Kriti Mehrotra
When Jade Tristen Benning of Nashville, Tennessee, passed away on her 25th birthday on March 6, 2023, it left her loved ones and officials with more questions than answers. That’s because while there were some concerns that she had been poisoned, others were claiming she had a terrible allergic reaction, which killed her unborn baby and her. It took a while, but investigators were ultimately able to attain justice for them both, which has since been carefully detailed in CBS’ ’48 Hours: Jade Benning’s Final Call.’
Jade Benning Died in a Hospital After Days in a Coma
Born on March 6, 1998, in Little Rock, Arkansas, to Bridget Benning Burks and Dennis Browning, Jade Tristen Benning was the epitome of an ambitious, independent, and resilient woman. She was really athletic as a child, driving her to take up cheerleading at the tender age of 7 at Cheer City United, following which she made it to hr school teams too. In fact, she was the cheer captain while at Horace Mann Middle School and then the captain of her Junior Varsity and Varsity cheer team at Little Rock Central High School before graduating in 2016.
While Jade loved cheer, her true passion was cooking, so she enrolled at Brightwater Culinary Arts as soon as she could and completed her training in 2020. She subsequently kickstarted her career in the culinary world, honing her skills as a Chef at Earnest Bar & Hideaway and Head Pastry Chef at Mirabellas Table. She even launched her own catering business by the name of JTB Eater along the way, all the while managing her relationships with her friends, family, and boyfriend. The music and travel enthusiast was actually romantically involved with Blaise Taylor, a former Arkansas State football player and Tennessee Titans NFL scout. Jade and Blaise were reportedly going steady by the time 2023 rolled around, with her also being excited to embrace the next chapter of their lives together as she learned she was pregnant.
Therefore, it wasn’t strange when the 5-month professional chef set up a date night in her apartment on February 25, 2023, only for everything to soon take a turn for the worse. It was 9:38 pm when Blaise dialed 911, frantically requesting assistance at her place – Apartment 107 in The Ontario Apartments at 1540 Lebanon Pike in Nashville, Tennessee. First responders arrived at the scene in minutes and rushed the almost 25-year-old to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Unfortunately, though, despite the best efforts of medical professionals, she slipped into a coma. Her unborn baby, named Ivy, died on February 27, and Jade passed away on her 25th birthday, March 6, 2023. Her doctors later confirmed her cause of death to be acute cocaine poisoning owing to the blend of alcohol and a significant amount of cocaine in her system.
Investigations Into Jade Benning’s Case Pointed Toward One Primary Suspect
Since Jade was pregnant and had no history of substance abuse, her death was considered a homicide, and the authorities treated it as such almost immediately. They thus questioned everyone close to her, especially her boyfriend Blaise since he was the one to dial 911. According to his statements, he believed his girlfriend had an allergic reaction to something, which is what he reported to the dispatcher during his call, too. He said, in part, “I’m at a friend’s house, and I think she’s having an allergic reaction. We were eating cookies and painting, and she says she wasn’t feeling good. Now I’m running back to the room to check on her.” However, when detectives sat down to talk to one of the victim’s best friends, Nijaiah Jackson, she was adamant that her boyfriend had poisoned and killed her because of a phone call she received from Jade.
As per Nijaiah’s statements, she knew about Jade and Blaise’s date night but was still hoping to spend some time with her best friend, so she called her that fateful evening. She reportedly told the professional chef that she hoped he wouldn’t be mad, but she was going to come by for a short while and grab food she made, to which she happily said sure. Nijaiah believes she was there with the couple for around 15-30 minutes before leaving, only to get a call from Jade an hour later, which she initially thought was a butt dial. According to her statements, her best friend’s voice was a little far, as if she wasn’t holding the phone to her face, but she could clearly hear what was being said.
Nijaiah told detectives she heard Jade ask Blaise, “What did you do? What did you put in my drink?… I knew my drink tasted funny. You did this because you didn’t want the baby.” She further claimed that the pregnant young woman even asked her boyfriend to empty his pockets and show him if he had anything there. The victim allegedly also said something along the lines of, “Blaise, you are scaring me…. I’m about to pass out,” driving Nijaiah to immediately start making her way to her place. By the time she arrived, though, she stated he had already dialed the emergency services, and Jade was in the back of an ambulance. The fact that he moved away from Tennessee not long after Jade passed didn’t help his case either.
Blaise Taylor is Currently Incarcerated in a Tennessee Prison For the Murder of His Girlfriend and Unborn Child
Although Nijaiah’s statements were very incriminating, the authorities decided to look into him further before taking any action. That’s when they learned that he indeed did not want a child with Jade or be involved in the pregnancy and beyond – he had explicitly stated the same several times to several people. Text messages between the couple confirmed it, and even Jade’s mother told investigators that after he learned she was pregnant, he’d told her he wanted nothing to do with the situation and did not want the baby to have his name. As if that’s not enough, his ex-girlfriend, Apple Dennie, claimed that he was so upset about the pregnancy that he had asked her to obtain abortion pills so he could secretly administer them.
Therefore, on March 14, 2024, Blaise was arrested by US Marshals in Logan, Utah, and charged for the poisoning murder of Jade and their unborn daughter. He pleaded not guilty, so he stood trial in June 2026. The prosecution claimed that the defendant laced Jade’s pink lemonade during their date night with cocaine dissolved in alcohol, which turned lethal, because he did not want to have a child with her. Jade’s best friend Nijaiah, her mother Bridget, and Blaise’s ex-girlfriend Apple all testified on behalf of the prosecution, too. On the other hand, the defense argued that the victim died of an overdose caused by her own drug use, even though there was no evidence to corroborate the same.
In the end, after 9 days of testimony and less than two hours of deliberations, on July 1, 2026, Blaise Taylor was found guilty of all four charges against him. In other words, he has been convicted of both first-degree and second-degree murder of Jade as well as first-degree and second-degree-murder of their unborn child. Later on, on September 9, despite the 87 character letters sumbitted to the court by his friends, former teammates, coaches, etc., he was sentenced to two terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 22 years. The judge stated that while the letters were strong, they did not reflect what he did on February 25, 2023. Therefore, today, at the age of 30, he is incarcerated at the mixed-security Bledsoe County Correctional Complex in Pikeville, Tennessee, where he is expected to remain for the rest of his natural life.
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