Jonathan Joss

House fire

On January 23, 2025, Joss's San Antonio home was destroyed in a fire. It had earlier been vandalized, and electrical problems led Joss and his husband to stay in a hotel.^[18][19] Joss says he was using a propane heater and had left the house. "Mistakes happen, man. And it's my fault for, I guess, leaving something on", Joss said. "Or if somebody came in and did something, who knows?"^[18]

Joss married Tristan Kern de Gonzales on February 14, 2025.^[20]

Joss was not invited to the King of the Hill panel featuring other cast members from the show during the 2025 ATX TV Festival in Austin, Texas.^[21] In a Facebook post that was later deleted, he said he was not invited to attend.^[22] However, he showed up in the audience instead.^[22] Joss got up to a microphone setup for a Q&A session whereupon he told the audience that his house had burned down and that it was "because I'm gay". Afterward, he was escorted out by security.^[23]

A day before his death, Joss appeared on a King of the Hill fan podcast and answered questions. When asked whether he was sober, his reply was "No... I've already lost everything, my house burnt down. I ain't going to give up drugs. I ain't going to give up drinking. They're my friends." He also revealed on the podcast that he had spent time in mental wards.^[24]

Police complaints and killing

Despite years of calls to the city of San Antonio and 311 by neighbors concerned by an ongoing and intensifying feud between Joss and neighbor Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez, as well as Joss's frequently exhibited aggressive behavior in the neighborhood, residents stated that police had done little.^[25][26] In total, police were called to Joss's home 74 times from January 2024 to June 2025.^[27] The reasons for the calls included complaints by neighbors about fires, thefts, nine calls regarding shootings, six calls for mental health, and five calls for welfare checks.^[28] One neighbor told KSAT 12 News that her family and other neighbors had had tense conversations with Joss for decades, that he would frequently yell and make strange statements, like that his neighbors were going to go to hell because they're sinners and God is on his side, or that all the children on his street were going to die.^[29] Other neighbors also reported that Joss's behavior was erratic, and that he sometimes appeared outside in the street while yelling.^[30]

On June 1, 2025, Joss and his husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, were driven by a woman to their burned-down home to check the mail.^[31] Half an hour before his death, Joss was recorded by a neighbor holding a pitchfork walking up and down the street yelling.^[29][30] A neighbor told KSAT that a vehicle pulled up alongside the men and Joss spoke with the driver.^[29] A confrontation occurred between Joss and Ceja Alvarez, with whom Joss had been feuding. A witness reported hearing three gunshots and seeing Joss with wounds to his neck and torso.^[32] He was pronounced dead at the scene.^[21] Ceja Alvarez was arrested shortly afterward and reportedly told police, "I shot him", after being taken into custody.^[33][31]

Neighbors told a local television station that Joss and Ceja Alvarez had often argued for several years, but that no violence had previously occurred.^[34] A previous incident on June 8, 2024, resulted in Ceja Alvarez calling police, saying Joss was brandishing a crossbow.^[31] On May 24, 2024, reports of gunfire resulted in police confiscating Joss's firearms.^[35]

Gonzales posted on Facebook that the day they returned to their burned house, they found the harness of one of their dogs, leading to "severe emotional distress".^[36] Gonzales said Ceja Alvarez yelled "violent homophobic slurs" before opening fire and that Joss pushed Gonzales out of the bullet's path, saving his life. Gonzales said neither he nor Joss was armed.^[37] Additionally, Gonzales said that various people in the area had for years verbally assaulted them with homophobic slurs and threats to burn down their home.^[38][39] Gonzales described the attack as a homophobic hate crime, stating that Ceja Alvarez "started yelling violent homophobic slurs at us. He then raised a gun from his lap and fired."^[40][41]

The San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) released an initial statement saying that no evidence of a hate crime had yet been found but that the investigation was still ongoing, although they later retracted this statement and publicly denounced it as "premature".^[42][43] According to Gonzales, the couple had reported homophobic harassment "to law enforcement multiple times and nothing was done".^[44] The SAPD also confirmed that Joss had been a part of neighborhood conflicts and that the police mental health unit had made "repeated efforts to mediate conflicts and connect him with services that he may have needed".^[45]

On November 17, 2025, Ceja Alvarez was indicted by a grand jury for the first-degree murder of Joss.^[46]

Film

Television

Video games