Deante Johnson was a 16-year-old boy who loved fashion and had just finished his freshman year at Trotwood High School in Ohio. His mother, Jennifer Louis, said her son, known as “Day-Day,” was someone people, especially kids, gravitated to. He was a friend of the family he was visiting on the night he was killed and did not know the man who would take his life.
Deante was a Black male.
In the early morning of May 22, 2024, Dayton police responded to reports of a shooting at a home in the 1400 block of Shaftesbury Road. Officers arrived around 6:20 a.m. to find Deante and 32-year-old Precious Taste deceased inside. Investigators learned that Taste had been in an argument with Nicole “Nico” Cunigan Jr., 32, the father of her twin daughters. After Taste told him she no longer wanted to be with him, Cunigan left but returned shortly after. He pushed in a bedroom window and, after speaking to Taste, fired a gun through the opening. The gunfire struck and killed Deante, who was sleeping inside. Cunigan then entered the home and fatally shot Taste, who was 14 to 15 weeks pregnant with his child. Both victims died from multiple gunshots. Taste’s young twin daughters were in the residence at the time but were not physically harmed.
Police immediately identified Cunigan as the main suspect. He had a history of domestic violence, including a previous stabbing of Taste for which he was on parole. Authorities warned the public that Cunigan was armed and dangerous. He fled the scene in a white Chevrolet Malibu that was recovered hours later in the nearby city of Trotwood. After a search, Cunigan was apprehended and taken into custody.
In August 2024, a Montgomery County grand jury indicted Cunigan on multiple charges for the deaths of Deante Johnson and Precious Taste. The case proceeded to trial, and in August 2025, a jury convicted Cunigan of 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. For these crimes, Nicole Cunigan Jr. was sentenced to serve 39 years to life in prison.
