A Houston mother was summoned to court on Wednesday to answer questions about the murder of her eighty-year-old son.
Gloria Williams, 35, was the victim’s mom. She was charged with injury to her child by omission, tampering evidence – a human body. Her bond was set at $900,000.
Brian Coulter (31), her boyfriend, is being charged with felony murder in the death of the eight year-old child. Court documents obtained by DailyMail.com identify him as Kendrick Lee. His bond was set to $1million.
Coulter was not present at court Wednesday as he was undergoing a psychological evaluation.
The couple were taken into custody Tuesday at a public library. They were said to be looking for news articles online about their case.
During Williams’ court appearance, which was aired by KTRK, a prosecutor read aloud a statement of probable cause, which revealed that three of the mother’s surviving children witnessed Coulter beating Kendrick around Thanksgiving Day 2020.
Gloria Williams, 35-year-old mother-of-6, appeared in Houston court Wednesday and was held on $900,000.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office released photos of Brian Coulter (31), who was charged with murdering his girlfriend’s 8-year-old son. Gloria Williams, Gloria’s mother, is accused of neglecting and starving her children.
Kendrick Lee, an 8-year-old boy whose body had been found next to his siblings’ bodies, is pictured here for the first time. Kendrick is pictured with his surviving siblings
The children claimed Coulter hit the eight-year-old boy with closed fists and kicked him in the back, feet, and buttocks.
Deputies were told by Williams’ 7-year old son that Coulter continued to kick Kendrick, who was on the ground and not moving, while looking at his younger brother, who was in the same room.
The prosecutor stated that Kendrick’s eyes became black and he stopped blinking after that. Coulter then covered him with a blanket of blue.
Williams entered her bedroom to check on her child and saw that he was dead. She began to cry and fight with Coulter.
Her 15-year-old son, who was then a teenager, told investigators that he believed that his mother would call the police on Coulter. However,’she never did. She then left the apartment, leaving her children and brother with the rotting corpse of her brother and without any supervision.
William’s 10-year-old brother told investigators that Williams arrived at the apartment later than expected and took the blanket off Kendrick. When Williams saw Kendrick, she discovered that Williams’ body, feet and teeth had become a skeleton and that his hair was missing. According to some reports, his decomposing body was covered in cockroaches.
The 10-year-old claimed that Coulter would beat his father, hitting him on the stomach, face, stomach and legs. He also broke his jaw three weeks earlier.
The child had a swelling jaw when police arrived at his apartment on Sunday. The boy told police that his mother was aware of the injury, but didn’t seek or get medical help for him.
Authorities stated that the 10-year old will need surgery to correct his facial fracture.
Williams told detectives that she found Kendrick being beaten by Coulter in her bedroom at Thanksgiving 2020. She stopped the attack when she was questioned.
Williams discovered Kendrick’s death the next day and claimed she confronted her boyfriend. He’stated that he was sorry and punched him. And continued punching him until his bed fell asleep.
Williams allegedly claimed that she knew her son was dead one year ago. However, she didn’t go to the police because Coulter had instructed her not to and also because she was afraid her children would be taken away, and she would be sent to jail.
On Wednesday morning, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez held a press conference. Investigators stated that Williams’ younger children were subject to ‘consistent beatings at Coulter and were never allowed to leave the apartment.
Harris County Sgt Dennis Wolfford stated that this is a classic case of a person who abuses children.
Wolfford, the sheriff’s deputy homicide unit chief, had some harsh words to say about Williams, calling her an ‘abuser by omission’.
The sergeant stated that there was no evidence that the mother-of-six was a victim to domestic violence. She had a year to report Kendrick’s murder and other abuses to her children, but she chose to not do so.
Sheriff Gonzalez stated that at least two of the three brothers aged 15, 10 and 7 are autistic. Responding officers received three children who said they were hungry and asked for donuts.
Wolfford said that the children were’very sweet, very nice, and very well-spoken’, but noted that they had some ‘blankness about their eyes’.
He said that it was very sad. They are good children.
Gonzalez and his investigators provided disturbing details about what they found in the apartment. They revealed that Kendrick Lee’s body had been left out in the open. The unit also had no furniture or bedding. It also contained a spoiled rug that was full of flies and cockroaches.
According to the sheriff Kendrick was fathered by two men, one of which has died.
While Williams and Coulter were located approximately 6 miles away, the apartment they shared was being paid by government assistance. According to the sheriff’s statement, the mother would regularly drop by to give her children ‘junk food’.
Wolfford stated that the couple was separating themselves from their child. They knew there was a corpse in that apartment for days.
On Sunday, Williams and Coulter had been initially taken into custody by deputies. Many people were left wondering why they had been released after being interrogated.
Sheriff Gonzalez and Sgt Wolfford stated Wednesday that they didn’t have enough evidence to arrest them immediately after the horrendous discovery.
Williams’ 15 year-old son had been caring for his brothers with the help a neighbor, who brought him food and charged their phones when the electricity was cut. Williams called 911 to request a welfare check.
Sheriff Gonzalez commanded the teen to seek out help after being engulfed by ‘absolute fear for many months.
Linda Smith, the grandmother to one of Williams’ children, said in an interview that she knew what was happening and would have adopted Ja’Veon Kirklin (7 years old) along with his brothers Trevon Lee (10 years old) and Jordan Lee (15-15). Williams’ 17-year old daughter Jasmine Whitaker was not with the family.
Gloria Y. Williams, 35, from Houston, and Brian W. Coulter, 31, her boyfriend, were arrested Tuesday and charged with abandoning and neglecting her children for months while her eight-year-old brother, who died in the home, decomposed in the house for over a year.
Two days earlier, Williams’ three children were found abandoned in a Houston apartment by law enforcement officers. Investigators also discovered the rotting remains of Williams’ eight year-old son, who had been dead for over a year.
Coulter is charged with murdering Kendrick, his girlfriend’s son, by punching and kicks.
Williams is being accused in separate complaints of concealing the death of her son, starving one of her children, and failing to protect a third child from injury.
Additional court filings show that Coulter and Williams also left the eight year old’s body in a closet to rot, and then abandoned the woman with her other children.
DailyMail.com has obtained court documents that show Williams was twice charged with failing to enroll her children at school.
KTRK was told by Alief Independent Schools District that in 2019/2020, the school district filed Truancy papers against the mother of the siblings because Ja’Veon and his older sister were not attending school. The children were last enrolled May 2020.
Both charges were later dropped due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
DailyMail.com was told by Smith, Kirkin’s paternal grandfather, that Williams and her kids stayed with her during 2014, when the boy’s biological father was behind bars.
After learning that Williams had been bringing several men to her home, the grandmother asked Williams to leave. Smith regrets this decision.
Smith stated, “The Gloria I knew wouldn’t have done that to her kids, but she looks like it did, I guess you don’t know anyone.”
Williams and Coulter allegedly left their children alone for months while they lived in another home.
DailyMail.com has obtained court documents that show Williams was twice charged with failing to enroll her children at school. Both charges were later dropped due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this undated file photo, Williams is seen with Coulter.
The image shows a notice of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services requesting the removal of three children. The notice states that state officials took custody on Sunday evening of the three children after a welfare check was conducted by police.
Recent social media posts indicate that Williams was referring to Coulter in her marriage vows. Coulter and Williams even got matching ‘warriors’ tattoos.
Coulter has a large collection of body artwork that includes the words loyalty’, ‘family above everything’ and face tattoos with a cross and a dollar sign.
His Instagram account, which was last updated August, shows the murder suspect wearing his extravagant jewelry, listening to hip-hop and making unintelligible remarks.
The Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office on Tuesday ruled that Kendrick Lee, eight, suffered multiple blunt force injuries, resulting in his death by homicide.
According to the victim’s 15 year-old brother, he had lived with his body for one year in his apartment with his two surviving siblings.
Shortly before calling 911 on Sunday, the teen texted his mother to inform her that he couldn’t take it anymore.
Court documents obtained by DailyMail.com indicate that Williams was charged twice for failing to enroll her children in school, including her daughter who was 15 in 2019
One of the negligence accusations was related to Williams’ sons’ truancy
COVID-19 was the reason that the charges were dropped in May 2020.
The call led to disturbing revelations including that the children, aged 15, 10 & 7, had been left to their own devices for several months and were dependent on food donations from unsuspecting neighbor to survive. They also shared an apartment with the remains of their sibling while their mother and her boyfriend lived only 15 minutes away.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office detectives questioned the couple and released them on Monday, pending the outcome to the criminal investigation.
Child welfare services in Texas have also launched an investigation into the horror find at the apartment complex on Houston’s west side.
Erica Chapman lives at CityParc II in West Oaks Apartments and said she was among those who fed the malnourished 15,-year-old. She didn’t know that he was living at home with his two younger brothers.
Chapman stated that he first saw Chapman while he was asleep on one of the slides.
Williams has said that Coulter is her husband, but there’s no evidence that the two are married.
Coulter’s Instagram account includes videos of him wearing jewelry, listening to music, and making garbled remarks
Coulter’s body is etched with the phrase “family over all”
Harris County Sheriff’s Department officers are seen above at a Houston apartment complex on Sunday afternoon where three children were found in a neglected state along with the decomposing body of their slain eight-year-old brother
Williams, the mother of the children, lived just 15 minutes from the apartment complex in which her 8-year old son was found dead.
Investigators also discovered the remains of an eight-year-old boy in the apartment.
Law enforcement officials stated that the three children were fed by neighbors.
Chapman stated that she noticed that the teen was not home from school often because her mother was away. She would occasionally come with noodles, snacks, and drinks. The teenager would run downstairs to get the food and then return home to her apartment.
Chapman claimed that she began offering food to the 15-year old about six months ago. However, she said that he refused to eat cooked meals and only accepted packaged snacks.
Trevor Thompson, a neighbor who had been helping the boy, said that the child was paranoid, and feared getting poisoned.
Thompson stated that the teen knocked at Thompson’s door one day asking for a charger. Thompson said that the boy asked for a charger and that he made a connection with his neighbor. He also began to offer him food.
Thompson and Chapman both said they didn’t know there were two younger children living in the home with the 15-year old.
Thompson recalled that he once asked the teen whether he liked the pizza he had made him.
‘And he inquired, “What was the first time we had pizza?” Thompson asked, “What was the first time we had pizza?” Thompson recalled. Thompson said, “That made me wonder why he would say, “We”.
Erica Chapman claimed that she had been feeding the boy, 15 years old, because his mother rarely came by to give him snacks.
Chapman speculated the teen may have hidden the existence of his siblings because he was afraid of being criticized, punished by his mom, or separated with his siblings.
The neighbors said that they never called the authorities as they didn’t realize the seriousness of the situation surrounding the teen, who was described by his neighbors as quiet and discrete.
Chapman said, “I didn’t want to push [him away] by asking questions, because I knew he needed food and was starving,”
All three of the surviving siblings were taken into hospital for treatment. They were reported to be malnourished, injured, and the 10-year old had broken bones in his head.
According to investigators, the 15-year-old said that the parents hadn’t been living at home for months, effectively abandoning the children to be on their own.
When police arrived to the home on Sunday afternoon, they found the brother’s skeletal remains out in the open, KPRC-TV reported.
The two younger boys appeared to be malnourished and ‘showed signs of physical injury,’ according to law enforcement officials.
‘It appears they were basically fending for each other,’ Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez told reporters.
‘The older sibling was doing the best he could to take care of the others.’
Trevor Thompson, who was not happy to be seen on camera, had been helping the teenager. He was paranoid and feared poisoning.
Authorities have not indicated whether they are looking for the biological father of these children.
The sheriff stated, “Connecting all of the dots, it seems that they were in there while body was deteriorating,”
HCSO is currently investigating to determine the circumstances surrounding the death of the minor, and how long the children were alone.
“To ensure the safety of children, the Department of Family and Protective Services seeks emergency custody of three boys,” the agency said in Monday’s statement.
“Child Protective Services does have a history with this family, but there was never an active CPS investigation at time the children were discovered in their own apartment.”
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said that a unit was sent to the residence to conduct a welfare inspection after receiving a request. The body was not hidden
Local residents said that management has been conducting inspection rounds in their area for the last few weeks.
KTRK was told by a neighbor who lived next to the siblings that she didn’t know anyone was living in the unit, let alone children.
KTRK was informed by a neighbor living in the apartment complex that she complained for months of a foul odor coming from the unit. The shocking discovery was made on the weekend.
She claimed that she first noticed an unpleasant odor emanating from her apartment 13 or 14 months back.
The woman stated that the smell was so bad that her air conditioner would not be able to keep the smell out of her apartment through the vents.
According to her neighbor, she had complained to the management of the building about the smell. However, it is not clear if anyone has gone to the unit that houses the siblings to inspect it.
The children appeared to have been abandoned by their parents for a prolonged time and were now ‘fighting for each other’
The case is being investigated by both CPS and Child Abuse investigators, as well as Homicide investigators.
Police said that the investigation was still in its initial stages.
“Very terrible situation here, very tragic.” Gonzalez addressed the media on Sunday evening. “I’ve been in this industry for a while and I’ve never seen a situation like this.”
He stated that they are working to identify the next of kin in order to determine what happened and how it got to this point. They will also conduct a thorough investigation.