The mother who did nothing to prevent her boyfriend from beating her 8-year-old son to death and then forcing her three other children to live with the boy’s decaying corpse will spend the next 50 years in prison, according to court records.
Gloria Yvette Williams, 38, pleaded guilty last month to causing serious bodily harm by omission in the murder of her son Kendrick Lee. In April, a judge found her boyfriend, 34-year-old Brian Ward Coulter, guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced him to life in prison without the chance of parole following a five-day bench trial.
During her sentencing hearing on Tuesday, Williams told the judge that she regretted allowing her children to live with her son’s body but did it to keep them away from Coulter, according to the Houston Chronicle. During Coulter’s trial, prosecutors displayed grisly and disturbing images of the scene and the boy in the courtroom, but during Williams’ two-day sentencing hearing, they only presented them to individual witnesses, according to the Chronicle.
Her defense attorneys reportedly emphasized that Coulter was the one who perpetrated the abuse, while prosecutors highlighted her inaction. Prosecutors reportedly produced text exchanges between her and Coulter in which, despite questioning his maltreatment of the children, she expressed her love for him.
As Law&Crime previously reported, stunned detectives began their investigation in October 2021 after a then-15-year-old kid contacted 911 to report that he and his brothers, aged 7 and 10, had been living with Kendrick’s body in a west Houston home for a year. Investigators eventually discovered that after Kendrick died in late 2020, Coulter and Williams hid the boy’s body with a blue blanket before moving to another apartment, leaving the children behind. Police nabbed the couple a few weeks after the 15-year-old called 911.
The siblings stated that they witnessed Coulter repeatedly assaulting Kendrick while he was still alive. The youngest brother informed the judge that he watched Kendrick’s eyes until he stopped blinking during the beating.
“The death of Kendrick Lee was so tragic, and because of the fact that for so long there was no one to speak up for him, we felt like we had a duty to be his voice,” said Assistant District Attorney Celeste Byrom after Coulter’s conviction. “It was important that we were able to secure justice for him.”
Lawyer Edward A. Appelbaum asserts, “Regardless of your identity as a human being, the facts of this case will profoundly impact you.” “It’s a horrible act.”
The charges against Williams accused her of failing to protect Kendrick and provide him with adequate medical treatment, food, and shelter.