![\"FILE](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/9571649f-00f2-46ce-b7d6-06370a1fbb3e-AP25323673496801.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nHOUSTON (AP) \u2014 A grand jury in Texas has indicted the man accused of killing \u201cKing of the Hill\u201d voice actor Jonathan Joss on a murder charge.<\/p>\n
But it is unclear whether Joss\u2019 killing will be considered a hate crime. Police in San Antonio did not immediately return an email seeking comment Wednesday on whether its investigation had determined that Joss’ sexual orientation played a role in his shooting, and the Bexar County District Attorney\u2019s Office declined to comment on the matter.<\/p>\n
Police allege Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez, 57, confronted Joss and his husband on June 1 as they were checking their mail at their San Antonio home, which had been burned down in January.<\/p>\n
Joss\u2019 husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, has claimed the person who killed the actor yelled \u201cviolent homophobic slurs\u201d before opening fire.<\/p>\n
Ceja Alvarez\u2019s attorneys did not immediately return emails seeking comment Wednesday.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
FILE – Candles, flowers, and notes are placed at a makeshift memorial in San Antonio, on Thursday, June 5, 2025, for voice actor Jonathan Joss who was recently killed. (AP Photo\/Eric Gay, file)<\/p>\n
In June, Alfonso Otero, one of Ceja Alvarez\u2019s attorneys, said his client was innocent and denied making any homophobic statements.<\/p>\n
The grand jury returned the indictment Monday, and Ceja Alvarez remains free on a $200,000 bond.<\/p>\n
A friend of the 59-year-old Joss has said that Joss and Ceja Alvarez were neighbors and the two had argued for years.<\/p>\n
Initially, San Antonio police had said there was no evidence indicating the shooting was related to Joss\u2019 sexual orientation. But San Antonio Police Chief William McManus later walked back that statement, saying it had been \u201cpremature\u201d and that whether Joss\u2019 sexual orientation played a role in the shooting was “part of the investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The district attorney\u2019s office said in a statement Wednesday that Ceja Alvarez \u201cis charged with murder, which is the most serious charge applicable to this crime under Texas law. As the case is still pending, no additional details or information can be released at this time.”<\/p>\n
Under Texas law, a hate crime \u2014 if there\u2019s a conviction \u2014 would be handled as an enhancement during sentencing and not as a separate charge.<\/p>\n
Joss was the voice of John Redcorn, a Native American character on the popular \u201cKing of the Hill\u201d animated series, which ran for 13 seasons from 1997 to 2008. A reboot of the show, which Joss had already worked on, premiered in August.<\/p>\n
Joss also had a recurring role on the television show \u201cParks and Recreation,\u201d playing Chief Ken Hotate. He appeared in two episodes of the series \u201cTulsa King\u201d in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 A grand jury in Texas has indicted the man accused of killing \u201cKing of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-61305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}