Jonathan Joss, the actor who voiced John Redcorn on King of the Hill from seasons 2 to 13, was shot and killed over the weekend in what his husband says was a homophobic hate crime.
According to Variety, Joss was found with gunshot wounds near a road in San Antonio after police responded to reports of shots fired. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Sigfredo Alvarez Ceja, 56, has been arrested and charged with murder in connection with Joss’s death, The Washington Post reported.
Tristan Kern de Gonzales, Joss’s husband, wrote a post on Joss’s Facebook page saying the shooting happened after a man yelled homophobic slurs at them and opened fire.
Gonzales said they had returned to the site of their old home — which burned down in a fire in January — to check their mail. During the visit, they found the skull and harness of one of their three dogs who had died in the fire. This caused them both deep emotional pain, and they began crying and yelling.
That’s when, according to Gonzales, a man came toward them and started yelling hateful, homophobic words. He then pulled out a gun and started shooting.
“Jonathan and I had no weapons. We weren’t threatening anyone. We were grieving,” Gonzales wrote. “Jonathan pushed me out of the way. He saved my life.”
Gonzales said they had faced regular harassment from people in the area who didn’t accept their relationship and were openly homophobic.
“He was murdered by someone who couldn’t stand the sight of two men loving each other,” Gonzales said. “I was with him when he passed. I told him how much he was loved.”
The couple had recently gotten married on Valentine’s Day and were planning their future together. They had lost their home — which was built by Joss’s father in 1957 — in a fire earlier this year. Gonzales said the fire followed two years of threats from people who had said they would burn the house down. These threats were reported to police, but no action was taken.
Gonzales ended his message by saying he would protect Joss’s memory and the life they built together.
A GoFundMe page started in Joss’s memory said the fire had destroyed his childhood home, personal belongings, and took the lives of their three dogs. “This wasn’t just any home — it was the house his father built for his mother in 1957,” the page said.
Jonathan Joss also had roles in Parks and Recreation (as Chief Ken Hotate), Tulsa King, Ray Donovan, True Grit, and The Magnificent Seven. He began voicing John Redcorn on King of the Hill after Victor Aaron, the original voice actor, died in a 1996 car crash.
