The murder trial of 30-year-old former Titans scout Blaise Taylor continues on Monday as the defense prepares its case after prosecutors rested on Saturday. Taylor is accused of poisoning Jade Benning—then pregnant—with cocaine dissolved in alcohol, leading to
The courtroom returned on Monday with the question hanging over every exchange: would Blaise Taylor choose to take the stand?
Taylor, 30, is accused of poisoning Jade Benning, who was pregnant with their child. Both Benning and the baby died in early 2023. Prosecutors say the poisoning involved cocaine dissolved in alcohol and laced into Benning’s pink lemonade.
On Saturday, the trial heard testimony from one of Taylor’s former girlfriends. She told the court that she had been impregnated by Taylor and that she has chosen to have an abortion. She also said that after Taylor later impregnated another woman—separate from Benning—Taylor spoke about attempting to terminate that most recent pregnancy.
“He was Googling things,” Apple Dennie testified, via News Channel 9. “He was looking stuff up to figure out how she . . . if there was something you could do to make her have an abortion. And asked me if I could get the abortion pills, and he could make her take them or put it in her drink.”
Those details came as the prosecution completed its case on Saturday. On Monday, the defense case began.
The defense’s biggest decision now centers on a legal and practical fork in the road: whether Taylor will waive his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and testify on his own behalf. For most criminal defendants. choosing to testify is rare—not because they cannot tell their side. but because an aggressive cross-examination can quickly strip away any benefit from their direct testimony.
Between the accusations tied to Benning’s drink and the testimony describing Taylor’s alleged talk about abortion pills and dosing someone through a beverage, the trial is still building toward its central confrontation: what Taylor will do next—silence, or his own voice inside the record.
Blaise Taylor trial Titans scout Jade Benning murder trial cocaine pink lemonade abortion pills Fifth Amendment Apple Dennie