Prosecutor: Man charged in Jorge Diaz Johnston murder treated him 'like a piece of garbage'

Prosecutors in the murder trial of Steven Yinger said he strangled his roommate, Jorge Diaz Johnston, to death before stealing his car for joyrides, selling his cellphone for a few hundred bucks and going shopping at the mall with his credit card.

During his opening statement Wednesday, Assistant State Attorney Adrian Mood also said that after the murder, Yinger disposed of the body by dumping it in a wheeled trash container outside their Alachua Avenue apartment — a gruesome detail previously released by investigators. The bin, wrapped in brown paper and sealed with evidence tape, was on display in the courtroom between the prosecution table and jury box.

“The evidence is going to show that after he strangled Mr. Diaz Johnston to death, he treated him like a piece of garbage and put him in the trash can in front of the residence,” Mood said.

The defendant’s attorney, Zachary Ward of Tallahassee, deferred his opening statement at the start of the trial, though he’ll have an opportunity to give one later.

Yinger, 38, a felon with a long rap sheet, is on trial at the Leon County Courthouse on charges of first-degree murder, grand theft, grand theft of a motor vehicle, tampering with physical evidence and criminal use of personal identification information in the death of Diaz Johnston.

Diaz Johnston, 54, a paralegal who successfully fought for the right of gay couples to marry in Florida, was found dead Jan. 8, 2022, in a Jackson County landfill, four days after Yinger allegedly killed him. His husband, Don Diaz Johnston, reported him missing after he failed to show up for work at a local law firm.

Mood told jurors that Jorge Diaz Johnston, who struggled with alcohol addiction, met Yinger at a sober living home in Tallahassee and that they agreed to move in together in October 2022. Jorge and his husband had separated earlier in the year.

But things weren't going well at the new apartment, Mood said. As previously reported by the Democrat, Diaz Johnston’s tennis gear had been stolen and his car taken and wrecked. On Jan. 3, the day before the murder, Diaz Johnston asked Yinger to move out.

“He wasn’t paying rent,” Mood said. “He wasn’t paying his half of utilities. And you’ll see those text messages that were taken from the defendant’s phone that Mr. Diaz Johnston wanted him out.”

Diaz Johnston was last seen alive around 10:05 a.m. the morning of his death as he got breakfast at the drive-through at McDonald’s on Magnolia Drive. Prosecutors played surveillance video of him picking up the food before he drove back to the apartment.

Mood said that after Diaz Johnston got home, his phone remained at the residence until it was eventually powered down. He sent a last text message at 11:05 a.m. Jan. 4. Meanwhile, investigators found there was only one other phone — Yinger’s — at the residence at the time of the murder.

By a little after 2 p.m. that day, Mood said Yinger was driving Diaz Johnston’s blue BMW and using his credit or debit card to withdraw cash. Half an hour later, Yinger went to Governor’s Square Mall and bought a $45 Chicago Bulls hat, which he would go on to wear during a long interview with police, along with other clothes. He also went to a Tropical Smoothie Cafe and a local beer store.

“He’s having a grand time spending ... Jorge Diaz Johnston’s money from his FSU credit union account, using his BMW,” Mood said.

Diaz Johnston's husband testifies about mounting fears after he went missing

Jorge Diaz Johnston, who comes from a prominent Miami family that includes his brother, Manny Diaz, former state Democratic Party chairman, and Don Diaz Johnston were among six same-sex couples who sued the Miami-Dade Clerk of Court in 2014 for the right to marry.

The plaintiffs and others in a separate federal lawsuit prevailed, which prompted gay couples across the state to begin marrying by early 2015. Later that year, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark decision legalizing gay marriage across the country.

They relocated from Miami to Tallahassee in 2019, but after Jorge relapsed, they separated in mid-2021. The two continued to talk frequently and remained on good terms.

Don Diaz Johnston, the state’s first witness, testified that he and his husband met at a bagel shop two days before his death to discuss their separation. He testified that the meeting was amicable and that they left that day on good terms.

He told jurors that a woman from his husband’s office called on Jan. 7 to say he hadn’t shown up for work for several days. He called Jorge’s family to let them know and reported him missing later that night.

Don Diaz Johnston testified that a friend of his husband's, Rahim Dantzler, volunteered to go to the apartment that night and check on Jorge. While Dantzler went inside to confront Yinger, a friend of his sat in the car on a three-way call with Don and Jorge’s sister, who were anxious for news.

Mood didn’t ask what happened next at the apartment, saving that line of questioning for Dantzler, who testified later.

“Is it fair to say concerns are heightened after Dantzler’s trip to the residence?” Mood asked.

“Yes, very much so,” Don Diaz Johnston said.

At least 20 family members and friends of Jorge and Don Diaz Johnston packed into Courtroom 3G, with some sobbing and wiping tears from their eyes during testimony. After Don Diaz Johnston took the stand, he joined them in the gallery.

Diaz Johnston friend who confronted Yinger: 'I just got a bad feeling'

Dantzler testified that he met Jorge Diaz Johnston virtually in an online Alcoholics Anonymous meeting when he was living in Rhode Island. He was trying to straighten out his life and said Jorge helped bring him to a sober living home in Tallahassee.

He said that after Yinger answered the door the night of Jan. 7, he asked him to take him through the entire apartment to look for Jorge. But there was no sign of him.

“I just got a bad feeling,” Dantzler told jurors. "(Yinger) kept asking me, ‘Why are you looking at me like that for? I didn’t do nothing to Jorge.’ ”

After returning to his car, Dantzler told Jorge’s sister and Don over the phone “to call the police immediately.”

“Something didn’t feel right to you?” Mood asked.

“No,” Dantzler replied.

Nick Roberts, a Tallahassee Police Department homicide detective, testified about his interview of Yinger, which began the evening of Jan. 8, 2022, and continued into the next morning. Prosecutors played portions of the nearly nine-hour interview at TPD headquarters.

Roberts said Yinger lied repeatedly during the interview, claiming he didn’t know the location of Jorge’s BMW, though he had actually “rented” it to his drug dealer. He also claimed Jorge had been seeing another man named “Jeff,” but that there was no evidence such a person ever existed.

The detective told Yinger in the interview room that Jorge’s phone was used to send an email to his workplace saying he wouldn’t be in, though he said the wording was “uncharacteristic of him.” After that, he said police started seeing “really suspicious activity.”

Roberts told Yinger at one point that he was sitting in a homicide unit and that police were searching the apartment as they spoke looking for blood and other evidence.

“That’s kind of where we’re at and why you’re sitting here,” Roberts told him.

“You think I had something ... I did something to him?” Yinger asked. “Oh no.”

In other developments, two members of the jury, which included 12 panelists and two alternates, were dismissed Wednesday, both for health reasons. If the jury were to lose any more members, it’s possible the defense could seek a mistrial. The trial is expected to conclude by the end of the day Friday.

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Trial begins in brutal murder of gay rights activist Jorge Diaz Johnston