Inset left: Nicole Cunigan (Montgomery County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office). Inset top right: Precious Taste (Obituary). Inset bottom right: Deante Johnson (WHIO). Background: The residence where Cunigan killed Taste and Johnson in Dayton, Ohio (Google Maps).
An Ohio resident faces a lengthy prison sentence for the murder of his pregnant former partner and a teenage boy. His jealousy over the possibility that she was involved with another man led to this tragic incident.
Recently, Nicole “Nico” Cunigan, 33, was found guilty on all 10 charged counts, which included four murder charges, two for felonious assault, and one count each of involuntary manslaughter, domestic violence, tampering with evidence, and unauthorized vehicle use in relation to the deaths of 32-year-old Precious Taste, their unborn baby, and 16-year-old Deante Johnson.
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.
In the early hours of May 22, 2024, at approximately 6:00 a.m., Cunigan broke into Taste’s Dayton home on Shaftesbury Road and began shooting, fatally wounding Taste and Johnson, a family acquaintance. Inside the home during the attack were Taste’s 3-year-old twins, who thankfully were not hurt, according to prosecutors.
“The autopsy revealed that Precious Taste succumbed to several gunshot wounds and that she was around 14-15 weeks pregnant,” stated Montgomery County Prosecuting Attorney Mat Heck Jr. in a press release published Friday. “The examination of Deante Johnson also concluded he died of multiple gunshots. Further investigations, supported by witness accounts and surveillance footage, revealed the defendant broke in by forcing open a window, discharged numerous bullets, and subsequently escaped using Ms. Taste’s car.”
Cunigan specifically shot Taste as she descended the stairs and Johnson was discovered dead, hidden under blankets in a bed, as per a courtroom report from Dayton’s 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.”
