Football Player’s Ex Drops Bombshell in Poison Murder Trial

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: good afternoon miss Denny could you please take your full name for the record apple Denny and can you spell your last name for the court reporter d-e-n-n-i-e and miss Denny how do you know blaze Taylor we dated when I was an undergrad at Arkansas State and how old were you when you started dating [00:00:35] Apple Denny: him 18 and can you describe how long did you date him a couple years through 2018 it was breakups they back together breakups get back together so the timeline gets a little foggy which for reference [00:01:00] Speaker 1: you said that y'all began dating when you were 18 how old are you now 28 and what year were you in [00:01:10] Apple Denny: school I started fall of 2016 and wait yes fall of 2016 and I met him in November of that year and what [00:01:22] Speaker 1: year was he in school believe he was a junior senior do you remember how old he was no but he was a couple years older than you is that fair yes and did you continue to date into the beginning of that next year early 2017 yes and then at some point in your relationship did you ever become pregnant yes and and about when did that happen um January of 2017 and when that happened did you talk to mr. Taylor about it yes and can you describe kind of what were your feelings when you learned that you were pregnant I [00:02:08] Apple Denny: I was really scared um and confused um I knew I wasn't ready to have a kid [00:02:20] Speaker 1: um was that your reaction kind of from the beginning and was didn't stay that way yes I like immediately [00:02:31] Apple Denny: like that that wasn't something that I thought I wanted for myself was that something that you felt [00:02:39] Speaker 1: like you could talk to your parents about at the time no um and so from the time that you found out what did you ultimately end up doing I had an abortion and was there any point in which you changed your mind about that no um and mr. Taylor did he accompany you to the appointments for that yes and was there one appointment or was there more than one there was two did he go to both of those appointments with you yes and can you describe at that first appointment what information was provided to you about the options [00:03:24] Apple Denny: there were two different types of abortions that I could have one was the procedure and and the other was taking a pill at the center and then taking one when you got home and that would [00:03:50] Speaker 1: like induce the abortion and did you discuss those two options with mr. Taylor during that time that you were going through this yes um and did you which option did you ultimately choose I had the procedure at the facility and did he accompany you to that visit yes um and at any point did you meet his parents yes um did y'all continue to date after that um and you said that you broke up but then you would get back together yes um and when you broke up was there was there anyone in particular that he might have dated while you were broken up yes and who was that her name was savior and what was her last name uh winford [00:04:49] Apple Denny: did you know miss winford yes and not like personally um but i knew her through him and we had a few had a few interactions and he had a few interactions and can you describe what was your understanding of his relationship with her someone that he dated before he met me um or didn't date he said they were never together that he would never bring her home to his parents and that she was crazy [00:05:21] Speaker 1: and that needed to block her and it was kind of that situation and at some point um did he come to you and talk to you about something that happened with her yes and what was it that he came to tell you about [00:05:41] Apple Denny: that he got her pregnant and what was the time frame that this occurred this was the summer of 2017 [00:05:52] Speaker 1: and what was his demeanor like when he came to you to tell you about this very erratic he [00:06:00] Apple Denny: like was upset um didn't want to have a baby with her that's what he was telling me um that this was [00:06:07] Speaker 1: something that he couldn't do was that a different reaction than he had when you told him you were [00:06:14] Apple Denny: pregnant but you did not want to keep the baby yes it was like flipped like how i was like panicked the first time around and he was freaking out when it was her and when you say he was freaking out how did [00:06:27] Speaker 1: he act when he was panicked um really erratic and like he but then he would say like he could control [00:06:38] Apple Denny: the situation um it went on for like a few days of us like talking about it but like that night he was like trying to figure out if there was something that he could do um he was googling things um so he was looking stuff up to figure out how she like if there was something he could do to make her have an abortion um and asked me if i could get the abortion pills and he could make her take them or put it in her drink [00:07:16] Speaker 1: and so you talked to him over a period of a couple of days is that correct yes and what was he telling you i mean he's telling you that he's trying to figure out something that he can give her yeah was she wanting to have an abortion based on what he said no he said she would go back and forth um and he [00:07:39] Apple Denny: would like tell her well i'm not gonna like i'm not gonna be a part of the child's life thinking that that would convince her to not have it because that's ultimately what he said like she wanted and then they would just go back and forth about it and someday he would say i think it's i think she's gonna do it and i think she's not gonna do it but she didn't want to and you said that he was [00:08:03] Speaker 1: telling her he wouldn't be a part of the child's life was he also saying like not part of her life yeah like he wouldn't have anything to do with her if she went forward with it kind of like an ultimatum yeah um and he asked you if you could get the abortion pill for him so that he could make her take [00:08:23] Speaker 3: it and put it in her drink is that right yes did you do that did i get the pill no was that even [00:08:41] Speaker 1: not saying that you would agree to do that but is that even possible no and did you explain that to him yes and you said that it went over a couple of days did he talk about anything else that he might [00:08:56] Speaker 3: be able to get to put in her drink yes and the things that he was mentioning how did he get that [00:09:12] Apple Denny: information he said he was looking stuff up on his phone i couldn't like see what he was looking up but he had his phone in his hand [00:09:24] Speaker 1: and i guess what if anything else did you discuss with him about miss winford and miss winford getting [00:09:32] Apple Denny: an abortion um he had asked me to make the appointment and said that he thinks that he could convince her by the time the appointment came to get the abortion and what would be the reason that he would need you to call to make the appointment because she wouldn't call herself um but he wanted to go out and get an [00:09:55] Speaker 1: appointment so is there a waiting time for sorry was there going to be a delay from the time you called to when the appointment would actually be scheduled um can you rephrase that sorry you said that he wanted you to schedule the appointment yeah because he thought he could convince her to do it and didn't want her to change her mind yeah i'm asking if there was going to be like a time period yes um and he didn't want [00:10:25] Apple Denny: like they were booked so he didn't want her to finally decide to and then not be able to get it [00:10:33] Speaker 1: and did you agree and call and schedule that appointment yes and did you pretend to be her yes um and do you know if she went to the appointment that you scheduled i yes i i assume it was that appointment and he said you assume i guess do you know what ultimately happened with that pregnancy yes that she had abortion that's what i was told and do you know did mr taylor continue to see miss winford after that time frame that would have been summer of 2017 yes and do you have any knowledge if he's [00:11:12] Apple Denny: continued to see her since then yes i i i assume so [00:11:23] Speaker 3: do you have any knowledge about that i saw a post of her at a game and i was okay hang on just a second do you carry me first i'm just asking if she has personal [00:11:44] Speaker 1: knowledge of the two of them being together when it was something was taken or when it was posted she doesn't know that okay all right go ahead did you know jade benning prior to february 25th of 2023 [00:12:04] Apple Denny: i knew of her we had had some message exchanges on social media like she told me happy birthday vice versa [00:12:10] Speaker 1: and what was the connection between you and jake benning she was in a similar area like the little [00:12:18] Apple Denny: rock area was pretty small so like a lot of my friends grew up with her so we kind of just would see each other on social media um and connected that way but i never met her in person so she was [00:12:29] Speaker 1: kind of the social media connected friend of other friends yes um did you both participate in the same [00:12:36] Apple Denny: athletic sport uh i don't i think i was told she shared but i never like met her through that but [00:12:43] Speaker 1: i think we might have both been cheerleaders at some point okay so you knew of her but didn't actually know her and you had never met her yeah um how did you hear about what ultimately happened to jake benning [00:12:57] Apple Denny: one of my two of my friends had said that they needed to talk to me and called me [00:13:04] Speaker 1: and told me about what happened and when you say they told you about what happened about what like what was the timing of this from when the incident happened miss benning passed away was it before she [00:13:17] Apple Denny: passed away yes she was still in the hospital at this point and so that would have been kind of right [00:13:24] Speaker 1: after this incident yes when you say they told you what happened what kind of information did you get [00:13:34] Apple Denny: i don't remember like verbatim um but they told me that she they thought that or were told that he might have poisoned her or something of the sort um and but they like didn't have details and that she was in the hospital and they were like keeping the wrong life support i think until her birthday [00:13:58] Speaker 1: um yeah and when you heard that what did you do [00:14:07] Apple Denny: like immediately after the phone call or right kind of connected to miss benning [00:14:13] Speaker 1: in this case and how you ended up here today um [00:14:19] Apple Denny: while like i talked to them they knew about the situation um with xavier in the past and i want to say if maybe a few days later my friend arian had reached back out to me and asked if like i wanted to connect with miss bridget and i said yes that's fine i'm open to helping in any way that i can and then miss bridget reached out to me and then from there it was detective reese and [00:14:48] Speaker 1: so on and so forth and did you talk to detective reese and provide him with the information that you've just testified about yes and then did you also meet with detective reese and myself and deputy moore and miss houston yes and arkansas and did you provide us with that information as well yes i can have just one moment and i'm sorry miss denny i i feel like you said that they told you about jade when they told you about jade what was your understanding you know whether like what her condition was that she was pregnant um and you mean like her physical state that or just about the shoes but the information that you got from the friends was that she was pregnant and yes there was suspicion something happened to her and they were [00:16:02] Apple Denny: thinking that she was thinking that it was blaze and that she was in the hospital after that [00:16:10] Speaker 1: and do you see mr taylor in the courtroom yes and could you point him out and then identify him thank you miss denny [00:16:22] Speaker 3: all right question [00:16:28] Speaker 4: miss denny i want to make sure that understanding got this right you never put anything in anybody's drink right no you never went and got an abortion pill on behalf of mr taylor no you never got any kind of other substance from mr taylor no you never got any cocaine no we got fentanyl no you guys never slipped anything in anybody's drink no you never saw mr taylor do that either right no so what we've kind of described is like it was like in just a conversation right yes conversation while mr taylor was as you described him like iraq yes he was panicked i think was the word he used and maybe that was my word i'm sorry but was panic a right word yeah and while he's erratic panic you guys are having this conversation and he's talking about this kind of stuff yeah but it wasn't something that you ever actually acted on no it wasn't something that he ever actually acted on no okay and just so i got the time right so we're talking you started school in 2016 the fall of 2016 yes all 2016 and you met blaze start sorry mr taylor and start dating maybe the middle of that first year of your school we met in november yeah things evolved from there okay so you met the beginning of the year is that right we met in [00:18:28] Apple Denny: november of the fall of 2016 okay and then continued on from there and your kind of pregnancy situation [00:18:36] Speaker 4: which i know is difficult to talk about that happened more like the middle of the year is that right that was in january of 2017 which would still be your freshman year yes you're still just 18 19 years old yes just very young right yes and that's a very difficult thing for someone who's that young to deal with isn't it yes and during that situation at least initially mr taylor was maybe on board with keeping the baby wasn't he yes and in fact ultimately it was your choice right yes and you made the choice the choice and mr taylor was supportive of that choice wasn't he yes he went with you to the appointments right he did whatever needed to be done right yes and then whatever happens with your relationship this thing with miss winford comes up is that right yes and he has a reaction to it is that fair yes and it was a pretty extreme reaction right yes i mean and at that age are you still 18 are you 19 by that time i'm 19 19 19 he's maybe 20. no he might have been 21 i think he's a couple years old maybe but i don't remember how old he is okay so maybe he's 21 right you're both still in college right is he playing sports in college at that time yes and you're a cheerleader yes you guys are both busy with your lives in college yes and this pregnancy was a scary thing for him right mine or xavier's yes and and he confided in you in a way that he was really terrified right yes so that conversation the words that i wrote down is the conversation you have where he's asking you about getting an abortion pill word that night was there something we could do so that was the first night that he finds out about it right it might have been the first night um [00:20:45] Apple Denny: i'm not 100 sure if it was that very first night or the second night um but it was shortly after like [00:20:53] Speaker 4: this was unfolding and he found out sure really really a quick immediate reaction right after he finds out right yes and so he's talking about these kind of crazy things like can we can you go get an abortion pill right yes and this says something else crazy like there's something putting her drink right yes and then that was kind of the end of it like you have a couple crazy conversations and there's no more right that i remember yeah okay and certainly this i mean you're here 10 years later talking about it you might have if you had done something if someone had acted on it it had been a big deal this would have been kind of seared into your brain right yeah that's about so okay you're doing your best here to give us your recollection right yes you guys were so young at that time right yes that was at least six seven years before 2023 [00:22:03] Speaker 1: miss denny you described kind of the conversations with mr taylor that this happened over at least a two maybe three day period is that right i think so and he was saying like oh this is a crazy crazy thought did i mean this conversation continued over those couple of days isn't that right yes and is it correct to say that you were trying to talk him out of it yes he was very adamant of trying to find something to do it yes [00:22:48] Speaker ?: i didn't know okay thank you thank you you can step down and be excused who's next witness is