A San Antonio man swept up in a high-profile FBI raid in 2023 no longer faces a murder charge tied to a 2022 killing, according to court records. His alleged co-defendant, however, has pleaded guilty to two first-degree felonies and is now staring down the possibility of a decades-long prison term.
Paul Anthony Chacon, 31, appeared in Bexar County court Monday and pleaded guilty to aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery, both first-degree felonies. He is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 27, 2026, and could receive up to 50 years in prison, according to KSAT.
The case grew out of a Nov. 15, 2023, FBI-led search at a triplex on the 2400 block of Basse Road that rattled the neighborhood with helicopters and flash-bangs. Affidavits state that video found on one suspect’s phone showed the victim, Joe Anthony Guerra, being assaulted and waterboarded inside the home. Guerra’s badly decomposed body was later discovered in a ditch on April 22, 2022, as reported by the San Antonio Express‑News. The intense 2023 operation was previously detailed in our coverage, FBI blitz hits San Antonio gang pad.
Court records reviewed by KSAT show that the murder charge against 25-year-old Esteban Xavier Flores was dismissed on Dec. 1, 2025. The filings do not spell out why prosecutors dropped the count. Investigators had previously said Flores’ phone contained footage of the assault and that location data put him roughly a block from where Guerra’s body was dumped.
What This Means Legally
By pleading to first-degree aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery, Chacon locked in convictions that carry serious prison exposure while sidestepping the risks and uncertainties of a full-blown murder trial. The state’s case had a key complication: in 2023, the Bexar County medical examiner reported being unable to determine Guerra’s cause or manner of death, as noted by the San Antonio Express‑News.
All eyes now shift to Chacon’s Jan. 27, 2026, sentencing, which will reveal whether prosecutors secure the lengthy term suggested by the plea. Flores’ dismissed murder count, meanwhile, leaves the door open for other potential charges or future court action to surface on Bexar County dockets. For now, the official filings do not explain why the murder case against him was dropped, and prosecutors have not publicly laid out their thinking in the records cited here.
