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Former A-State Football Player Sentenced to Two Consecutive Life Terms in Murder of Pregnant Girlfriend

Photo: Arkansas State University


Nashville, TN – Jonesboro Right Now – Former Arkansas State University football player and NFL scout Blaise Taylor was sentenced Wednesday for the 2023 murder of his pregnant girlfriend and their unborn child.

WSMV 4 in Nashville, TN reported that Taylor was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences, alongside an additional 22 years in prison.

The sentence was handed down in a Nashville courtroom following Taylor’s July conviction on charges including first-degree murder and felony murder. Following days of testimony, it took a jury just two hours to reach a unanimous decision.

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Taylor, 30, was arrested in Utah by US Marshals in 2024 after a Nashville grand jury indicted him in the poisoning deaths of his girlfriend, Jade Benning, and her five-month-old unborn child.

Benning was hospitalized in February 2023 after Taylor called 911 claiming she was suffering from an allergic reaction. She died a few weeks later on March 6, 2023. Homicide investigators and medical examiners later determined she had been given a fatal dose of cocaine without her knowledge.

Taylor was a scout for the Tennessee Titans until 2023. He was a four-year starter at A-State, where he was a captain and earned first-team All-Sun Belt honors as both a defensive back and a punt returner, according to ESPN.

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