Crime + investigation
While Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez confessed to shooting the star, questions remain about the circumstances surrounding the death of the star, who was best known for voicing John Redcorn on King of the Hill.
In June 2025, actor Jonathan Joss posted a video on Instagram, excited about the lines he’d recorded for the revival of the animated series King of the Hill. Just a few hours later, he was shot dead by a neighbor at age 59.
Joss’s death rattled fans of his work—and raised questions as to whether the killing was a hate crime, pre-meditated or the end of a series of neighborly conflicts.
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Joss, a native of San Antonio, was an Indigenous actor and advocate whose 30-year career saw him feature in films like True Grit, The Magnificent Seven and Almost Heroes. His roles as Chief Ken Hotate on Parks and Recreation and John Redcorn on King of the Hill were especially beloved by fans. Considering Indigenous actors appeared in less than 0.25% of all speaking roles from 2007 to 2022's top-grossing movies, Joss’s career portraying comical and heartfelt characters is notable.
Off-screen, Joss's house burned down in January 2025, he’d spent time in psychiatric hospitals, he had a history of abusing drugs and alcohol, and, as a man newly married to his husband, he faced homophobic slurs for years. Sadly, Joss’s troubles came to a head when his neighbor, Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez, shot him dead in their San Antonio neighborhood on June 1, 2025.
Upon being taken into custody, Ceja Alvarez readily confessed to shooting Joss, and the San Antonio neighborhood was immediately shocked at the killing. As details circulated social media and tributes poured in from Indigenous and LGBTQ+ communities, the question soon became, “Why had Ceja Alvarez killed Joss?”
The San Antonio Police Department declined to comment to A&E Crime + Investigation due to the ongoing nature of the investigation.
Between January 2024 and June 2025 alone, police were called to Joss’s home 74 times for welfare checks and reports of shootings, fires, thefts and other disturbances. For decades, neighbors claimed Joss yelled unsettling statements in the middle of the street.
On the day of his death, Joss reportedly wandered the neighborhood with a pitchfork. Another neighbor soon saw a confrontation begin between Joss and Ceja Alvarez, whose vehicle had pulled up nearby. The two had been persistently feuding for years, with Ceja Alvarez often phoning police about Joss’s erratic behavior.
The calls never resulted in arrests, which Adam Lankford, professor and chair of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Alabama, says tracks with what criminal law covers. “Criminal law concerns offenses that are harmful or dangerous to members of society,” he tells A&E Crime + Investigation. “There are different definitions of what counts as a ‘violent crime,’ but the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Bureau of Justice Statistics have typically focused on murder, rape/sexual assault, robbery or serious physical assault.”
As Joss’s behavior never caused bodily harm, the most severe punishment he faced was the removal of his firearms in May 2024. And until that June day, Joss and Ceja Alvarez’s disputes had never become violent.
“Felonies are more serious crimes. While not all violent crimes are felonies, many are,” Dr. Wendy Regoeczi, professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, tells A&E Crime + Investigation.
Police were searching for three suspects in a hit-and-run incident.
Police were searching for three suspects in a hit-and-run incident.
Regoeczi says determining motive is crucial in understanding what factors lead to someone committing a crime. However, “it can be difficult to establish the exact motive in the early stages of the investigation, particularly in homicide cases, because the victim is rarely able to provide an account of what happened," she cautions. "Information provided by witnesses can be particularly important in such situations.”
Joss’s husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, witnessed the crime. On the day of the shooting, Joss and Kern de Gonzales were checking the mail of their burned-down home (Kern de Gonzales says the fire might have been a prior threat carried out) and discovered the remains of one of their dogs in the ashes, leading to an emotional outburst by Joss. Kern de Gonzales says Ceja Alvarez then confronted Joss by yelling homophobic slurs—part of an alleged history of homophobia perpetrated by him—and shooting at the couple from his car, with Joss taking the brunt of the bullets.
Though eyewitness accounts differ, Ceja Alvarez had an obviously tense history with Joss and happened to have a gun in his lap while driving that day. Even the San Antonio Police Department called their initial assessment that there was no element of a hate crime “premature.”
Still, Lankford explains, it’s impossible to know an alleged perpetrator’s motives, biases or thoughts. “Sometimes individuals who hold extreme prejudices commit crimes for reasons unrelated to their bigoted beliefs—such as anger in general, greed, fear, etc.—which can make it difficult to prove in court that bias was the motive for that specific crime,” he says.
Ceja Alvarez has been indicted for first-degree murder, and as his May 13 trial approaches, the question of motive remains. “The investigators are certainly aware of the widespread public opinions and media interest in this case, and they may feel extra pressure because of that,” Lankford says.
While Regoeczi explains that public opinion can play a role in influencing potential jurors, she emphasizes the importance of investigators determining whether bias influenced this case. “If the killing was an anti-LGBTQ hate crime, the bias motivation could be used to enhance the sentence for the homicide if the defendant is found guilty,” she says.
No matter the outcome of Ceja Alvarez’s trial, it remains indisputable that Joss paved the way for many Indigenous actors.
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Reshma Patricia Crawford is a freelance writer and aspiring novelist whose short stories and music reviews have been published in literary magazines and on digital media platforms. She has also spent a decade working as an Associate Producer and a Development Producer on nonfiction television series for A&E, Hulu, Lifetime, National Geographic, Smithsonian Channel and Animal Planet. Reshma holds an MFA in Screenwriting from Hollins University and currently lives in Culver City, Calif.
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