From the moment LGBTQ activist and advocate Jorge Diaz-Johnston was found dead this past January, the investigation has remained open while his family, friends, and husband Don mourned this profound loss. Now, a Florida court has indicted former roommate Steven Yinger on a number of charges (according to People), including first-degree murder. The indictment (which also includes charges of grand theft, grand theft of a motor vehicle, tampering with evidence, and criminal use of a personal ID among other crimes) reveals that Yinger either killed Diaz by “strangling and or choking him” sometime between January 3rd and 5th. Diaz’s remains were found in a landfill
Jorge and his husband Don Price Diaz-Johnston were previously a pair of plaintiffs in a landmark 2015 lawsuit which eventually led to the legalization of same-sex marriage in Miami-Dade County, Florida. While it was Diaz’ seemingly endless kindness that led to this beyond tragic ending, it will be the the legacy he leaves as an LGBTQ advocate (and the brother of ex Miami mayor Manny Diaz) that the LGBTQ of the Sunshine State will be able to remember him for. Speaking to The Democrat via email, Manny Diaz said of his brother “I am profoundly appreciative of the outpouring of support shown to my family after the loss of my brother, Jorge Diaz-Johnston, earlier this year. “We once again ask for privacy and continued prayers during this difficult time.”
For Diaz-Johnson’s husband Don Johnston, his own feelings are a mix of anger, confusion, and ultimately simply missing the man that he shared his life with. Don told WPLG that after he met Yinger at an alcohol recovery program last October that “Jorge didn’t charge him rent, never had expectations, until he could get a job and support himself and that’s who Jorge was”. Don went on to say that “I am so angry,” he said. “After all those years of trying to get my husband back, to have him ripped from me for such an utterly senseless reason”.
Jorge Diaz-Johnston continues to be memorialized online here