The former roommate of a prominent LGBTQ+ activist has been sentenced to life in prison for her 2022 murder in which he strangled the victim to death and left her body in a dumpster near the apartment they once shared.
A Florida jury found Steven R. Yinger, 38, guilty of first-degree murder, tampering with evidence, grand theft of a motor vehicle, grand theft and criminal use of a personal identification number on Friday in the death of Jorge Diaz-Johnston — the brother of former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz .
He was also found guilty of violating his probation, WCTV reported.
Prosecutors allege Diaz-Johnston, 54, let Yinger move into his Tallahassee apartment after meeting at an alcohol rehabilitation program.
But after Yinger stole his car and he found other items missing, Diaz-Johnston urged him to move out on Jan. 3, 2022, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.
Diaz-Johnston, who helped usher in the legalization of gay marriage in Florida in 2015, was found dead in a landfill in Baker, Fla. a few days later.
Steven R. Yinger, 38, was sentenced to life in prison on Friday for the 2022 murder of LGBTQ+ activist Jorge Diaz-Johnston. WCTV
A medical examiner determined she was strangled to death, and prosecutors said they believe Yinger dumped her body in a public garbage collection site near their apartment.
From there, the bodies were picked up by garbage collectors and taken to a landfill.
“What Jorge did was pure Christian love to try to give this man a chance and a chance,” Don Diaz-Johnston, the victim’s estranged husband at the time of her death, said in a statement following the verdict.
Jorge Diaz-Johnston’s body was found in a landfill days after he asked Yinger to move out. Facebook/Jorge Diaz-Johnston
“And Jorge knows that that level of kindness and generosity can melt the coldest heart. But the fact is that it cannot change the blackest heart.”
The Post has reached out to Yinger’s attorney, Zach Ward, for comment.
After Diaz-Johnston’s body was found strewn among trash cans, a witness told investigators he had planned to kick Yinger out for “allowing a friend (who was addicted to the street drug meth)” to frequent the house before she mysteriously disappeared, according to an obtained affidavit. by Law & Crime.
Yinger later told family and friends conflicting stories about Diaz-Johnston’s disappearance.
Diaz-Johnston and her estranged husband, Don Diaz-Johnston, were the lead plaintiffs in a landmark 2014 lawsuit challenging Florida’s ban on gay marriage. Getty Images
In court last week, Assistant State’s Attorney Adrian Mood showed jurors the trash can Yinger had taken the victim’s body to, saying she treated Diaz-Johnston “like a piece of trash,” the Tallahassee Democrat reported.
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But Yinger’s defense attorney argued that the evidence against his client was circumstantial, saying investigators did not find his DNA at the scene.
Ward claims Yinger acted strangely and lied to detectives after Diaz-Johnston’s murder not because she was guilty; but because he was struggling with drug addiction.
“Now that doesn’t mean, of course, that he killed Mr. Diaz-Johnston,” Ward said, according to WCTV.
“More importantly, this does not mean the state can prove that he killed Mr. Diaz-Johnston.”
But the medical examiner testified that when strangled, the victim would lose consciousness before death, and the perpetrator must continue to strangle them for several minutes to kill them.
“He has had ample time to reflect on the life he took away,” Mood told jurors in his closing arguments.
“A son, a brother, an uncle, whose life he took away and then threw away like common garbage.”
Yinger was previously sentenced to three years in prison in 2019 for petit larceny, grand larceny and using an anti-collecting device, records obtained by the Law & Crime show show.
Yinger’s defense attorney tried to argue there was a lack of evidence to convict his client. WCTV
Meanwhile, Diaz-Johnston was the lead plaintiff in a landmark 2014 lawsuit challenging Florida’s ban on gay marriage.
His brother served as Mayor of Miami from 2001 to 2009.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
