, harrowing phone call she received from her friend as she was driving home from a gathering. Jackson described hearing Benning’s voice become increasingly slurred and panicked, accusing Taylor of putting something in her drink.
“What did you do? What did you put in my drink?” Jackson recalled Benning saying.
“Then I heard her say, ‘Blaze, you’re scaring me.’ And he was like, ‘You’re scaring me.’ And she was like, ‘I know you put something in my drink.
I know my drink tasted funny.’ And she was asking him to empty his pockets.”
Jackson testified that Benning’s final words were a direct accusation: “You did this so something could happen to the baby.” The phone call ended with Benning struggling to speak, her voice fading as she said, “I feel like I’m about to pass out.”
“She sounded like she needed help,” Jackson said through tears. “She did not sound like herself.”
The timeline presented by prosecutors was meticulous. Benning had asked Taylor to come over for a date night on February 25, 2023, telling him to wear comfortable clothes. She had planned a craft project for the baby’s nursery.
Taylor arrived at her apartment, and within 30 minutes, Benning was in distress.
At 9:29 p. m. , Benning called Jackson.
At 9:47 p. m. , Taylor called 911, but not before making a two-minute and 37-second call to his father, a delay that prosecutors argued showed a lack of urgency and a calculated attempt to manage the situation.
“He calls 911 knowing that Niga Jackson is on her way and she is going to find Jay Benning pulseless,” Carney argued. “He calls knowing what he gave her.”
When EMS arrived, they found Benning face down on her bed, her mouth on the comforter with pink vomit that tested positive for cocaine. She was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, where her unborn daughter died two days later. Benning herself died on March 6, 2023, what would have been her 25th birthday.
Taylor’s arrest came nearly a year later, in February 2024, when he was pulled over in Logan, Utah, where he had moved to work at Utah State University. Body camera footage played for the jury showed Taylor’s calm demeanor as he was handcuffed and told he had a warrant out of Nashville for homicide.
“I know absolutely nothing about the case,” Taylor told the arresting officer. “All I know is I was notified that there was a warrant.”
Following his arrest, Taylor was extradited back to Tennessee, where he pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder. He was released on a $2.5 million bond in April 2024 and ordered to wear a GPS monitor while awaiting trial, a decision that allowed him to remain free for more than two years before the case finally went to trial.
The sentencing hearing on Friday was marked by emotional testimony from Benning’s family, who described her as a vibrant young woman who had achieved her dream of becoming a chef and was overjoyed at the prospect of becoming a mother. They spoke of her excitement about the pregnancy, her plans for the baby’s nursery, and the future that was cruelly taken from her.
“Jade deserved to live. Ivy deserved a chance to live,” Carney said during the sentencing argument. “The cruelty of Bla1 Taylor in all of his actions that night and in every attempt that he did to lie to keep himself out of trouble.
It deserves consecutive sentencing.”
The defense submitted 87 character letters from friends, family, and former colleagues, all describing Taylor as a man of honor, honesty, and faith. But the prosecution noted that none of the letters mentioned Benning or her unborn child, a glaring omission that they argued revealed Taylor’s true nature.
“Not one of them mention J. Benning, not one of them mentioned Baby Ivy,” Carney said. “Not one single letter out of the 87 letters mention anything about what Bla1 Taylor did.”
In imposing the sentence, the judge cited the “level of cruelty, a level of calculation, a level of inhumanity” demonstrated by Taylor’s actions on the night of the poisoning. The judge noted that the jury’s recommendation of life with the possibility of parole was not binding, and that the consecutive sentences were warranted given the gravity of the crimes.
“Both of these victims deserve a just punishment for ending their lives,” the judge said. “We’ll never know what Miss Benning may have done with the rest of her life. And honestly, we’re certainly not going to know what Baby Ivy could have been and done.”
Taylor, who chose not to address the court, showed no visible reaction as the sentence was read. He was remanded to the Davidson County Jail, where he will remain until he is transferred to a Tennessee Department of Corrections facility to begin serving his sentence.
Following the hearing, Taylor’s attorney issued a statement indicating that they plan to appeal the conviction and sentence. The appeal will likely focus on the defense’s arguments about the reliability of the toxicology evidence and the circumstantial nature of the prosecution’s case.
For Benning’s family and friends, the verdict and sentence bring a measure of closure, but the pain of their loss remains raw. Jackson, who was the last person to hear Benning’s voice, said she will never forget the fear in her friend’s final words.
“She was my sister,” Jackson said. “She was a very loyal person, a very dependable person, and a friend that I never imagined to not have anymore.”
The case has also raised broader questions about the dangers of substance 𝓪𝓫𝓾𝓼𝓮 and the lengths to which some individuals will go to avoid unwanted responsibilities. Prosecutors argued that Taylor’s motive was clear: he did not want to be a father, and he was willing to 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 to prevent it.
“Jade Benning saw Bla1 Taylor for the person that he actually is,” Carney said. “That is not the person described in the character letters. He murdered his own unborn child.
He did not have any concern for J. Benning’s life.”
As Taylor begins his life sentence, the memory of Jade Benning and her unborn daughter Ivy will live on in the hearts of those who loved them. The case serves as a stark reminder of the fragility of life and the devastating consequences of unchecked ambition and selfishness.
“She went on to school, but her dream was to be a chef. And she achieved that dream,” Carney said during the trial. “She was so happy to be living her dream.”
That dream, like so many others, was cut short by a man who chose to end two lives rather than embrace the future he had helped create.