In a harrowing and heart-wrenching case that has shocked the community, Brian Coulter, accused of beating his girlfriend’s 8-year-old son, Kendrick Lee, to death and leaving his body to decompose for nearly a year, has chosen an unconventional path. Coulter has opted to waive his right to a jury trial.
Scheduled for February, Coulter’s trial for capital murder will be presided over by a judge, who will sift through the chilling evidence surrounding the child’s killing and make the weighty decisions of both verdict and punishment.
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The grim saga began in October 2021 when police stumbled upon Kendrick’s abandoned siblings, aged 7, 10, and 15, in a third-floor apartment at 3530 Green Crest. The horror intensified as authorities discovered Kendrick’s lifeless body in a closet, his death having gone unreported for an agonizing 11 months.
The eldest sibling, aged 15, bravely made the call to authorities, revealing the gruesome reality of their lives. Living in the same apartment with their brother’s decomposing body, the surviving siblings had been forced to fend for themselves, as their mother, Gloria Williams, and her boyfriend, Coulter, had abandoned them months earlier.
According to court documents, Coulter subjected Kendrick to a fatal beating in front of his siblings. The horrifying accounts provided by the surviving children detailed the relentless assault – Coulter striking the young boy in the face, feet, buttocks, back, legs, and groin. Shockingly, the brutality continued even after Kendrick had stopped moving.
The 7-year-old sibling vividly recalled the traumatic scene, where Kendrick Lee eventually ceased to blink during the assault. Coulter, after taking the life of the innocent child, callously laid out the body on the floor and covered it, as revealed in court documents.
Gloria Williams, facing her own set of charges, including injury to a child by omission, injury causing serious bodily harm, and tampering with evidence, claimed Coulter apologized to her, citing that he had “lost it” and continued assaulting Kendrick until he “went to sleep.”
Authorities disclosed that Williams and Coulter callously abandoned the apartment and the surviving children merely five to six months after the fatal beating. Moving to another residence 25 minutes away, they left the children to endure their anguish alone, with periodic food deliveries as their only connection.
As the disturbing timeline emerged during a probable cause hearing, it was revealed that Coulter fatally beat Kendrick just a week before Thanksgiving in November 2020. Williams had promised her surviving children she’d report her son’s death to authorities but failed to do so. It took nearly a year for the 15-year-old to overcome his “absolute fear” and contact authorities himself.
In chilling testimony, Williams admitted withholding information from law enforcement because Coulter had explicitly instructed her not to. She feared losing her remaining children to Child Protective Services and worried about facing legal consequences.
With Williams remaining in Harris County Jail, both she and Coulter are scheduled for separate trials in February, each facing the consequences of their alleged heinous actions.