‘Heinous’ crime. Man allegedly killed pregnant girlfriend to protect drug dealing.
A Corbin-area man killed his pregnant girlfriend to prevent her from telling authorities about his drug trafficking, a federal grand jury charged Wednesday.
The charge carries the potential for a death sentence for Daniel Scott Nantz if he is convicted in the murder of his girlfriend, 29-year-old Geri D. Johnson of Williamsburg.
Johnson had gunshot wounds in the neck and right shoulder when Nantz, 29, dropped her off at the Corbin hospital on March 16 and left, according to court testimony.
Johnson, who was seven months pregnant, was pronounced dead at the hospital.
A medical examiner said Johnson likely died from choking on her own blood, Todd Tremaine, a special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, testified at a hearing for Nantz.
Doctors delivered her baby, a girl named Amelia Jo, to try to save her, but the infant died three days later at the University of Kentucky hospital.
Authorities arrested Nantz the same day on a charge of conspiring to sell methamphetamine in Whitley County and elsewhere, indicating he had been under investigation before the homicide.
Abuse of the highly addictive drug has spiked around Kentucky, police have said.
A grand jury added several more charges against Nantz Wednesday, including kidnapping; possessing a gun in furtherance of a drug crime; and possessing a gun after being convicted of domestic violence.
Nantz’s attorney, B.J. Foley, said Nantz vehemently denies the charges in the new indictment.
The most serious new charge is the allegation that Nantz killed Johnson to protect his alleged drug activities.
The charge says Nantz killed Johnson “with the intent to prevent the communication by Geri D. Johnson to a law enforcement officer and judge of the United States of information relating to the commission of a federal offense.”
Tremaine testified at an earlier hearing that he had talked to Johnson last fall and she implicated Nantz as being involved in the meth trade.
One new charge in the indictment says Johnson conspired with Nantz and others to distribute meth. She also was indicted in February in another meth case.
Tremaine testified that a witness said Nantz was concerned about Johnson’s name being in paperwork about a drug case.
The witness also said Nantz suspected Johnson planned to turn herself in on March 17, Tremaine said.
Nantz told police that Johnson shot herself. Tremaine testified he did not believe her wounds were consistent with suicide.
Johnson’s father was in law enforcement. She grew up in church, singing and leading worship, but later fell in with a bad crowd and got involved in drugs, her half-sister, Leigh Bays Donald, told the Herald-Leader.
Donald said Johnson had been excited about having another baby and wanted out of her involvement with drugs.
The indictment returned Wednesday charged that Nantz ended that possibility in “an especially heinous, cruel, or depraved manner.”
That was among the special findings that the grand jury made to qualify the crime for the death penalty.
Others included that Nantz allegedly committed the offense against a particularly vulnerable victim given Johnson’s advanced pregnancy, and that he allegedly killed more than one person — the mother and baby — in a single criminal act.
This story was originally published July 24, 2019 at 3:37 PM.
