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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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