Texas mother sentenced to 50 years for leaving kids in dire conditions as son's body decomposed

HOUSTON (AP) — A judge on Tuesday sentenced a woman to 50 years in prison for forcing three of her children to live with the decomposing body of their dead 8-year-old brother for more than a year in a soiled, roach-infested Houston-area apartment.

Gloria Williams, 38, expressed deep regret before being sentenced, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Williams’ sentence came after she had pleaded guilty in October to two counts of injury to a child for abuse that involved 8-year-old Kendrick Lee, who was beaten to death by her boyfriend, and another child, the newspaper reported.

When authorities discovered the boy’s body in October 2021, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said many officers indicated it was the most disturbing scene they had worked in their careers and that it “seemed too horrific to be real.”

Lee’s three abandoned brothers had been living alone for months and were thin, malnourished and hungry when authorities found them in an unfurnished Harris County apartment that was infested with flies and roaches and had soiled carpet.

Authorities said the children had waited for Williams to call authorities to report that their brother had been beaten to death by her boyfriend, Brian Coulter. Investigators say the mother never made that call and the oldest surviving sibling, then a 15-year-old, finally overcame his fear and called authorities. The two other siblings were 7 and 10 years old when they were found by authorities.

Williams was sentenced following a nearly two-day court hearing that focused on the extent of her role in Lee’s death. Her defense attorneys blamed Coulter for most of the abuse. Coulter was sentenced in April to life in prison without parole for Lee’s death. The sheriff’s office had previously said Coulter had consistently hit the younger children and had fatally beaten Lee sometime around Thanksgiving in 2020.

A few months after the fatal beating, Williams and Coulter moved out and went to live at another apartment about 25 minutes away, leaving the three surviving siblings to fend for themselves as their brother's body slowly decomposed, authorities said.

Williams relinquished parental rights over her children after her arrest. The two younger siblings have since been adopted, while the eldest is with a foster family, the newspaper reported.

Defendant Gloria Williams, charged in connection with the death of her 8-year-old son, whose skeletal remains decomposed for months inside a Houston-area apartment with three surviving but abandoned siblings, listens to one of her lawyers Neal Davis III, during a hearing Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center in Houston. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via AP)

Defendant Gloria Williams, charged in connection with the death of her 8-year-old son, whose skeletal remains decomposed for months inside a Houston-area apartment with three surviving but abandoned siblings, and her lawyers, Beth Exley, left, and Neal Davis III, appear for a hearing, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center in Houston. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via AP)

Prosecutor Celeste Byron, left, questions Dr. Kwabena Sarpong, of Texas Children's Hospital, during the punishment phase in Gloria Williams' trial, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center in Houston. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via AP)

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