The former roommate of a prominent LGBTQ+ activist was sentenced to life in prison for his 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 larceny and criminal use of a personal identification number on Friday in the death of Jorge Díaz-Johnston, the brother of former Miami Mayor Manny Díaz.
He was also found guilty of violating his probation, WCTV reports.
Prosecutors have claimed that Diaz-Johnston, 54, let Yinger move into her Tallahassee apartment after they met at an alcohol rehab program.
But after Yinger stole his car and discovered other items missing, Diaz-Johnston urged him to move out on Jan. 3, 2022, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.
Diaz-Johnston, who helped push for the legalization of gay marriage in Florida in 2015, was found dead in a landfill in Baker, Florida, just 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 he died of strangulation, and prosecutors said they believed Yinger dumped his body at a public trash collection site near his apartment.
From there, the body was picked up by garbage collectors and taken to the landfill.
“What Jorge did was genuine Christian love to try to give this man an advantage and an opportunity,” Don Díaz-Johnston, the victim’s husband from whom he was separated at the time of her verdict, said in a statement after the verdict. death.
Jorge Díaz-Johnston’s body was found in a landfill days after he asked Yinger to move out. Facebook/Jorge Díaz-Johnston
“And Jorge knew that that level of kindness and generosity can melt the coldest hearts. But the truth is that he cannot convert the blackest of hearts.”
The Post has reached out to Yinger’s defense attorney, Zach Ward, for comment.
After Diaz-Johnston’s body was found dumped in the trash, a witness told investigators he had been planning to kick out Yinger for “allowing a friend (who is addicted to the street drug methamphetamine)” to frequent the house earlier. that he mysteriously disappeared, according to an affidavit obtained by Law & Crime.
Yinger then told family and friends conflicting stories about Diaz-Johnston’s disappearance.
Diaz-Johnston and her ex-husband, Don Diaz-Johnston, were key plaintiffs in a landmark 2014 lawsuit challenging Florida’s then-ban on same-sex marriage. fake images
In court last week, Assistant State’s Attorney Adrian Mood showed jurors the container in which Yinger carried the victim’s body, saying he treated Diaz-Johnston “like a piece of trash,” the Tallahassee Democrat reports. .
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But Yinger’s defense attorney argued that the evidence against his client was circumstantial and said investigators did not find his DNA at the crime scene.
Ward claimed that Yinger was acting strangely and lied to detectives after Diaz-Johnston’s murder, not because she was guilty; but because she was struggling with drug addiction.
“That does not mean, of course, that he murdered Mr. Diaz-Johnston,” Ward argued, according to WCTV.
“More importantly, that does not mean the state can prove that he murdered Mr. Diaz-Johnston.”
But the medical examiner testified that when strangled, the victim becomes unconscious before dying, and the perpetrator must continue strangling her for several minutes in order to kill her.
“He had a lot of time to reflect on the life he was ending,” Mood told jurors in his closing argument.
“The son, the brother, the uncle, whose life he was erasing and then throwing away like common trash.”
Yinger was previously sentenced in 2019 to three years in prison for petit larceny, grand larceny and use of an anti-theft device, records obtained by Law & Crime show.
Yinger’s defense attorney tried to argue that there was a lack of evidence to convict his client. WCTV
Meanwhile, Diaz-Johnston was a key plaintiff in a landmark 2014 lawsuit challenging Florida’s then-ban on gay marriage.
His brother was mayor of Miami from 2001 to 2009.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn