NO BREAKS EDITION: Pregnant Girlfriend Poisoned Trial — TN v. Blaise Taylor — Day 4

The state's science case ran the entire day. By the end, its own medical examiner still would not call it a homicide. Blaise Taylor is the former Tennessee Titans scout accused of poisoning his pregnant girlfriend, Jade Benning, by lacing her drink with cocaine. Day 4 of his Nashville murder trial was the science day, the part meant to anchor the whole case. Instead, the experts the prosecution called to prove a poisoning kept leaving the door open. The medical examiner who did the autopsy would not classify the death a homicide. The toxicologist refused to calculate how much cocaine it took. And the comforter the state says holds the proof came back carrying contamination nobody could explain. WITNESS & HEARING GUIDE 0:00 The morning fight, jury out. Before any testimony, the defense goes after the blood: a roughly 10-day stretch where nobody can say where the sample was, no logbook, and a tube with no preservative. Then a second fight over whether a toxicologist who didn't run the original test can testify at all. The judge sides with the state on both. 1:29:30 Dr. Erin Carney, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy. She gives the jury a cause of death, acute cocaine toxicity. But ask her the manner of death and the state's own expert will not call it a homicide. Could not be determined. 2:30:36 Carney on cross. The defense gets the state's own medical examiner to admit she is not a toxicologist, that she never tested the hair or the fingernail clippings, and to concede a positive drug result she had just told the jury wasn't there. 3:26:21 Dr. Alex Krotulski, the toxicologist from the lab the state leaned on. The prosecution's own expert refuses to calculate how much cocaine it would take to kill, won't fully back the medical examiner's math, and admits the parent cocaine number by itself is not abnormal, an amount a person could take on their own. 4:48:21 The comforter fight, jury out. The defense moves to throw out the testing on the stained comforter, arguing the lab built the method for this case, never had it peer-reviewed before running it, and never got it separately accredited. The judge lets it in. 5:02:46 Detective Adam Reese, the homicide detective who built this case. Here he's only on the chain of custody for a urine sample he collected at the hospital. But keep his name: the claim that Benning never used cocaine traces to his investigation, and the whole poisoning theory leans on it. 5:12:36 Amanda Sweet, the crime lab director. The state walks her through chain of custody. The defense walks her somewhere else: she connected the detective, the lab, and the DA, she sat in the meeting before the charge, and after the first comforter screen flagged four drugs, the call came down to confirm only two. 5:57:51 Dr. Kari Midthun, the NMS toxicologist, back in front of the jury. Her headline isn't the cocaine on the comforter. It's the fentanyl. A trace turned up on the clean control square, the piece meant to be untouched, and the state's own analyst can only call it contamination she cannot explain. She's held over. The cross is coming. COMPLETE CASE COVERAGE justiceisaprocess.com SUBSCRIBE for daily trial coverage and hit the notification bell so you never miss testimony. JOIN to unlock the Case Notebook powered by NotebookLM, where you can chat with the evidence, ask questions about the testimony, and go deeper than any comment section allows. CASE BACKGROUND REPORT: https://www.justiceisaprocess.com/tn-... Complete case overview including the charges, the timeline, the key players, and the legal questions this trial raises. State of Tennessee v. Blaise Taylor. Davidson County Criminal Court in Nashville, Judge Steve Dozier presiding. Taylor faces two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of felony murder in the deaths of Jade Benning and her unborn child. He is presumed innocent. The state is seeking life without parole. PLAYLISTS AND RESOURCES Website: https://www.justiceisaprocess.com/cov... Full Trial Live Broadcasts:    • TN v. Blaise Taylor - LIVE BROADCAST   No Breaks Edition:    • TN v. Blaise Taylor - NO BREAKS EDITION   Trial Analysis Podcast:    • TN v. Blaise Taylor - CASE STORY TRIAL POD...   Key Moments and Testimony:    • TN v. Blaise Taylor - KEY CLIPS AND TESTIMONY   Subscribe for Daily Coverage:    / @justiceisaprocess   FAIR USE AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSE This content is produced under Fair Use (17 U.S.C. 107) for news reporting, criticism, and educational purposes. We provide transformative commentary on public court proceedings, advancing public understanding of the judicial process through timestamps, analysis, and educational context. #JusticeIsAProcess #BlaiseTaylor #JadeBenning