KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A man convicted of killing his wife in front of her children in Knoxville in 2021 will spend a life sentence in prison without the possibility of parole.
Knox County District Attorney General Charme Allen's office said Horace Nuñez, 30, was convicted of first-degree murder and four counts of reckless endangerment after a four-day trial in August.
On Friday, Allen said the jury imposed a sentence of life without parole for the murder count, and Judge Kyle Hixson imposed the maximum sentence of four years in prison for the reckless endangerment counts.
On January 31, 2021, Knoxville Police Department officers responded to a shooting in the parking lot of the Vistas apartments on Summit Hill Drive. Officers said bystanders who remained at the scene told them Nuñez shot his wife, Nikita Nuñez, multiple times in front of the four children after an argument.
Nuñez fled with three of the children before dropping them off at his mother’s home. He continued to flee toward Kentucky, stopping in Rocky Top at a liquor store and Walmart to buy new clothing.
KPD said it was able to forward Nuñez’s vehicle description to authorities in Kentucky, and officers with the Lexington Police Department located Nuñez and attempted to stop him, but he fled in his vehicle. The Kentucky State Police continued the chase him until Nuñez crashed his vehicle and officers arrested him.
“This case was possible because of the hard work and cooperation of many agencies both in Tennessee and Kentucky,” Allen said.
Nikita Nuñez was transported to the UT Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
"You don't want to feel like this, you don't want to lose that person because of violence," said Nuñez's cousin, Natasha Carr. "She treated everyone with respect and treated people like how she wanted to be treated."