Man Indicted In Murder Of Florida LGBTQ+ Activist

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Last week, a grand jury indicted Steven Yinger of premeditated murder by strangulation in the death of Jorge Diaz-Johnston, whose body was found in a Jackson County landfill on January 8.

A man has been indicted in the murder of Jorge Diaz-Johnston, an LGBTQ+ advocate whose body was found in a Florida landfill in January.

Last week, a grand jury indicted Steven Yinger of premeditated murder by strangulation in the death of Diaz-Johnston, who is believed to have been killed sometime between January 3 and January 5, 2022. His body was found in a Jackson County landfill on January 8.

Yinger, who was Diaz-Johnston’s roommate at the time of the killing, has been indicted on additional charges pertaining to property and identity theft of the victim, including the use of Diaz-Johnston’s BMW, iPhone, and personal identification. 

Diaz-Johnston and his husband, Don Diaz-Johnston, became well-known in the fight for marriage equality as part of a lawsuit that challenged Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage. A judge ruled in their favor in 2014, declaring the ban unconstitutional one year before the Supreme Court made same-sex marriage legal throughout the country. 

“I am so angry,” Don Diaz-Johnston, who had been separated from Jorge at the time of his death, said in an interview with Miami’s Local 10 News. “After all those years of trying to get my husband back, to have him ripped from me for such an utterly senseless reason.” 

Local 10 reports that Yinger knew Diaz-Johnston from an alcohol recovery group both men belonged to. Although he’d been a person of interest in the murder for some time, authorities kept the news quiet until the indictment. 

Yinger is currently being held without bail.


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