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Caalaroga Shark Media. Good morning. I'm Garrett Fisher and this
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is Daily Crime and Justice for Tuesday, June twenty third,
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twenty twenty six. Let me tell you what we're working
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with today. Three cases, three states, and one thread running
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through all of them, the distance between what somebody did
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and whether the law is going to make them answer
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for it. In Nashville, Tennessee, a jury is being seated
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right now in the trial of a former pro football
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scout named Blaze Taylor. Prosecutors say he poisoned his pregnant
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girlfriend in her own apartment without her knowing, and that
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she spent ten days dying in a hospital bed, while
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the baby girl she was carrying didn't make it at all.
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He says he's innocent. A jury is about to decide
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in Fort Myers, Florida. We're going back to a case
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we sat with you on back in May, the murder
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of a fifteen year old named Kayla ringcon Mill walking
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home from the movies with her friends. The young man
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convicted of killing her just asked a judge for a
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new trial. The judge said no, And now the only
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thing left on the calendar is the day he gets
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sentenced and in Miami, a story that's going to test
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your patience. A seventy two year old man is charged
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with murder after a sixty five year old woman he
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didn't know ended up dead on his sidewalk. His lawyers
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aren't arguing he didn't do it. They're arguing the prosecutors
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took too long and that a clock on the wall
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should make the whole murder charge go away. Three cases,
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Stay with me, the facts upfront. Blaize Taylor, aged thirty,
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is a former Tennessee Titans pro scout charged in Nashville
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with two counts of first degree murder and two counts
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of felony murder in the deaths of his girlfriend, Jade Benning,
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twenty five, and her unborn daughter. Prosecutors allege he poisoned
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Benning without her knowledge in Jebruary of twenty twenty three.
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He is pleaded not guilty. Jury selection began Monday, June
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twenty second. The state is seeking life in prison without parole.
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Thomas Stein, eighteen, was convicted in Fort Myers, Florida, a
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felony murder with a firearm and three counts of attempted
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murder in the death of fifteen year old Kayla Rinkin
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Miller shot during an attempted robbery in Cape Coral on
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March of seventeenth, twenty twenty four. A judge denied his
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motion for a new trial. His sentencing is set for
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July tenth, where Florida law requires a mandatory life sentence.
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Jacob Cooljas, seventy two, is charged in Miami with second
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degree murder in the death of sixty five year old
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Elisa Toth, who died after he allegedly pushed her on
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a public sidewalk in October of twenty twenty five. He
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has pleaded not guilty. His attorneys have asked a judge
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to throw out the charge on speedy trial grounds. I
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start with Jade Benning, before the football, before the indictment,
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before any of it. I want you to know her
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name first. Jade Benning was twenty four years old. She
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was from Little Rock, Arkansas. Her family has described her
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as a radiant soul, a daughter, a granddaughter, a niece,
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a sister, and in their words, a soon to be mother.
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She was pregnant five months along carrying a baby girl,
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and on February twenty fifth, twenty twenty three, she was
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in her apartment on Lebanon Pike in Nashville, when something
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went very wrong. At nine thirty eight that night, her
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boyfriend called nine one one. He told the dispatcher that
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Jade appeared to be having an allergic reaction, and he
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asked for paramedics. She was rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center,
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and almost immediately her condition became critical. Two days later,
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on February twenty seventh, her unborn daughter died. Jade held on.
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Prosecutors say she lingered, She languished for days, and then
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on March sixth, twenty twenty three, her twenty fifth birthday,
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Jade Benning died. She was never able to speak to investigators.
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By the time anyone could ask her what happened, she
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was already gone. So the question of what happened in
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that apartment had to be answered by other people, by scientists,
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by doctors, by a homicide detective, and eventually by a
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grand jury. That boyfriend is a man named Blaze Taylor,
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and here's the part that put this case on the
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national radar. Taylor wasn't a stranger to a certain kind
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of spotlight. He played college football at Arkansas State, where
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he was a defensive back and a punt returner and
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a team captain. He earned a bachelor's degree and a
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master's in business administration there in under four years. He
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went on to work for the Tennessee Titans, first as
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a scouting assistant, then as a pro scout from twenty
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nineteen until twenty twenty three. He left the Titan shortly
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after Jade's death. He briefly took a job as a
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defensive analyst at Utah State, and then, nearly a year
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after Jade died, Deputy US Marshals arrested him in Utah
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on a Nashville grand jury indictment. Here is what the
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prosecution alleges. They say, Blaze Taylor poisoned Jade Benning without
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her knowledge while he was visiting her apartment the night
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she got sick. Two counts of first degree murder, two
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counts of felony murder, and the State of Tennessee has
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filed a notice that if he's convicted, they intend to
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seek life in prison without the possibility of parole. Now,
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the most haunting piece of evidence we know about so
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far came out at a bond hearing back in twenty
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twenty four. Jade's best friend testified that she got a
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late night phone call from Jade the night she got sick,
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and on that call, the friend says she heard Jade
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say something to Taylor. She heard her say, and I'm
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quoting the testimony, my drink tasted funny. I can't even
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walk straight. You did this to do something to the baby.
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Sit with that for a second. If that testimony holds
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up in front of a jury, it is Jade Benning
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in something close to real time, naming what she believed
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was happening to her. That's not a detective's theory. That's
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the alleged victim's own voice. But I told you I'd
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be honest with you, and honesty cuts both ways. This
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is not a clean, simple case, and the defense is
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going to fight hard. A toxicology report reviewed by Court
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TV showed Jade had cocaine in her system when she died.
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The medical examiner testified at a hearing that there were
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more drugs in her system than recreational use could account for.
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And you can already see where two sides take a
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fact like that in opposite directions. The defense is also
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moving to limit the prosecution's forensic evidence before the jury
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ever hears it, challenging the chain of custody on the
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biological samples and arguing that the actual analyst who did
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the lab testing should have to testify, not just someone
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who reviewed the results. Those are real legal questions and
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a judge will rule on them. So here's where we
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actually are. Jury selection began Monday in Davidson County Criminal Court.
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This trial was supposed to start back in January, but
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it got pushed by a winter storm. Taylor has been
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free this whole time on a two and a half
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million dollar bond. He is pleaded not guilty. He is
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presumed innocent. And I mean that a jury is being
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seated as we speak, and they are the ones who
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decide this, not me and not a headline. But I'll
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tell you what I'm going to be watching for. A
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woman called nine one one's worth of paramedics into her
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own apartment, and the person who made that call is
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the person now charged with putting her there. Jade Benning
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spent the last ten days of her life in a hospital,
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and she spent her twenty fifth birthday dying. Somebody is
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going to have to explain that to twelve people in Nashville.
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Will be on it. Cape Coral, Kayla Rink and Miller
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and the end of the road for Thomas Stein. If
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you've been with us a while, you already know this
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name because we sat with you on this one back
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on May fourth, the day Thomas Stein took the witness
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stand in his own murder trial. A lot has happened
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since then, so let me bring you all the way
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up to date, but first the same way we did
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it in May. I want to start with Kayla. Kayla
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Rincone Miller was fifteen years old on March seventeenth, twenty
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twenty four, Saint Patrick's Day. She went to the movies
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in Cape Coral, Florida with two of her friends. They
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got out late. They got hungry. They decided to walk
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to get something to eat, and on the way, the
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three of them were filming each other on their phones,
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just being teenagers. They had Kayla pretend to walk a runway,
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strutting down the sidewalk while her friends laughed behind the camera.
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That is what she was doing in the last hour
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of her life. A car pulled up, two young men
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got out. They wanted to rob the girls. There was
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an altercation, A gun went off and Kayla fell to
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the ground. She was the one who got hit and
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the two young men ran. Here's what's changed since May.
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The jury came back. They found Thomas Stein, now eighteen
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years old, guilty of felony murder with a firearm and
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guilty of three counts of attempted murder. Stein had testified
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in his own defense. He admitted he was at the
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scene with his co defendant, but he told the jury
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there were other people in the car, that he never
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fired a gun, and that he was, in his words,
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shocked when the gun went off. The jury did not
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buy it. His co defendant, a young man named Christopher Horn,
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took a different road. Horn pleaded guilty to second degree
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murder and agreed to testify against Stein as part of
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his deal. And when he got on that stand, he
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was a reluctant witness, at one point pushing back with
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you're trying to say I did it. Horn was sentenced
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last month to twenty five years in prison for context
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second degree murder in Florida normally carries a minimum of
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twenty seven years, so his cooperation bought him a slightly
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shorter number. Now here's the part that brings us to today.
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The moment Stein was convicted, his lawyers filed a motion
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for a new trial. Their argument was that the prosecution
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committed a discovery violation, that one of the eyewitnesses gave
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testimony a trial that differed from what she'd told investigators earlier,
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and that the defense got in their word ambushed. Prosecutors
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pushed back hard. They told the judge that claim was
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false and not supported by the evidence. And they said
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something interesting. They said they never relied on that eyewitness
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in the first place. They said their case was built
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on circumstantial evidence they described as extremely strong. So even
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if you took that one witness out entirely, they argued,
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the conviction stands. Last Thursday, Judge Nicholas Thompson agreed with
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the prosecution n the motion for a new trial, and
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that's the end of the road. Stein's sentencing is now
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scheduled for July tenth, and under Florida law, a conviction
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for felony murder carries a mandatory life sentence. There is
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no negotiating that number. The judge doesn't get to feel generous.
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Thomas Stein is going to prison for the rest of
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his life, and the only thing left to happen is
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for someone to say it out loud in a courtroom.
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Kayla rinkn Miller was fifteen. She was walking home from
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a movie, pretending to be on a runway for her friends.
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She should be getting ready for her senior year. Instead,
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two people are headed to prison, and the longer of
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those two sentences belongs to the one who pulled the
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trigger on a child for the contents of her bag.
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Will cover the sentencing on July tenth. Welcome back. Last
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story today, and this is the one I want you
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to really pay attention to, because it's less about what
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happened on the street and more about what's happening in
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the courtroom. Alisa Toth was sixty five years old. On
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October twenty first, twenty twenty five. She was standing on
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a public sidewalk in Miami outside a house that belonged
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to a man she did not know, a seventy two
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year old man named Jacob Coljas, and by the prosecution's account,
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Coljas came out of his house, told her to leave,
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and pushed her. She fell backward. She hit her head
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on the concrete. Cole has called nine one one to
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report that someone had fallen on the sidewalk outside his home.
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When officers arrived, Alisa wasn't responsive. First responders noted she
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appeared to be under the influence of a stimulant, and
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I want to be careful and fair here. That's an
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observation at the scene, not the cause of her death.
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The cause of her death was a CT scan that
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showed internal bleeding, a traumatic brain injury, and a subdural
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heman toma. She was declared brain dead on November first.
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She passed away on November sixth. The medical examiner ruled
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it a homicide, the result of blunt force trauma of
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hitting her head on a sidewalk after prosecutors say being pushed.
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Now watch how the charges move, because this is the
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whole story. Colejas was first charged back in December with battery.
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Then in April, prosecutors filed a notice saying they would
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not prosecute that charge. They let it go. And here's
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the detail that matters. If they'd kept pursuing that original
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battery charge, the speedy trial clock would have run out
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on June tenth. Then on June twelfth, two days after
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that deadline, prosecutors came back and filed a brand new
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charge second degree murder. He was arrested, he's being held
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without bond, and this is where the defense makes its move.
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Colas's attorneys have filed a motion that says, in effect,
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you can't do this. They can see the murder charge
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is a different charge, but they argue that because it
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stems from the same alleged action, the same push, the
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same fall, the same sidewalk, the speedy trial limit that
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ran out on June tenth should apply to the new
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charge too. In their words, at no point was there
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a delay attributable to the defendant, So they argue the
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clock ran out and the murder charge is barred period. Look,
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I'm gonna be honest with you. Speedy trial rules exist
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for a real reason. They exist so the government can't