Houston House of Horrors mom: and her boyfriend are indicted for the murder of her eight-year-old son whose three brothers were locked in roach-infested room with his skeletal remains.
The couple at the center of the Houston House of Horrors case have been officially indicted in the death of an eight-year-old boy who was beaten to death and left to rot in an apartment alongside his three surviving brothers for nearly a year.
The Harris County Grand Jury on Tuesday indicted Brian Coulter, 32, on a charge of capital murder for the November 2020 killing of his girlfriend's autistic son, Kendrick Lee.
Meanwhile, Gloria Williams, 36, Kendrick's mother and Coulter's girlfriend, was indicted on counts of injury to a child, serious bodily injury, and tampering with a corpse.
Coulter is accused of beating and kicking to death Williams' autistic son, eight-year-old Kendrick Lee (pictured), and leaving his body to rot for nearly a year
Coulter and Williams on Wednesday remained jailed on bonds of $1million and $1,550,000, respectively, pending their next court appearance on Friday.
According to Coulter's indictment, on November 20, 2020, the 31-year-old suspect 'did intentionally and knowingly cause the death of Kendrick Lee... by striking [him] with the defendant's hand, and by kicking [him] with the defendant's foot.'
If convicted of capital murder of a person under 10 years old, Coulter could face life in prison without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty, should prosecutors choose to pursue it after reviewing evidence.
'Prosecutors have not yet determined whether we will ultimately seek the death penalty for this defendant,' Dane Schiller, a spokesperson for Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg ,told DailyMail.com in an email on Wednesday.
TIMELINE IN HOUSTON HOUSE OF HORRORS CASE REVEALED:
November 20-23, 2020: Brian Coulter allegedly beats eight-year-old Kendrick Lee to death inside apartment at CityParc II complex in Houston
November 23: Coulter is arrested in Luling, Texas, and spends six days in jail after being discovered drunk and in possession of a gun at a convenience store
November 29: Coulter is released on bail; weapons possession case against him is still pending
March 2021: Coulter and Gloria Williams, Kendrick's mother, move out of CityParc II apartment, leaving her three sons to live alone with Kendrick's skeletal remains
October 2021: Coulter allegedly attacks Williams' 10-year-old son, breaking his jaw; the boy receives no medical attention
October 24: Williams' 15-year-old son texts his mother that he cannot do this anymore and calls 911 to report his brother's death; police arrive to discover the corpse in filthy apartment
October 24, Evening: Deputies question Coulter and Williams, but let them go without charges
October 26: Harris County Medical Examiner's Office rules Kendrick Lee's death a homicide, leading to arrests of Coulter and Williams; boyfriend is charged with murder, while girlfriend is accused of injury to a child by omission and tampering with evidence
October 27: Judge sets Coulter's bond at $1million and Williams' at $900,000
October 28: Coulter makes first court appearance and agrees to bond conditions
November 1: Williams appears in court and has attorney assigned to her
November 5: Judge raises Williams' bond to $1.5million as prosecutors reveal she was getting $2,000 towards child care
January 18, 2022: Harris County Grand Jury indicts Coulter on capital murder charge and Williams on counts of injury to a child, serious bodily injury, and tampering with a corpse
Schiller added: 'under Texas law, there are only two sentences for those convicted of capital murder: life in prison or death by execution. Either way they are to never again set foot on our streets.'
Kendrick Lee's skeletal remains were found inside a Houston apartment on October 24, 2021, after Williams' teenage son alerted the police, leading to her and Coulter's arrests.
A search of the couple's separate apartment revealed that it was fully furnished, as opposed to the unit at the CityParc II complex 15 minutes away, where Williams' three surviving sons, then aged 7, 10 and 15, lived beside the corpse of their brother, which was bare and crawling with cockroaches.
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.
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.
Authorities alleged that Coulter punched and kicked Kendrick to death around Thanksgiving Day 2020, 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 in October 2021 at a public library, where they were said to have been looking up news stories online about their own case.
During Williams' court appearance last year, 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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