Jonathan Joss’ husband has called his shooting death a hate crime. Legally speaking, hate crime cases are rare in Bexar County.
SAN ANTONIO — Community members are pressing the San Antonio Police Department to thoroughly investigate the killing of “King of the Hill” actor Jonathan Joss on Sunday, calls which were amplified when the agency said the very next day on social media that it had “found no evidence” of a hate crime.
SAPD Chief William McManus walked back the statement on Thursday morning, saying “that was way, way, way premature.”
“We shouldn’t have done it. It was way too soon before we had any real information and I will own that,” the police chief added.
He went on to clarify that hate crimes are not individual charges filed by law enforcement in Texas, but rather “sentencing enhancements” pursued by prosecutors.
That means that once the SAPD investigation is complete and handed off to the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office, it’ll be up to DA Joe Gonzales and his team to determine whether or not to take that course.
In a Thursday afternoon news conference where he said he wouldn’t seek reelection in 2026, Gonzales said they would make that decision when SAPD submits its case against the suspect, 59-year-old Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez.
Ceja Alvarez was released from jail after posting bond Wednesday.
“The man is already facing the maximum punishment being charged with murder, and that is a maximum of 99 years to life,” Gonzales said. “There is no advantage to alleging a hate crime because it’s already a first-degree (offense).”
The district attorney’s office says pursuing hate crime enhancements was “have been incredibly rare,” with just one such case being pursued by the team in the last eight years.
That case centered around the death of 27-year-old Kenneth “Kenne” McFadden, a transgender woman whose body was pulled from the San Antonio River downtown in April 2017. Officials determined McFadden, who had attended Wagner High School, had drowned.
Friends of McFadden at the time said she may have been targeted because of her sexual identity.
Months later, a 19-year-old man was charged with a second-degree felony count of manslaughter in her death after police at the time said he “grabbed (McFadden’s) buttocks and made an offensive remark.” At that point, police said he pushed McFadden into the river.
According to online court records, the case was dismissed later in 2018. The DA’s office says a judge ruled there wasn’t enough evidence for it to go to trial.
“We had challenges in that case,” Gonzales recalled on Thursday. “For example, the victim could not swim. There was an issue over whether or not we could prove the perpetrator actually pushed him in the water.”
Nico LaHood was district attorney at the time of McFadden’s death and the suspect’s arrest. Gonzales would take over two months after the case officially closed in October 2018.
As for 59-year-old Joss’ killing, Gonzales on Thursday said his office will “keep our options open” when the case eventually gets to their hands. Joss’ husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, amounted his partner’s killing to a hate crime in a Facebook post, saying police for years “ignored” his reported threats and requests for help.
The fatal Sunday shooting was the apparent culmination of a long-standing feud between Joss and Ceja Alvarez. SAPD said there were dozens of calls for service to their addresses over the last year, while neighbors have said Joss was causing disturbances with guns and a crossbow.
He said they could still pursue an enhancement if Ceja Alvarez’s charge is downgraded to a second-degree count, but it remains to be seen what a jury decides.
“It may be that we still allege a hate crime,” he said. “I’m not closing the door on the possibility of alleging a hate crime as an enhancement in this case.”