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The Houston House of Horrors mother and her boyfriend lived in the apartment with the decomposing remains of the woman’s eight-year-old son and kept his three surviving siblings locked in the room with the child’s corpse, it was alleged in court on Monday.
Gloria Williams, 35, appeared before a judge and had a defense attorney assigned to represent her.
Judge Kelli Johnson said that Williams’ current bond totaling $900,000 was insufficient for the charges against her, including injury to a child by omission and tampering with evidence, stemming from the November 2020 beating death of her son Kendrick Lee.
Williams’ boyfriend, Brain Coulter, 31, is charged with felony murder for allegedly punching and kicking the autistic eight-year-old to death, and then leaving his body to rot in the Houston apartment alongside his brothers, ages 15, 10 and 7. He is being held on $1 million bond.
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Gloria Williams, 35, appeared in Houston court Monday and had a lawyer assigned to represent her as she faces charges stemming from the killing of her 8-year-old son
A judge said Williams’ current bond totaling $900,000 was insufficient for the charges against her: injury to a child by omission and tampering with evidence
Prosecutors said Kendrick Lee, 8 (pictured 2nd R, front row), was kicked and beaten to death in November 2020
Williams’ new attorney asked the judge for more time to review the case before considering whether to raise her bond amount, reported KTRK.
During Monday’s hearing, prosecutors claimed that Williams and Coulter lived in the apartment at the CityParc II complex with Kendrick’s corpse until they moved in March, leaving the woman’s three sons without supervision.
The children alleged that they were locked in a bedroom room with Kendrick’s decomposing remains, even while Coulter and Williams still lived with them.
Williams allegedly had groceries delivered to the apartment once a month and paid rent on the apartment to prevent Kendrick’s body from being discovered.
Williams is due back in court later this week to discuss her bond, reported KPRC.
During a jailhouse interview with KHOU11 last week, Williams said she was ‘sorry’ but denied knowing that Kendrick was dead, even though according to a probable cause statement that was previously read in court, the mother allegedly admitted to investigators that she was aware the child had died, but she was afraid to report it to the police.
Kendrick’s body was left to rot under a blue blanket in a bug-infested bedroom, in full view of his brothers, for nearly a year while Williams and Coulter moved to another apartment, leaving the children to fend for themselves, according to law enforcement.
When asked why she left her sons – one of whom was seriously injured after being allegedly punched in the face by Coulter – Williams replied: ‘I checked on them every two weeks.’
The children were rescued by sheriff’s deputies on Sunday, after Williams’ 15-year-old son called 911. All three boys were described as malnourished, having been forced to subsist for months on snacks supplied by their mother and food donations from concerned neighbors.
Earlier, the grandmother of one of Williams’ daughters has described the woman as being ‘very unstable,’ and accused her of failing to protect her children.
Authorities last Wednesday alleged that Coulter punched and kicked Kendrick to death around Thanksgiving Day last year, and Williams refused to report him to the police, claiming she was afraid her children would be taken away and she would end up in jail.
Coulter and Williams were arrested a week ago at a public library, where they were said to have been looking up news stories online about their own case.
During Williams’ previous court appearance, a prosecutor read aloud a statement of probable cause, which revealed that three of the mother’s surviving children witnessed their brother’s fatal beating.
Brian Coulter, 31, has been charged with felony murder. Williams is his girlfriend and the victim’s mother
Kendrick’s three brothers were left leaving alone with his corpse until October 24
Law enforcement officials found Williams’ three surviving sons, ages 15, 10 and 7, living alone with the corpse of their brother at the CityParc II apartment complex in Houston
The children claimed Coulter struck the eight-year-old with closed fists and kicked him in his face, feet, back, testicles and buttocks.
Williams’ 7-year-old son told deputies Coulter continued kicking Kendrick, who was lying on the floor and not moving, while staring at the younger brother who was in the room.
After Kendrick’s eyes turned black and he stopped blinking, Coulter covered him with a blue blanket, the prosecutor stated.
When Williams entered the bedroom to check on her son and saw that he was dead, she began crying and fighting with Coulter.
Her 15-year-old son told investigators he believed his mother would call the police on Coulter, but ‘she never did.’ She then moved out of the apartment, leaving her surviving children with their brother’s rotting corpse and without any adult supervision.
William’s 10-year-old son told investigators that when Williams came by the apartment at a later date and lifted the blanket off of Kendrick, she found that ‘his body, feet and teeth had turned into a skeleton,’ and that ‘his hair was off.’ His decomposing corpse was said to have been covered with cockroaches.
The 10-year-old also claimed that Coulter would beat him as well, hitting him on the face, stomach, buttocks and legs, and broke his jaw three weeks ago.
When police arrived at the apartment on Sunday, they found the child with a swollen jaw. At the hospital the following day, the boy said that his mother ‘was aware of the injury but did not seek or obtain medical aid for him,’ the prosecutor said.
Authorities said that the 10-year-old will require surgery to treat his facial fracture.
When questioned by detectives, Williams claimed that when she entered the bedroom around Thanksgiving 2020 and found Coulter beating her son Kendrick, she stopped the attack.
Coulter was picked up by the police last week. He is accused of kicking and punching Kendrick to death, and injuring the boy’s younger brother
Williams allegely said she failed to report her son’s death because she was afraid
After discovering the next day that Kendrick had died, Williams claimed that she confronted her boyfriend, who ‘stated he was sorry, that he lost it and punched him, and continued punching him until he went to sleep.’
Williams allegedly told investigators that she knew her son was dead a year ago, but she did not go to the police because Coulter had told her not to, and also because she was afraid that her children would be taken away and she would go to jail.’
The children lived in deplorable conditions for months as they waited for their mother to call authorities to report that their brother had been beaten to death and left to rot. Investigators say the mother never made that call and the oldest surviving son, a 15-year-old, finally overcame his ‘absolute fear’ and called authorities on Sunday.
Just before he contacted the authorities, he was said to have texted his mother, telling her he could not take it anymore.
Source: dailymail
