Murdered pastor’s family decries 3-year wait for trial
The family of slain pastor, the Rev. Ronald K. Mouton Sr., is decrying the nearly three-year wait for justice following his murder, as the suspect remains out on a $500,000 bond. Mouton was shot and killed in June 2022 in an apparent road rage incident in southeast Houston.
Pastor Mouton’s twin brother, Pastor Roland Mouton, has expressed the family’s frustration over the prolonged delay.
“It ain’t about not understanding death or not understanding that in this life, we leave one another. I get all of that. But to know that his killer has the freedom he has to be around this long, going on three years before it even goes to trial, while we’re suffering to see the end of this, that’s the part that hurts my family more than anything,” Mouton told ABC13.
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The trial was initially scheduled for last month but has been postponed due to a scheduling conflict with the defense attorney. The new trial date is set for April 2025, nearly three years after the incident occurred.
Records from the 208th District Court, which is handling the case, show that 34% of cases there have been pending for over a year, ABC13 said, noting that according to the National Center for State Courts, 98% of felony cases should be resolved within a year.
The Harris County District Attorney’s office blames the delays on COVID-19 and Hurricane Harvey.
“I know we have to have patience and wait on a backed up system. I understand all of that,” Mouton was quoted as saying. “But you still gotta open your mouth and say something so they don’t think you’ve forgotten, nor do they think it’s no longer important to you. Losing my brother was very important to me.”
On July 31, 2022, police charged the Uber driver, identified as Deshawn Longmire, with murder following the June 24, 2022, shooting. According to the Harris County District Clerk’s Office, he was held in Harris County Jail on a $500,000 bond at that time.
Ronald Mouton served as the pastor of East Bethel Missionary Baptist Church. On the day of the incident, Longmire was driving a black Honda sedan for Uber when a witness saw him at a stoplight on the Gulf Freeway arguing with the 58-year-old pastor, who was in his white BMW. When both vehicles started moving, Longmire “stretched his arm out of the driver window with a pistol in his hand” and allegedly shot Mouton before driving away, according to witness accounts reported by Click 2 Houston.
Surveillance video from Pusch and Nguyen Injury Lawyers showed Mouton’s vehicle crashing into a curb.
The pastor’s family released a statement after Longmire’s arrest, saying: “The horrific loss of our beloved, Rev. Dr. Ronald Mouton Sr., is painful beyond words. We are still grief-stricken over this senseless tragedy. We want the man who took his life to understand the seriousness of his crime. He took the life of a husband, a father. Our confidence and hope is in the proficient work of the police. We also hope the work of the entire criminal justice system is done thoroughly and that justice is duly served.”
Bishop James Dixon, a close friend of the late Mouton, spoke to ABC13 at the time about the pastor’s impact on the community. “He was not just a great man inside the church, but outside the church walls. He was a family man, a loving husband, and father, and just a great human being, raised by a great father and mother.”
