Jade Benning | Inside the Blaise Taylor Murder Trial (Part 4)

On the night of February 25th, 2023, 24-year-old Jade Benning called one of her oldest and closest friends. She wasn't calling to catch up. In fact, for much of the call, it seemed as if Jade wasn't even speaking to her friend, and instead, this friend listened as Jade confronted the man standing inside her apartment with her: Blaise Taylor, a man who jade had recently reconnected with. A man who's child she was carrying. A man who would later call himself her boyfriend. Jade sounded confused, her speech was becoming rapidly impaired; she said she couldn't feel her legs. And then she asked Blaise a question that would eventually become the center of a murder investigation: What did you put in my drink?

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:12Stephanie Harlowe?

  Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Crime Weekly. I'm Stephanie Harlow.

• 0:16Derrick Levasseur?

  And I'm Derrick Levasseur.

• 0:17Stephanie Harlowe?

  So today, we are going into the fourth and final part of the Jade Benning series. And this is where we get a little relief because we get to see what happens to Blaze. But listen, we can look at this case and what we've talked about over the last three episodes, and we can say, there's no video showing Blaze Taylor putting cocaine into Jade Benning's drink. Police never recovered the cup prosecutors believed contained the poison. They never recovered the cellphone that Blaze was believed to be using that night. Jade's apartment was not immediately secured as a crime scene. Family and friends entered it before homicide investigators did. Even the medical examiner could not determine Jade's

• 0:58Stephanie Harlowe?

  manner of death, meaning it was written as inconclusive, not homicide.

• 1:04Derrick Levasseur?

  Undetermined.

• 1:04Stephanie Harlowe?

  Undetermined, yeah, not homicide. And yet, on July 1, 2026, after hearing seven days of testimony, a Nashville jury needed only a few hours to decide that Blaze Taylor murdered Jade Benning and their unborn daughter Ivy. So what did the jury see that convinced them? And why didn't the defense's case that they built convince the jury otherwise? Because this is a largely circumstantial case. I think we can all acknowledge that. There was a lot actually in Blaze's favor that I think could have possibly swayed a jury into saying, yeah, we think he did this, but we don't have enough. So rather than repeat multiple days of testimony, witness by witness, I want to look at this, the way

• 1:47Stephanie Harlowe?

  the jury ultimately had to look at it. What was the state actually asking them to believe? And what was the defense asking them not to believe? So Blaze Taylor originally faced first degree premeditated murder involving Ivy, murder charges involving Jade, and felony murder charges involving both Jade and Ivy. So once again, this was always going to be a circumstantial case. There was no eyewitness to anything being put into Jade's drink, no confession, no recovered poisoned drink or glassware, no surveillance footage. The state had to convince a jury that the pieces could really only fit together in one reasonable way. They said that enough evidence had been shown to prove that Jade was beyond happy

• 2:29Stephanie Harlowe?

  and excited to be having her baby. She was planning for Ivy to be born even before Blaze came back into her life. There was evidence in the texts between Jade and Blaze that when they had gone no contact with each other, months before her death, Jade felt Blaze had given her what she called a crazy ultimatum, right? And according to the prosecution, it was the same ultimatum that Blaze had given Xavier Winford when he found out she was pregnant with his child. It's me or the baby. If you choose to keep the baby, you will lose me. Not only am I not going to have anything to do with you, I will have nothing to do with this child. You will never see me again, basically. The choice is yours. And it seems that Xavier chose to maintain some sort of relationship with Blaze, but

• 3:14Stephanie Harlowe?

  Jade chose her baby, Ivy. She and Blaze stopped talking, but then he made the choice to return, not to support her, not to act as a partner or a father, but to remind Jade that her life was going to change, and this was something she should not be so optimistic about. And when Jade continued on with her pregnancy and didn't let Blaze's negativity sway her, Blaze had to come up with another plan, a plan that he had considered using before on at least one other woman that we know about. And I say at least because I can't imagine how many times this happened with Blaze, and these women have just never talked about it. But I'm sure it's happened on more than one occasion. We know it happened with Apple that he got her pregnant. We know it happened with Xavier.

• 3:55Derrick Levasseur?

  I can tell you this much with Xavier and Apple, especially Apple with her testimony, I do think that was a big contributing factor to the jury's decision. Having them not be connected to Jade in any way, shape, or form, and yet, reporting similar behaviors and then even making comments like, you know, put something in your drink, or put something in her drink, is that, to me, was probably a nail in his coffin, a big one as well.

• 4:21Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. So Blaze was like, all right, I can't talk this woman out of terminating this pregnancy. I can't threaten her with losing me to terminate this pregnancy. So maybe I can put something in Jade's drink that could cause a miscarriage, right? So the night before Blaze went to Jade's apartment for their date, he's texting with another woman, Xavier Winford, planning a future with her, telling her they just need to stick together. This proved that Blaze had no actual intention to have any kind of future with Jade Benning, or the child she was carrying, most likely. So on the night of February 25, 2023, the prosecution is like, listen, Blaze went to Jade's apartment knowing what he was going to do. He did this knowing that he's already planning a future with Xavier that

• 5:03Stephanie Harlowe?

  does not include Jade. He never talked to Xavier about having a baby on the way, so it doesn't seem that it includes Ivy either.

• 5:10Derrick Levasseur?

  Right. There's no disclosure that, hey, I have another baby with another woman on the way, and you'd have to be okay with this.

• 5:15Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yep, and that's not happening. So Blaze is in no way, shape, or form, planning to do anything that includes Jade or Ivy in his future. And yet, he's going to Jade's apartment that night, like, yeah, let's make something for the baby's nursery, as if that's going to happen. So when he went to Jade's apartment, he brought the cocaine with him. The medical examiner, Dr. Aaron Carney, testified that Jade would have gone pulseless within 30 minutes of ingesting the high concentration of cocaine.

• 5:45Speaker 02

  He goes over there to the date night with cocaine to put in her drink. The testimony that you heard from Nigella Jackson and from Kiantae Jones about them stopping by, that whole time that he's shuffling those Uno cards, he has the cocaine to put in her drink. He gets there at 7:00 PM. They show up at 7:30 for 30 minutes, talking about spades and having random conversation, and he has it. EMTs don't get to her until 9:50. Dr.

• 6:27Speaker 02

  Carney's testimony is that Jade was given the cocaine that she ingested orally 30 minutes before. You have this photograph from 8:29 that shows the progress. She has not been given anything at that point. The next image that you have is at 9:10 PM. It is somewhere between this point and the next image of their progress that she has to have been given the cocaine in her drink. 9:24 PM is the next time that there is an event. It

• 7:11Speaker 02

  is after that 30-minute mark. She has finished the painting. You heard Dr. Carney's testimony about how the symptoms would start off not severe, but it would escalate really quickly. And 9:24 to 9:28, you have four minutes, four minutes after he put this in her drink. He is there and knows what he has done, and for four minutes, takes picture after picture

• 7:54Speaker 02

  with Jade Benning. Blaze Taylor went there with a plan. There was a plan. He has already poisoned her, and he is taking pictures with her. Blaze Taylor did not plan for Jade Benning calling Nigella Jackson. That hadn't happened yet. Jade is telling him, I can't feel my legs. I can't walk straight. He is there, and he is not saying anything to her, like, Jade, what is wrong? What's going on? Let me help you. Come on, sit down. What

• 8:38Speaker 02

  is happening? You seemed fine just a second ago. What can I get you? Do you want me to call someone? You didn't hear testimony of any of that from Nigella Jackson. He stood there for six minutes and nine seconds, knowing that he put cocaine in her drink and she drank it. Well, she said these things to him of, I know you did this, stood there for six minutes and nine seconds and did nothing to help her. At some point, Blaze Taylor figured

• 9:21Speaker 02

  out that Jade called Nigella. He tells Detective Smith that he was there when she called her, and that he spoke to Nigella on the phone. And Jade told Nigella she wanted her to come over. Nigella Jackson's testimony was unimpeached about what she heard her best friend said and about what happened that night.

• 9:50Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, well, that's a pretty good presentation right there of the facts. And it lays out a visual perspective of what occurred and the order in which it occurred. And it's kind of what I said at the top of the show, right? The fact that you had Apple say something along the lines of, oh, he told me he was thinking about putting something in Xavier's drink. And then you have not, like, a third person, you have Jade, the victim, on the phone with Nigella, saying, what did you put in my drink? And then, if that's not enough for you, you have medical professionals saying, listen, with what she experienced, it would have taken about 30 minutes to come into play from the time that she And ingested the cocaine. And by that point, Kianti and Nigella were already gone.

• 10:35Derrick Levasseur?

  It was only Blaze and Jade. So if you don't think Jade's dumb enough to take cocaine while pregnant, then the only other person around would be Blaze, who happens to be the same person who had told someone else, an impartial witness, that they were contemplating putting something in an ex-girlfriend's drink. Or I should say a current girlfriend's drink.

• 10:56Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, well, it wasn't even contemplating. He was like, get me the abortion pill so I can put it in her drink. And then when that didn't work, he was like, oh, I gotta figure out something else that I can put in her drink.

• 11:06Derrick Levasseur?

  Right, so when we always talk about means, motive, opportunity, this is a case where you clearly have all three.

• 11:14Stephanie Harlowe?

  And I think it's very interesting what the prosecution is saying, because it is true. Jade's saying, I can't feel my legs. You did this. You put something in my drink. He is saying nothing. He's not freaking out. He's like, what the hell's going on? Like, you were fine, and now you're like, you can't walk, you're vomiting. Like, what is happening here? He's not freaking out. He's almost like coldly and quietly watching his work set in. Because he knows what's happening. He's not asking what's happening because he knows.

• 11:46Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 11:46Stephanie Harlowe?

  And that's pretty good evidence that this guy wasn't just like a complete innocent bystander. Jade made a concoction of pink lemonade and cocaine. And then all of a sudden, she's, you know, having a hard time talking and walking, and she can't stand. And he's not like, what is going on? Because he knows.

• 12:03Derrick Levasseur?

  That call was so critical. And the prosecutor said it, right? Blaze wasn't planning on that. And that call to Nigella really sewed things up for the prosecution and ultimately for the jury, because you have the victim describing what she's feeling in those moments and her assessment of what happened seconds after she starts having those symptoms. She looks at Blaze and says, what did you put in my drink? I knew something was off, you know? And that's, that's coming directly from the only person who would be able to tell us what happened inside that apartment before she fell ill. It's incredible. It's incredible.

• 12:36Stephanie Harlowe?

  It kind of makes it seem like Blaze didn't even know she was on the phone, right?

• 12:41Derrick Levasseur?

  Right. It almost seems like maybe she had the phone down on the table or something. And she just, maybe that's what her intention was to call Nigella, leave it on speakerphone because she needed help, and she wanted someone else to hear what was going on inside the apartment.

• 12:55Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, and I think that, you know, by the time Blaze gets to the hospital, he's already found out that Jade called Nigella. And he says, oh, I talked to Nigella on the phone. You did, but not while Jade was on the phone with Nigella. You didn't say, Jade, give me your phone. Let me talk to Nigella and explain what's happening. You hung up the phone. And then Nigella had to call back several times. And then you answered the phone and you were like, I'm going to call 911, when you already had called 911. So you're trying to make it sound like you talked to her. There's nothing to hide here. But that's not what happened. You didn't even know she was on the phone until Jade started, until Nigella started calling back. So the prosecution basically said that Blaze put the cocaine in Jade's drink to kill her baby.

• 13:36Stephanie Harlowe?

  And even the prosecution said he may not have intended to kill Jade.

• 13:41Derrick Levasseur?

  Right.

• 13:41Stephanie Harlowe?

  That may have been something where he was like, yeah, this isn't my main goal. But when he saw the effects of the cocaine start to set in, when he knew the quantity of cocaine he used, and when he saw Jade getting worse in front of him and saying she couldn't feel her legs, he stood there and did nothing. He did not call 911 at that point. He didn't try to help her or get her in the car and drive her to a hospital. He stood there and watched as Jade became unconscious. And this is very important, because the amount of cocaine he used would not be necessary for a placental abruption, if that's what you were trying to cause. The placental abruptions can happen just from normal cocaine, recreational cocaine use of women who are pregnant.

• 14:25Stephanie Harlowe?

  So they're using cocaine, and then a placental abruption can happen. It didn't need to be this high quantity of cocaine. But he knew how much cocaine he had used, because he wanted to make sure that it, that the job was done, that what happened needed to happen. So he used it as like, I think, an extraordinary measure to just make sure. But he should have also known that that high amount of cocaine probably also would not be healthy or good for Jade.

• 14:52Derrick Levasseur?

  That could kill her.

• 14:53Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 14:53Derrick Levasseur?

  I mean, it's common sense. Any, you ask, if you overdose on a drug, you can die, right? That's like a commonsensical understanding that almost everybody from high school on knows, that a drug may feel good, but if you take too much of it, it can kill you. Hence the term overdose. So yes, he would be fully aware that, hey, if I overshoot on this, not only will I kill the baby, but I could potentially kill Jade.

• 15:20Stephanie Harlowe?

  And the amount of cocaine he was using was overshooting and then some.

• 15:24Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 15:25Stephanie Harlowe?

  Right?

• 15:25Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 15:25Stephanie Harlowe?

  They said that they only saw this amount of cocaine, this concentration of cocaine, and people that are like smuggling balloons of cocaine across like borders and stuff.

• 15:34Derrick Levasseur?

  Listen, you could make an argument, and I know I've been putting forward the argument that he wanted to kill the baby, not Jade. I could also go on the other hand and say, his rationale was, I want to kill the baby, number one, and I'm going to make sure I give her enough to ensure that happens, because I'm not going to get another shot at this. And I'm going to give her so much. And if she happens to die too.

• 15:55Stephanie Harlowe?

  If she dies, she dies.

• 15:56Derrick Levasseur?

  Then, then it is what it is. And I just killed two birds with one stone.

• 15:59Stephanie Harlowe?

  She forced my hand in this anyways.

• 16:01Derrick Levasseur?

  So I could see a world where he was aware of it, but he purposely went over because he wanted to make sure at minimum Ivy was dead. And if Jade passed away as well, then oh, well.

• 16:11Stephanie Harlowe?

  Collateral damage to him, right? So, and like I said, he'd probably make the justification of like, well, I wouldn't be having to do this. And I wouldn't be having to work on Plan C if Jade had just done what she was supposed to do. Like, what kind of woman wants to have a baby with a man who wants nothing to do with her? This is ridiculous. So then we find out that when Blaze called 911, he wasn't even in Jade's apartment.

• 16:33Speaker 02

  I'm running back to the room to check on her. He's outside. It might not be the pink cup by the sink. He's had all of this time. He's running around outside. He's not there with Jade. He told the first officer, the second officer, Detective Smith, everybody. She threw up, called my dad. He told me to hang up, call 911. He is running around outside, not even with her.

• 17:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  So this is a question for you that I have about how they got that data, that he was outside. But I'll ask you after our first break. We'll be right back.

• 17:17Stephanie Harlowe?

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• 19:17Stephanie Harlowe?

  Okay, we're back. So you saw on the screen, if you're watching, and if you weren't watching, you're just listening, on the screen, they had like a GPS thing, and it showed that Blaze was outside of the apartment at the time of the 911 call. Is that something that 911 would have access to? Like, they can find the location of the phone and know like, kind of precisely where it is and show that that he wasn't in the apartment, he was outside?

• 19:41Derrick Levasseur?

  911 can track GPS coordinates, but more importantly, his, his phone, maybe they could track something. I don't know how they would have done it if they didn't have the original phone. It could have been something where, based on GPS coordinates at the time of the phone call, they're able to go back in history and determine was at the time of that call?

• 19:58Stephanie Harlowe?

  Well, he's, he was telling them he didn't know exactly, he didn't know her address, he didn't know exactly where he was. He was like, I think it's here, I think it's here. So they may have enacted that location to, to get him more precise, because he couldn't remember what the, her apartment number was, he didn't know her address, things like that.

• 20:14Derrick Levasseur?

  They can absolutely trace the phone call. There's no doubt about it. There's many times where you'll have someone saying, I don't know where they are, and they can use those coordinates to get an approximate location. But it might be more than that. And I, and I could be wrong, but didn't she say something here that while she was on the call, or while he was on the call, he, he, he referenced being outside?

• 20:35Stephanie Harlowe?

  No, he said, I'm running back to the room. So it was like, he had never made a sort of, he had never stated that he was outside the apartment, but while he was saying that, while he was on the phone with them, his phone was outside the apartment, like moving around the apartment building.

• 20:51Derrick Levasseur?

  And so that would be GPS coordinates, more than likely. That would be GPS coordinates. It could have been a combination of 911. It could also be a combination of subpoenaing the records from the phone company and getting those exact GPS coordinates. And, you know, listen, they're accurate, they're good, and it's going to at least show movement, but it doesn't necessarily, I, I always have a little bit of caution when it's in close proximity to where they could be. GPS coordinates can be off by a couple of degrees with that. However, at minimum, like you alluded to, it would show movement. It would show that, hey, wherever he was, even if it's off a little bit on the map, he wasn't in one place. You would expect that ping to keep pinging in the same exact location wherever it first started pinging when he made the call. And yet, he's running around outside the building.

• 21:34Derrick Levasseur?

  And then it brings in a whole new slew of questions, like, what was he doing out there? What was he getting rid of? I think she even said it in this clip.

• 21:41Stephanie Harlowe?

  She said that, maybe it wasn't the

• 21:42Derrick Levasseur?

  Maybe it wasn't the

• 21:43Stephanie Harlowe?

  Could have been anything.

• 21:44Derrick Levasseur?

  That would have actually been stupid to leave that cup behind. And yet, if it was another cup, you take that thing and you throw it as far as you can into the woods. Because I can't really see too much here, but it looks like from that little screen grab of the, of what the prosecutor's showing, there does appear to be a little bit of a wooded area to the east of that building. So, I mean, you could run out there and, you know, he's an athlete, you could take that cup and launch it into the woods and you'll never find it again.

• 22:09Stephanie Harlowe?

  Or the dumpster of the apartment complex.

• 22:11Derrick Levasseur?

  Dumpster, yeah, into, into his car, right? Hey, let me go dump my, let me put the, that would make even more sense.

• 22:17Stephanie Harlowe?

  Then he could take it somewhere else.

• 22:18Derrick Levasseur?

  Exactly. Now he dumps it on a bridge on his, as he's driving home. So, yeah, a lot of questions with him being outside there.

• 22:25Stephanie Harlowe?

  Or the bag that the cocaine came in, like, anything like that.

• 22:30Derrick Levasseur?

  At minimum, he's not where he should be. You have someone who's, has in need of serious medical attention, she's carrying your baby, and yet, you're outside on the phone, leaving her inside by herself.

• 22:41Stephanie Harlowe?

  That was the point, where it's like, why would you leave this person who's clearly in crisis, you know, vomiting? They told you specifically to put her on, on her side so that she wouldn't, you know, drive, they find her face down. You're not even anywhere near her, offering her comfort, or keeping a track of her vitals, nothing. That was odd. And also, you know, he's on the phone with 911, they're asking him questions. Well, is she looking like this? Is she, how, how does her color look? Is she doing this? Is she doing that? He's like, no, no, no, you weren't even there to, to see her, whether or not she was doing these things. So he's just answering these questions based on nothing. He's just answering how he thinks they want him to answer.

• 23:19Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. But overall, I definitely, like I said, so 911 can track a cell phone through cell tower coordination, triangulation, GPS data, Wi-Fi, they can, they can see all that. They have the access to that. However, it's not always perfectly accurate. So it could have been a combination of things, but at minimum, it would show you moving because the pings would come back at different locations. So that's the gist of it. But if you're in an emergency situation, and you get in a car accident on a roadway, they're going to be able to find you relatively quickly because it's going to give you the general vicinity.

• 23:50Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. So I don't know how they got that stuff, but it was something, you know, reliable that was allowed to be used in court.

• 23:57Derrick Levasseur?

  Especially if he was saying, I don't know where I am, I don't know the exact address. Yeah.

• 24:00Stephanie Harlowe?

  So Blaze Taylor's defense was essentially a reasonable doubt defense built around four major ideas. Jade may have voluntarily used drugs, the toxicology could not reliably prove intentional poisoning, the physical evidence was badly compromised, and Blaze's behavior was inconsistent with someone who had just intentionally murdered someone. Now, the most aggressive part of their defense, and I think the one they spent the most time on, was trying to prove that Jade had access to drugs and may have willingly used them. So they introduced messages from Jade's phone, showing that she had contacts connected to drugs, and that on the afternoon of February 25th, she messaged someone saved in her phone

• 24:44Stephanie Harlowe?

  as Danny Weed, and she messaged this person about drugs. Eric Devlin was a defense called Digital Forensic Analyst, who testified two messages recovered from Jade's phone.

• 24:55Speaker 04

  This is actually a Snapchat message. So this message was between Danny, the Snapchat ID Danny Wallace Jr. and Jade Benning. This activity occurred on 1/20/2023, approximately 6:53:47 PM, specifically stating, hey, could I get an eighth of Top Shelf and one Sativia or hybrid cart? This was 2/3/2023, approximately 9:57:21 PM. It says, apple fritter with the emoji of a fire sign, $25 eighth, $50 quarter, $100 half, 150 zip. It says, pressure

• 25:39Speaker 04

  plus with the emoji for carts with a fire, say, with a fire, $30 a pop, price cut on two plus. This is an actual iOS text message, so this is a communication between this particular device and another individual. The text message start at 11:22/2022, 10:40:13 AM. Do, do all of your coworkers get Adderall? The reply, Lauren has some. Message again, ooh, what MG? The reply was 15. Message to this particular device, ooh, ask her, can I buy some? And

• 26:23Speaker 04

  then the next was a follow-up, this is still a message to this particular device, and what color are they? And the reply from this device was orange. The sender of this message is, this number is listed in the contacts, it's belonging to, and I'm going to kill the name, Nijaia, N-I-J-A-I-H-A.

• 26:44Speaker 05

  Can I show you?

• 26:46Speaker 04

  Yes, ma'am. This is an iOS text message, and this is between the Jade Benning account and Mario Gutierrez account. On this message, it occurs on 2/18/2023, 9:33:02. The message was from the Jade Benning account, saying, he's about to bring your weed. There's a reply from the Mario Gutierrez account, says, I fell asleep, and I don't know if I'm allowed to curse in this courtroom or not.

• 27:17Speaker 05

  That's okay. Thank you.

• 27:18Speaker 04

  Page 10 is a iOS communication between the contact Danny, in parentheses, Weed, and this particular device. On this one, the message is, do yo, I have mushrooms right now. LOL, my coworker's wanting some. The message says, yo, can you holler at Danny? Your boy needs a half, please and thanks. Page 12 is a text message between Jade Benning and the contact Danny Weed, and it occurs on 2/25/2023, beginning at 3:39:21 PM. Specifically, it says, hey, my coworker wants to get a half from you. The account Danny Weed replies,

• 28:02Speaker 04

  bet, I got you when I get back. The account for Jade Benning replies, sweet.

• 28:09Derrick Levasseur?

  All right. So we see what they're trying to do there, right?

• 28:11Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 28:12Derrick Levasseur?

  Trying to show she has a substance abuse issue, that she's, she's someone who dabbles in narcotics on a, on a frequent basis. I didn't see any mention or anything that would, that would be the descriptions you would use for coke. All those things, ace, halves, that's zip, that's all, that's all weed.

• 28:28Stephanie Harlowe?

  Carts, yeah.

• 28:29Derrick Levasseur?

  Carts. So, yeah, I mean, I, I get where they're going with this. And, and to be fair, it's not a bad place to go to show that, that Jade had, you know, had, had been someone who would use, would use narcotics. The problem is that this is before she's pregnant. There's a lot of women out there who are, who have been pregnant, or who are pregnant, who would admit that they use drugs before and after their pregnancy. But during their pregnancy, because they were responsible, they, they didn't. And so, I get what they're going with here. I don't blame them. I think it's a smart defense. I think it's, it's showing that this isn't someone who never used drugs in the past. I just don't know if it's going to stick, you know?

• 29:10Stephanie Harlowe?

  So many of these messages were actually sent during a time that Jade was pregnant and knew that she was pregnant. However, as the prosecution was able to point out and prove, these messages were all in regards for getting substances.

• 29:24Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, for other people.

• 29:25Stephanie Harlowe?

  Usually marijuana or Adderall, right, for her friends. She was asking about buying for her friends, and Ija was asking Jade if she knew anyone who had Adderall for sale. There was even talk about mushrooms, but not in the context of Jade using them herself.

• 29:39Speaker 05

  And in fact, there was interaction with drugs, wasn't it?

• 29:45Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 29:47Speaker 05

  However, in your office report, you said that you didn't see any significant evidence of drug dealing or anything of the sort.

• 29:59Speaker 06

  I believe I was trying to preface that with it being after she became pregnant. So, and also another thing to note is I was reviewing her phone ongoing for over a year.

• 30:10Speaker 05

  Is it that you wrote this before you found all that information?

• 30:13Speaker 06

  Certain, certain, yeah, certain portions of this are written before that, but I did find, you know, I did look through the, some of those conversations, but it was an ongoing thing for over a year.

• 30:23Speaker 05

  Did you go back to a manual report so that it could accurately reflect the evidence in this case as it is?

• 30:32Speaker 06

  I spoke with the DA's office, updating them as it went along, but I don't know that I've, I'm not sure if I added anything in there specifically about that. I have to read through the whole thing. But the big thing was that it was, there was no, it didn't appear to me that she was using drugs after she became pregnant.

• 30:51Speaker 05

  Well, after she became pregnant, she was still dealing with drugs, wasn't she?

• 30:56Speaker 06

  She was, she was facilitating for friends and coworkers who would contact her and say, ask if she could contact her weed man because they wanted to buy some. And then she would subsequently message him and say, hey, my coworker wants some. And that was, that was a thing that would happen repeatedly.

• 31:16Speaker 05

  Is it your testimony that she never stated, I need X amount, or I need this and my coworker needs that? And maybe John needs this?

• 31:29Speaker 06

  I don't think she necessarily, every time she contacted him, specified it was for a coworker, but it was pretty consistent that it was, there was a coworker asking her for something and then she would contact him.

• 31:43Speaker 05

  Well, you agree with me that there were, when it was for a coworker, you saw my coworker needs. When it was for an individual that she would put a name to, she would say, John needs. And in addition to that, there would be times that she would say, I want, or I need. Isn't that true?

• 32:02Speaker 06

  I'd have to look at, like actually review the messages.

• 32:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  So, yeah, what the defense is trying to do here now is they're reaching. First, they're mad at him because he didn't put in his report that he saw drug activity in Jade's phone. Because yes, before she was pregnant, Jade did smoke weed, or she once tried mushrooms. But he's saying after she was pregnant, there was no drug activity concerning her. Right? And the, the defense is like, well, why didn't you put that in her report that she was still in circles of people who were using and dealing drugs? And he's like, why, why would I have to? And then they're like, but didn't she also say, I need sometimes? And he's trying to say like, yes, but every time we found a corresponding message at the same time in the phone.

• 32:44Derrick Levasseur?

  Right. She was, she was serving as the middleman.

• 32:46Stephanie Harlowe?

  Where someone was like, hey, I need this. And then she would reach out to Danny Weed or someone and be like, hey, I need this. But it was because of the other person had asked her. Not to mention, there's no traces of marijuana in, in her blood when, when her toxicology is done. There's no trace of illicit substances. It's outside of the cocaine. Right? There's nothing in her apartment, which we already heard testimony to. No drugs, no drug paraphernalia, nothing like that. So if she's doing drugs, what is she smoking it out of? You know, where is she keeping her drugs? Also, they went back way back and there were no mentions of cocaine in Jade's phone ever. Buying cocaine, using cocaine, nothing. So.

• 33:27Derrick Levasseur?

  And that would have been more problematic. I, I, listen, I again, understand where the defense is coming from here. The detective, he would not have updated his report, what it's called as a supplemental. So it's a, once you write your report, you're not supposed to go back in there and edit it because unless it's like a grammatical error or you got to change a name or something, like to make sure that the date and time is correct. But you, you don't really ever want to go and edit a report after it's been approved by a supervisor. What you would do is a supplemental report to say, hey, on this date, I realized that I had, you know, put this information wrong, or I have more context to this, so I want to add a supplemental report. So you can see the chronological order of the manner in which you learned this information. So you're not going back and

• 34:09Derrick Levasseur?

  be, you know, manipulating the report where you could be accused of doing it for your, for your, for the purposes of what you're trying to accomplish. I agree with what you just said as far as the no mention of cocaine. I will acknowledge that having this around the time that she's pregnant, not the best look, right? Like considering why we're here and, and her cause of death, I'm sure the prosecution would rather not have that. Uh, but you have to acknowledge it. And I think the defense is trying to show that the, in his, in their mind, the detective purposely left those things out because it wouldn't look good for Jade.

• 34:42Stephanie Harlowe?

  Would you as a detective have gone back in, like if you finally got that? Cause he's saying the extraction took a year, right? Like it took a year for me to review the mess, all the messages. It did come to my attention that she was still kind of like getting drugs for friends. I spoke to the DA, but was it really something you think you should have put in the report if there was never any messaging of her getting drugs for herself?

• 35:01Derrick Levasseur?

  I do. And, and this is something where I used to really, really give my patrolman a hard time for, because I've always said it for six years now with you. If it did, if it's not in your report, it didn't happen. You were laying that information verbally to someone at the DA's office is not, in my opinion, good enough. I was a stickler for that. And I would add it in there because what I found in my cases, if you address things head on that could potentially be a problem, but could be explained away. I always found that the defense in many cases didn't even bring it up because they were looking for something that gave the appearance that I was trying to hide it. So when I was able to say, no, actually there's supplemental report 72765,

• 35:42Derrick Levasseur?

  where I brought this up because I wanted as an investigator doing a thorough job to explore it. And here's what I found. She never once got it for herself. And it was always a corresponding text message to support that she was getting it for someone else. So you would not only write up that you discovered these messages, but then you were able to correlate them with her giving it to someone else. And you know what happens a lot of the time, Stephanie? The defense won't even bring it up. They won't even raise it as, as problematic with the investigation because the answers are already there and they know what you're going to say.

• 36:13Stephanie Harlowe?

  So do you think this was him being like, oh, it's not important to the case because we didn't find anything specific, like specifying she used drugs? Or do you think it was because he was so laser focused on Blaze that he was like, her talking about getting drugs for friends isn't, is not even relevant?

• 36:29Derrick Levasseur?

  That's a great question, isn't it? That's the, that's the question. And that's, that's the, that's why I can't answer it because

• 36:38Derrick Levasseur?

  people are going to interpret that behavior, the fact that he didn't put it in there, however they want. The prosecution's going to say, well, we didn't think it was relevant to the case because we were able to rule it out. And the defense is going to say, you were so focused on our client, you had tunnel vision on Blaze. And you knew that this information wouldn't look kindly upon your victim. They wouldn't, they wouldn't paint her in the best light. And so you purposely left it out because you knew it wouldn't help your case.

• 37:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  Do you think he purposely left it out? Just?

• 37:07Derrick Levasseur?

  I don't know, but here's what I will say. Last episode, I had given him some benefit of the doubt when it came to the cup and securing the scene. And I'm starting to see a pattern here. Now, I know you started the show by saying that Blaze was convicted of this crime. So great. They got the conviction, but it doesn't absolve them from shoddy police work. And I'm starting to see a pattern here with this guy that I personally don't like.

• 37:34Stephanie Harlowe?

  This guy is Detective Adam Reese.

• 37:36Derrick Levasseur?

  Yep. Detective Adam Reese. I'm starting to see a pattern with him. I don't mind saying it publicly if he sees this. I know he got the conviction. There are things here where he's lucky because this pattern of behavior, as you mentioned at the top of the show, there was multiple things here.

• 37:50Stephanie Harlowe?

  I said, there were multiple things the jury could have said, this is reasonable doubt. Yeah.

• 37:54Derrick Levasseur?

  And, and don't think for a second they're not going to do an appeal here. And, and, and so I can acknowledge that I believe Blaze intentionally did this. I think, I think what the detective thought happened, he was right. But I also think that he left a lot of holes for the defense to exploit and holes that were avoidable. Traps that could have been prevented. That's just the reality of it. But do I personally think he did this because he had tunnel vision on Blaze? Potentially, yeah. Potentially. I think he knew the answers to the, to the test already and he was looking for the evidence to support it.

• 38:29Stephanie Harlowe?

  Which is not the right way to do it.

• 38:31Derrick Levasseur?

  A hundred percent not.

• 38:31Stephanie Harlowe?

  Because you're right in this situation, but you wouldn't always be.

• 38:35Derrick Levasseur?

  Right. And, and your job is to explore all options because if he had found, and maybe he did. And maybe he didn't find anything there. But to say on, in trial, oh, I relayed that information to the DA. Well, guess what, buddy? You're supposed to put that in a document so that the prosecution, the DA can hand that over to the defense and discovery. Word of mouth is not going to do it. My opinion. Maybe people will disagree with me in the comments. That's my opinion.

• 38:59Stephanie Harlowe?

  The whole thing was that the defense was really reaching. So they did point out that one of the people Jade talked to about drugs was Mario Gutierrez. And Mario was the boyfriend of Lauren Weber. So Lauren was Jade's work friend. And if you remember, the first person who had gone into Jade's apartment that night and taken photos. So I think the defense was trying to do a few things here to raise reasonable doubt. First, drug access, right? If Jade had communicated with Mario about drugs and Mario was closely connected to Lauren, the defense could argue that Jade had access to people in her own social circle who could obtain drugs. That supported their broader reasonable doubt theme. The cocaine did not necessarily have to come from Blaze.

• 39:42Stephanie Harlowe?

  Second, scene contamination or alternative access because Lauren had been inside the apartment after Jade collapsed and before the police went in there. The defense could point out that someone closely connected to a person Jade had discussed drugs with, like Mario Gutierrez, who also had access to an unsecured scene, was one of the first people in there, actually the first person besides Blaze, who would have left with the ambulance. Then Lauren Weber goes in, Lauren's Mario's girlfriend. So they didn't necessarily have to prove that Lauren or Mario had actually planted, moved or contaminated.

• 40:17Derrick Levasseur?

  Or, or removed.

• 40:18Stephanie Harlowe?

  Or contaminated anything. Yeah. But merely establishing that connection, let them argue that the chain of custody and exclusivity of the scene were weak. So basically, yeah, Blaze was not the only possible source of the cocaine. Like you said, Nigella and Kianti had left before the administration of the cocaine. And then the police didn't find any cocaine in the apartment. So therefore Blaze must have been the one to bring it. But if Lauren went in after Jade and Blaze left the apartment and before the police went into the apartment, she could have removed. You know, the cocaine or any signs of drug use because it would connect to her boyfriend or her, or simply because they wouldn't want Jade to be painted in that way.

• 41:04Derrick Levasseur?

  Well, in that case, if that were true, you would expect Blaze to say, you know, it wasn't the right thing to do, but we decided to have a little bit of coke before, before we went, you know, we went to the bedroom or whatever and, and we, she must've taken too much. That would have been a stronger argument than not acknowledging anything. And the fact that Jade sent that message, or I should say, not the message, made that phone call and said, you put something in my drink. There's no more speculation.

• 41:33Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 41:34Derrick Levasseur?

  If, if Jade had taken something, I truly believe at that point, she, if she had even called Nijia, she would have said, hey, we took something. It's reacting negatively. I need help.

• 41:44Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 41:44Derrick Levasseur?

  She doesn't know in that moment that she's going to die. She's giving you her true thoughts and feelings at that very moment. And when I say she, I'm talking about Jade. And in that moment, whether she knew that Jade, Nijia was on the other end or not, whether it was a butt doll, whatever, her words were, did you put something in my drink or what did you put in my drink? She had already speculated that something was there based on the taste of the drink.

• 42:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  But the defense is going to argue, hey, Nijia was somebody who was also trying to get illegal substances. Not that Adderall's illegal, but if you don't have a prescription for it, it is. And we don't know what Jade said on that phone call, aside from what Nijia has told us, she said.

• 42:19Derrick Levasseur?

  That's fair. That's, I mean, listen, what you're saying is, is a valid argument. The problem then becomes the other two, the other two pillars of, of, in my opinion, of what you're looking for with a murder case, which is you have the, the means and the opportunity, but what about the motive here? Right? So we have means and opportunity with Nijia. So technically two out of three, but what would be her motive for wanting to kill her best friend? What would she gain from that? Where on the other hand, you have a person inside that apartment who's made repeated comments to other parties that they're considering putting an abortion pill inside one of their girlfriend's drinks. And now you have all these text messages showing a man who's doing everything in his power to prevent her from having this baby.

• 43:02Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 43:02Derrick Levasseur?

  So I mean, when you think about the possibilities, yeah, it, it's not a hundred percent. It's not like he's on video doing it, but the, the direction points at him.

• 43:10Stephanie Harlowe?

  Listen, exactly. But I'm, I'm not arguing with you about it. You know, I think Blaze did it.

• 43:15Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, yeah, of course.

• 43:15Stephanie Harlowe?

  I'm talking about it from like the perspective of a jury, hearing these things.

• 43:19Derrick Levasseur?

  I, I agree.

• 43:20Stephanie Harlowe?

  There may have been some like, well, yeah, Lauren did go in to the apartment. Her boyfriend is Mario. We know he's asking Jade to get him drugs. Like maybe Lauren not wanting her boyfriend to be implicated and I think removed something. She said she didn't, but she could have.

• 43:34Derrick Levasseur?

  The, the question becomes for that jury, is it reasonable enough? Is it, there's a reasonable doubt. Is there proof here that suggests maybe something other than what the DA is presenting could have happened here? And I think clearly they came to the conclusion like, yeah, we get it. There's definitely some little voids that we would like to have filled, but the, but the circumstantial evidence against Blaze is overwhelming.

• 43:55Stephanie Harlowe?

  And here's what I think was most unbelievable for the jury to, to see that, that even if there had been drugs around or Jade had access to them, I think that this would have been very difficult for them to believe for a few specific reasons. And we will talk about that when we get back from our break.

• 44:15Stephanie Harlowe?

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• 44:19Stephanie Harlowe?

  And I think one of the hardest things about quitting smoking or vaping is that you're not just quitting nicotine, you're quitting a routine, that hand to mouth motion, the little pause, the thing you automatically reach for when you're stressed or bored. And that habit loop gets built in pretty deep. That's why we think Fume is interesting because sometimes your brain is basically standing there going, okay, this is normally where we do the thing. Now what?

• 44:42Derrick Levasseur?

  Fume gives you something else to reach for. It's a flavored air device with no nicotine, no batteries and no vapor. It's weighted, twisty and fidget friendly. So your hands and mouth still have something to do when your craving shows up unexpected.

• 44:55Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. And that honestly makes a lot of sense. Sometimes you don't even realize how much of a habit is physical until you try to stop doing it.

• 45:01Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. And the idea is to interrupt that old pattern instead of just sitting there trying to white knuckle through all of it. You know, that's not going to work. Going cold turkey, trying to do it on your own. It sounds good in theory, but it usually doesn't work out.

• 45:13Stephanie Harlowe?

  I'm sure we've all tried to quit something like that. And it's, it's not impossible, but it's really, really difficult. And we don't need extra difficulty in our lives because day one of a new habit is always very inspiring. You're like, this is who I am now. I'm really pumped about this. Then on day five, your brain is filing an appeal. Like, why do we make this decision? Why, why do we do this? This helps us.

• 45:33Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. And that's why having something else to reach for can really matter. You've probably noticed in the episodes, guys, I always have the Fume. I like the look of it. I like the weight of it. It's made with real wood, real metal. I love the magnets. I love the twisty sounds there, but again, I gotta keep it away from the mic when I use it. Plus it's got some really cool flavors.

• 45:51Stephanie Harlowe?

  I will twist it into infinity. I'm twisting that thing all the time.

• 45:54Derrick Levasseur?

  I'm surprised it hasn't worn out yet. I can tell you, we've had it for years and it still works. So that says something.

• 45:58Stephanie Harlowe?

  So it still works, but you can tell on the wood that my, my hands go to a certain place on it. And I like that the flavors are lighter than vaping, more like flavored water compared to soda. Crisp mint is the strongest option. So if you're a heavy user before, I'd probably start there. But they have fruity flavors that I like too. They've got the raspberry, which is tangier and a little sweeter. And then they have the orange creamsicle one. That's my favorite. Yeah.

• 46:22Derrick Levasseur?

  So it's not trying to recreate the same experience. It's trying to give you a different habit altogether.

• 46:27Stephanie Harlowe?

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• 46:50Stephanie Harlowe?

  Okay. So we're back. I personally, if I'd been on that jury, because that's the perspective I'm trying to look at it from, I would have a really hard time with the suggestion that Jade voluntarily took cocaine that night.

• 47:02Derrick Levasseur?

  Agreed.

• 47:02Stephanie Harlowe?

  Right?

• 47:03Derrick Levasseur?

  I'm with you.

• 47:03Stephanie Harlowe?

  We're not talking about a woman whose life ever showed signs of active cocaine use. Everything we know about Jade in the months after she became pregnant points in the opposite direction. She was planning for this baby. She moved into a two bedroom apartment so Ivy could have her own room. She was going to appointments, building Pinterest boards, planning baby showers, buying baby things, making mocktails, giving up alcohol, going to the gym, documenting her pregnancy, talking about her future. The people closest to her testified that once she found out she was pregnant, she went zero on everything, right? She stopped drinking, stopped smoking marijuana. So now we're supposed to believe that on February 25th, while pregnant with a baby she very much wanted, Jade suddenly

• 47:42Stephanie Harlowe?

  decided to consume an extraordinarily large amount of cocaine. And not just like a casual cocaine use, right? Not like, hey, let's have a bump. Okay. According to the state's medical evidence, the amount in her system was so high, like a huge amount of cocaine. So what's the theory here then if Jade willingly and knowingly took this cocaine herself? She had been carefully preparing for motherhood and she randomly decided that this was the night she was going to ingest enough cocaine to put both herself and her unborn child in mortal danger. And then there's the way the cocaine appears to have entered her body. The prosecution's medical evidence pointed toward oral ingestion. If Jade wanted to

• 48:23Stephanie Harlowe?

  take cocaine recreationally, why would she dissolve an enormous amount of it into her own drink? That's not even the most obvious or conventional way that someone voluntarily using cocaine would consume it. It creates an additional question that the defense never really answered. If Jade knowingly chose to take cocaine, why that much and why that way?

• 48:44Derrick Levasseur?

  The only narrative that is just completely unbelievable, but the only narrative that would fit here would be Jade knew Blaze didn't want to be around. If Blaze wasn't going to be around, then Jade didn't want to be around. So she set him up. She basically put the cocaine in her own drink, purposely called Nijia to make it look like he did it, knowing, hey, listen, I'm going to kill myself and this baby and he's going to go to prison for the rest of his life. Exactly. Your reaction, if you're not listening on, if you're not watching on video, you can see Steph, he just kind of put up her hands. There's no indication of any type of suicidal ideations, no suicidal thoughts, no, no history of self harm, uh, nothing.

• 49:23Stephanie Harlowe?

  And she had already told Blaze when he was like, it's me or the baby. She was like, baby.

• 49:26Derrick Levasseur?

  You're gone. You're gone. I'm good without you. Yeah. So that's the only thing that would be somewhat possible here. Cause for the, all the reasons you just said, to take the cocaine in that manner, to drink it, um, to take that amount, none of it makes sense. Unless if my theory about, you know, framing Blaze isn't true, maybe the guy who-

• 49:46Stephanie Harlowe?

  Except you're actually gone.

• 49:47Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. Maybe the guy who's contemplated putting something in past girlfriends drinks to have them have an abortion unbeknownst to them. Maybe this guy came over after not showing her much attention, came over, threw something in her drink because he wanted to kill the baby. That's simple. I know it sounds kinda right to the point, but that makes the most sense. And clearly that's what the jury felt as well. This guy didn't want her to have the baby. He knew that it was going to be an inconvenience for him. He was planning a life with another woman and had made no mention of a baby, which would indicate that he didn't think the baby was going to be around. And then the victim in her last moments calls her best friend and says, what did you put in my drink? Over the phone and the vic and the and the friend has nothing to hide. So.

• 50:33Derrick Levasseur?

  And yeah, so there's an overwhelming amount of evidence that indicates Blaze was the one who put the cocaine in her drink. And it wasn't until she started to fall ill that she realized, based on what she had tasted a few minutes prior. Holy, I know what you did. I know you don't want to have this baby. I've been trying to force you to be okay with it. But in that moment, she probably realized really quickly what just happened.

• 50:54Stephanie Harlowe?

  And look at what Jade was doing that night. She'd planned dinner. She cooked Alfredo. She set up an activity for the two of them.

• 51:00Derrick Levasseur?

  She was happy.

• 51:00Stephanie Harlowe?

  They were painting together. They were taking photographs, looking like a couple. She'd been trying for weeks to have some kind of relationship with the father of her child. She wanted Blaze involved. She was clearly imagining what their lives might look like together if they could make this work. This was what that night was. So why on the exact night she was creating this almost domestic little picture for Blaze? Like if you and I have this baby, this is where we will be and this is what it'll be like. And we can still have fun and we can still enjoy life. Why would she be doing this? And then decide to secretly get catastrophically high on cocaine? What possible purpose would that serve? If anything, this was the night Jade had every reason to want to be completely present.

• 51:41Stephanie Harlowe?

  And and she wanted Blaze to see her, like she wanted to see this life that she was imagining. She wanted him to see that becoming parents did not have to mean the end of his life, that there could be some good waiting on the other side of this pregnancy. And then within minutes of taking those photographs with him, she's suddenly unable to walk in asking him, what did you put in my drink? Why on this night would she be like, I have never done cocaine? And I have been completely clean this entire pregnancy, but this is the night I'm going to take more cocaine than any one human being needs. It just doesn't make any sense.

• 52:15Derrick Levasseur?

  No.

• 52:15Stephanie Harlowe?

  So I mean theoretically, could Jade have taken the cocaine herself? I guess you can invent almost any theoretical possibility, but I just do not buy it at all, at all.

• 52:25Derrick Levasseur?

  I mean, the only, the only other avenue here would be Nijia and Kianti were at the apartment when when Jade was feeling well. And then Nijia did enter that apartment before it was turned into a crime scene.

• 52:37Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yes.

• 52:38Derrick Levasseur?

  So if you're, if you're going down that road, you could argue that whether it was intentional or unintentional, maybe something got into Jade's drink from Nijia or Kianti and they went back. She went back after the fact and then removed it.

• 52:50Stephanie Harlowe?

  And the defense of course did try to, try to kind of frame both Nijia and Kianti as possible people who could have poisoned Jade, but.

• 52:58Derrick Levasseur?

  Of course they would. No motive though.

• 53:00Stephanie Harlowe?

  The issue was right. And first of all, there's no motive. Never have there been any like bad or bad blood or ill talk between Jade and Nijia.

• 53:08Derrick Levasseur?

  No love triangle, no nothing.

• 53:10Stephanie Harlowe?

  Like that. No. And then also the timing still didn't make sense because, yeah.

• 53:15Derrick Levasseur?

  She would have had to have given it to her while she was there.

• 53:18Stephanie Harlowe?

  And then, yeah, I guess you would have had to have consumed everything and then it was still that 30 minute time period. So that that evidence as far as the timing wouldn't work, but.

• 53:26Derrick Levasseur?

  No, no. And it makes sense that Blaze would have had to have waited to give her the cocaine until after they left, which lines up with the timeline of her falling ill and then obviously calling Nijia. And it makes a lot more sense that it's exactly what it looks like.

• 53:41Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. But you know what's gross? Like after Nijia left, Blaze was like, oh, you should have told them to stay so we could hang out. You know, and like, oh, we should get together sometime in the future, like have a double date, like what an asshole.

• 53:53Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 53:54Stephanie Harlowe?

  Oh my God. Okay. So the defense also very much wanted to introduce evidence into the trial that Jade was talking to other men at the time that she was, yeah, she was trying to reunite with Blaze and maybe even pregnant with his child, right? They, they wanted to introduce this and the prosecution was against this, but not for the reason you think.

• 54:12Speaker 05

  Then it is a possibility that if she interacted with this, it could be that she was looking at dating men.

• 54:22Speaker 07

  It's possible.

• 54:23Speaker 05

  I think it occurs that she was dating other men. There are other messages that it also means that she was dating other men in connection with that. And so.

• 54:36Speaker 07

  What are you speaking of?

• 54:37Speaker 05

  I'm speaking of in December, when she wasn't pregnant and living a clean life. She sent naked photographs to three different men. These things.

• 54:48Speaker 07

  That's not in what you said.

• 54:49Speaker 05

  It's not because I did not want to put that type of information into it, but it is important.

• 54:55Speaker 07

  So you're not planning on asking about that?

• 54:57Speaker 05

  I do plan on asking about that. That's why I'm bringing it to the court's attention now because the state.

• 55:03Speaker 07

  But what other texts are you wanting to introduce to this jury?

• 55:07Speaker 05

  Outside of this, I want those text messages.

• 55:10Speaker 07

  Where are they?

• 55:11Speaker 05

  In December. I did not want to print out those types of photographs.

• 55:17Speaker 07

  You're wanting the jury to see them, right?

• 55:19Speaker 05

  No, I do not. I would just like for them to hear about them. That's why I never printed them. I was not going to print those text messages. Neither did I want to make them a part of the record, but I do want to talk about them. It is only fair that Mr. Taylor, who has been painted as someone who doesn't care dating other women while he was in the penitentiary, that he is not afforded the opportunity to show.

• 55:49Speaker 07

  Trashed her.

• 55:50Speaker 05

  No, they're trashing him, if that's the case.

• 55:53Speaker 07

  Oh, you want to trash her?

• 55:54Speaker 05

  No, I want the jury to have all the facts, Your Honor. That is all.

• 55:59Speaker 07

  That would be great if a fact, if in fact it's proven.

• 56:03Speaker 05

  Well, I can tell you those three messages are proven in December.

• 56:09Speaker 07

  Has the state seen them?

• 56:11Speaker 05

  No, Your Honor, the state has not seen them.

• 56:13Speaker 07

  Well, you downloaded her phone.

• 56:16Speaker 05

  I haven't looked at every single thing on her phone and particularly whether or not she's dating men in December when they're broken up. The state's position is irrelevant.

• 56:26Speaker 07

  That's the first time in seven days I've heard that.

• 56:30Derrick Levasseur?

  Damn, some drama in that courtroom, huh?

• 56:33Stephanie Harlowe?

  It was a lot of drama, but listen.

• 56:35Derrick Levasseur?

  The judge is animated.

• 56:36Stephanie Harlowe?

  Here's the point. They said they've got this app, Bumble. Okay, we'll talk about that in a second. And they said in December, when Jade was pregnant, she sent naked photos of herself to three different men. And the judge is like, well, where is this in the evidence? And she's like, well, I didn't want to print those kinds of photos out. Like, I don't want them to be submitted into evidence, but I want the jury, I want the jury to know that it was happening. And she's like, it's only fair if Blaze has been painted as this person. And then the judge is like, well, now you want to trash her. And she's like, no, I just want the jury to know. And he's like, to trash her. And she's like, no, because it doesn't matter. Because Blaze and Jade weren't together in December. He didn't come back into her life until New Year's Eve to even talk to her. So who she was sending pictures to?

• 57:20Stephanie Harlowe?

  They just wanted the jury to see that Jade was like this type of person.

• 57:24Derrick Levasseur?

  That she was human, she was a human being?

• 57:26Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, that that she wasn't this chaste, like, oh, I'm only devoted to one man. Which she was never painted as that, I don't believe.

• 57:36Derrick Levasseur?

  I, I have a question and then I have a statement. So the question that I have is at the end of that video where it almost sounds like the judge is giving the prosecution shit. Like you downloaded this phone and you're bringing up everything in the phone and yet you're thinking that this part isn't relevant. Was that, was that your interpretation or am I reading that wrong?

• 57:55Stephanie Harlowe?

  I mean, I think he's just frustrated because the defense wants to introduce something into the trial that's not in the exhibits. And so he wants to know, has the prosecution seen them? Because maybe if the prosecution's seen them, then the prosecution will be like, yeah, we've seen them. We have no problem with that being admitted. And the prosecution's like, no, we haven't seen those. Well, we downloaded everything on their phone. Yeah, the police would have all that information, but the prosecution itself would only have access to the exhibits. It's not like the prosecution goes through, you know, line by line, everything in Jade's phone because she's the victim, not, yeah.

• 58:27Derrick Levasseur?

  So, so I mean, it's pretty, I agree with the judge for sure. And I'm surprised he said it this so bluntly, but I appreciate that and I respect it. Essentially, they're viewing their depiction of Blaze as trashing him, right? Because they're pointing out how he has multiple women he's involved with, some of the things he said about these women, some of the things he's tried to arrange in order to facilitate an abortion. That's relevant, considering what we're talking about here with his, which is the death of a woman who is currently pregnant with his baby. And he was the last person to be with her. So it's relevant to understand his history and comments that he's made when faced with similar situations.

• 59:07Derrick Levasseur?

  The judge is saying here, we understand why that's being brought up. And yeah, it does make him look like trash because he is. However, to bring up her sexual history, or if she's sending text messages or nudes to other men, how does that relate to her murder or her death? We know that these guys, that these guys that she sent the nudes to, were they there? Were they present that night? Were they facilitating drug deals between her? So even if she's sending nudes to 100 men, they physically weren't at the apartment that night and did not give her the cocaine. So there's no point to bringing that up other than trying to trash.

• 59:43Stephanie Harlowe?

  Character assassination.

• 59:44Derrick Levasseur?

  That's all you're trying to do. That's all you're trying to do here. Even if you're able to show that she was engaging with, in sexual relationships with these men, they weren't present that night. The reason why Blaze's sexual history and his past and the comments he's made is relevant is because he's described a similar behavior that is what the prosecution is alleging in this case.

• 1:00:07Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yes.

• 1:00:08Derrick Levasseur?

  Simple. It's, it's not that complicated. So yeah, the judge is calling the defense out because. We know the the photos exist. Nobody's stipulating that. Nobody's disputing that. And so, yeah, you bring them up. Congratulations. She sent nudes to a couple guys after Blaze was giving her the runaround and for a while there wasn't in the picture.

• 1:00:26Stephanie Harlowe?

  That was during the time he wasn't in the picture.

• 1:00:28Derrick Levasseur?

  He popped back up and she wanted to be with him. She wanted to be with the father of her child. But is she supposed to sit at home and not have any type of romantic relationship with anyone? And she's sending nudes to people? Yeah, I mean, listen, there's always a risk when you do that, but there's nothing wrong with it either.

• 1:00:44Stephanie Harlowe?

  I mean, it's clear to me that the defense simply wanted the jury to have this impression of Jade that even when she was pregnant with another man's child, she had no problem sending naked photos of herself to other men.

• 1:00:55Derrick Levasseur?

  So be it. And you can have a problem with that from a character perspective. Like if you're a jury member and you don't agree with that, that's fine. But if you're focusing on the facts of the case, that history, that behavior doesn't change the outcome of this situation whatsoever, unless you can prove that one of those individuals you're going to bring up was also present that night and may have had an issue with Blaze being there, but they weren't. So.

• 1:01:19Stephanie Harlowe?

  But I can only assume that they were hoping someone on the jury or more than someone on the jury was like, ew, I don't like that, you know?

• 1:01:24Derrick Levasseur?

  Someone has like a strong belief. Yeah, I'm with you. That was the intent. That was the intent for sure. And they try to paint it like they're they're good people because they're not going to show the photos. Oh, thank you so much.

• 1:01:35Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, well, yeah. Like she's like, I didn't print them out because I didn't want those kind of pictures, but I want the jury to know about them. Like I need the jury to know that Jade was bad, you know? I need them to know that like Blaze isn't the only dog here. And that's gross.

• 1:01:50Derrick Levasseur?

  I love that. I love that. The judge was like, so you want to trash her?

• 1:01:53Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, I like.

• 1:01:54Derrick Levasseur?

  And he's like, she's like, no, no, I don't want to trash her, but he's been trashed. And he's like, so now you want to trash the other side? You want to trash the victim? I got you. It was great. It was great.

• 1:02:03Stephanie Harlowe?

  So then they talked about Bumble, right? Basically, they could see that Jade was still.

• 1:02:08Derrick Levasseur?

  How we met.

• 1:02:09Stephanie Harlowe?

  Bumble?

• 1:02:09Derrick Levasseur?

  Joking, joking.

• 1:02:11Stephanie Harlowe?

  Well, it's funny. It's funny because.

• 1:02:13Derrick Levasseur?

  I hit you up to say, do you want to do a crime weekly podcast?

• 1:02:15Stephanie Harlowe?

  On Bumble.

• 1:02:17Stephanie Harlowe?

  Apparently, like, they had Eric Devlin up there and Eric Devlin was like, well, it's a place where you can meet friends. And then the defense, the defense was like, yeah, but that's not what it's used for, is it? He's like, well, that's what, you know, some people use it for that.

• 1:02:29Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, shut up.

• 1:02:30Stephanie Harlowe?

  And but this was the defense's own witness, their own forensic expert. And he was like, yeah, it's like technically supposed to be so you can meet friends in your area.

• 1:02:37Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, it's so you can meet up with people if you want to date, but more importantly, if you want to hook up.

• 1:02:42Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yes.

• 1:02:42Derrick Levasseur?

  That is what Bumble is known for.

• 1:02:44Stephanie Harlowe?

  They were showing that Jade was still interacting with Bumble on her phone after she and Blaze had reunited. They found out that Jade had downloaded the app on February 17th and February 22nd of 2023. Now, the defense could not prove that Jade was using it for dating at the time that she was with Blaze in a relationship, nor could they prove that she used it at all, just that her phone had opened the app. Once again, am I supposed to care about this?

• 1:03:09Derrick Levasseur?

  No, who gives a.

• 1:03:10Stephanie Harlowe?

  They weren't even technically in a relationship. They were just trying to see if they could co-parent together. And, you know, she was obviously, I think she was sensing from Blaze that he was like, not interested in her.

• 1:03:22Derrick Levasseur?

  No, listen, listen, she's a pregnant woman. She's not going out a lot. She's not going into social environments where there's a lot of drinking going on because she can't participate. So there's an app that is known for meeting new people, potentially dating, and she's looking for companionship. She's probably lonely. And so she engaged with this app because it was accessible from her house. She doesn't have to get dressed and go out. She can stay home and be safe in her own, her own place. Zero problems with it. Zero. And I, and just for the disclaimer for Bumble, I know Bumble's trying to re kind of change their image where they're doing like Bumble events. Yeah. Where it's not a hookup dating app. It's more for dating, you know, it's not just for sex. So I will say for the record, I don't have Bumble

• 1:04:06Derrick Levasseur?

  and I don't know what it's used for these days, but my understanding is that most of the time it's used for hookups.

• 1:04:14Stephanie Harlowe?

  More Tinder than eHarmony.

• 1:04:16Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. And I even see, this is, we go down this road and we're going to have people in the comments who are going to be able to give us, my understanding is like, Bumble is like hookups. Tinder is like a combination and then there's Hinge.

• 1:04:29Stephanie Harlowe?

  Really Tinder is more of a combination than Bumble?

• 1:04:32Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, Tinder is like a little bit on the middle, but to be honest with you, from where I'm sitting, and I know people won't agree with me, all three of them are kind of like for hooking up.

• 1:04:40Stephanie Harlowe?

  Is it like shows in your location, like where people are close to you, right?

• 1:04:43Derrick Levasseur?

  I have buddies who are on Hinge and on Tinder and stuff and they're like.

• 1:04:48Stephanie Harlowe?

  He's just asking for a friend, guys.

• 1:04:49Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, they're, they're, they're, they're not using it to, you know, to meet their, their wife usually.

• 1:04:56Stephanie Harlowe?

  Probably why they don't have a wife.

• 1:04:58Derrick Levasseur?

  That's why they're single in their, in their late 30s. And they know who they are. They, sorry, guys. Calling you out.

• 1:05:04Stephanie Harlowe?

  Sorry, not sorry. There was also text messages between Jade and a man named Darius Porter, and they took place on December 17th of 2022. And it's clear that Jade and Darius maybe had gone on a few dates, maybe were dating. He says he's trying to get back in shape. He said, I'm trying to get back in the shape I was before I started dating a world-class chef. So clearly, they considered themselves to sort of be dating, but this was still far after Jade had ended things with Blaze on November 6th, 2022. The text exchange between Jade and Darius after she and Blaze reconnected at the end of December, they seemed way more friendship based. And so on January 25th, Darius texted Jade, quote, "That's good. I'm glad you have

• 1:05:46Stephanie Harlowe?

  two. I'm just honestly sad, but I know I won't be forever and God makes no mistakes. Glad you're feeling better." End quote. Jade told Darius that she knew it hurt, but they could talk about his feelings and she just wanted to make sure he was taking care of himself, not going down a path of drinking and smoking more in order to heal. Darius told Jade that he was working out as well, and Jade said she understood, working out's good, but she still wanted him to slow down on the other stuff. Jade is even talking to Darius about Blaze, such as on January 10th, when she told him that Blaze had signed up for a diaper subscription. And on January 25th, when Darius asked if Blaze rubbed her belly and Jade said, quote, eh, sometimes, end quote. You know Blaze didn't rub her belly. Okay?

• 1:06:27Stephanie Harlowe?

  So Darius was aware of Blaze in Jade's life and he was aware also that she was pregnant and there were no inappropriate texts between them after Blaze and Jade got back together. And yeah, I'm thinking Darius is hanging around, hoping.

• 1:06:40Derrick Levasseur?

  Hoping things fall apart again.

• 1:06:41Stephanie Harlowe?

  Blazing messes up again and Jade's, and he's there already. Yes.

• 1:06:45Derrick Levasseur?

  He's there to pick up the pieces?

• 1:06:46Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, for sure. It definitely wasn't innocent on his part. He's like, does Blaze rub your belly? Because I would, you know?

• 1:06:52Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, 1,000%. I mean, listen, and sometimes we make the mistake of assuming every communication happens through text. There's probably some verbal communication as well where Jade let Darius know that unfortunately, this wasn't going to go any farther than a platonic relationship.

• 1:07:07Stephanie Harlowe?

  It was the father of her baby was back.

• 1:07:08Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, he's coming back. And so it sounds like Jade was doing exactly what a woman in her position would do.

• 1:07:14Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, I think, I think that she's doing the right thing.

• 1:07:17Derrick Levasseur?

  She moved, she started to move on from Blaze and then coincidentally, he came back around. Shocker. I wonder why.

• 1:07:23Stephanie Harlowe?

  She's not sending naked photos to men while they're together. She's not talking to someone else secretly like he was.

• 1:07:29Derrick Levasseur?

  No, I mean, and still, and this will, not everyone will love this, but even if she was, even if they were like starting to talk again and she was like actively talking to Blaze and potentially about getting back together and, but they weren't living together yet. And she was still keeping her options open by talking to other men. I personally still don't give a shit.

• 1:07:50Stephanie Harlowe?

  I wouldn't have been mad about it, no.

• 1:07:51Derrick Levasseur?

  As it relates to the case, unless you can prove that those men were jealous of Blaze, were in that apartment before, during and after the crime, it's irrelevant to the actual matter at hand. So I don't, this character stuff, it's only for one thing and one thing only, which the judge rightly pointed out. It's to trash the victim to hopefully get one jury member on that jury to say, you know what, for me personally, I think Jade was a piece of shit.

• 1:08:19Stephanie Harlowe?

  But you couldn't even really show that, right? You couldn't even show that.

• 1:08:24Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, but that's what the defense is hoping for.

• 1:08:26Stephanie Harlowe?

  The fact of the matter is, even if she'd been doing that, you and I wouldn't have cared because she was clearly trying to get a deeper commitment from Blaze, like, let's go on trips together. He wasn't giving it to her. So if you're not giving someone a commitment, why would you expect commitment from them in return?

• 1:08:38Derrick Levasseur?

  No, if anything, I want her to move on. Send more nudes. Send them to everybody. Find, find, find someone who is not Blaze Taylor. I'm okay with it.

• 1:08:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, well, I think Blaze thought one day I'm going to be rich and that's when she's going to pop back up. Yeah, that's probably what he's thinking.

• 1:08:52Derrick Levasseur?

  With a baby.

• 1:08:53Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:53Derrick Levasseur?

  Oh, no doubt.

• 1:08:54Stephanie Harlowe?

  Even if she finds someone else moves on, he doesn't hear from her for five years.

• 1:08:57Derrick Levasseur?

  She's going to reach out for child support.

• 1:08:58Stephanie Harlowe?

  It's going to be when he becomes the coach of the Dallas Cowboys that she's now going to reach out and be like, and you owe me for the last five years.

• 1:09:04Derrick Levasseur?

  I agree. And I also think a lot of athletes are conditioned to believe that. We talked about that probably in episode one or two, where he was a high-profile athlete in college, not like a D1, like going first round, but he was someone who had the potential to maybe go NFL. And, you know, you're conditioned that there are women out there who will try to quote unquote, trap you by having a baby with you so that when you make millions of dollars, you're on the hook. And so they're conditioned to believe that these women all have these malicious agendas, when in reality.

• 1:09:33Stephanie Harlowe?

  I mean, first of all, for somebody who was conditioned like that, you should probably have used a condom then, number one.

• 1:09:39Derrick Levasseur?

  No doubt. That was a lot of our comments, by the way.

• 1:09:42Stephanie Harlowe?

  And number two, I don't think Jade would have done that because Blaze probably, Blaze probably would have eventually gotten a really good coaching job with like a good NFL team because he had the family connections through his father, right?

• 1:09:54Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:09:55Stephanie Harlowe?

  So he probably would have gotten to that level where she may have, you know.

• 1:09:58Derrick Levasseur?

  Although he was kind of floundering. He was kind of, he was kind of went down, down after the Titans.

• 1:10:03Stephanie Harlowe?

  Daddy would have made sure he stayed. Don't worry. Don't worry. Trooper would have been there.

• 1:10:07Derrick Levasseur?

  I mean, from what we understand, and we could be wrong on this, but it doesn't seem like, even though Blaze didn't want to be around the baby, when Jade gave him an ultimatum and he said he didn't want to be around, she cut ties with him and she wasn't reaching out saying, hey, I need money for this or that. She was doing it on her own.

• 1:10:22Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. I don't think she would have come, popped back up, no matter how much money he made. Because by that time, by that time, it would have been like to her and her child, Blaze Taylor didn't exist. I don't think she would have wanted to do that.

• 1:10:32Derrick Levasseur?

  Right. And if she did, she has the right to do that as well. You're having unprotected sex, then you know, you're going to pay the price.

• 1:10:39Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, I think that's what his fear was, which is dumb, because then wear a condom if you're so worried.

• 1:10:44Derrick Levasseur?

  I agree. I agree. That's the whole reason why you wouldn't want the baby. It'd be financial in nature. You don't, you don't want to have to pay for, pay child support.

• 1:10:49Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. All right. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back.

• 1:10:57Stephanie Harlowe?

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• 1:11:07Derrick Levasseur?

  Because therapy can be helpful, but sometimes you need psychiatry, someone who can evaluate what's going on, diagnose a condition, and prescribe medication when it's appropriate.

• 1:11:17Stephanie Harlowe?

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• 1:11:40Stephanie Harlowe?

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• 1:12:06Derrick Levasseur?

  I also really like that you stay with the same provider because having to explain your entire life story from the beginning every single time sounds absolutely exhausting. You continue with the same psychiatrist, so your treatment can evolve over time instead of feeling like every appointment is a reset.

• 1:12:22Stephanie Harlowe?

  And I think that the consistency is important. Mental health care shouldn't feel like speed dating, except somehow less fun.

• 1:12:28Derrick Levasseur?

  And speed dating isn't fun to begin with. Let's just be honest. So I'm not interested in either.

• 1:12:32Stephanie Harlowe?

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• 1:13:06Stephanie Harlowe?

  So the defense called toxicologist Dr. Chansey Chun Lindsay, who challenged several aspects of the state's science. One major issue was Jade's hospital blood sample. It had been collected in a tube without the preservative normally used to stabilize cocaine. We talked about this, and that matters because cocaine degrades relatively quickly in blood. The state's medical examiner had effectively tried to account for that degradation using the metabolites present in the sample. But the defense argued that the science could not reliably reconstruct exactly how much cocaine Jade originally had in her system or how it got there. The defense also attacked the comforter testing. Obviously, the comforter had not remained inside a secured crime scene.

• 1:13:48Stephanie Harlowe?

  A family friend removed it, bagged it, and later it entered police custody. Testing reportedly found cocaine, fentanyl, and cocaethylene on it. But the defense expert pointed to contamination and methodological problems and argued that the concentrations could not be relied upon in the way the prosecution wanted. So basically, they're saying, we don't know how much cocaine she had in her system because the way you're trying to figure this out isn't as exact and accurate. Therefore, it was almost like the defense was like, therefore, throw out all that testing. All we can really say is Jade had cocaine in her system. You can't say it was a lot, but based on what happened to her, it was a lot. And they pushed the fentanyl issue. The defense argued that fentanyl appearing in some of the evidence

• 1:14:32Stephanie Harlowe?

  complicated the state's toxicological narrative and raised questions about what substances were present and when. Prosecutors countered that Jade received fentanyl during her hospital treatment and maintained that there was no evidence she had fentanyl in her system before arriving at Vanderbilt. A particularly important defense objective appears to have been to suggest that the amount of cocaine alleged by the state would have been difficult to secretly put into a drink without Jade noticing, which we did talk about that as well. Their toxicologist was questioned about whether someone could consume that much cocaine unknowingly. However, the prosecution objected to part of that line of questioning, and the judge sustained the objection.

• 1:15:15Stephanie Harlowe?

  And I pause here because I do have to be fair. Realistically, we're talking about a very large amount of cocaine hydrochloride dissolved into probably a relatively small drink. And we would expect it to be noticeable in some way.

• 1:15:29Derrick Levasseur?

  Not if she was in, like I had said, the pink cup, which would have had that like filtered, kind of like, plastic, like somewhat transparent glass or plastic, but not completely see-through. You wouldn't see if the water or whatever was in there was foggy at that point. You wouldn't see it cloudy.

• 1:15:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  I mean, if it was fully dissolved, you might not even necessarily see anything, right? But the bigger giveaway would be the taste. An unusually large concentration like this would probably make the taste of the drink bitter or medicinal, and also produce oral numbness. Like, your lips, your tongue, they start to feel numb. So whether Jade would have immediately recognized that sensation as cocaine is a different question. Someone unfamiliar with the cocaine might be like, oh, maybe this drink tastes strange. My lips feel weird, but not really understand why it was tasting weird or that her lips felt like numb.

• 1:16:26Stephanie Harlowe?

  But we do have Jade on the phone call telling Blaze that she knew her drink had tasted funny. And I bet you that, because I've never done cocaine. I'm going to just be straight with you, okay? I've never done cocaine, and I don't know how often people like put it in their mouth. I've seen in movies where they'll like dip their hand into the bag and like put it on their tongue or something, I think, to test it. But does it, it doesn't make your tongue or your lips numb? I would assume so.

• 1:16:54Derrick Levasseur?

  Uh, I have done that undercover capacity. I don't-

• 1:16:59Stephanie Harlowe?

  Bet you have.

• 1:17:00Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, I, um, I don't recall having my tongue go numb when I did it, no.

• 1:17:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  Or like your lips or anything?

• 1:17:06Derrick Levasseur?

  No.

• 1:17:07Stephanie Harlowe?

  Well, I mean, even if.

• 1:17:09Derrick Levasseur?

  I'm talking small amounts. I've also, again, I don't mind telling you guys, I've also snorted the coke, like where we're testing it. And they give you, you know, take a little spoon or your fingertip or your fingernail, and you do a little bump to make sure it's like what it's supposed to be. And that, even that takes a couple of minutes to hit you.

• 1:17:26Stephanie Harlowe?

  Does that like, does your-

• 1:17:27Derrick Levasseur?

  I get like a stinging, yeah, yeah, yeah. You get like a stinging, yeah, you get a little bit of a, ooh, okay, I'm awake.

• 1:17:32Stephanie Harlowe?

  There's some sort of sensation. But I wonder if she may have even mentioned to Blaze, like, as they were continuing their paintings, like, hey, my mouth feels weird. Like, I wonder if I ate something that I'm having a reaction to.

• 1:17:42Derrick Levasseur?

  I think that's what happened. I think that she probably had a couple of sips and was like, oh, that doesn't taste perfect. That doesn't taste right. And then within a couple of minutes, I think that phone call was made. I don't think it was like 20 minutes later where, because her hands and she was starting to get numbness at that point. I think almost within a few minutes of her starting to feel something, she called. Because she was still up, standing upright when she, when she called Nigella.

• 1:18:06Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yes. And I mean, we know that, like, in those pictures she was taking with Blaze, this would have been shortly before the effects of that really hit. But she would have been feeling something.

• 1:18:15Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, she might have verbally said something like, oh, that don't taste good. I'm not drinking anymore of that.

• 1:18:19Stephanie Harlowe?

  Or I'm starting to feel weird, or, you know, I wonder, I wonder if I ate something. I wonder if that's where he got the allergic reaction thing too. Because sometimes I'll eat something, and I still to this day don't know what it is. But I'll eat something, and then my lip feels like numb and weird, and it'll start swelling. And that's when I'll be like, oh, shoot, I ate that thing. And I don't know what it is, but I ate that thing that causes that weirdness. And I'll say it to like the people I'm with, like, oh, this just happened, you know? Like, my lip feels weird. Is it swelling? And they'll be like, yeah. So I guarantee you, she was saying something. And he was just like, oh, yeah, no, you're fine, you're fine. So the prosecution portrayed Blaze as a man who did not want this pregnancy and wanted it gone. The defense-

• 1:18:56Derrick Levasseur?

  Fair depiction.

• 1:18:57Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yep. The defense tried to show that whatever Blaze had initially felt in November of 2022, things had changed by early 2023. They pointed to the fact that he had resumed communicating with Jade and argued that their relationship had become more serious and that he was moving towards accepting fatherhood, which I think is ridiculous because we have those messages between him and Xavier the night before.

• 1:19:18Derrick Levasseur?

  I was just going to say, does Xavier know? Does Xavier know that they're saying this? Because Xavier wasn't in the impression that, hey, we're going to move forward in our relationship, but I got a baby on the way, had a baby mama that I'm going to have to take care of.

• 1:19:29Stephanie Harlowe?

  What about Blaze, to the defense team, shows he was moving towards fatherhood at this time? The defense attorney, she characterized the state's theory that Blaze would kill Jade and Ivy simply because he didn't want to become a father as an enormous leap. They also used Blaze's behavior that night very defensively. He called 911. He remained with Jade. He went to the hospital. The defense argued that these were not the actions you would expect from somebody who had just intentionally poisoned a woman and was trying to ensure that she died. I would argue-

• 1:20:01Derrick Levasseur?

  Someone who, yeah, who was trying to make it look as if they didn't intentionally poison her. If he hadn't done those things, it'd be even more suspicious.

• 1:20:08Stephanie Harlowe?

  What's he supposed to do, run away?

• 1:20:09Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. Oh, I don't know what happened, but I don't have no part of it. I'm leaving. And we also have information that suggests that he maybe didn't stay with her the entire time when she wasn't feeling well.

• 1:20:18Stephanie Harlowe?

  And what, the ambulance pulls up and he's like, you guys got her now? All right, great. I have a date with Xavier. I gotta go. And also, I would argue that maybe his actions were of a person who wanted to make sure that Jade was in a coma and could not talk and could not say anything. So that's why he was at the hospital being all nervous because-

• 1:20:37Derrick Levasseur?

  If he's there, he can fill in the narrative for her.

• 1:20:39Stephanie Harlowe?

  Or at least he knows what's about to happen, you know? He knows, they could say, oh, we think she's going to wake up or we think she's not going to wake up. He's got the information. He's got that inside information that he wouldn't have if he left the hospital because nobody there is going to talk to him.

• 1:20:51Derrick Levasseur?

  I'm sure he's panicking a little bit too, because if they're able to give her something that allows her to wake up, what was the last thing she said before she stopped talking?

• 1:21:00Stephanie Harlowe?

  Uh huh.

• 1:21:00Derrick Levasseur?

  What'd you put in my drink?

• 1:21:02Stephanie Harlowe?

  Well, Blaze claims to the police he didn't hear her say any of that stuff.

• 1:21:04Derrick Levasseur?

  Oh, of course he didn't. I'm just saying, if we're to believe the impartial person here, Nigella, one of her last statements were, what did you put in my drink? So what do you think one of her first statements is going to be if she wakes up?

• 1:21:16Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, exactly. That's what I'm saying. He knew that.

• 1:21:19Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, of course.

• 1:21:19Stephanie Harlowe?

  He knew that she would be like, Blaze did this, and then it's over if she woke up. So the defense also tried to like put his behavior after Jade collapsed into context as well. So the prosecutors were like, hey, he went back to work. He wasn't late. He was normal. He didn't tell anybody that his girlfriend was lying on life support. The day his daughter died, he didn't tell anybody. He was fine. And the prosecution said that's like emotional detachment. You know, he did his job of wiping Jade and Ivy out, and he doesn't feel bad about it. So he's not like showing any different kind of behavior. And the defense was like, no, people process trauma differently.

• 1:21:59Derrick Levasseur?

  Which is true.

• 1:22:00Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yes. But they also said that Blaze sought out the Titans' mental health resource after the incident, like the therapist for the team, and that was true. But that therapist couldn't testify to what Blaze had talked about with her during their session. So, I mean, for all we know.

• 1:22:18Derrick Levasseur?

  About his relationship with Xavier.

• 1:22:20Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, for all we know, he could go in and be like, I'm thinking about leaving the team and I have another job, you know, interview and, and that's what, for all we know, it could have nothing to do with Jade.

• 1:22:30Derrick Levasseur?

  Right.

• 1:22:30Stephanie Harlowe?

  And if it did have something to do with Jade, then would it still be like, oh, I'm so sad that she's on life support? But you didn't tell anybody you had a girlfriend. You weren't going into the Titans while Jade was on life support and being like, somebody I care about, even if you didn't say girlfriend, a friend of mine I care about very deeply is like hanging on for dear life by a thread. None of that. So on July 1st, 2026, after closing arguments, the jury began deliberating just before noon, and they reached a verdict very quickly. They reported that they had a verdict after roughly two to two and a half hours. So, yeah, that's pretty quick. The verdict was slightly more complicated, though, than simply guilty on everything. For Jade's death, the jury did not convict Blaze of first degree premeditated murder.

• 1:23:14Stephanie Harlowe?

  Instead, they convicted him of the lesser included offense of second degree murder, while also finding him guilty of first degree felony murder in Jade's death. For Ivy's death, however, they convicted him of first degree premeditated murder as well as first degree felony murder.

• 1:23:30Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, I completely agree with that.

• 1:23:33Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. So basically, they're saying his whole goal was to kill Ivy.

• 1:23:37Derrick Levasseur?

  1,000%.

• 1:23:38Stephanie Harlowe?

  So it wasn't premeditated in killing Jade, but the felony murder charge, I think, would kind of suggest that it was like, he didn't care if he did.

• 1:23:46Derrick Levasseur?

  I think it was the actions after she fell ill, like the inaction. The intent wasn't to kill her initially, but once she fell ill, there was, there was a lack of action to prevent her from dying. Uh, and the only reason he made the call was because he at some point realized that she had called Nigella.

• 1:24:02Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. So basically, the jury unanimously agreed that the prosecution hadn't proved premeditation as to Jade herself, but they were convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Blaze was criminally responsible for Jade's death. And when it came to Ivy.

• 1:24:17Derrick Levasseur?

  We've talked about it, you know, we can call him a piece of shit and he deserves to be in prison. I, I do think there is at least at minimum a lack of evidence to suggest that his intent originally was to kill Jade.

• 1:24:31Stephanie Harlowe?

  Okay, but here's my question.

• 1:24:33Derrick Levasseur?

  Okay.

• 1:24:34Stephanie Harlowe?

  Okay. You give Jade all this cocaine, she has a miscarriage.

• 1:24:39Derrick Levasseur?

  Right.

• 1:24:40Stephanie Harlowe?

  At no point is she gonna be like, what the hell happened to me and how is there cocaine in my system?

• 1:24:45Derrick Levasseur?

  Maybe. Or I think, again, I'm trying to rationalize the irrational here, but this dumbass, in my, just in my head, I'm thinking he thought he could give her a, a dose of cocaine that would cause internal damage to the baby, killing the baby, but she wouldn't realize that she had killed the baby until maybe a week or two later, when there was health complications, and she wouldn't be able to pinpoint what caused it, right? We know.

• 1:25:15Stephanie Harlowe?

  So you think he was hoping it would just happen at home and then she wouldn't know?

• 1:25:19Derrick Levasseur?

  She would have a miscarriage because of the cocaine, and then he could come in as a knight in shining armor and go, oh my God, I'm so sorry that happened. I was actually looking forward to this baby after we've, we've talked it out. It doesn't make sense to you or I or everybody else listening right now, but I think in his mind, that's what his best case scenario was. I don't think there's any world where he was like, oh, man, I'm gonna give her a ton of cocaine tonight. I'm gonna almost kill her, but I'm hoping they can save her, but not the baby. Cause he has to know that if it happens in that moment, he's gonna be the primary suspect. He needs it to be something that occurs over a week or two, where he's not the, the prime person with her at the time when it occurs.

• 1:25:59Stephanie Harlowe?

  That's what I'm saying. If that's what you wanted, why use so much cocaine?

• 1:26:03Derrick Levasseur?

  He's a dumbass. I said it loud, everyone.

• 1:26:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  I can't just, I can't just say he's a dumbass. I think, I think he intended to kill them both.

• 1:26:10Derrick Levasseur?

  Okay. Yeah. I mean, I don't think you're gonna be the only one who thinks that. I, I don't. I, I, and I don't even know that he didn't intend to kill them both. But then we also have to acknowledge that in his mind, he thought he could kill Jade within, you know, if he was really prepped for this, he would have known that she was gonna have a overdose right there in front of him. And then he would have to explain to law enforcement how she had an overdose in his presence when they didn't take any cocaine.

• 1:26:36Stephanie Harlowe?

  I totally agree with you. It doesn't make sense. But if you're not trying to cause something to happen right then and there, that is catastrophic and needs to have her being rushed to a hospital, why are you using so much cocaine? Maybe he didn't expect her to drink the whole drink. Maybe he thought, I'm gonna put all this cocaine in a drink and maybe she'll only drink some of it. I don't know, but you're taking a risk here that I think you're going into this plan with, she could die too, but I don't care.

• 1:27:03Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. Well, I definitely want to hear your guys' thoughts on that one, because I don't necessarily know what happened, but I think the evidence says one thing. I, Stephanie has strong opinions on this. Pause this episode right now. Let us know what you think, because we're at that point where we can really discuss it. You have most of the facts. Do you believe that Blaze went into this night with the full intention of, I'm gonna kill Jade? And by killing Jade, then I kill the baby and then I can go be with Xavier and there's no issues?

• 1:27:34Stephanie Harlowe?

  No, I'm gonna kill the baby and by killing the baby, that might mean killing Jade and I'm okay with that.

• 1:27:39Derrick Levasseur?

  Okay, that you're okay with. So the intent, so what you're saying is his intent wasn't to kill her, he just didn't care if it did.

• 1:27:44Stephanie Harlowe?

  He didn't care if it did, but why use that much cocaine? And not understand that it's going to have some serious effects?

• 1:27:51Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. So it's, it's like you said, right? I mean, he could have put a massive amount in there, not knowing that she was gonna drink as much as she did. And his plan was to get rid of the coke afterwards. So he put a ton in there, hoping she would get a couple of good sips, and then he could get rid of the rest. But maybe she drank, like you said, more than he anticipated and he over calculated. He, or he miscalculated and because of it, she, she died as well.

• 1:28:13Stephanie Harlowe?

  I almost wonder if he didn't, if he intentionally didn't look anything up about cocaine, because he didn't want that to be in his history.

• 1:28:21Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, that would make sense.

• 1:28:22Stephanie Harlowe?

  And so therefore he was just like, well, just throw a ton in there. But I wish they could locate, because he had to buy it from someone. He had to buy it from somewhere.

• 1:28:29Derrick Levasseur?

  Yes.

• 1:28:30Stephanie Harlowe?

  And that amount of cocaine.

• 1:28:31Derrick Levasseur?

  And I'm sure they tried.

• 1:28:32Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. That amount of cocaine wouldn't be cheap, but you're not gonna have anybody who comes forward right now and raises their hand and says, oh, I actually sold a large amount of cocaine to Blaze Taylor. They're not gonna do that, even though that person's out there, has seen what happened and is like, oh shit, right? So they're not gonna do that, but was there some sort of cash withdrawal that was pretty large in his bank account? Cause they, it would have had to have been, you know, a, a pretty good amount. I would be interested in knowing that, but either way, let's take our last break. We'll be right back.

• 1:29:10Derrick Levasseur?

  All right, we're back from breaking again, just to reiterate, because I think we, we went off on a tangent a little bit there. We were talking, we had our side quests. Let us know what you think. Do you think this was, as Stephanie says, where he was intending on killing the baby, didn't care if Jade died? Or do you think it's a premeditated murder, where his intent from the beginning was to kill the baby and Jade? I, I lean more toward the, a third option, which is he thought he was smart enough to administer the right amount of cocaine, where she would have, she would have complications with the pregnancy because of the cocaine. And he was hoping in some perfect world, those complications wouldn't actually wear their ugly head until a few days later, where he would

• 1:29:55Derrick Levasseur?

  get a call from her saying, you know, I looked in the toilet and there's a bunch of blood and I don't know what happened. And then he could come in and be like, oh my God, look at this. That's terrible. I'm sorry. I'm sorry you went through this. And that would be the end of it.

• 1:30:08Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, but she's not gonna notice she's experiencing, like when you're taking cocaine, you experience things.

• 1:30:14Derrick Levasseur?

  Right. Yeah, but we're talking about a guy who clearly is not intelligent. I know I keep calling him a dumbass and I'm not saying it for story purposes. There are some criminals who are smart and still get caught. This is not a smart criminal. He, he, he was doing things.

• 1:30:28Stephanie Harlowe?

  He was supposedly smart, right?

• 1:30:30Derrick Levasseur?

  Now, for what? Book smart?

• 1:30:31Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, I guess, like, smart enough to do your research. I don't know.

• 1:30:35Derrick Levasseur?

  But when you're desperate, you do make desperate decisions and sometimes make mistakes that you would un, unotherwise not make. And I think he felt like, just like with alcohol or drugs, that's why they say don't take alcohol or drugs when you're pregnant, because it could lead to a miscarriage. I think he was hoping he could give her a small enough amount that she would ingest it and she would be fine that night. And yet maybe even the next day, she would have an issue and he would be scot-free on this, because she wouldn't pick up on it. He didn't anticipate her tasting it. That's number one. He did not anticipate her having a reaction to it when she drank it. That was definitely not planned, whether he intended on killing her or not. You don't want her to take a sip and go, oh my God, what did you put in my drink? Right? So that wasn't the plan. We know that wasn't on, on the table for him.

• 1:31:19Derrick Levasseur?

  And then I, I don't think that he planned for her to have a reaction to it as quick as she did. He's still sitting in there with her. That doesn't give him a lot of outs. So if, he definitely miscalculated on, on multiple things, different degrees. And that's, that's why he got convicted of the crime.

• 1:31:37Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, well, I don't know, man. It just feels, how would you not, how would you not expect her to have some sort of like signs that she's high on cocaine?

• 1:31:46Derrick Levasseur?

  Well, let us know what you guys think. Honestly, let us, give, and give us your opinion as, as how you came to that conclusion, you know? Do you think, what do you think happened here? What do you think? Well, we know what happened, but what do you think Blaze's original intention was?

• 1:31:58Stephanie Harlowe?

  In his head?

• 1:31:59Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. How is he, how, how does he see this playing out in his mind? There's no wrong answer, so please let us know.

• 1:32:04Stephanie Harlowe?

  Well, because some of the convictions were first degree murder convictions, there was a separate punishment proceeding before the same jury. The state sought life without the possibility of parole. Jade's family gave emotional testimony during this phase and Blaze's mother testified for the defense. And this is where she gets up and she's like, Blaze is a good boy. He was the smartest ever and everybody always wanted to be like him and all the other parents. They wanted him to be their son. That was a, a weird display.

• 1:32:32Derrick Levasseur?

  I love the accent.

• 1:32:34Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, I don't know why she's British all of a sudden, but she seems like she would be like that.

• 1:32:37Derrick Levasseur?

  It's because I'm going to London. Well, actually, as, as this episode's out, I'm in London right now, so.

• 1:32:41Stephanie Harlowe?

  You sound like you're from London.

• 1:32:46Stephanie Harlowe?

  Blaze himself chose not to testify, which I'm actually surprised by, but at that point, it's like, is to try to charm somebody, you know, do something, do what you can. The jury then deliberated again over punishment. The jury rejected life without parole and recommended life with the possibility of parole instead. Now, that did not mean that Blaze was about to have some realistic chance of walking out of prison anytime soon. It established the type of life sentences attached to those first degree convictions. So after July 1st, Blaze was convicted, but the court still had several sentencing questions to resolve, particularly how the multiple convictions would merge and whether the sentences for Jade and Ivy would run concurrently or consecutively.

• 1:33:30Derrick Levasseur?

  That's a big one.

• 1:33:31Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. So do you want to explain the difference between concurrent and consecutive, just in case?

• 1:33:35Derrick Levasseur?

  Well, concurrent, and we've talked about it before. I forgot what case it was recently, but if you get charged, let's just say for the sake of this example, 10 years and 10 years for two separate charges. If it's concurrent, you're basically serving both terms at the same time. So in reality, it's only 10 years. If it's consecutive, well, you're going to do your first 10 years for the first charge, and then you're going to do another 10 years for the second charge. So it's a big difference. You're talking double the amount of time. Oh, it was, um, the crash.

• 1:34:02Stephanie Harlowe?

  Crash. Oh, Mackenzie Shrilia.

• 1:34:04Derrick Levasseur?

  There we go. That was the one where was, where she got, she, she got consecutive, I believe. Or I'm sorry, she might've got concurrent. I can't even remember. You guys will correct me in the comments, but that's the distinction.

• 1:34:14Stephanie Harlowe?

  You could be sure of that.

• 1:34:15Derrick Levasseur?

  Yes, yes.

• 1:34:17Stephanie Harlowe?

  So Judge Steve Dozier held the final sentencing hearing on September 9th. So just this month, actually. One of the technical issues was that Blaze had been convicted under two theories for each death. And Tennessee law does not simply allow four separate murder punishments for two victims. So some of those counts had to merge. For Jade, second degree murder and felony murder, those ultimately merged into the conviction covering Jade's death. For Ivy, first degree premeditated murder and felony murder, those also merged into the conviction covering Ivy's death. Judge Dozier nevertheless imposed 22 years at 100% on the second degree murder count involving Jade before merging it into the felony murder conviction. The state had requested 25 years.

• 1:35:02Stephanie Harlowe?

  One aggravating factor the judge gave considerable weight to was abuse of a position of private trust. Essentially Jade trusted Blaze enough to allow him into her home and believed they were working towards some kind of future surrounding the pregnancy. And I love this for the judge because that is the ultimate betrayal, right? Like, it's horrible. What he did was illegal. What he did was bad, but like, as far as Jade's concerned, like, you assumed this man had good intentions. He made you assume that based on what he was telling you. You let him into your home. You let a wolf into the hen house, basically. So, but the huge issue was whether the two life sentences, one for Jade and one for Ivy, would be served at the same time or one after another.

• 1:35:46Stephanie Harlowe?

  Now Judge Dozier made them consecutive.

• 1:35:48Derrick Levasseur?

  That's a big one.

• 1:35:49Stephanie Harlowe?

  His reasoning was unusually explicit. He essentially asked if the sentence for killing Ivy ran at the same time as the sentence for killing Jade, what additional punishment would there actually be for Ivy's death? His answer was effectively none.

• 1:36:03Derrick Levasseur?

  Agreed.

• 1:36:04Stephanie Harlowe?

  He concluded that each death warranted its own punishment and ordered the life sentences to run back to back. So the final sentence became two consecutive life sentences with the 22-year second degree murder sentence attached to the Jade count, but merging into that murder conviction. In practical terms, WSMV reported that the consecutive life sentences alone meant that Blaze would have to serve approximately 102 years before potential release eligibility, making the distinction between life and life without parole essentially pointless. It's, it's pointless in, in real world terms. Like, he'll never be out. He's going to be in prison for life.

• 1:36:42Derrick Levasseur?

  I'm assuming he's in his late twenties, early thirties at this point.

• 1:36:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yes, he's in, he's, he's in his early thirties.

• 1:36:48Derrick Levasseur?

  There you go.

• 1:36:48Stephanie Harlowe?

  So after sentencing, Blaze's attorney said the defense intends to appeal. She characterized the sentence as harsh and continued to criticize what she regarded as problems with the trial and the strength of the state's case. So as of September 25th, as of today, the status is Blaze Taylor has been convicted. He has been formally sentenced to two consecutive life terms. He is no longer awaiting sentence. And the next major phase is the appellate process, the appeals process. And we talked about it a little bit, but the defense does have several things it can actually attack on appeal.

• 1:37:25Derrick Levasseur?

  There's no doubt about it.

• 1:37:26Stephanie Harlowe?

  First of all, the Apple Denny testimony about the prior pregnancy and the Xavier situation, that's a big one. The handling and contamination of the crime scene, dispute over the toxicology, evidentiary rulings involving Jade's phone and the dating drug-related material. And also there's potential sentencing issues. So I'm going to focus on the two things that are the most important, which I think is, and, and where I think the defense has the most chance of getting, getting an appeal. And I think that's the Apple Denny testimony and the sentencing. So the Apple Denny testimony may be one of the more interesting appellate issues. The defense can frame her testimony as extremely prejudicial because she alleged that years

• 1:38:10Stephanie Harlowe?

  earlier Blaze had discussed secretly putting abortion medication into Xavier's drink. The appellate question, so the question on the appeal would be whether the judge properly admitted that evidence under Tennessee evidence rules governing prior acts. And we talked about this in the Harmony Montgomery case where, remember, isn't that basically the reason that Adam Montgomery got things overturned? And he's in the position he's in because they were like, well, you can't introduce these prior acts and then show them to the jury?

• 1:38:39Derrick Levasseur?

  That was something that got him a whole new trial.

• 1:38:41Stephanie Harlowe?

  Exactly. And especially with that Adam Montgomery case being so recent, I think that Blaze's defense is going to really focus on this. Like, why bring Apple Denny in here to talk about something that happened years before Blaze Taylor even knew Jade? Would that be considered a, a prior bad act that doesn't have anything to do with what's hap, what happened to Jade?

• 1:39:03Derrick Levasseur?

  I know you're not asking me this, but the, the, even with Adam Montgomery, there was an abuse case against him. And we're talking about him murdering his own daughter. So I think it's completely relevant. Best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Same thing here.

• 1:39:17Stephanie Harlowe?

  But the appellate court gave him.

• 1:39:18Derrick Levasseur?

  I get it, but that's the thing. That's what we know about courts, right? Depending on where it is and who's overseeing it, it's subjective. It's not a science, right? I think in this case, the argument should be made that him making these comments to Apple about Xavier are very relevant to modus operandi, right? How he conducts himself, how he would administer something like this in order to avoid this pregnancy, in order to avoid the birth of this child. He's already contemplated it in the past before ever meeting Jade or before, you know, I don't know if he was, had met Jade at that point.

• 1:39:51Stephanie Harlowe?

  No, he had not, no.

• 1:39:52Derrick Levasseur?

  So, so he's already talking about a similar conduct that he's now being accused of after the fact. I think it's extremely relevant and I do think it's a big part of why the jury came to the conclusion they did.

• 1:40:03Stephanie Harlowe?

  And we thought the fact that Adam Montgomery had beaten Harmony before and found a way to avoid CPS was also relevant to him murdering her.

• 1:40:11Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, I couldn't, I couldn't disagree with that.

• 1:40:13Stephanie Harlowe?

  The appeal was granted.

• 1:40:14Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. Couldn't disagree with it more. And you know what? If you keep it out, there, there are problems with this case, but I, I don't know if that alone would be the reason that it would, it would result in a different outcome, but you never know.

• 1:40:25Stephanie Harlowe?

  I, I, you never know. And this defense team is going to try everything they can to appeal this because the sentence also gives the defense something to grab on to. Judge Dozier ordered the two life sentences to run consecutively. That creates the functional equivalent of spending the rest of Blaze's life in prison. And his attorneys can challenge whether the statutory findings support consecutive sentences. Like, was that established? Even winning a sentencing issue would not necessarily erase the murder convictions. It could simply result in resentencing.

• 1:40:55Derrick Levasseur?

  Consecutive would be a lot better than, I mean, he's still going to be in his seventies, probably, or sixties when he gets, when he's eligible for parole, but it's, it doesn't guarantee that he dies behind bars.

• 1:41:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. I mean, if you, if you even go to consecutive because they want parole, the parole board could still deny.

• 1:41:13Derrick Levasseur?

  They're 100% and they probably will.

• 1:41:15Stephanie Harlowe?

  I don't know if they will, honestly.

• 1:41:16Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, I shouldn't say that. You never know, right?

• 1:41:19Stephanie Harlowe?

  Because Blaze is so young that by the time he's like in his 60s, 70s, the parole board may be like, well, what's the harm? He's not going to poison, he can't get anybody pregnant. So nobody's, nobody's not safe with him because that seems to be the only people that he goes after.

• 1:41:32Derrick Levasseur?

  And also if they look at the facts of the case, as we pointed out, there are problems with this investigation. There are definitely, this is definitely not an ironclad report that we're looking at here. There were things that were left out. The actual processing of the scene was not done correctly. They never recovered the cup. They never tested the cup.

• 1:41:51Stephanie Harlowe?

  They weren't even able to come and say like, here, Blaze purchased cocaine. That would have been, that would have been compelling.

• 1:41:57Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. I think this was the right decision. I think the circumstantial evidence in this case was more than we see in some cases where they've gotten a conviction. You have an impartial party in Nigahia relaying the last words as a victim to us, which you don't often get. So at the end of the day, I think those words are ultimately why Blaze was convicted. Jade got the final word and was able to get justice for herself and her daughter. However, I will also add here that I'm concerned. I'm concerned with an appeal. This is not the best case we've ever covered as far as tying up all the loose ends. And I don't want to go as far as saying that the prosecution and the police department was lucky, um, but they're fortunate. I'll just say that.

• 1:42:42Stephanie Harlowe?

  So I kind of feel like this is one of those things where any normal sane person would look at this and be like, we know what happened here.

• 1:42:51Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. Yeah, the writing's on the wall.

• 1:42:53Stephanie Harlowe?

  Right. But then you got to go to, to court and they have to present evidence and show how an investigation was done. And there's enough holes there where it doesn't even matter if a jury, you could put five juries in front of this case and they probably all come up with the same logical explanation. Blaze Taylor did this and we know why. But if the, the strength of the case from a, a legal and judicial perspective isn't there, an appeal is so, so likely. If Adam Montgomery can get his appeal approved, then literally anybody can at this point. So I, that is also my concern. I feel like as a logical person, you know what happened, but with so many holes, not being able to find anything that had cocaine in it, not being able to say, here's where

• 1:43:37Stephanie Harlowe?

  he purchased cocaine, basically no murder weapon, not any victim alive to be able to say, I saw him turn his back to me and he took a spoon out and he stirred it. It is hard and the the possibility of him winning an appeal is very strong. So that is my concern and we shall see what happens. We will keep you updated.

• 1:44:00Derrick Levasseur?

  Winning an appeal or being granted, being granted the appeal? What are you, are you saying going to another trial and winning?

• 1:44:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  Well, so I can only theorize as to what kind of appeal the defense would would put forth at this point, right?

• 1:44:11Derrick Levasseur?

  You can't just do it to do it. You have to have a reasoning behind it.

• 1:44:14Stephanie Harlowe?

  But if they're able to say the Apple Denny's stuff shouldn't have been involved because of prior bad acts and that shouldn't count. That could mean a new trial. And at that new trial, without that, is it as compelling? I don't know. I don't know.

• 1:44:31Derrick Levasseur?

  I don't think so.

• 1:44:32Stephanie Harlowe?

  I don't know.

• 1:44:32Derrick Levasseur?

  Let us know what you guys think about that as well. Do you think that's enough to tip the scale where all of a sudden, without that statement from Apple, do we think that was the key witness here? I personally think it was Nigella and her relaying her, her account of what was said on the phone call. Uh, and then in conjunction with that, the text messages, you, anybody who has any, you know, IQ at all, can read those text messages and read between the lines and hindsight, what he was doing, what he was thinking, what he was feeling, and what he was trying to accomplish. And to think that he just had a sudden change of heart is unlikely based on his past history. Now, that wouldn't be able to bring in the Apple conversation, but you could still bring in conversations that

• 1:45:13Derrick Levasseur?

  Apple had with him over time, even because it's not a crime that's being put into, that's being brought up prior to this, like a previous conviction or a previous allegation. This is a conversation between his girlfriend and him. Why wouldn't that be admissible? I do think that the Adam Montgomery story, although I still don't agree with it, is a slightly different case.

• 1:45:36Stephanie Harlowe?

  It is a slightly different case, but it is something that defense teams will say this is a, a good option to appeal for. So we'll see what happens and we'll keep you updated on Crime Weekly News if anything comes up.

• 1:45:47Derrick Levasseur?

  It was a great series, lot learned, thinking about Jade Ivy and the rest of her family and friends. Nigella, you see the reaction that she had during this trial and how it's affected her. Blaze is exactly where he belongs to be. The case was good enough to get over the finish line, but it, it wasn't, it wasn't smooth. It wasn't smooth sailing, but I'm happy, I'm happy that justice was served. And as of right now, I'm currently, if you're listening or watching this, I'm in London, hopefully meeting a lot of you from the, from the UK. We're hoping it's a great time. I'm going to have some fun and I hope you guys are as well. We will not be back next week. Actually, next week we are off. And part of the reason we are off is because of me. I won't be here. I won't be able to film. I don't get back, I, I think until Tuesday.

• 1:46:30Derrick Levasseur?

  So we will be off next week for Crime Weekly News and Crime Weekly. So no episode next week, but we will be back the following week. As Stephanie said in Crime Weekly News, which she normally doesn't do, our next deep dive will be Ashley Flynn. And, and her, her weirdo husband, Caleb Flynn, the former American Idol bust out.

• 1:46:52Stephanie Harlowe?

  Pastor.

• 1:46:53Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, the one hit wonder. And then obviously the mistress, Aaliyah, who's making the rounds on TikTok and Instagram right now for these, for the testimony where she's being forced to reread her text messages.

• 1:47:06Stephanie Harlowe?

  Go through the public shame of that.

• 1:47:07Derrick Levasseur?

  It is not looking good for her or Caleb or anybody else in this case. And so, yes, we will be back in two weeks with a new Crime Weekly News, a new Crime Weekly. Until then, please, everyone stay safe out there and we will see you soon.

• 1:47:20Stephanie Harlowe?

  Bye.