Jade Benning's Family Friend Took the Comforter From the Apartment Before Police Could | Pt 15

She drove in from Little Rock, walked into Jade Benning's apartment, and walked out with the most important piece of evidence in this entire case. No police had processed the scene yet. Stephanie Franklin knew Jade Benning almost her whole life. She taught at Jade's school, she called herself the school mom, and Jade's mother Bridget is one of her closest friends. This is the Blaise Taylor poisoning trial. Jade was his pregnant girlfriend, a 25-year-old chef, and the state says Taylor, a former Tennessee Titans scout, slipped a lethal dose of cocaine into her drink. The defense says you cannot prove a poisoning when the cup Jade drank from was never recovered, the medical examiner would not call her death a homicide, and the people closest to Jade were inside that apartment handling the scene before investigators ever got there. Franklin is the witness who took the comforter. Watch how it happened: a grieving family friend, no badge, no warrant, no police direction, going room to room on her cop son's phone advice, deciding on her own which item mattered, and bagging it. Then watch the defense ask the question that should stop the jury cold, about the one thing she walked right past. WATCH WITH JUSTICE 20:34 to 25:33 - Furious that nobody was moving fast enough, Franklin and Bridget decide Franklin will go to the apartment. She calls her son, a police officer, for advice on how to do it, then drives over with three other people at dark. 29:14 to 34:04 - The state plays Franklin's own videos. She narrates walking through Jade's kitchen and bedroom, filming the counter, the camera, the trash can, the scene exactly as she found it. 36:55 to 39:17 - The comforter. Franklin sees what looks like pink vomit, decides to take it, folds it into itself, and stuffs it into a trash bag that came from inside the apartment. No investigator ever touched it first. 45:18 to 45:56 - Franklin tells the jury the stain looked like moisture had been added or wiped, the state's tampering theory, delivered by a mother who has cleaned up vomit, not a forensic expert. 1:06:33 to 1:08:17 - The defense locks it down: her son never told her to collect evidence, Bridget never asked her to take anything, and she never once called Metro police before walking into that apartment. 1:09:24 to 1:10:49 - The cup. The defense puts up a still from Franklin's own video and points to a pink cup sitting on the counter. She does not recall it. The one item this whole case turns on was right there, and the friends took a comforter instead. COMPLETE CASE COVERAGE justiceisaprocess.com SUBSCRIBE for daily trial coverage and hit the notification bell so you never miss testimony. JOIN to unlock the Case Notebook powered by NotebookLM, where you can chat with the evidence, ask questions about testimony, and go deeper than any comment section allows. CASE BACKGROUND REPORT: https://www.justiceisaprocess.com/tn-... Complete case overview including the charges, the timeline, the key players, and the legal questions this trial raises. State of Tennessee v. Blaise Taylor. Davidson County Criminal Court in Nashville, Judge Steve Dozier presiding. Taylor faces two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of felony murder in the deaths of Jade Benning and her unborn child. He is presumed innocent. The state is seeking life without parole. PLAYLISTS AND RESOURCES Website: https://www.justiceisaprocess.com/cov... Full Trial Live Broadcasts:    • TN v. Blaise Taylor - LIVE BROADCAST   No Breaks Edition:    • TN v. Blaise Taylor - NO BREAKS EDITION   Trial Analysis Podcast:    • TN v. Blaise Taylor - CASE STORY TRIAL POD...   Key Moments and Testimony:    • TN v. Blaise Taylor - KEY CLIPS AND TESTIMONY   Subscribe for Daily Coverage:    / @justiceisaprocess   FAIR USE AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSE This content is produced under Fair Use (17 U.S.C. 107) for news reporting, criticism, and educational purposes. We provide transformative commentary on public court proceedings, advancing public understanding of the judicial process through timestamps, analysis, and educational context. #JusticeIsAProcess #BlaiseTaylor #JadeBenning