HOUSTON — "Don't you dare cry."
Those were the words of a grieving mother when she faced one of her son's killers in a Houston courtroom on Tuesday.
Dahlia Mack gave a powerful victim's impact statement after jurors sentenced Keona Mouton to 23 years in prison for the 2018 murder of Lamar High School senior Delindsey Mack. The 18-year-old was gunned down after leaving the school in River Oaks that he'd recently transferred to because of threats from gang members at Yates High School.
"I hate you. You disgust me," Mack told Mouton. "Don’t you dare cry. Those shackles on your ankles, that’s Delindsey Mack.”
Investigators said Mouton, then 16, helped plan the murder of Mack, who had a crush on her. Mouton lured the victim outside where he was ambushed and shot seven times.
“Delindsey Mack’s parents put him in the one place that children should be safe, but Keona Mouton pulled all the strings to make his murder happen,” Assistant District Attorney Sarah Seely said.
One of the shooters, Kendrick Johnson, and getaway driver, Dave’on Thomas, were convicted and sent to prison in earlier trials. Investigators said they believed Mack belonged to a rival Third Ward gang.
Known to be an outstanding football player at Yates, the victim's father said his son pretended to be a gang member on social media out of fear. That "alternate persona" put a target on his back.
“It’s sad that someone can create a persona on social media that makes someone hate them that bad,” Mack's father said after the shooting. “It used to be a time in my day that someone had to do something to a person physically … but these are simple words and pictures that has brought this to this point. It’s a sad day.”
The family’s pastor said Delindsey’s parents had no idea what their son was posting on social media.
“Delindsey wasn’t a gangster, I called him Baby Huey. He was a soft kid,” Pastor D.Z. Cofield told us in 2018. “He wanted to be hard. Knows a lot of hard people growing up in the inner city … but in terms of those relationships being a part of his life and shaping his character, that wasn’t the kind of kid he was.”
Mack's grandmother, Dell Tatum, told KHOU 11 that the grandson everyone called "Poppy" would have graduated a month after he was gunned down.
'He killed for sport'
This was the third trial Mack's family had to sit through and listen to details of their son's murder.
After his conviction in 2021, prosecutors described Johnson as a vicious, cold-blooded killer.
“Kendrick Johnson participated in at least seven murders. It is hard to believe somebody this young could be this vicious, but the evidence showed he loved to kill and our streets and social media were his playground,” Ogg said. “He seemed to be striving for celebrity status in the gang world by killing as many people as possible.”
Johnson even staked out the funerals of rivals he'd killed to look for more targets, according to evidence presented during the week-long trial.
“Kendrick Johnson is the most dangerous gang member I’ve ever prosecuted. He killed for sport and earned every year of his life sentence,” Assistant District Attorney Sarah Seely said.
Prosecutors said Johnson was the mastermind behind Mack's murder and he and a second gunmen stood over him and shot him seven times while he lay bleeding on the sidewalk.
“We are still looking for information and investigating who the second unknown shooter is in the case because everyone who is responsible for the murder of Delindsey Mack should be held accountable," Seely said.
Anyone with information on this case is urged to call Houston Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS (8477).