Skip to main content
Clear icon
51º

New evidence provided to lawyers for uncle charged in pregnant teen's death

Info from witness wearing a wire among evidence in case against Johnathan Quiles

Jacksonville Sheriff's Office booking photo of Johnathan Quiles and family photo of Iyana Sawyer

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The State Attorney's Office has provided defense lawyers with a large amount of evidence gathered in the case against the Jacksonville man suspected of impregnating his teenage niece and indicted on first-degree murder charges in the deaths of the girl and her unborn baby.

Johnathan Quiles has been in jail since January on a felony sexual battery charge related to a different victim, who is also a relative.

Recommended Videos



Quiles was indicted in July on murder charges in the deaths of Iyana Sawyer, who was five months pregnant when she went missing just before Christmas, and her unborn child. He was also indicted on a sexual battery charge.

The six-page summary provided by the State Attorney's Office includes two discs of information that came from a witness who was wearing a wire, indicating that the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office got a warrant to record a conversation with Quiles. It’s unknown who wore the wire and when, but JSO has used jail informants in several high-profile murder investigations, including the Michael Haim case.

Other items shared with the defense included a photo of Quiles with a gun, Florida Department of Law Enforcement analysis of the evidence, the journals that Sawyer kept and the search warrant for the Otis Road landfill. The Sheriff's Office searched that landfill for weeks, but Sawyer’s body has not been recovered.

According to the murder indictment, Quiles shot Sawyer shortly after she left Terry Parker High School in December. 


Recommended Videos