The grandmother of one of Gloria Williams’ daughters has described the woman at the center of Houston’s shocking child abuse case as being ‘very unstable,’ and accused her of failing to protect her six children, including the eight-year-old autistic boy who was beaten to death and left to rot in an apartment with his siblings for a year.
Williams, 35, has been charged with injury to a child by omission and tampering with evidence – a human corpse. A judge set her bond at $900,000 on Wednesday.
Melody Robinson, the paternal grandmother of Williams’ 13-year-old daughter, who has had custody of the girl from age two, told KTRK the mom-of-six is ‘not a mother’ after allegedly turning a blind eye to her son’s murder and her other children’s abuse.
Robinson also revealed she is now caring for Williams’ 17-year-old daughter, who allegedly had been kicked out of the house by her mother at age 15 and forced to live on the streets after trying to protect her brothers from abuse.
Williams’ boyfriend, Brian Coulter, 31, is charged with felony murder in connection with the November 2020 beating death of Williams’ eight-year-old son, Kendrick Lee. His bond was set at $1million.
The child’s skeletal remains were discovered by the police on Sunday inside an unfurnished Houston apartment with soiled carpet, flies and roaches, where his three starving brothers, ages 15, 10 and 7, had been living alone with no blankets and surviving on junk food deliveries from mom and handouts from neighbors for months.
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Melody Robinson, the grandmother of Gloria Williams’ 13-year-old daughter, who’s been in her care from age 2, said the mom in the Houston House of Horrors case is ‘very unstable’
This photos from four years ago shows Williams (left) and her mother (center), along with her six children. The boy in the colorful T-shirt is Kendrick Lee, who was beaten to death in November 2020
Booking photos released by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office show Brian Coulter, 31, charged with beating to death his girlfriend’s eight-year-old son. The mother, Gloria Williams, 35, is charged with starving and neglecting her children
Williams appeared in Houston court on Wednesday and was ordered held on $900,000 bond
Authorities on 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.
‘For you, as a mother, to watch somebody do that to your child, that’s not a mother. A mother doesn’t do that,’ said Robinson.
The grandmother said her son previously dated Williams for about three years, and at one point the whole family stayed with her, including Williams’ two daughters and four sons, at least two of whom are autistic.
In separate interviews with Fox 26, KTRK and KPRC, Robinson said Williams did not have her life together and had refused repeated offers of help from relatives
‘Our job, as a mother, is to protect our children,’ Robinson said. ‘She failed that baby. She failed her kids in that area. She did not protect her children.’
Robinson said when Williams’ youngest daughter turned 2 years old, the woman, who was pregnant at the time with her fourth child, contacted her, asking if she could take in her granddaughter.
Williams later gave up her parental rights to her daughter, allowing Robinson to take full custody of the girl.
Robinson revealed that she has recently received conservatorship of Williams’ 17-year-old daughter, who she said had been ejected from her mother’s home aged 15 after trying to prevent Coulter from abusing her younger brothers.
Robinson said the teen was forced to live on the streets for more than a year. When she ended up at the hospital, Children’s Protective Services contacted Robinson. Even though Robinson was not the girl’s biological grandmother, she took her in so she could live together with her younger half-sister.
Family members of Gloria Williams say Kendrick Lee was autistic and mostly non-verbal
‘The 17-year old-wanted to be with me and so the mom didn’t want her and told me just take her and didn’t want her back,’ the grandmother said.
The grandmother said the two sisters would talk to their brothers on FaceTime. Williams’ 15-year-old son never mentioned that their younger had died.
Williams’ relatives revealed to KPRC that two of her sons were likely autistic, including Kendrick, who was described as mostly non-verbal.
‘When he would come around our family, all he did was smile and be playful and laugh with you,’ Williams’ cousin Yasmin Creag said.
When Kendrick was born, Creag’s mother pleaded with Williams to let her raise him, but she refused to give him up.
‘We knew that with all of these kids, eventually, she was not going to be able to be the best parent she could be,’ Creag said.
Relatives said that Williams kept them at an arm’s left and would only reach out to ask for money. Whenever they would ask about their children’s well-being, she would assure them they were fine.
‘She kept saying they’re ok, they’re in school,’ Creag said. ‘We never had an apartment number. …We didn’t think anything of it.’
Law enforcement officials found William’s three surviving sons, ages 15, 10 and 7, living alone with the corpse of their brother at the CityParc II apartment complex in Houston
Harris County Sheriff’s Department officers are seen above at a Houston apartment complex on Sunday afternoon, after Williams’ eldest son called 911
Kendrick Lee, the 8-year-old boy whose body was found decomposing next to his siblings, is pictured with his siblings in an undated photo
Linda Smith, the grandmother of one of Williams’ young sons, told DailyMail.com in an interview on Wednesday that had she known what was going on, she would have adopted her grandson, Ja’Veon Kirklin, 7, along with his brothers.
Meanwhile, Coulter’s family have released a statement, seeking to distance themselves from the accused child killer.
‘We are deeply saddened by the events that have unfolded. This is not who we raised our son to be,’ the Vasconcellos family said. ‘Our hearts and prayers go out to those brave children….Our relationship with Brian has been distant for years.’
Coulter and Williams were arrested on Tuesday at a public library, where they were said to have been looking up news stories online about their own case.
During Williams’ 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.
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.
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Heartbroken grandmother reveals she would have adopted the four children had she known of horrific abuse
Linda Smith, 71, is the grandmother of one of Gloria Williams’ five children who were abandoned in Texas House of Horrors
The grandmother of one of the young children who were abandoned and neglected by their mother exclusively tells DailyMail.com, ‘I wish I would have known how bad of a situation those kids were in; I would have adopted all of the kids.’
Linda Smith, 71, said she is sickened by what Gloria Williams and her boyfriend, Brian Coulter are accused of doing to her children.
Smith sat down with DailyMail.com and shared pictures of Gloria’s children, Jordan Lee, 15, Trevon Lee, 10, Ja’Veon Kirklin, 7, and deceased Kendrick Lee, 8. Smith revealed Williams has another child, 17-year-old Jasmine Rene Whitaker, who was not in the house.
Smith’s son, Jonathan Kirklin, is the father of 7-year old Ja’Veon Kirklin. He has been in and out of jail for the last several years and hasn’t been a part of his son’s life.
‘All of Gloria’s kids lived with me for a short time in 2014, my son went to jail for about 6 months,’ she said.
‘I soon found out when my son was in jail and I was at work, Gloria would have different men come over to my house. I don’t know what she was doing with them. As soon as I found out I confronted Gloria with it, of course she denied it. But I told her she and her kids had to leave.’
Kendrick, pictured in a much younger photo, is pictured with his mother Gloria
Smith said Gloria and her kids left the house and it was years before she saw Ja’Veon again, ‘Gloria just disappeared.’
A few years ago, Smith said Williams called her and asked her to meet at a McDonald’s and she brought Ja’Veon along for Smith to see. ‘Looking back on it now, I think if I would have asked her, she would have let me adopt Ja’Veon. It was just a feeling I got.’
Smith said she found out about what happened to her grandson and Gloria’s other children from the media. ‘I’ll adopt all of them. I’m heartbroken to hear what happened to them and especially Kendrick.’
‘I regret kicking her out, I should have never done that. I’ve asked myself, What else have this kids gone through with all of the guys that have been in and out of her life? Were the kids molested, abused?’
At one point, Smith had to sit down in a chair because she said she was light headed and overcome with emotion over the situation.
After several years of not communicating, Smith said out of the blue Williams texted her on August 31st. Asking Smith if she had seen her son, Jonathan.
Smith replied back on September 9, ‘Not lately. What’s wrong.’ Williams replied back, ‘Nothing I just want to see how he doing.’
Smith then asked Williams how her grandson, Ja’Veon doing, which Williams replied, ‘he doing good.’
Williams then told Smith that, her mother Hazel, was in the hospital, ‘U know my mom in the hospital she had a stroke so she can’t breath on ur own she been in the hospital for two weeks so I am going threw a hard time right now.
As Smith read the text aloud, she teared up, ‘knowing what we all know now, she had the guts to say that? That she was going through a hard time, when her kids were being starved, one was dead and they were left to fend for themselves.’
‘The Gloria I knew never would have done this to her kids, but it looks like she did, I guess you never know someone.’
Smith said that even though she hasn’t spoken with any law enforcement, she confirmed the 8-year old son who was murdered is Kendrick Lee. The children are pictured with Hazel Williams, Gloria’s mother
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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.
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.’
During a press conference held by Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez on Wednesday morning, investigators said that Williams’ the younger children had been subjected to ‘consistent’ beatings at Coulter’s hands and were never allowed out of the apartment.
Williams and Coulter were arrested on Tuesday at a library, where they were said to have been reading news stories online about their own case
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.
‘For many agency veterans it was the most disturbing scene they worked in their entire law enforcement career. It seemed too horrific to be real,’ Gonzalez said.
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Houston House of Horrors mom and her gangster-wannabe boyfriend with Family Over Everything tattoo were arrested by cops in a library while reading about their ‘crimes’ online
When Houston authorities went to arrest a local mother and her boyfriend for the killing of her eight-year-old son, they found the pair reading news stories about their own case at a library.
Officials with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said Brian Coulter and Gloria Williams were surfing the internet on Tuesday in search of articles about their alleged crimes.
The pair have been together for a couple of years and lived in an apartment in Westchase, located about 6 miles from the filthy apartment where deputies on Sunday discovered the skeletal remains of Williams’ 8-year-old son, Kendrick Lee, alongside his three surviving brothers, ages 15, 10 and 7.
The arrests were made two days after law enforcement officials found Williams’ three children abandoned inside a Houston apartment. Investigators also found a rotting corpse of Williams’ eight-year-old son who had been dead for more than a year
Williams and Coulter have been together for a couple of years, and the woman called him her ‘husband’
Recent social media posts show that Williams has been referring to Coulter as her husband, and the two even got matching ‘warrior’ tattoos.
Coulter’s significant collection of body art also includes the words ‘loyalty’ and ‘family over everything,’ along with face tattoos depicting a cross and a dollar sign.
His Instagram page, which was last updated in August, shows the murder suspect posing up in his over-the-top jewelry, listening to hip hop and making unintelligible comments.
Williams also bragged about the baubles she had received from her ‘husband,’ stressing that all the items were real.
Coulter’s Instagram page includes videos showing him posing up in jewelry, listening to music and making garbled comments
The phrase ‘family over everything’ is seen etched into Coulter’s body
Court records show that neither suspect has a significant criminal history.
Coulter had been charged in 2011 with displaying a counterfeit inspection certificate, a misdemeanor, which was later dismissed.
Williams had been picked up in 2006 on a count of forgery, but it was ultimately dropped.
Court documents obtained by DailyMail.com indicate that the mom-of-six more recently had been charged for failing to enroll her children in school.
Alief Independent School District told KTRK that in 2019 and 2020, the school district filed truancy papers against the siblings’ mother because two of them, Ja’Veon Kirklin and his older sister, were not attending school. The children were last enrolled in May 2020.
Both charges were later dismissed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Harris County Sgt Dennis Wolfford, who heads the Harris County’s homicide unit, described Williams as ‘an abuser by omission.’
The sergeant said that there is no evidence that the mom-of-six was a victim of domestic violence herself, and that she had a year to report her son Kendrick’s murder and her other children’s abuse, but she chose not to do it.
Instead, she and Coulter had moved out of the apartment in March and went to live at another apartment a few miles minutes away, leaving the three surviving siblings to fend for themselves.
‘They were distancing themselves from their child,’ Wolfford said of the couple. ‘They know the entire time there is a dead body inside that apartment.’
The children last attended school in May 2020, according to the Alief school district.
Gonzalez said that Williams provided the children with some food, either by a delivery service or by dropping it off. But it was mostly junk food like noodles, chips and soft drinks, he said.
The image above shows a notice of removal of children left by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. According to the notice, state officials took custody of the three children on Sunday evening after police conducted a welfare check
Williams told cops she had not reported her son’s death for a year because Coulter told her no to, and she feared her kids would be taken away
Authorities said it was not enough food for the children and some neighbors also fed them and charged a cellphone for them. But neighbors were unaware of the conditions the children were living in.
‘One of the first things I asked them, are they hungry. They said they were … They wanted doughnuts,’ Wolfford said of his conversation with the children after authorities found them.
‘They were very sweet children, very nice, very well-spoken,’ Wolfford said, noting, however, that they had ‘blankness in the eyes.’
He added: ‘it was very sad. They are good kids.’
According to investigators, there had been no previous calls to service associated with the apartment where Williams’ children lived alone with their brother’s body.
Williams and Coulter were initially picked up by deputies on Sunday. They were questioned and released, leaving many people to wonder why they had been let go.
On Wednesday, Sheriff Gonzalez and Sgt Wolfford explained that they did not have sufficient evidence to arrest them in the immediate aftermath of the gruesome discovery.
The Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office on Tuesday ruled that Kendrick Lee, suffered multiple blunt force injuries, resulting in his death by homicide.