Former Titans Scout Convicted of Murder in Pregnant Girlfriend's Death

A jury took less than three hours to reach its verdict: guilty. Blaise Taylor, a former scout with the Tennessee Titans, has been convicted of murdering his pregnant girlfriend in a case that hinged on a single, lethal decision made in February 2023.

The victim was Jade Benning, 25 years old and five months pregnant when she died on what would have been her birthday—March 6. Prosecutors painted a stark picture: Taylor gave her a drink laced with cocaine because he didn’t want her to have the baby. When she collapsed, he called 911 and told the dispatcher she was having an allergic reaction. She made it to the hospital but never left alive.

Taylor’s defense team argued that Benning had a history of drug use, attempting to suggest the overdose wasn’t his doing. The jury wasn’t persuaded. The 30-year-old was convicted on four counts—two for first-degree murder and two for felony murder—at the conclusion of an 8-day trial. He wasn’t arrested until about a year after Benning’s death, a delay that underscores the meticulous work required to build a case around a drug-induced death.

Before his arrest, Taylor had been a college football player at Arkansas State University from 2014 to 2017, then parlayed that into a scout position with the Titans. That career is now definitively over. What awaits is a potential life sentence. The swift jury deliberation suggests the evidence against him was overwhelming—a reminder that in cases involving a pregnant woman and an unborn child, the courtroom atmosphere, and the stakes themselves, tend to cut through any reasonable doubt.