A San Antonio man is facing a felony charge after police say he shoved a woman during a heated argument, then threw an urn holding a child's cremated remains into a burning fire pit. Jose DeJesus, 24, was arrested following the confrontation in the 300 block of Langford Place around 1:30 p.m. on Monday.
According to an arrest report cited by KSAT, DeJesus got into an argument with a 29-year-old woman that turned physical, with the woman telling police he pushed her several times, leaving her with visible injuries. Police say DeJesus then placed an urn belonging to one of the woman's family members into a burning fire pit, destroying it. As KABB reports, police said the woman had not given DeJesus permission to destroy the urn.
The urn, per the same account, held the cremated remains of a child belonging to the woman's family — a detail that adds a grim weight to what might otherwise have been processed as a routine domestic dispute. DeJesus was charged with abuse of corpse without legal authority and was released after posting a $25,000 bond, according to the report.
Why Cremains Count As a Corpse Under Texas Law
The charge against DeJesus stems from an unusual corner of state law. Under Texas Penal Code Section 42.08, knowingly damaging, disturbing, or treating a human corpse in an offensive manner without legal authority is a State Jail Felony, carrying a punishment range of 180 days to two years in state jail along with a fine of up to $10,000.
That statute explicitly defines a human corpse to include cremated remains or any portion of them, which is why burning the urn — rather than simply breaking it — triggers felony exposure rather than a lesser property crime. By contrast, Texas law treats vandalizing the physical space where remains are interred, without disturbing the remains themselves, as a separate Class A misdemeanor under the same section, punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $4,000.
A Case That Will Likely Land With the DA's Family Violence Division
Formal indictment and court proceedings in Bexar County will likely fall to the District Attorney's specialized Family Violence Division, the county's largest prosecutorial unit, which includes 57 assistant district attorneys, 14 victim advocates, seven crime victim liaisons, and 15 criminal investigators, according to the Bexar County District Attorney's Office. Whether additional charges tied to the woman's injuries will be added, and the exact relationship between DeJesus, the woman, and the child whose remains were destroyed, remain open questions at this stage.
The arrest adds to a steady drumbeat of family violence cases moving through San Antonio's courts. Local agencies across Bexar County fielded an average of seven family violence calls every hour throughout 2025, according to KENS 5, and the San Antonio Police Department responds to more than 40,000 family violence-related calls annually on average, per data from the Collaborative Commission on Domestic Violence.
Bexar County's Broader Domestic Violence Toll
Bexar County recorded 13 intimate-partner homicides in 2025, ranking fourth among all Texas counties for intimate-partner fatalities behind Harris, Dallas, and Tarrant counties, a separate KSAT report noted. Total family violence fatalities across the county dipped slightly, from 32 in 2024 to 28 in 2025, though advocates caution that call volumes remain near historic highs, Hoodline previously reported on the 2025 numbers.
DeJesus is identified in a Bexar County jail photo caption following his arrest. No additional details about the specific relationship between DeJesus, the woman, or the child whose remains were destroyed have been released as the case moves toward the District Attorney's office.
