Former Titans scout Blaise Taylor will spend the rest of his life in prison. Twice. Taylor, convicted of poisoning his girlfriend, Jade Benning, and their unborn child on July 1, received a consecutive life sentence on Wednesday. More than 80 people sent letters attesting to Taylor’s character. Nashville Assistant District Attorney Jan Norman responded to that effort in court Wednesday. “Your Honor, the defense just submitted 87 letters, all of them speaking to Mr. Taylor’s character,” Norman said, via Alicia Patton of WKRN.com. “They describe a man of honor, honesty, a man of great achievement, and someone who has faith in the Lord and was raised by a strong family. More than one of the authors of those letters actually stated that he is someone they would want their own daughters to marry. The person described in these character letters, the authors themselves, none of them mentioned Jade Benning, none of them mentioned baby Ivy, and not a single letter of the 87 letters mentioned anything about what Blaise Taylor did.” Quiñones-Hollins issued a statement regarding the sentence imposed on Taylor. “We are extremely disappointed, but not surprised, by the harsh sentence,” Quiñones-Hollins said. “This was a flawed judgment of a fragile case, we will appeal and look forward to doing so.” It’s the only thing Taylor can do. Given the outcome of the case, the options are to roll the dice to get a new trial or have the charges dropped entirely, or remain behind bars until the day he dies. Unless and until an appeals court disagrees with the outcome, the official position of the state of Tennessee is that Taylor committed the murder of his girlfriend and her son, in a particularly heinous manner. It is up to Quiñones-Hollins to prove that errors were made at trial that require a change in the status quo.
