Newlyweds Jonathan Joss and Tristan Kern de Gonzales held each other in their final moment together Sunday.
Joss, 59, the voice actor best known as John Redcorn on “King of the Hill,” had just been shot in the head in front of their San Antonio home.
“I didn’t want him to struggle and everything, so I decided to tell him I loved him. And despite the severity of everything, he was able to look up at me and acknowledge what I was saying, so I know he heard me,” said Kern de Gonzales, 32. “I just kept telling him: ‘It’s OK. You need to cross over. You don’t need to keep struggling. You need to go ahead and cross over easy.’”
Kern de Gonzales said Joss’ killer also had final words for the actor. He called him and his husband “jotos,” a Spanish slur for gay people.
“I’ve been called that word while I was sitting on a bench with Jonathan, eating lunch,” Kern de Gonzales said. “And I got called that holding Jonathan while he died.”
Shortly after, police arrested one of the pair’s neighbors, Sigfredo Alvarez Ceja, 56, in connection with Joss’ killing.
I guess the real question is about what the intent of the hate crime law in texas. Is it intended to punish people who’s only motive was hate of a protected class? Is it to enhance punishment of people where the hate is a partial motive? Could also just be to enhance punishment of people who hate protected classes even if that wasn’t part of the motive.
In the end it is probably easier to prosecute without it. And the guy is old enough he won’t get out anyway.