Nearly three years after the Rev. Ronald K. Mouton was fatally shot in the chest after a 10-second argument with Uber driver Deshawn Longmire, the 25-year-old man is finally set to stand trial.
Longmire’s trial should have started last September, according to KHOU 11 in Houston, but it was delayed until this week because his attorney had to work on another case. Despite violating his bond, Longmire has managed to remain out of jail which has made the quest for justice for the pastor’s family difficult.
“It’s been tough because we’ve made every court appearance he has made, as he tried to get bond reductions, we’re always there, and even as they kept resetting the trial, we were there each time,” Rev. Roland Mouton Jr., the late pastor’s twin brother told KHOU 11.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know.
Pre-trial for Longmire started on Monday while the jury selection is set for Friday. Arguments are expected to begin next Monday and Mouton and his family are eager to see his brother get justice.
“It’s not going to bring … my brother back, but we just need the closure of getting justice for a senseless shooting,” he said of the late pastor who led East Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Houston. “To pull a gun out and shoot him in his car is senseless, and so we want justice. We want to see justice and him to pay for what he did. This family forgives him, but our forgiveness does not mean that we don’t want justice.”
Investigators from the Houston Police Department said surveillance video from the June 24, 2022, shooting of 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. 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.
Mouton, who lives in Louisiana, told KHOU 11 that he was overcome with a strange feeling the day his brother died. He said he became overwhelmed while mowing the lawn of his church.
“I started patting myself right here. I kept saying, ‘Looks like the heat is getting to me,’ not knowing that I’m patting here, because he was taking the bullet here,” he said. “For some reason, I was feeling that, just didn’t know it. That’s how close we were.”
Contact: leonardo.blair@christianpost.com Follow Leonardo Blair on Twitter: @leoblair Follow Leonardo Blair on Facebook: LeoBlairChristianPost
