A Nashville chef's last phone call to her closest friend is at the center of a case against a former Tennessee Titans scout, according to CBS News. Jade Benning, 24, was found unresponsive at her apartment on the night of Feb. 25, 2023, after a date with Blaise Taylor, then a 26-year-old assistant football scout for the Titans. She was nearly six months pregnant at the time.
CBS News reports that in the call, which lasted a little more than six minutes, Benning accused Taylor of putting something in her drink. Her friend Nijaiha Jackson said Benning sounded frightened and unlike herself, and that her voice faded before the line went dead.
Taylor has been described by his family as someone devoted to helping others, and the account of that night rests on competing versions of events now drawing national attention through a CBS "48 Hours" episode.
Why it matters
The case turns on a question that is often difficult to answer after the fact: what happened inside an apartment when only two people were present, and one of them can no longer speak. Benning arrived at Vanderbilt University Medical Center without a pulse and never regained consciousness. According to CBS News, doctors told her mother she had gone roughly 45 minutes without oxygen, and she was later declared brain dead and placed on life support in intensive care.
Because Benning could not describe what happened, her friend's account of that final call became one of the few pieces of evidence pointing to a possible explanation. Jackson has said she repeated what she heard to police and medical staff at the hospital, aware that she alone had heard it.
A planned evening that turned within minutes
Benning had planned the night as a step forward in the relationship. A professional chef, she intended to cook dinner at her apartment and then paint pictures with Taylor. The paintings were meant for the room of her unborn daughter, Ivy, and included the words "love" and "hope," CBS News reports.
Friends and family described Benning as outgoing and spirited. She had captained her high school cheerleading squad in Little Rock, Arkansas, and later moved to Nashville to build a culinary career and work toward opening her own restaurant. Her father, Dennis Browning, said she was the kind of person who drew people together, including her divorced parents.
Her mother, Bridget Benning Burks, said Benning told her about Taylor not long after moving to Nashville. The relationship was casual, with both seeing other people, according to CBS News. About three months in, in November 2022, Benning sent her mother a photo of a positive pregnancy test. She told her parents the father was Taylor and later learned she was expecting a girl.
Taylor was a familiar name in Arkansas football circles. He had been a standout defensive back at Arkansas State University on a scholarship, and his family says he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in business in three and a half years while playing and running a nonprofit. He and his sister, Starr, founded a foundation that provided educational opportunities for children. After college he coached at Duke before taking the scouting job in Nashville.
Conflicting accounts of the same night
Taylor's account, as reported by CBS News, is that Benning began spitting up and shaking shortly after the two took selfies. Unsure what to do, he first phoned his father, a college football coach, a call that lasted about 30 seconds. His mother, Evi Taylor, said the couple's children routinely turned to their father with medical questions because of his background in sports. His father told him to call 911, which he did.
On the emergency recording, Taylor said he did not know what was happening and described Benning spitting and shaking. Responders found her face down on her bed with no pulse and took her by ambulance to the hospital.
Jackson, meanwhile, had returned to the apartment and learned her friend was unresponsive. She and Taylor separately followed the ambulance. Benning's mother, who was traveling to Nashville through the night, said she called her daughter's phone repeatedly and that Taylor eventually answered; she asked him what he had done to her child.
Taylor's mother told CBS News that she had heard Benning's name only once, when her son mentioned going on a date with a chef. She said she knew nothing more about the relationship.
The case has since become the subject of a "48 Hours" broadcast, with reporting from AL.com, IMDb and Jonesboro outlets noting the episode's focus on Taylor, whose father was a former Auburn assistant coach. The program aired on Oct. 31.
What happens next in the legal proceedings, and how the call and the competing accounts are weighed, is the matter to watch as coverage of the case continues.
