Steven Yinger
Steven Yinger, 38, has been sentenced to life in prison after having been found guilty of first-degree murder, grand theft, grand theft of a motor vehicle, tampering with physical evidence and criminal use of personal identification information in connection with the 2022 murder of Florida LGBTQ rights activist Jorge Diaz-Johnston, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.
Diaz-Johnston’s body was found in a Jackson County, Florida landfill in January 2022 after his estranged husband, Don Diaz-Johnston, reported him missing. Yinger was indicted the following April.
Jorge Diaz-Johnston, brother of former Miami mayor Manny Diaz, reportedly struggled with alcoholism and knew Yinger through a recovery program. Yinger, who has an extensive criminal record that includes convictions for burglary, grand theft, and drug-related crimes, moved into Diaz-Johnston’s apartment after being released from prison in October 2021.
But on Jan. 4, 2022, the day after Diaz-Johnston ordered Yinger to move out, Yinger strangled Diaz-Johnston to death and dumped his body in a trash bin. Yinger then stole Diaz-Johnston’s car and used his shopping cards to go on a shopping spree.
Jorge and Don Diaz-Johnston were at the forefront of the fight for marriage equality in Florida and were plaintiffs in the lawsuit in which, in July 2014, a judge in Miami-Dade County declared the state’s ban on marriage equality unconstitutional, according to LGBTQ Nation. Although Don Diaz-Johnston thanked the Tallahassee Police Department for catching his husband’s killer, but at the same time he criticized the department for initially naming him as a suspect in his husband’s murder and then never fully clearing his name, even when they knew who the actual killer was.
— Tammye Nash
