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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
A memorial grows for Jonathon Joss, and quiet descends on a complicated
street
By Amanda Jackson and Taylor Galgano, CNN
Updated:
7:24 PM EDT, Fri June 6, 2025
Source: CNN
A family who moved to a south-side San Antonio neighborhood roughly six
years ago said that they were warned right away about an eccentric man
who lived across the street.
They were told, they said, that Jonathan Joss would play drums on his
roof at all hours of the night and would yell obscenities and racial
slurs at people outside. They said that, when confronted, Joss would
often say that he was rehearsing for a role. He really was an actor,
though. He played the role of John Redcorn in the animated show “King
of the Hill” for more than a dozen seasons, including in the
Another neighbor, Daniela Ruano, 19, said she lived next door to Joss
her entire life. He would yell racist slurs at her family, she said,
honk his horn in the middle of the night and threaten to hurt them. The
behavior, she said, had accelerated.
“I’d say like the last two years have been the worst with him. He
started breaking down my fence from the back,” she said. “We would
call the police on him a lot.”
Two years ago, she said, Joss threatened another neighbor’s brother
with a crossbow. Police reports confirm that officers responded to the
incident, but did not find a crossbow on Joss when they arrived at the
scene.
Earlier this year, Joss’ family home was destroyed in a fire. But he
still came by, neighbors said. In a video Ruano took of the actor on
June 1, he is seen walking around the neighborhood and yelling; he is
carrying a makeshift pitchfork. At one point, he said he is
“rehearsing a scene.”
That day she took the video, Joss, his husband Tristan Kern de Gonzales
and another friend were there to pick up mail. The group had just
returned from Austin, de Gonzales said, where Joss had .
Joss, 59, arrived in the usual manner that his neighbors said that they
had grown unhappily accustomed to, makeshift pitchfork included. Then,
Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez – the neighbor whose brother said he had been
threatened by Joss with the crossbow two years ago – drove up behind
Joss who was parked in his driveway. He got out, the two exchanged
words, witnesses said, and seconds later, Joss was dead.
“I shot him,” Ceja told police, according to an incident report.
Ceja, 56, was arrested and charged with murder. His bond was set at
$200,000, which he posted on Monday. He was released from jail with GPS
monitoring on Wednesday afternoon and is due to appear in court on
August 19, according to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office public
information officer.
In a statement on Friday, Ceja’s attorney, Alfonso Otero, said his
client “maintains his innocence and categorically denies any
accusations and statements made against him by individuals and the
media.”
He urged the public “to withhold judgment until all the evidence is
disclosed” by police.
‘What a talent we lost’
When most people think of an actor’s life, they tend to imagine
gleaming houses high in the Hollywood Hills. For years, Joss lived in
the modest house his father built in the 1950s.
This week, a makeshift memorial for Joss began growing at the
property’s fence. A man pulled up in a truck with a royal blue
memorial cross adorned with ribbons and flowers. He tied the cross to
the fence above the growing memorial.
The man, Adrian Reyes, told CNN he had known Joss since high school;
they were both in the class of 1984 at Dillard McCollum High School,
which recently held its 40th year reunion.
“We’re very, very close with him in that class. We track him
everywhere,” said Reyes. “We helped him financially. We helped him
get to his events when he didn’t have transportation.”
“It’s a shame that people are learning about him now that he’s
gone rather than when he was alive and how talented he was and what a
talent we lost,” Reyes said. “He was a different kind of guy, but
he was the life of the party.”
Neighbors said there were years, maybe even decades, of disputes,
particularly between Joss and Ceja. San Antonio Police logs show
numerous calls to both addresses over the past year.
“Me and Jonathan had all these fun little side projects where we were
coming up with these little scripts, most of them just for fun to make
ourselves laugh. And we would be acting them out in the yard and I
guess to the outside world maybe it looked a little crazy,” de
Gonzales told viewers on Instagram Live.
He did say that although they would sometimes walk around the
neighborhood with things like a stick or pitchfork, they never
“threatened” or “pointed any weapons at anybody.”
since January 2024. In some instances, officers were dispatched
multiple times in a single day.
Neighbors said Joss’ behavior turned more erratic and harassing as
the years went on. Some said they saw him throw trash and wine bottles
onto a nearby property under construction and damage that neighbor’s
mailbox.
“He went over there and yanked the mailbox off the top, and it was in
a brick casing. So he yanked off the door and beat it up where our
neighbor had to go replace it,” said one neighbor, who spoke to CNN
but asked that their name not be used due to the attention the killing
was bringing to their street.
A police misstep
“Jonathan and I had no weapons. We were not threatening anyone. We
were grieving. We were standing side by side. When the man fired,
Jonathan pushed me out of the way. He saved my life,” de Gonzales ,
about their trip back to the burned-down home site.
De Gonzalez said that the person who killed Joss yelled “violent
homophobic slurs” before opening fire. “He was murdered by someone
who could not stand the sight of two men loving each other,” de
Gonzales said.
The San Antonio Police Department issued a statement on Monday
rebutting this. “Despite online claims of this being a hate crime,
currently the investigation has found no evidence to indicate that Mr.
Joss’s murder was related to his sexual orientation,” the
department online.
But, on Wednesday, as the police department was sharing a Pride Month
community forum event, they saying they were continuing the
investigation.
“Although we arrested a suspect, our homicide detectives continue to
follow every lead to fully understand what led to this senseless
act.”
On Thursday, San Antonio police expressed more regret.
“We issued a statement the day after Jonathan Joss’s murder that
was way, way, way premature,” SAPD Chief William McManus told on
Thursday. “We shouldn’t have done it. It was way too soon before we
had any real information and I will own that.”
He echoed similar sentiments at a forum hosted by San Antonio Pride and
the SAPD on Thursday evening, explaining that a judge can attach a hate
crime to charges later on.
He said they will gather all of the facts leading up to Jonathan
Joss’ death and will present the case to the District Attorney’s
office to make that call.
He added that police are also investigating the January fire at Joss’
home.
Losing everything
Joss had told everyone that he was going through a lot. Online, he said
he was fighting an uphill battle with financial difficulties.
In November, Joss spoke about the difficult living conditions he and
his then-fiancé were facing. He that their home lacked basic utilities
such as gas and electricity and described using a fire pit to heat
coffee. Despite the challenges, he expressed hope about “getting
through some rough times.”
There was one bright spot: his marriage to de Gonzales.
Still, Joss also talked about using a stove to heat up water for a hot
shower. On Instagram, he the poor condition of his house, revealing
several holes in the walls and ceiling.
In January, Joss experienced two house fires. The second destroyed the
house and his car and killed his three dogs, according to social media
posts from Joss and his partner.
“Everything I owned… gone. My memories, my keepsakes, my family, my
comfort in this world lost in the flames,” he on Facebook.
In the months that followed, Joss frequently took to social media to
ask fans for financial support. He regularly shared a GoFundMe link
started by a fan, which has now raised over $20,000. He sold
autographed photos, personalized video messages, t-shirts and “$1
wisdom sayings.”
He also posted about marrying his partner on Valentine’s Day. In one
post with de Gonzales, Joss wrote: “We shall endeavor to persevere
together.”
He frequently tried to secure transportation and financial support on
Facebook to be able to make celebrity appearances at conventions.
Just two days before he was killed, Joss showed up at a “King of the
Hill” Revival Sneak Peek event at the Paramount Theater in Austin,
Texas – although he had already written on Facebook that he was not
invited to attend.
Attendee Brandon Robinson said Joss walked up to the Q&A mic and
started “ranting.” Robinson originally thought Joss’ speech was
planned but said he soon realized it wasn’t.
After making some references to his character in “King of the
Hill,” Joss said: “My house burned down three months ago because
I’m gay.” The panelists then announced Joss as the voice of the
show’s character John Redcorn, prompting applause from the audience.
Joss spoke about feeling ignored at the event in one of his final
interviews, which took place on But he also said he’d loved his life
as an actor. “I’ve just been really lucky to have really decent
parts. I mean, I never had a – I’ve never done a bad thing when it
comes to acting,” Joss said.
Making a memorial
Another family showed up this week to remember Joss at the site of the
shooting. Paul Gonzalez and Tiffany Zurita said that they lived nearby,
but never knew Joss lived in the area.
“We grew up watching the cartoon, you know, me and my wife when we
were kids – so just shocked by it,” Gonzalez said of the killing.
They brought a pinwheel to place at the memorial, explaining that it
helped their own family when experiencing loss.
It was something “to kind of bring that little life back in,”
Zurita said.
“You know, the wind’s blowing, you see it blowing in the wind, and
it just, you know, kind of reminds you that that person’s still
here,” she said. “It’s a symbol of peace and serene
surroundings.”
They both said prayers for everyone involved in the tragic incident –
and for the neighbors as well. “I hope they all find peace in
time,” said Gonzalez.
CNN’s Lisa Respers France, Dianne Gallagher, Devon Sayers, Andy Buck,
Jeremy Grisham, and Leah Thomeer contributed to this report.
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