A judge has sentenced former Tennessee Titans scout Blaise Taylor to two consecutive life terms plus 22 years for killing his pregnant girlfriend and their unborn daughter, treating the mother and the child as separate victims.
Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Steve Dozier imposed the sentence Sept. 9, two months after a jury convicted Taylor on four murder counts in the 2023 deaths of Jade Benning and the baby she planned to name Ivy.
“Both of these victims deserve a just punishment,” Dozier said. “What occurred on this particular night shows a level of cruelty, a level of calculation, a level of inhumanity that’s deeper than just some impulsive, reckless thoughts that may have come to mind at that particular occasion.”
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Prosecutors said Taylor slipped a lethal dose of cocaine into a drink he gave Benning on Feb. 25, 2023, at her Nashville apartment. Benning was 24 weeks pregnant.
They argued he wanted to prevent the birth of the child.
Benning’s friend Nijaiha Jackson testified that Benning called her after drinking it.
Jackson said Benning told her, “My drink tasted funny, I can’t even walk straight, you did this so something could happen to the baby.”
Taylor called 911 and reported that Benning appeared to be having an allergic reaction.
“We had cookies and pasta,” he told the dispatcher. “I don’t know what she’s done. … I don’t know what to do.”
Ivy died February 27 and Benning died of acute cocaine poisoning on March 6, her 25th birthday.
The medical examiner testified that the cocaine level was higher than anything she had ever seen.
Jurors found Taylor guilty of second-degree murder in Benning’s death, first-degree premeditated murder in Ivy’s death and two counts of first-degree felony murder, one for each victim.
Assistant District Attorney Jan Norman told the court the jury found that Taylor “intentionally, and with premeditation, poisoned Jade Benning for the purpose of murdering his own unborn child.”
Taylor, 30, pleaded not guilty.
His lawyers said prosecutors had not proved he poisoned Benning. Defense attorney Letitia Quinones-Hollins noted that Taylor was the one who called 911.
After sentencing she said, “We are extremely disappointed but not surprised by the harsh sentence,” and said the defense plans to appeal.
The defense submitted 87 character letters.
Norman said the letters “described a man of honor, a man of honesty, a man of great accomplishments,” but that “not one of them mentioned Jade Benning, not one of them mentioned baby Ivy,” and “not one single letter out of the 87 letters mention anything about what Blaise Taylor did.”
Dozier ordered the life sentences to run consecutively so the punishment for Ivy’s death would not be served at the same time as the punishment for her mother’s.
From a pro-life view, that distinction is the heart of the case. Ivy was already a daughter with a name. She died two days after the poisoning. Two people were killed and the court sentenced Taylor for both.
