The Poison Playbook Murder Trial - Full Opening Statements

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: What did you put in my drink? [00:00:13] Speaker 2: I knew my drink tasted funny. You did this because you didn't want the faith. Those are a few of Jade Benning's last words heard by her very best friend, Nijia Jackson. Words that she heard spoken to Blaze Taylor over the phone 20 minutes before ENTs would find Jade Benning pulseless. The EMTs found Jade Benning face down, laying across her bed, not in her bed, across her bed, face down. She was pulseless. When they found Jade Benning, she had this pink, frothy liquid around her mouth, like a spit up. And the area where she had been face down on her comforter, it had that same pink, spit up vomit on it. The EMTs did not even know that Jade Benning was five months pregnant. They rushed Jade Benning to Vanderbilt Hospital, and when she arrived at the ER, Jade Benning was bit. You will hear evidence and testimony this week that none of the treatment team at Vanderbilt's emergency room had that night of February 25th, 2023, just after 10 p.m. when Jade Benning came to their emergency department. You will hear the evidence and testimony that the blood sample that was taken in the emergency room at 10.31 p.m., the very first blood sample from Jade Benning, that the later testing that came back months later, the concentration of cocaine in her blood was so high, it was unlike anything the medical examiner in this case had ever seen. But it was higher than anything the entire medical examiner's office had seen. You will also hear evidence and testimony that the testing of that pink, spit up vomit on Jade's comforter, that it also tested an outrageous level of cocaine. You will hear evidence and testimony from multiple different experts, that the physical evidence in this case shows that Jade Benning orally ingested cocaine, that it had been dissolved in a liquid. You will also hear that Jade Benning was drinking a pink drink that night. Before any of those events happened, Jade Benning was a young 24-year-old, about to turn 25, young woman who was very happy to be five months pregnant. Jade Benning was not from the Nashville area. She's from Arkansas. She grew up there with her mom, Bridget, her stepdad, Lynn. That's where she met her very best friend, Nigeria Jackson, when she was just six years old. Jade went on to school. She was a competitive athlete growing up. She went off to school, but her dream was to be a chef. And she achieved that dream. She went to culinary school. She graduated, and Jade actually had family living in the Nashville area. Her stepmom and dad and her half-sister lived in the Nashville area, and her stepmom's brother owned a restaurant, and he hired her on as a chef. And she was so happy to be living her dream. And she had a group of really close friends that worked with her at the restaurant. And that was early 2022. And then in August of 2022, Jade Benning, best friend, Nadia Jackson, her very best friend growing up, moved to Nashville to go to school at Mary. They were back together again, and these two girls talked constantly, told each other everything. They were so incredibly close. And it was about that same time in August of 2022 that Jade Benning had been linked with Belize Taylor on a dating app. They started trading messages, and in mid-August, they went out to one dinner at Stony River and went on a date. And they began a casual relationship. It became sexual. It was not a public relationship. They dated, and sometime in late September, Jade Benning became pregnant. Now, she did not find out that she was pregnant until November 2nd of 2022. And when Jade Benning took that home pregnancy test, the very first thing that she did was she called her best friend, IJF. She told her, and they started planning to figure out how they could get an appointment to make sure that that was, in fact, the case. And she confirmed that she definitely was pregnant. Jade Benning reached out to Belize Taylor and told him that she needed to talk to him in person. And they talked. And then the next day, they talked some more. Jade Benning reached out to her mom, Bridget, to her dad, Dennis. She told both of them. She talked to Najeea a lot about it. She was happy. And on November 6th of 2022, she sent a message to Blake Taylor, confirming her choice to the ultimatum that he made her. There were no more messages between them, not any messages, until New Year's Eve. Jade Benning went to her November 16th, 2022 ultrasound. And Blaise Taylor was not there with her. She began planning. She was living in a one-bedroom apartment, and she began planning to get a two-bedroom. And she just started doing all of the things that you do to get ready to have a baby. New Year's Eve, she didn't have to work that night, but she still went to the restaurant that she worked at. She went with her dad and her stepmom, and they were there with everybody at the restaurant for New Year's Eve. Blaise Taylor reached out to her on New Year's Eve. And after that night, they began speaking again. And the messages they sent back and forth, it was kind of trying to figure out what was going to be. Jade Benning ultimately expressed that she wanted a relationship with him. Blaise Taylor didn't go to any of Jade Benning's pregnancy appointments. She had three in February before she died. He didn't go to the February 2nd appointment, where she was going to find out if they were having a baby girl or a baby boy. She asked him to go, and he did not. The week before February 23rd of 2023, that week, that day of the Saturday, earlier that week, Blaise Taylor went out of town on a work trip. And he came back early that Thursday morning. And Jade Benning wanted to see him. And they messaged. She went over to his house mid-morning for a little bit before he went to work. And she asked to see him that night. But he did not make up when it happened with her. And on Friday, she again wanted to see him. She went over, and they went and ate at Waffle House. And she wanted to see him that night. And she messaged him. But he didn't return her message. Now, Blaise Taylor was messaging people that night. But he specifically sent a message to Cynthia Winford that said, I love you, and I need you to love me back, and be in love with me. That is the night of Friday, February 24th. And Jade Benning asked Blaise Taylor again on Saturday, the 25th, if they could hang out and have a date night. And he agreed. And she told him to be at her house at 7 p.m. They're comfy clothes. She had something planned. And she had already been talking to Nigeria Jackson about what she was going to do. She came up with an idea that they would do kind of like a sip and paint, not the sip because she was pregnant, and she was not drinking any alcohol. But that they would paint and she would make dinner. She, the chef, Jade Benning, was going to make one of her specialties, chicken alfredo. Najea Jackson suggested that meal because it was her favorite. Najea wasn't eating chicken, but she wanted the alfredo. She suggested it, and that day Najea even said, I can stop by and get some food. Because Najea Jackson, her best friend, when she was six years old, had never met Blaise Taylor. The man that she was having a baby with. And so, that day, Jade worked early in the day, but she went home. She got everything ready. She had canvases. She had paint. She took multiple pictures of everything. She cooked the dinner. She took pictures beforehand. At about 7 o'clock p.m., Blaise Taylor came over. And they ate dinner together. And then at 7.30, Najea Jackson, she had been at school. And one of her friends that she went to school with, Keontae Jones, was with her. And they stopped by to pick up food. They weren't planning on staying. They ended up being there for about 30 minutes. And they talked to them. Najea got to meet Blaise Taylor for the first time. They did both notice that Jade was drinking a pink drink. They didn't drink anything while they were there. And they said goodbye. Right afterwards, Najea starts texting Jade, talking about the cute interaction they had. And they have a couple text messages. And that's at 8 p.m. An hour and a half later was the next time that Najea Jackson would hear from her husband's friend. And she did not sound the same at all. During that hour and a half time period, Jade was very active on her phone. She took pictures. There's a picture at 9, 10 p.m. where you can kind of see a progress of the painting project. And you see Jade's painting. And she has the words love that she's painted on the painting. These paintings were for the baby's nursery because she was having a baby girl. And you'll see the painting that she has that says love, hope, inspire, peace. And then the digital forensics expert from Metro National Police Department will testify and explain that he can tell that Jade Benet not only was off interest, but she actually searched. She was looking for inspiration for more words that were beautiful words of inspiration. So that's from 9, 10 to 9, 24. At 9, 24, there are a series of 12 photos taken. The 12 photos are all pictures of Jade Benet and Blaise Taylor. And several of them have her painting in it. The last painting was at 9, 10. And at 9, 24, she had added words to the painting. She had added the words, believe, and beautiful, and hope. Painted them on the painting. It's at 9, 28, and 45 seconds. That is the last action that happens on Jade Benet's phone. That last 12th picture was deleted. And then at 9, 29, and 27 seconds, Jade Benet's phone calls her best friend, Nigeia Jackson. Nigeia Jackson will describe to you that her best friend was talking, but she wasn't talking to her. So much so, Nigeia immediately sent her two messages. Are you talking to me? What's going on? Because it was not normal. Her friend did not sound normal at all. She described her as sounding wavy, the way she was talking. She had known her since she was six. She knew it wasn't, I'm not feeling well, something like, I feel sick. She described it, that her friend sounded scared. Her friend was talking to Blaze Taylor, and Jade Benet said, what did you do? I can't feel my legs. I can't walk straight. What did you put in my drink? I knew my drink tasted funny. What's in your hand? Show me. Show me your pocket. What did you put in my drink? I knew my drink tasted funny. You did this because you didn't want the baby. She was repeating, what's in your hand? At one point, he responded back to her, nothing. During this six-minute and nine-second call, Jade Benet is screaming out to her friend, who's not responding to her. She hears her friend say to Blaze Taylor, you're scaring me. And his response was, you're scaring me. After six minutes and nine seconds, Jade's phone disconnected the call. Right before that call disconnected, Nyshea, she was so confused as to what was going on, she merged her friend, Keontae Jones, into the call so that he could hear it. And at the end, Jade was trying to speak, but couldn't form words. He heard Jade, but couldn't make out anything that she was saying. That call began at 9, 29, and 27 seconds. It was six minutes and nine seconds long. At 9.50 p.m., EMT arrived at the patient, Jade Bening, and she was posted. Nyshea Jackson sped to her, best friend's condo, and when she got there, Jade Bening was already in the back of the ambulance. They would not let her in to see her friend. She started jumping up and down so she could see in the little window. And she saw her friend, who was great. Nyshea Jackson, she goes to Vanderbilt ER. And Blaise Taylor, he goes there too. He had called 911. She goes to Vanderbilt Hospital. She talks to the medical staff. She hears him talking to the medical staff. And he is not telling them what Jade said. She tells them what she heard her best friend say. The first officers arrive an hour later. And Officer Pfeiffer, he hasn't talked to Nyshea Jackson yet. He approaches Blaise Taylor and asks him what happened. Another officer talks to him and then a detective talks to him. And when he talks to all three of those people, the scenario he gives is Jade started feeling bad. She threw up. [00:19:05] Speaker ?: She threw up. [00:19:07] Speaker 2: I called my dad. My dad told me to call 911. And then I called 911. He tells Officer Pfeiffer, the first officer, that the person on the 911 call who answered it told him it was an allergic reaction. He will also be presented with that 911 call. That 911 call where the operator says the standard, please give me the address of your emergency. He says, I don't know if I'm with my friend and she's having an allergic reaction. He goes on to tell the 911 operator that she must be having an allergic reaction to something she ate. He doesn't tell the 911 operator anything about what Jade Bening said. In about six minutes and 25 seconds into that 911 call, which he called the staff 45 seconds before he called 911. It was a 30-second phone call. Now that several minutes after the call with Nagea is not a ton of time, but two to three minutes after that call and places the call of his dad in the 30-second call. He calls 911. But again, he's told all three people. He later tells all three law enforcement. She grew up. I called my dad. I called 911. Six minutes and 25 seconds into the 911 call, he tells them, I think she's thrown out. He never tells 911 that Jade Bening is his girlfriend. He never tells them she's pregnant. The doctors at Vanderbilt, they were able able to return spontaneous circulation, which means they were able to get Jade's heart to beat again. But the damage that was done to her brain, she never regained any brain activity. And she was on life support. On March 6th of 2025, Jade Bening and her unborn baby girl on her 25th birthday, she was removed from life support. Dr. Erin Carney with the medical examiner's office, she performed the autopsy on Jade Bening and her unborn baby girl. Dr. Carney already knew about Jade Bening before she ever died. She had already been contacted about her case because it was very unusual. And on February 28th, 2023, she requested Jade's first blood sample that it be retained and saved for testing. she performed the autopsy and she verified there was absolutely nothing wrong with Jade's baby. Had she remained alive, her pregnancy would have continued and she would have had a baby girl. Dr. Carney will testify and tell you that the cause of Jade Bening's death was acute cocaine toxicity, a level higher than anything she has ever seen in any overdose death. You will also hear from another woman, Ms. Apple Denny. She dated Blaise Taylor her freshman year of college. It was back in 2017. She was a freshman in college and she could have been pregnant and she was not ready to be mother at all and she made the decision. He was with her. She made the decision to have an abortion and Blaise Taylor went to those appointments with Ms. Denny. They explained to her she had two options and she was in those appointments and they talked about it and she made a decision to have that abortion herself. Several months later, she will also describe to you a time when Blaise Taylor came to her in somewhat of a panic and he told her that while they were on a break he had slept with another woman to save their winter and she was pregnant and she was refusing to have an abortion. And Apple Denny will tell you that Blaise Taylor asked her if she would go to the abortion clinic and get the abortion pill so that he could put it in Xavier Winford's drink to cause an abortion without her knowing. Ms. Denny told him no and also told him that wasn't even possible. And she will describe to you that he then began talking about what else could he put in her drink that would cause an abortion. Jay Finney's last words. What did you put in my drink? I knew my drink tasted funny. You did this. because you didn't want to figure. After you had heard all of the evidence we will ask you to return a verdict of guilty on all four counts of the amendment. [00:26:04] Speaker 1: for a opening statement on the behalf of Mr. Taylor. Yes, sir. of the amendment. [00:26:11] Speaker ?: Thank you. [00:26:40] Speaker 1: as we talked about yesterday. This is a very, very serious situation as you do. and so again, I thank you. I thank you for coming back. I thank you for coming yesterday and I thank you for taking very serious and I know that because of the passage you gave us yesterday I do want to tell you the story of Jay Benning and Bladdy's table. But as you can imagine, it's quite different. And you're going to hear, over the course of this entire trial, a lot of information. And if any of you are like me, it's easier to compartmentalize things so that as you hear the evidence, you can dump them in a bucket and that way at the end of the trial, a week or so later, it won't be so difficult to remember what you heard. And so what I want you to do is I want you to think about things before, think about during the incident and after the incident. Think about things before the incident and the incident is going to be February 25th of 2023. Before the incident, during the incident, and after the incident. It will help you. So let's talk about before. Before, I want you to know who Blaise Taylor was and who Jay Benning was. Blaise is the oldest of two children. He is the son of Eddie and Trooper Taylor. Blaise has a younger sister, Star Taylor. Blaise's father is a football coach, a college football coach. And I've since learned that living a football coach's life on that level takes you around several places across the country. So they traveled a lot. They lived in a lot of different places because dad worked in a lot of different places. And Blaise got his education from the University of Arkansas, where he graduated in three years with his master's degree in business administration. After that, he began working, and he ended up, after a few jobs, working for the Tennessee Titans as a pro scout. That is where, here in Tennessee, is where he meets Jay. But what's also important to know is that throughout Blaise's life, even when he played football, even when he was in college, he never drank and he never did any drugs. No alcohol and no drugs ever, in his life. I want to now show you who Jay Binney is and was. She was a beautiful young lady. She was an aspiring chef. And she, too, was from Arkansas. And she moved to Tennessee after graduating from culinary school to become a chef and work at Ernest Hideaway Brew and Ball. But different than Blaise, Jay was involved with alcohol. And Jay was involved with drugs. And that is where they differed. But what they are like, as you've heard, just as Blaise was casually dating young women, Jay Binning was casually dating young men. And so that is who they were before the incident. Now, let's talk about Blaise and Jay and their relationship. Blaise and Jay met on Hinge, a dating camp, in January of 2022. They exchanged a few messages, but never really hooked up. It went into February of 2022 when Blaise reached out to Jay, but yet she never returned the message. About a month later, she returns the message and says, "Oh, I've been busy, but you know, it's good to speak with you." And then they went dead for a while. They didn't talk again until August of '22. And August of '22 is when they actually met up, August the 10th, they met and they had dinner. And after that they began a relationship. They began casually dating each other. But they were not exclusive. He wasn't exclusive with her and she wasn't exclusive with him. You will hear that he dated other women and you will hear that she dated other men. And they were both okay with that because that was the agreement that those two adults had come to. They had agreed that they would have a sexual relationship, but they would still date other people. And as adults, you will hear that that is what they decided to do. You will hear that they probably started having sex somewhere around August. Remember, they met August 10th. So, by August 23rd or so, you will hear that they probably began their sexual relationship. So, from August 23rd until November 2nd, they started dating. They would see each other. They would hang out. I believe that the restaurant where Jay worked was very close to Blaze's house and it was convenient because of their schedules for Jay to go over to Blaze's house after he got off work, after she got off work. And she would spend the night there. He would get up and go to work in the morning. She would sleep late and get up and leave whenever she got up. Now, you will hear sometime around November 1st of '22. Jay believes that she may be crying. And you will hear that she's having a conversation with Niger. And what they're trying to figure out is who the father is. And you will hear that they weren't sure if it was Blaze's child or if it was some guy named Dez's child. And so, they talked a bit and they talked about who she was having sex with the most. And it appeared that Nigeia thought that she was having sex with Dez the most. But apparently, you'll be able to hear that ultimately, Jay landed on Blaze. And Nigeia agreed and said, "Oh, well, it must be Blaze's." And you'll hear that it is at that time that Jay makes the decision that she's going to tell Blaze that she's pregnant with his child. And so, you'll be able to deduct that she did talk to Blaze around November the 4th. And on November the 4th, it is clear that she tells Blaze, "This baby is yours." And he said, "This baby is yours." And you'll hear that it's true that Blaze, at that time, was not ready to be a father. With the woman he met less than 90 days ago, who was casually dating other people just like he was. and he did not want to go forward with the premise. That's clear. He was 27. He wasn't married. He really didn't know her. And clearly, he suggested alternative methods. And he suggested it to her because it was something that she had agreed to do with someone else in the past. But Jay wanted to keep this child. She wanted to give birth to Blaze's baby. And so, what you'll hear though, is that they had a difference of opinion. And that they were at an impact. And so, clearly, they had talked about it from November the 4th until November the 6th. Because on November the 6th, you will learn that it was Jay who told Blaze, Clearly, there's no agreement that we're going to come to here and I'm not changing my mind. So, what I suggest is you go your way. I go mine. You don't have to be involved with the baby if that's what you want to do. I will go on and I will love this baby with or without you. My next appointment is on this day. If you want to be there, you can. But if not, this is the decision that I made. You'll hear that that's the decision that Jay made for herself. Now, what's important is that after that, what you won't hear is that Blaze was forcing her, pressuring her, continuously calling her or texting her, trying to force her to abort this baby. You won't hear it. You will hear that from the moment she made that decision for herself and told him, "You go your way and I'll go mine." That he did not contact her again. You will hear that he honored her wishes. You will hear that he gave her the space that she asked him. But then you'll hear that some time had passed. It would have been enough time to have passed to where she had passed the stage of where abortion would be a viable option. You'll hear that he told his parents. And he told his parents that he had met a young lady by the name of Jade. She was a chef. And he was possibly going to have a child. And what you'll hear is that he then at that time, after making that decision to tell his parents, he contacted Jade on December the 31st. And she responded via text, "I'm at work," or what have you. And you'll see that on that very same day, she texted Nigeria, her best friend, and said, "You won't believe this." And she had a missed call from Gladys. And that ultimately, on January 1st of 2023, they met up at a park. And Jade's suggestion, she suggested, "Let's go to a park." And he honored her wishes again and met her at the park. And it appears that they sat in that park and they talked for almost five hours. And they had made the decision that they were going to try to get to know each other so that if the baby was, in fact, Glaze's, because Glaze asked for a paternity test, which made sense, that they needed to know each other if they were going to have to co-parent this child. And you will hear from Najea herself that it was at this time that Glaze made every effort to do that, to get to know her, to participate. Remember, this is January 1st. So over the next month and a half, three weeks until February 25th, they dated, they saw each other, they hung out, they spent time together, and they were getting to know each other. Now, you'll hear that Jay did have doctor's appointments and she did want Glaze to attend. But what you'll hear is that she told him about one appointment, which was, in fact, February the 6th, I believe. And she was going to find out the gender of the baby on that day. And you'll hear that she asked Glaze to come. And Glaze said, "I need to check to see what's going on at work. I don't know what's going on at work. And if I can make it, I will." You'll hear he didn't make it. But you'll also hear that the next appointment she had was about four days later, but it was for a blood test. It wasn't necessarily another actual visit, the monthly maternity visits. That one was not until March 9th. And by that time, unfortunately, she had already passed. And you'll hear that during this time, that they were split. And when Glaze was dating Xavier, Jade now knowing that she was pregnant, was dating other men as well. In fact, there were three other men that she was dating in December. And you'll hear that we know that for sure, because she was sending naked pictures to them in December. And there were three men, three different men, that she sent naked pictures to from December the 3rd through almost towards the end of December. So, yes, you will hear that they both were dating different people. Now, we'll go to February 25th of 2023. Now, what's also important to know, before we get there, you'll find that Jade was involved with drugs prior to the day that this happened. Prior to the day that she was diagnosed with acute cocaine toxicity that caused her death. You'll hear that she was involved with marijuana. You'll hear that she was involved with alcohol. You will hear that she was involved with the weed cartridges. I think they call it resin. You'll hear that she was involved with mushrooms, that she would take mushrooms. And you will hear that she also drank a lot until she was drunk, oftentimes. In fact, you'll hear that during maybe a day or so, before she and Nigeia was having this conversation about who was the father, and it was blazes, that she was inviting Nigeia to share mushrooms with her. And you'll hear on the same day that she learned that she was pregnant, that Nigeia was asking her to call Des to reach out for some drugs. Fast forward to February 23rd. On this day during the incident, you'll hear that Jade, in fact, did spontaneously plan a date night with Blaise where she was going to cook, where she wanted to do the paint and sip, I believe Nigeia calls it. Painting with a twist, I believe it is. And that's where you paint and drink and have alcohol. But according to Nigeia, they weren't going to have any alcohol. Because remember, even Nigeia is going to tell you that she knew Blaise did not drink. And so, as she planned this date spontaneously, she reaches out to Blaise around noon that day. He didn't know that she was going to call him. And says, "Hey, what are you doing tonight? Will you be free?" And he says, "Yeah, what do you want to do? What's going on?" It was a little cold that day, so he wanted to know, "What did you want to do?" "What should I wear?" She says, "Dress comfortably and come to the house around seven." And he says, "Sure, I can do that." And he says, "Sure, I can do that." Now, what you hear when she was planning this date night, she was planning it with Nigeia. What should I cook and what should we do? And Nigeia says, "Well, I want some chicken Alfredo, so why don't you cook that?" And Jade says, "Okay, that sounds good." Now, what's important to know is that Jade was a very ambitious young lady and she had her own business, JTP Eatery, which was like a small catering company. And when she would cook, you'll learn that some of her food would be infused with marijuana. In fact, you'll hear that her chicken Alfredo, she would sell, would be infused with marijuana. And cookies and brownies and things of that sort. So she makes the decision to have this date night with Blaze and she and Nigeia talk about it. And then at that point, Nigeia says, "Well, I want some chicken Alfredo, too." And Jade says, "Well, I'll put you some up for tomorrow." But Nigeia says, and now we're in the bucket of during, just so that you're oriented. Nigeia says, "Well, no, I want to come tonight." Even though she's planning a date night with Blaze. She's now inviting herself into Jade's date night. And so she shows up. I would say, we know around 7:22 she sends a message I'm on my way. And when she gets there, she brings a friend, Keontae. And she tells Jade, "I want to bring Keontae, too, because he wants some, too. So we're both going to come into your date night." And they show up and they stay, but not for long. But what you'll hear is that when they showed up, Blaze invites them to stay. "Hey, why don't you guys stay and play cards?" And he had a deck of Uno cards that he was playing with. And he says, "Let's play Uno." And then he asked, "Well, do you guys know how to play spades?" And Nigeia says, "No, I don't know how to play spades." And so he says, "Look, you guys should stay, hang on." But Nigeia says, "Well, no, I don't want to intrude. We'll leave." And so we know that by 8:03 she was gone. Because she sends this text. After spending that 20 minutes or so with Jade and Blaze, that was a cute interaction. What you won't hear is that she sent any text as if there was anything nefarious going on. You will hear that she describes that moment as a cute interaction. And you'll hear that Jade responds and says, "Yes, Blaze says we should hang out again or you guys should have stayed." And Nigeia responds, "Well, no, I did not want to intrude." On your date map. So we left. Fast forward to about 9:28. So this interchange went on from about 8:03 until about 8:12. Then you'll know about 9:28, what you're going to find is that Jade and Blaze, specifically Jade, was taking selfies with Blaze. And you'll find that the selfies were them kissing and laughing and joking and having a great time. You'll see those photos. And you'll see that they were taken from Jade's phone. But then less than a minute later, you'll hear that Nigeia gets this call. And the call. I want to make sure that I say it right. The call less than 60 seconds later, Nigeia describes it as, "It was the most wimpiest voice I've ever heard." Those were her words. The scariest thing I've ever heard. She was freaking out. I never heard anything like it. She was fighting for her life. It was as if she was in danger. She says that she overheard her saying, "You put something in my drink." What did you put in my drink? But what you'll learn is that when Jade is making these accusations per Nigeia, that Nigeia sends a text back saying, "Are you talking to me?" So when Jade is making these accusations, Nigeia's response is, "Oh, are you talking to me?" You won't hear that she says, "What are you talking about?" "Who are you talking to?" You're going to hear that her response to those allegations are, "Are you talking to me?" Within that moment, as they're describing, it was as if she was in danger and she was alone per Nigeia, in the apartment with the man that Nigeia says was trying to kill her best friend. Nigeia never calls 911. Instead, she says that as Jade's voice was whimpering and going down as if she was going to pass out, that Jade had enough voice to say, "Call Keontae. Call Keontae. Call Keontae on the three-way." But what you're going to find is that Nigeia says she really didn't know. Jade really didn't know Keontae. But according to Nigeia, Jade wants her to call Keontae. You won't hear her say that Jade wanted her to call 911 or call her father. But she wants her to call the guy she doesn't really know on the three-way. and Nigeia says she doesn't. And after she calls the gentleman, Keontae on the three-way, what you'll hear about Keontae is that people tell you, "Yes, I was on the call." And her voice was, Jade's voice wasn't really, you know, I couldn't really make things out. But I didn't hear the things that Nigeia said. I didn't hear those things. And what you'll also find is that with all the danger that Nigeia described, all these fears and everything that her best friend was going through, Keontae didn't call 9-1-1 either. What you're going to find is that there was only one person that night that called 9-1-1. Because Jade didn't call 9-1-1 either. You'll hear that with all of this medical emergency, all of these things that were going on with this young lady, there was only one person who called the police, who called for help. And that was Blaise. And you'll hear the 9-1-1, I promise you. And you'll have the opportunity to hear everything that he said and everything that he did. And everything that he did. But you won't hear one 9-1-1 call between Jade, Nigeia, or Keontae. And you'll hear the panic in Blaise's case. You'll hear where he's running around trying to find the address. because he didn't know the address by heart that way just like Nigeia didn't know the address. Because later you'll find that the police asked Nigeia for the address too. And remember, she had just been there earlier and she had to call to give me that address. And you'll hear that eventually EMS showed up. And what's very important to know is that when EMS shows up and they get in that apartment. Apartment 107. Jade was in a significant or stable enough condition that they did not perform CPR inside of the apartment. So you'll hear that whatever stress, whatever condition Jade was in, it wasn't significant enough for EMS to begin CPR right then at that moment. And those medical professionals will have to tell you that if it was dire enough that way, they would have had to give her CPR right then and there. They will tell you that. They will tell you that if the stress and condition that that young lady was in was so dire, they would not have waited to give her CPR at all once they got her on the back of an ambulance truck. So then you'll hear that Blaze was the one who ran out and met the ambulance outside and showed them where the apartment was. Because the apartment is such that you're really not going to know where the apartment is unless someone kind of directed her. So you'll hear that he went out and did that. And you'll hear that he never went back upstairs after EMS got here. When EMS left, he did too. And by then you'll hear that Najeea was there and she too followed the ambulance truck. And when they get to the hospital, it was Blaze who showed and helped Najeea Park. And so they go into the hospital. They rush Jade in. She's in critical condition by this time. And Vanderbilt is doing everything they can to give her the services that they need. That she needs. And you'll hear that Najeea in the hospital starts with these allegations. This is where Najeea starts telling the social worker there at Vanderbilt Blaze did something to her. Blaze put something in her drink and these are the things that she was saying. And the investigation begins. And now we're at after. Oh, I'm sorry. I moved the wrong way. And then you'll hear that while they're at the hospital, Blaze never leaves. He stays there the entire time. When her mother calls, he answers the phone. When the police questions him, he answers the questions. When another police officer questions him, he answers those questions. When another police officer answers questions him, he answers those questions. You'll hear that he cooperated with every authority baby. baby. And not one time while he was at the hospital being questioned, being accused of being the person who caused this, did he ask for a lawyer? Did he exercise his right to the Fifth Amendment? Not one time. He did what he thought you would hear that he was supposed to do. But what you'll hear with Nigeia is that at some point during the night, she's questioned as well. [01:00:17] Speaker ?: And you'll hear [01:00:17] Speaker 1: that those police officers tells her "We need to talk to this Keontae guy too. For obvious reasons." And you'll hear that Keontae, although he comes to the hospital, he meets Nigeia in the parking lot. And you'll hear that when police officers have told her "We need to talk to this guy." She doesn't alert the police officers that he even showed up. She doesn't tell them that, "Hey, that witness to my best friend's medical episode? He's in the parking lot. Come get his story." Instead, you will hear that she talks to him and then he leaves without talking to anyone, without giving anyone the sign of his story of what happened. You'll also hear that she left again. And what's important to know is this, that you'll hear by this time that apartment, based on Nigeia's allegations, is a crime scene. And that even though it's a crime scene and that even though Officer Fish, who was one of the initial responding officers, told Jane Benning's stepmother and mother, someone Nigeia was in constant contact with throughout the night as you can imagine. Nobody in that apartment, nobody out. It's shut down. It is a crime scene. There should be no one in that place. We need to go in there and figure out what happened. You're going to hear that Jade's friend, Lauren Webber, Nigeia's friend, Lauren Webber, and another young lady went inside that apartment. And that even though they weren't supposed to go in there and touch him, that she removed items out of that [01:02:26] Speaker ?: apartment, [01:02:26] Speaker 1: she locked it up and then she brought her Jade's purse and ID to the hospital. And you're going to hear that when the police officers hear this and they learn that some people had entered this crime scene that they said that that crime scene was contaminated. You'll hear that law enforcement says that themselves. And then you're going to hear that Nigeia and three more other people went inside that apartment with gloves on and removed crucial evidence and kept it for 24 hours before they turned it over to the police. They gave it to her mother. Evidence of the crime, they grabbed it, removed it and kept it. You're going to hear now one time when Nigeia was speaking to those police officers, did she tell them, "Hey, I'm about to go over here to Jade's house, you know, the crime scene and we're going to go over there and help you guys out and remove evidence for you." She never says that. She never tells them [01:03:48] Speaker ?: that. [01:03:48] Speaker 1: that. They have to find that out through Jade's mother. You're going to also find that Nigeia had Jade's phone during this time and had gone into the phone and we know that it couldn't have been Jade [01:04:07] Speaker ?: because by now, [01:04:07] Speaker 1: Jade was in critical condition and in the phone and was manipulating through the phone. And so you'll hear that at some point Nigeia leaves the hospital but Glaze is still there. And he doesn't leave until Jade's mother gets there. And then you'll hear that he helped her find the parking space too. He ran out there and said, you know, save the parking space as well. And you'll hear by now, it's over. Jade is in critical condition. She's pretty much on life support. She had suffered a significant brain injury as a result of losing oxygen to her. And you'll hear that there was in fact, I'm sorry, laboratory evidence. the blood, the urine. You're going to hear a lot of stuff about that. [01:05:12] Speaker ?: And yes, [01:05:13] Speaker 1: you're going to hear that there was an awful amount of cocaine in her system. But what you're going to hear is that the integrity of those vials of blood blood and urine and urine were such that the results [01:05:34] Speaker ?: of those blood [01:05:34] Speaker 1: tests does not make sense. The experts are going to have to tell you that it was too much cocaine for Jade to take on her own and too much cocaine for Blaze to have slipped in a drink in her not notice. [01:05:56] Speaker ?: But you're [01:05:57] Speaker 1: going to hear [01:05:58] Speaker ?: there are so [01:05:58] Speaker 1: many issues with the way the lab dealt with that that there's not a medical professional alive who would rely on those results. They're going to have [01:06:10] Speaker ?: to tell you. [01:06:12] Speaker 1: They're going to have to tell you that. But what they are going to have to tell you is this as a result of those toxicology results. Is that in Jade's system was cocaethylene. [01:06:26] Speaker ?: And you're going [01:06:27] Speaker 1: to learn that cocaethylene is where cocaine and alcohol meets up in your system at the same time. you're going to hear that there is no other way the metabolite cocaethylene can appear. No way. You can't have taken alcohol at 7 o'clock and then did a bump of cocaine at 9 and you formed cocaethylene. You're going to hear that you can't take a drink of alcohol at 7:30 and take a bump of cocaine at 8. It has to be at the same time. that cocaethylene was present in Jade's system. [01:07:17] Speaker ?: And you're going [01:07:18] Speaker 1: to hear that it was at level such that it would have had to have been some time had that had passed for it to be there in the fashion that it was. in the quality. You're going to hear that at the end of this that the medical examiner, Dr. Connor, Dr. Aaron Connor, performed the autopsy on Jade then. And what you'll learn is that an autopsy is -- what they like to say is that it's not done in a vacuum. And what that basically means is you can't just look at the body to determine what happened. You have to factor in surrounding certain instances as well. [01:08:10] Speaker ?: And what you'll learn [01:08:12] Speaker 1: is that there are two things that the medical examiner is responsible for doing. Determining the cause of death and the manner of death. The cause of death is going to be the medical issue that caused you to die. And the manner of death, you'll learn, there will be only five things. It can be natural causes, accidents, it could be undetermined, it could be homicide, and it could be suicide. It's going to always fall in one of those five buckets. And because it's not done in a vacuum, you have to look at the surrounding circumstances before you come to a contingent as to which bucket those five landed. And what you're going to see is the medical issue the medical examiner, the medical professional, the person that we rely on to come to a conclusion professionally as to what happened in regards to the manner of death for Ms. Benny. You're going to hear that even she could not come to the conclusion of homicide. And homicide just means you died at the hands of another. It doesn't necessarily mean a crime occurred. It just means that you died at the hands of another. You're going to hear that Dr. Carney is going to get on that stand. Remember we talked about that's where your evidence will come from. And she's going to have to tell you, [01:10:13] Speaker ?: I cannot rule this a homicide. [01:10:14] Speaker 1: And the reason she's going to tell you she cannot rule this a homicide is because of the circumstances surrounding Ms. Benny's death. And that she ruled it undetermined. What that basically means is that she could not come to a conclusion. Now you will hear from Apple Daniel. And Apple is someone that Blaise dated when he was in college. Some six years before this happened. And you'll hear that Apple is from Arkansas. Jay is from Arkansas. Nigel is from Arkansas. And a friend named Arion Jordan is from Arkansas. And you'll hear that Arion heard about Ms. Benny's death. She heard about the allegations that it was Nigel who was saying it was Blaise that did it. And that within days of Ms. Benny's death, she told Apple. And you're going to hear that even though Apple says that Blaise was trying to poison Xavier Winford, she never goes to the police right then and there and says Blaise was trying to kill someone else. Just like this situation. You're going to hear with Mox before she did that. But you're going to hear a lot of other things too about Ms. Benny. You're going to hear that just as recent as April of this year that on her to-do list was to put Blaise in prison. And she posted it. You're going to hear that there were times that she felt, well let me back that up, there are times that she made other false allegations against Blaise. And one of those allegations is going to be that while she was out of her apartment one day, Blaise had snuck in somehow when he was living in Tennessee and she was in Arkansas. And moved her bed over or moved her furniture over a few inches and then left. And she called the police to tell me that. Blaise snuck in my apartment and moved my furniture to the court and just to mess it up. And that you'll hear that in spite of all of that, that she still said, Blaise was the best thing that ever happened to her when it was appropriate to do so. And you'll hear just two weeks before this incident that she was on social media trying to determine who Blaise was dating. You'll learn that fact is not voting. So I don't want you to lose focus at the end of this trial. I want you to do what we promised you would do. That you will look at the facts of this case based on the allegations before you. And not things that the state throws in to give you a red herring to pull on your heartstrings. Stay focused on the evidence about whether or not that at the end of the day, much like Dr. Klein, did you hear enough evidence? Not whether it's sad and tragic because it is that a young lady lost her life. Because I also want you to know, and I almost failed to tell you this, that there was also fentanyl found in this business. Not just that at the end of the trial, in the same way that Dr. Carney cannot rule this a homicide, you can. But you can. You can. Realistically, honestly, to lay your head down at night, get to the conclusion. That it was Glaze Taylor who caused the spinning step. Because when you think about before, during, and after, because whenever it's a circumstantial case, that's what you have to do. That there will nothing, there's nothing that will lead you to a conclusion. That beyond a reasonable doubt, that it was Glaze Taylor who caused her. And so I am a pastor. And so I'm a pastor. Blaze Taylor is a pastor. His family is a pastor. And justice is a pastor. To find him. Not guilty. Thank you. And justice is a pastor. To find him. Not guilty. Thank you. Thank you.