Inset left: Nicole Cunigan (Montgomery County Prosecuting Attorney”s Office). Inset top right: Precious Taste (Obituary). Inset bottom right: Deante Johnson (WHIO). Background: The house where Cunigan shot and killed Taste and Johnson in Dayton, Ohio (Google Maps).
An Ohio man will spend several decades in prison for murdering his pregnant ex-girlfriend and a 16-year-old boy because he was jealous she might have been seeing another man.
Earlier this month, Nicole “Nico” Cunigan, 33, was convicted on all 10 counts against him, including four counts of murder, two counts of felonious assault, and one count each of involuntary manslaughter, domestic violence, tampering with evidence, and unauthorized use of a vehicle in the deaths of Precious Taste, 32, their unborn child, and Deante Johnson, 16.
On Friday, he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole by a judge in Montgomery County.
The court credited the convicted man with just over a year spent in pre-trial detention, meaning he will first be eligible for release in 2063.
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At around 6:00 a.m. on May 22, 2024, Cunigan broke into Taste’s home on Shaftesbury Road in Dayton and opened fire – gunning down the mother of his unborn child and Johnson, a family friend. Taste’s children – then-3-year-old twins – were also inside the residence at the time of the shooting but were unharmed, prosecutors said.
“The autopsy determined that Precious Taste had died from multiple gunshots, and that she was approximately 14-15 weeks pregnant,” Montgomery County Prosecuting Attorney Mat Heck Jr. said in a press release issued Friday. “The autopsy of Deante Johnson determined that he too died from multiple gunshots. Further investigation, including witness statements and surveillance video, found that the defendant had entered the residence by pushing in a window, fired multiple shots, and then fled the residence in Ms. Taste’s vehicle.”
Specifically, Cunigan shot Taste to death as she ran down the stairs while Johnson was found dead in a bed under some covers, according to a courtroom report by Dayton-based CBS affiliate WHIO.
Cunigan was on the run for roughly two months – and the subject of a search by U.S. Marshals – before he was apprehended in Cleveland.
The since-condemned man threatened Taste in the days before the crime, prosecutors showed during the combined bench and jury trial.
“There’s a text message, ‘I’m watching your every movement. You better not touch anyone else,'” Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Anthony Schoen said during closing arguments.
In the end, Cunigan was depicted as an obsessive, jealous stalker. During an allocution, however, the defendant maintained his innocence.
“God don’t put nobody through nothing they can’t handle,” Cunigan said, according to another WHIO courtroom report. “I’m innocent.”
The deceased mother’s family also spoke during the sentencing hearing.
“All the tough talk that you did, you weren’t good enough to walk away. After she asked you to leave her alone,” Carl Thomas, Taste’s brother said – directly addressing the killer. “Should have just walked away. There are more fish in the sea. You ended your life, hers. You didn’t care about your kids.”
The grieving brother added: “You took a beautiful soul.”
David Harris contributed to this report.
