A jury will decide whether a University of Cincinnati nursing student acted in self-defense when she fatally shot her girlfriend in their Walnut Hills apartment.
The trial of 32-year-old Jasmine Blake began Sept. 16 in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. Blake, a Baltimore native who moved to the Cincinnati area in 2024 to attend UC's nurse anesthesia program, was described by her attorney as a diligent student whose career path was shaped by her experience as a child with a heart condition that required surgery and a heart monitor.
Blake's dream, her attorney Clyde Bennett II told jurors during opening statements, had always been to help others through medicine.
Blake’s girlfriend from Baltimore, Diamond Rice, moved to Cincinnati a few months
after she did. They met in 2023, Bennett said.
Rice, 33, worked as an assistant director for the local branch of a national nonprofit, Youth Advocate Programs, which helps troubled youth. The same organization had helped Rice during her childhood in Baltimore.
Bennett described their relationship as turbulent. On Feb. 1, during a fight – some of which Rice videorecorded on her cellphone – Blake fatally shot Rice.
Prosecutors say Blake used the gun to threaten and beat Rice before finally cornering Rice in a bedroom, where Blake shot her. She faces charges including murder.
Moments before shooting captured on video
Minutes before the shooting, Rice used her cellphone to record two videos.
In the first, according to Assistant Prosecutor Jordan Cruse, Rice can be heard saying, “If you’re going to shoot me, make sure you shoot me.”
Blake responded: “I will.”
Blake then followed Rice into the living room and used the gun to “pistol-whip and beat” her, Cruse said.
In the second video, which was only nine seconds long, Cruse said Blake can be seen beating Rice with the gun.
The shooting happened soon after. Cruse said it wasn’t self-defense.
“The only person in that apartment with a gun was (Blake),” she told jurors. “The evidence will show you that Jasmine followed Diamond throughout that apartment with the gun … then shot and murdered her.”
Attorney describes relationship as volatile
Bennett said the videos don’t depict the entire confrontation and that the women’s relationship had been volatile long before the shooting.
Bennett said there had been previous incidents during which Rice physically attacked Blake.
In January 2024, according to Bennett, Rice had a “mental breakdown” and choked Blake in a hotel room in New York City where they were celebrating Rice’s birthday.
In June 2025, Bennett said, Rice came home drunk and “punched and choked” Blake, then used Blake’s gun – which she legally owned – to fire one shot in the apartment. No one was hurt.
A September 2025 incident led to a 911 call. According to Bennett, Blake wanted Rice to leave but Rice was refusing. When police arrived, he said Rice presented a receipt that showed she had paid rent, and police said they couldn’t force her to leave.
Bennett said there was another 911 call the next month, although it’s not clear who made the call. Again, Blake wanted Rice to leave, he said.
The night Rice was killed, on Feb. 1, Bennett said she had come home drunk, and ultimately there was a confrontation. It escalated to the point where Rice, according to Bennett, tried to strangle Blake with her legs. He said Blake was able to stop the attack by biting her.
He said that in one of the videos Blake was actually defending herself while Rice in the video was “purposely saying something different.”
He also said that in the first video, Blake was trying to get her cellphone and a textbook from Rice.
At one point, Bennett said Blake tried to use her computer to call 911.
He said Blake went into the bedroom where the shooting happened to get away from Rice, but Rice “kicked in the door … and continued to physically abuse and attack” Blake.
'She's gone'
Bennett said Rice was strangling Blake, and Blake was struggling to breathe and losing consciousness when she fired a single gunshot.
Rice was struck in the chest.
By the time Blake called 911, Rice was likely dead. She was found on her back in a bed, surrounded by blood.
“She’s gone,” Blake told the call-taker.
The trial, before Judge Alison Hatheway, is expected to take two weeks.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Video created before fatal shooting described at nursing student's trial
