BEXAR COUNTY, Texas – A man charged in connection with a 2022 death has taken a plea deal on two charges, according to court records.
Paul Anthony Chacon, 31, was one of two men arrested in a 2023 FBI raid and charged in the April 2022 murder of Joe Anthony Guerra, 30.
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The murder charge for the second suspect, 25-year-old Esteban Xavier Flores, was also dismissed, Bexar County court records show.
Chacon, who appeared in court on Monday, instead took a plea on a charge of aggravated kidnapping in connection with Guerra’s death. The count is considered a first-degree felony.
According to the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office, “murder charges were never brought against Chacon because the Medical Examiner’s Office was unable to determine the cause of death.”
Chacon also took a plea for an aggravated robbery charge, a first-degree felony, stemming from an incident in March 2022. He is expected to be sentenced on both charges when Chacon makes his next court appearance on Jan. 27, 2026.
He could face a sentence of up to 50 years in prison.
Background
Armed SWAT agents with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies surrounded a home just after 6 a.m. on Nov. 15, 2023, located in the 2400 block of Basse Road.
At the time, an FBI spokesperson told KSAT that the agency was conducting “court-authorized law enforcement activities” at the home.
KSAT later learned that Chacon and Flores were taken into custody. According to their arrest warrants, the men were initially charged with Guerra’s murder.
Authorities said Guerra’s badly decomposed body was discovered in a ditch on April 22, 2022. His body was identified through his fingerprints.
Flores was arrested on an unrelated case in June 2022. The suspect had a cellphone that contained a video from April 22, 2022, of him, Chacon and another suspect assaulting Guerra at Flores’ home, the affidavits stated.
Chacon and the other suspect then held down the victim when Flores got a cloth item, held it over his head and poured water over his face in a “waterboarding” fashion, the affidavits said.
The cellphone video also revealed through locational data that Flores was a block away from the ditch where Guerra’s body was dumped.
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