Twin brother of murdered Texas pastor wants suspect jailed as he laments pace of justice
The Rev. Roland Mouton, the twin brother of the late East Bethel Missionary Baptist Church pastor the Rev. Ronald K. Mouton, who was fatally shot in the chest in June 2022 after a 10-second argument with an Uber in Houston, is calling for the suspect in his brother’s killing to be jailed for violating the terms of his bond as his laments the slow pace of justice for his family.
“Why is he still out if he violated the bond, especially four times?” Mouton asked in an interview with The Christian Post about former Uber driver and the man charged with the murder of his brother, Deshawn Longmire, 25.
“Everybody said alleged murderer. Here’s the point about the alleged murderer thing, the only reason why they know he’s the killer is because the guy riding behind him videoed it and videoed the boy’s car and license plate. That’s how they know it was him,” Mouton told CP.
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Investigators from the Houston Police Department said surveillance video from the June 24, 2022, shooting of Ronald Mouton shows the pastor, who was driving a BMW, and his suspected killer, who was driving a black Honda Accord, stopped along the freeway before the shooting.
Police say the two appeared to argue for about 10 seconds before the driver of the Honda shot the pastor in the chest and caused him to crash his vehicle. Ronald Mouton crashed shortly after 5 p.m. at 6400 Gulf Freeway near Gould Street along the southbound lanes, police said. He left behind his wife, four children and 10 grandchildren.
Longmire was subsequently charged with murder after witnesses told investigators that they saw him arguing with the late pastor at a stoplight on the Gulf Freeway frontage road. Though neither driver exited their vehicles, witnesses told police that, when both vehicles started moving, Longmire “stretched his arm out of the driver window with a pistol in his hand” and allegedly shot Ronald Mouton and sped off. Surveillance videos show Ronald Mouton crashing his vehicle and he was later pronounced dead at the scene.
Records from Longmire’s Uber account showed that he was in the area at the time of the shooting.
After his arrest, Longmire was later released from jail on a $500,000 bond, but Roland Mouton contends that his brother’s alleged killer violated the terms of his bond four times in April this year so he should go back to jail until the start of his trial which has been delayed until April 2025.
A “Bond Condition Violation Report” on Longmire reviewed by CP shows that the murder suspect failed to comply with the curfew requirements of his house arrest, but the court chose not to revoke his bond.
The details of the violations indicated are that Longmire has a GPS device with a curfew of “House Arrest.”
On April 19, Longmire, according to the report, left his house during curfew and returned home during curfew without authorization multiple times.
“On 4-19 the defendant left his home at 1:58 p.m. and returned home at 2:09 p.m. The defendant left again at 2:12 p.m. and returned home at 2:13 p.m. The defendant left again at 2:16 p.m. and returned home at 2:17 p.m.,” the report notes.
Roland Mouton says he knows the city likely has many people on house arrest, but he believes that considering the nature of the charges against Longmire as well as the evidence against him, he shouldn’t be allowed to flaunt the terms of his bail without it being revoked.
“I just think for somebody who has shot and killed somebody, that person should have gotten picked up immediately. I'm not saying it because this is my brother. I think in any case, or somebody that's an alleged killer,” they should be back in custody once they violate their bond, the pastor said.
Mouton said his family didn’t want Longmire to be given bond, but Texas law allows any person standing trial to post bail before trial.
Longmire’s trial was expected to start in September but his attorney, Carlos A. Rodriguez, asked the court for a continuance due to a conflict with a bribery case he is also working on, and it was granted.
The decision to table Longmire’s murder trial for a bribery case might conflict with a new state law prioritizing murder trials that went into effect in Texas on Sept. 1, 2023.
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said she hoped the law would help reduce the backlog of murder cases that has climbed to more than 1,800 in recent years, but noted that testing evidence at area crime labs could counter that push.
When asked by CP why the court had not allowed Longmire’s attorney to prioritize his murder trial over the bribery case, John Donnelly, a public information officer with the Harris County District Attorney’s office, said it was the court’s decision. He further suggested that prosecutors had conflicts as well.
In addition to a backlog of cases impacting the pace of Longmire’s trial, Fox 26 reported that his case was also delayed due to a change of his defense attorney and multiple applications for bond reduction. Longmire reportedly posted bail in March 2023.
When asked what justice would look like for his family at this point, Mouton said seeing Longmire in custody and then having him convicted for his brother’s murder and sentenced to no less than 40 years in prison.
“If he gets anything less than 40 years, we're not gonna like that,” Mouton said. “My family wants to make it at least 50 … but I'm willing to accept 40 because I know the system.”
He explained that since the murder of his twin brother, his family hasn't been the same.
“I'll be honest with you, I'm not doing well, and [the] only thing that's holding me is I have longstanding in years and faith, as a pastor,” said Mouton, who has been a pastor for more than 36 years.
“I am not doing well because me and my twin were very close, very, very close. I don't think his wife, I don't think she's doing well. They were married 36 years exactly. I just know his children, his boys, definitely not doing well. It affected everything,” he continued.
“It affected that church, because our younger brother now pastors that church. That church is struggling because it was a caught off guard [by his] death that just didn't make sense to anybody. He had just left the church, like 30 minutes before that boy shot him.
“Nobody's really doing well, and the people have to really know. We had just buried my mother in March that year, and he gets killed in June, and we would bury our oldest brother in November, all in the same year,” Mouton added.
“That was a tough year for this family; but we could handle the other deaths because we expected them. My mother had dementia. Oldest brother had suffered four strokes. We knew they were going, but this untimely, sensitive shooting of a death of my twin was just something nobody saw or expected.”
Mouton also revealed that he's had many discussions with law enforcement and legislators about road rage. The main suggestion to resolve it so far has been gun control, but he doesn’t think that’s a viable suggestion for now.
“We know gun control is not going to happen. How long we've been trying to get gun control in this country?” Mouton asked.
“I have had many conversations with them, because it's just something that happens so frequently in Houston, Texas, [...] it's almost an every week thing, sometimes twice a week. I watch a lot of films about road rage. And I guess the thing is, there's so many unstable people today. Mentally [ill], people on drugs,” he explained.
“It's just so many facets that lead to aiding road rage. You know, I don't think it's anything that they can control, because you can't control guns,” he added. “I hate it. I hate that my brother even said anything to the guy that day, and the guy said whatever he said to him. I guess now you just have to let people drive like they drive and just, you know, be patient.”
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