SAN ANTONIO – Two men wanted in connection with the slaying of a man in 2022 were arrested Wednesday following a raid by the FBI and the San Antonio Police Department at a North Side home that startled residents.
Esteban Xavier Flores, 23, and Paul Anthony Chacon, 29, are charged with murder in the death of Joe Anthony Guerra, 30, according to arrest warrant affidavits.
People who live in the 2400 block of Basse Road woke up around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday to the sights of a large, green military-style helicopter in the sky, FBI SWAT agents dressed in fatigues and carrying long guns, and multiple law enforcement agencies surrounding a home.
“Come out with your hands up,” said a voice that seemed to come from a law enforcement officer at the scene.
According to the affidavits, Guerra’s badly decomposed body was discovered in a ditch on April 22. 2022. His body was identified through his fingerprints. The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office could not determine the cause or manner of death.
Five days before the discovery, Guerra went to Flores’ home to sell him Xanax, the affidavits said. A witness went with Guerra to the home but left without him. When the witness returned to the home hours later, Guerra wasn’t there.
Flores was arrested on an unrelated case in June 2022. The suspect had a cellphone that contained a video from April 22 of him, Chacon and another suspect assaulting Guerra at Flores’ home, the affidavits said.
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.
Flores and Chacon are being held in the Bexar County Jail on a $250,000 bond.