Steven Yinger, and Jorge Diaz-Johnston (Mug shot of Yinger via Leon County Jail; image of Diaz-Johnston of Tallahassee Police Department)
A man convicted of strangling a same-sex marriage activist and dumping his body in a Florida landfill learned his fate this week.
Steven Robert Yinger, 38, was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Jorge Diaz-Johnston, 54. A jury found him guilty of counts including murder in the first degree, tampering with physical evidence, grand theft of a motor vehicle, grand theft, and criminal use of personal identification information. He was immediately sentenced.
“What Jorge did was genuine Christian love to try to give this man a leg up and an opportunity,” Don Diaz Johnston, Jorge’s husband, who attended the three-day trial, told the Tallahassee Democrat. “And Jorge knew that level of kindness and generosity can thaw the coldest of hearts. But the truth is it can’t turn the blackest of hearts.”
Assistant State Attorney Adrian Mood told jurors Yinger treated the victim “like a piece of garbage” and displayed in court the bin he put the victim’s body in, the newspaper reported.
Yinger’s lawyer said investigators did not find Yinger’s DNA at the crime scene, local CBS affiliate WCTV reported.
As Law&Crime reported, the victim and his husband were among seven couples who sued Florida for its ban on same-sex marriage, according to NBC Miami affiliate WTVJ. The U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in a landmark ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. The victim was the brother of former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz.
His husband said he and Jorge had separated. Jorge met Yinger in an alcohol recovery program, he said.
“That’s how he knows Steven Yinger,” he said. “Jorge’s struggles with that are an inevitable part of the story.”
Online records show Yinger was sentenced in 2019 to three years in prison for petit theft, grand theft, and using an anti-shoplifting device. He was released on Oct. 5.
Jorge Diaz-Johnston let him stay at his place for free, his husband said.
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“Jorge didn’t charge him rent, never had expectations, until he could get a job and support himself, and that’s who Jorge was,” he said.
But according to an affidavit for a search warrant obtained by Law&Crime, a witness told investigators that Jorge Diaz-Johnston was moving to kick Yinger out of the home for “allowing a friend (who is addicted to the street drug methamphetamine)” to frequent the home.
Yinger told family and friends conflicting stories about Jorge Diaz-Johnston’s disappearance, his husband told the outlet.
Authorities say they had evidence consistent with Yinger traveling to dump Jorge Diaz-Johnston’s body.
A traffic camera captured the victim’s vehicle, known to be driven by the defendant after Jorge Diaz-Johnston’s disappearance, traveling west through Blountstown, Calhoun County, Florida.
A review of social media revealed Yinger was posting images of himself in Panama City Beach, Bay County, Florida, on Jan. 7, 2022. The travel was consistent with him traveling west through the panhandle of Florida in the days before Jorge Diaz-Johnston’s body was discovered in the landfill.
Law&Crime’s Alberto Luperon contributed to this report.
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