Former school soccer star Blaise Taylor allegedly pressured his pregnant girlfriend to get an abortion – earlier than poisoning her and their unborn child to dying, jurors heard throughout his double-murder trial this week.
The 30-year-old ex-Arkansas State participant faces 4 counts of homicide after prosecutors say he deliberately gave Jade Benning a deadly dose of cocaine inside her Tennessee condo on Feb. 25, 2023 – killing her and the couple’s unborn daughter.
Benning, who was 5 months pregnant when she died, had beforehand despatched a chilling textual content message to an in depth feminine buddy that appeared to reference Taylor’s alleged push for her to finish the being pregnant.
“I’m going to inform him at this time that I’m not having the abortion…so he can simply get it out of his head,” the message acknowledged, in response to an investigator who learn it aloud from the witness stand Thursday.
Benning referenced Taylor’s alleged considerations with changing into a father in a second textual content message heard by jurors.
“You mentioned the way you felt and acknowledged that shifting ahead you need no half, so I’ll let or not it’s that,” reads a message she despatched Taylor three months earlier than her dying, native information outlet WSMV 4 reported.
“I can’t contain you at any level. I’ll love this little one unconditionally with or with out you,” her textual content continued.
Taylor’s protection staff informed the court docket that he reached again out to Benning, saying he wished to work on their relationship, roughly two months after she despatched that message.
Prosecutors argue that Taylor’s unwillingness to turn into a father was what drove him to allegedly serve Benning the lethal drink at her Nashville house – then falsely inform 911 operators she was affected by an allergic response as she misplaced consciousness.
EMTs reportedly discovered an unresponsive Benning face down in her mattress once they arrived about 20 minutes after that decision.
The unborn child, who was reportedly going to be named Ivy, died within the hospital on Feb. 27, 2023.
Benning died days in a while March 6, which might have been her twenty fifth birthday.
On Friday, day 4 of Taylor’s trial, a medical expert broke down Benning’s post-mortem report – which confirmed sky-high quantities of cocaine in her system that evening.
A blood pattern taken from her physique revealed a complete of 1,787 nanograms of cocaine per milliliter of blood – a stage by no means earlier than seen by Dr. Erin Carney, she informed jurors.
“I couldn’t recall something this excessive,” she mentioned, referring to her lots of of cocaine-related post-mortem reviews all through her profession.
“The circumstances surrounding [Benning’s] ingestion of cocaine had been very regarding, that she ingested this unknowingly,” Carney claimed, including that cocaine being administered orally is “very unusual.”
“Acute cocaine toxicity induced Miss Benning to die,” she mentioned.
The way of dying for her five-month-old child “couldn’t be decided” – although cocaine was probably an element, in response to Carney.
“Cocaine is likely one of the solely medicine that we all know could cause being pregnant loss as a result of it could actually trigger placental abruption,” she defined.
“That disrupts the blood circulation from mother to child, so now child’s not getting the oxygen that it must the blood, after which child dies.”
The previous Tennessee Titans scout – who has been required to put on a GPS monitor since posting the $2.5 million bond set by a choose in April 2024 – faces life in jail with out parole if he’s convicted on the highest homicide prices.
He has pleaded not responsible.
