{"id":934319,"date":"2026-07-02T03:54:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T03:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/934319\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T03:54:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T03:54:22","slug":"who-is-blaise-taylor-what-to-know-about-ex-nfl-scout-convicted-in-pregnant-girlfriends-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/934319\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is Blaise Taylor? What to know about ex-NFL scout convicted in pregnant girlfriend\u2019s murder"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – A week-and-a-half-long trial has found Blaise Taylor guilty<\/a> in the 2023 murders of his girlfriend and their unborn daughter. <\/p>\n

On Wednesday, a Nashville jury returned a guilty verdict and recommended a life sentence for Taylor in the murders of Jade Benning and their unborn child. She was nearly 24 weeks pregnant when Taylor put cocaine in her drink without her knowledge.<\/p>\n

Benning was clinically dead before an ambulance was able to get her to a hospital. Her unborn daughter died within two days, and Benning was taken off life support a week after the incident, on what would have been her 25th birthday. <\/p>\n

But who exactly is Taylor? Here\u2019s what we know. <\/p>\n

<\/a>Blaise Taylor\u2019s football career <\/p>\n

Taylor, who is originally from Waco, Texas, was a defensive back at Arkansas State University and is the son of an Arkansas State cornerback coach Trooper Taylor. He attended the school from 2014 to 2018, earning several accolades throughout his collegiate career. <\/p>\n

According to his player profile<\/a>, he was the only current Football Bowl Subdivision player in the nation at the time to earn both his bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees before he started his true senior season. He gained several other recognitions throughout his time with the team. <\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a> reports that after graduating, he worked as a scout for the Tennessee Titans until 2023. He had left the Titans to be a senior defensive analyst with Utah State University, and after a year there, he transferred Texas A&M to be a defensive analyst. However, he was arrested less than a week after he was hired, the Times said. <\/p>\n

Blaise Taylor\u2019s murder trial<\/p>\n

Taylor was arrested in March 2024 in Logan, Utah. A press release from Metro Nashville Police<\/a> at the time said that the arrest came after \u201cmonths of investigation\u201d into the deaths of Benning and the child, with detectives believing he had poisoned Benning without her knowledge on Feb. 25, 2023. <\/p>\n

\u201cTaylor moved to Utah after the deaths,\u201d the MNPD said.<\/p>\n

Taylor\u2019s trial began on June 22 and ended Wednesday. During that time, the 911 call he made<\/a> the night of Benning\u2019s poisoning was played in the courtroom. The audio of that call revealed that Taylor told 911 dispatchers he believed Benning was having an allergic reaction to food. When asked by the dispatcher if she was experiencing any typical symptoms of a severe allergic reaction \u2014 including swelling, rash, hives or redness \u2014 he said she wasn\u2019t, but that Benning was not responding and appeared to be vomiting. <\/p>\n

Testimony revealed that earlier in the night, the on-and-off-again couple had been painting canvases for their unborn child\u2019s room. She was going to be named Ivy. While Benning painted a colorful canvas with words of inspiration, Taylor painted a canvas depicting what he described as a \u201cblack hole<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n

A close friend of Benning\u2019s had been at their apartment earlier in the night. Right after the couple had painted the canvases and taken photos together showing off the artwork, that friend \u2014 who had known Benning since she was 6 years old \u2014 received a phone call<\/a> from her lifelong friend. <\/p>\n

During that call, she heard Benning yelling at Taylor. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe was like, \u2018I know you put something in my drink because I can\u2019t even walk straight.\u2019 She was just saying that she couldn\u2019t feel her legs,\u201d Nijaiha Jackson testified. \u201c…You did this so something would happen to the baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blaise Taylor\u2019s conviction<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, after two hours of deliberation, the jury found Taylor guilty on four charges \u2014 two counts of felony murder, one count of second-degree murder in the death of Jade Benning and one count of first-degree premeditated murder in the death of Ivy, the unborn child. <\/p>\n

Jurors later recommended that Taylor receive life in prison. <\/p>\n

His sentencing is scheduled for September 9. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 WSMV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – A week-and-a-half-long trial has found Blaise Taylor guilty in the 2023 murders of his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":934320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061],"tags":[70287,123557,124180,331,9488,13989,7,123694,13647,123559,6,526,394,2411,527,124179],"class_list":["post-934319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennessee-titans","tag-arkansas-state-university","tag-blaise-taylor","tag-blaise-taylor-conviction","tag-college-football","tag-crime","tag-fbs","tag-football","tag-jade-benning","tag-murder","tag-murder-trial","tag-nfl","tag-tennessee","tag-tennessee-titans","tag-tennesseetitans","tag-titans","tag-who-is-blaise-taylor"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116848365794371064","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=934319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/934320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=934319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=934319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=934319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}