Former College Football Star Charged With Fatally Poisoning Pregnant Girlfriend

A former college football star who went on to work as an NFL scout is facing murder charges over the poisoning deaths of his girlfriend and her unborn child, which the gridder is thought to have fathered.

Blaise A. Taylor, 27, was arrested Thursday evening in Utah by the U.S. Marshals Service on two counts of first-degree murder, according to the Metro Nashville Police Department. Taylor was an All-Sun Belt defensive back and punt returner at Arkansas State, and was hired by the Tennessee Titans in 2019 as a scouting assistant.

At 9:38 p.m. on February 25, 2023, Taylor, who was living in Nashville at the time, called 911 and said his girlfriend, Jade Benning, appeared to be having an allergic reaction of some kind, the MNPD said. Paramedics rushed Benning to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where her condition “immediately worsened,” according to the MNPD. Her 5-month old fetus died two days later; Benning died on March 6, 2023—her 25th birthday.

Read more at The Daily Beast.