Gonzales claimed the killing was just the culmination of a long saga of frightening homophobia the couple endured on their street, alleging neighbors had spent "years" threatening to burn their home down, but that cops never intervened.
Residents, however, painted a different picture, telling
My San Antonio that Joss was an "erratic" neighbor, whose alarming antics caused them to regularly ignore him for their own safety.
"He would just walk up and down the street … he would just, like, scream," said neighbor Isabel Caballero. "We knew how he was, so we wouldn't disturb him. Even if he looked at us, talked mess to us, we just ignored him."
Others said Joss "wasn't a good neighbor" and would yell how "he was God" until neighbors called the police.
San Antonio cops were called to Joss' home at least 40 times since January 2024, according to the outlet, with complaints ranging from mental health situations, neighbor disturbances and welfare checks.
Those calls culminated with the February fire, which neighbors told TMZ Joss set himself by trying to heat his home with a barbecue pit after its services were cut off because the house had been deemed uninhabitable.
"We all knew it was going to end up like this because of his antics," a neighbor who asked to remain anonymous told My San Antonio.
"It's sad cause this could have been prevented if he had gotten the help he needed."