Mother admits abandoning three children with dead brother to live with man who killed him: authorities

Gloria Williams, 38, pleaded guilty to two counts of injuring a child in connection with the death of her son, who was 8 years old at the time of his death, a Houston NBC affiliate reported KPRC.

Police were first involved when eldest brother Jordan called 911 on October 24, 2021 to report to police that his brother had been dead in their apartment for over a year and that their mother no longer lived there. Younger brother Kendrick was eight years old at the time of his death, according to police.

The three remaining brothers, ages 15, 10 and 7, reportedly lived next to their brother’s body the entire time after their mother moved out to live with her boyfriend in another apartment.

As they had previously told investigators, the boys said it was their mother’s boyfriend, Brian Coulter, who beat their brother to death, kicking and punching him until he stopped moving. The youngest brother said he watched his brother stop blinking and his eyes turn black.

According to CrimeOnline, the boys reported that Coulter kicked and punched their brother in the back, face, legs, arms and testicles until he died. In court for Coulter’s trial, one of the brothers claimed that Kendrick was beaten to death because he was selfish by drinking all the water in the room, according to a Houston Fox affiliate KRIV.

Authorities say he was then covered with a blanket and left in the bedroom. Kendrick’s body was in such a state of decomposition that he was skeletal and had bugs crawling everywhere. According to the criminal complaint, the date of death was listed as November 20, 2020.

As KRIV reports, Williams allegedly lived in the home with her dead son’s body from November 2020 to March 2021 before moving in with her boyfriend and leaving her other children behind. They would live there until Jordan’s 911 call in October 2021.

Even after Kendrick’s death, Williams continued to receive money for him. She received a total of $2,000 per month for three disabled children, including Kendrick. With this government support, prosecutors revealed she was able to afford two separate apartments.

When police arrived, they found the apartment had no furniture, dirty carpets and was infested with cockroaches. The boys told police that the couple came by every few weeks to drop off food, but that Coulter would also physically attack them at those times.

25 minutes from their horrific living conditions, police reported that Williams and Coulter were living in a fully furnished and food-stocked apartment, according to KRIV.

The Harris County Examiner’s Office determined Kendrick’s cause of death to be “homicidal force” after evidence of numerous injuries consistent with blunt force trauma.

Coulter has already been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Kendrick Lee. Williams was accused of failing to intervene in her children’s abuse and failing to provide Kendrick with food and medical care before his death.

In an interview with KHOU When Gloria got out of prison in October 2021, she denied knowing her son was dead in the apartment. This contradicts what investigators say; They say she admitted she knew her boyfriend had beaten him to death in November 2020 and that she didn’t raise the alarm because he told her not to.

She is accused of altering, destroying and hiding the body to eliminate evidence. Police also stated that she initially admitted knowing that Coulter killed her son and that he had told her not to tell police and that she had complied for fear of child protective services would take her children away and put her in prison.

When asked why she abandoned the children, she insisted, “I checked on them every two weeks.” She did not elaborate on why she did not notice her son’s decomposing body during her biweekly visits.

KHOU also spoke with the children’s paternal grandmother, Melody Robinson, who said that an even older child, then a 17-year-old girl, had asked to move in with her shortly before Kendrick’s death because of Coulter’s behavior.

“She just got tired of seeing him mistreat her siblings, and when she stepped in to protect them, [her mother] “I kicked her out,” Robinson told the news station.

Gloria Williams’ sentencing is scheduled for November 11.