LOGAN, Utah — Former Utah State football defensive analyst and former Arkansas State University football star Blaise Taylor has been arrested on two first-degree murder counts by Nashville police for allegedly poisoning his girlfriend and unborn child in 2023, according to a press release from the Nashville Police Department.

According to Nashville police, Deputy U.S. Marshals arrested Taylor in Utah Thursday on a Nashville grand jury indictment charging him with two counts of first-degree murder for the poisoning deaths of his girlfriend and her five-month-old fetus which Taylor is alleged to have fathered.

Jade Benning died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center on March 6, 2023, her 25th birthday. She was rushed to the hospital by ambulance on the night of Feb. 25, 2023 after Taylor called 911 at 9:38 p.m., said Benning appeared to be having an allergic reaction, and asked for paramedics, according to Nashville police. Benning was not able to be interviewed before she died.

A months-long investigation led by Nashville Police Detective Adam Reese and scientists from the Nashville police crime laboratory as well as doctors from the Medical Examiner’s office led to the return of the murder indictment against Taylor. Taylor, who was a senior defense analyst at USU, played at Arkansas State from 2014-2017 under current USU Football Coach Blake Anderson. He was arrested at 5:30 p.m. Thursday by the North Park Police Department and is being held in the Cache County jail, according to the Cache County Sheriff’s Office.

Taylor has been removed from the USU website. He was recently offered a job at Texas A&M University.