The husband of murdered King of the Hill actor Jonathan Joss says the man who shot him stood over the dying star, laughed, and delivered a slur.Joss, 59, was gunned down Sunday night near his home in San Antonio, Texas, in what his spouse, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, believes was a hate-motivated attack by a homophobic neighbor after years of harassment.“Everything was really close range. It was in the head,” Kern de Gonzales told The Independent. “I held his face together while I told him how much I loved him. He could still hear me… I could tell he was trying to say, ‘I love you.’”Kern de Gonzales claimed that the killers words while Joss was dying included homophobic slur. During the confrontation, he recounted the assailant’s threatening behaviour while holding him at gunpoint. The attacker mockingly said, “‘Oh, you love him? Joto,'” as per Kern de Gonzales’s account. He further clarified, “‘Joto’ is Spanish for f****t. I never knew the word until I came to Texas, and then I heard it a lot.”The accused shooter, identified as 52-year-old Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez, was arrested near the scene and has been charged with first-degree murder. According to the San Antonio Police Department (SAPD), Ceja admitted to the shooting, stating simply, “I shot him.”However, in a statement released Monday, SAPD said investigators had found “no evidence to indicate that… Mr. Joss’ murder was related to his sexual orientation.” “We take such allegations very seriously and have thoroughly reviewed all available information,” the department added. “Should any new evidence come to light, we will charge the suspect accordingly.”Read more: Jonathan Joss was not murdered because he was gay, says San Antonio police, refuting husband’s claimAdditionally, SAPD records claim officers responded to more than 40 calls involving Joss in 2024, ranging from welfare checks to mental health concerns and neighbor disputes. Still, Kern de Gonzales insists his husband was not violent- only outspoken.Kern de Gonzales, identifying as transgender man, strongly disputed the department’s stance. He alleged the couple had endured years of targeted hostility from Ceja, and says their repeated complaints were ignored by law enforcement. “They ignored us, refused to file police reports for about two years [over the couple’s complaints of harassment], and now they’re trying to say it wasn’t a hate crime,” he told The Independent. “It’s like when the police investigate themselves and find they did nothing wrong.”He also pointed to earlier, deeply unsettling events involving the suspect- including discovering their deceased dog’s skull near their mailbox following a house fire this past winter. That detail does not appear in the SAPD incident report.According to Kern de Gonzales, the fatal confrontation began after Joss shouted at Ceja. The couple had stepped outside to check the mail when the alleged gunman approached with a weapon. “I don’t care if me and my husband were walking around with one pitchfork in our hand and another pitchfork up our a**, we didn’t point any weapons at anybody,” he said. “When the man rolled up with the gun, we were checking the mail.”Joss, who was of Native American descent, was best known for voicing John Redcorn on the long-running animated series King of the Hill. Beyond his work in entertainment, his husband says he was deeply spiritual and often chanted or drummed in the yard- acts that, he alleges, drew racial abuse from some in the neighborhood. “I had never seen someone be accosted for being Native American,” said Kern de Gonzales. “People would drive by and yell out the window, ‘F***ing Indian.’”He added that Joss also faced ridicule for his appearance. “Jonathan would be harassed for just being in his yard wearing a dress,” he said. “When people would ask why he wore a dress, he would say, ‘Because I have nice legs.’ And he did. He looked beautiful in a dress. And I think a lot of people were threatened by that, because Jonathan could wear a dress and still be masculine and confident.”
