‘King of the Hill' actor Jonathan Joss' alleged killer set free after posting $200,000 bail
Police arrested Ceja, 56, on first-degree murder charges shortly after Joss was shot dead Sunday evening in front of his San Antonio home. He made bail on Monday, and was released Tuesday afternoon, court records show. He is now under full house arrest, with a slew of conditions that include GPS monitoring, random drug and alcohol testing, and a ban on firearms possession.
Attorney Alfonso Otero, Ceja's court-appointed lawyer, did not respond to a request for comment.
Although police say they have 'no evidence' the killing was a hate crime, Joss' husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, said that Ceja, who lives two doors down from the couple, directed homophobic slurs at the two as the 59-year-old Joss lay dying.
'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, he looked up at me and he wasn't able to talk because of the extent [of his injuries], but I could tell he was trying to say, 'I love you.''
At the same time, Ceja, who had reportedly been engaged in a long-running feud with Joss, laughed coldly and sneered, 'Oh, you love him? Joto,'' according to Kern de Gonzales, a South Carolina native.
' 'Joto' is Spanish for f****t,' he said. 'I never knew the word until I came to Texas, and then I heard it a lot.
The deadly clash occurred after Joss and Kern de Gonzales showed up at their home, which burned down in January, to collect their mail. The two had been living in Austin, about 90 miles away, following the blaze, according to Kern de Gonzalez, who said he is certain the blaze was arson. Authorities, on the other hand, have said the cause remains undetermined.
Joss clashed frequently with others on the block, who Kern de Gonzales claimed had subjected the pair to ongoing anti-LGBT+ harassment over the past two years. One neighbor shared a video with local CBS affiliate KENS, purportedly showing Joss walking back and forth with a pitchfork, screaming. However, while Joss may have at times annoyed his neighbors by ' ranting and raving ' in public, Kern de Gonzales said his spouse battled mental illness and insisted he was never violent.
'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,' Kern de Gonzales told The Independent. 'When the man rolled up with the gun, we were checking the mail.'
A police log shared with The Independent by the San Antonio PD lists more than 50 calls between January 26, 2024 and February 9, 2025 to the house Joss and Kern de Gonzales shared.
Officers showed up at the address in response to disturbance reports, to conduct mental health and welfare checks, complaints of theft and criminal mischief, and one incident last year allegedly involving a knife. (Further details were not immediately available on the episode, or exactly who was involved.)
The final entry is for a shooting in progress at 7:02 p.m. on Sunday, June 1, the incident that ended Joss' life.
Kern de Gonzalez said finds it 'really sad how people treat other people when they're having a mental health crisis or going through trauma,' and that no one wants to consider what led to that point.
'It's OK to be a little sad, but if you're in a state where you're yelling or whatever, that doesn't get the same grace,' Kern de Gonzales said.
Ceja is due back in court on August 19.
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