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Thread: Brian Ward Coulter Charged with Capital Murder in 2020 TX Slaying of 8-Year-Old Kendrick Lee

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    Brian Ward Coulter Charged with Capital Murder in 2020 TX Slaying of 8-Year-Old Kendrick Lee




    Skeletal remains of 9-year-old found in home where kids were abandoned, Texas cops say


    BY MIKE STUNSON

    Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said the abandonded children were living in “pretty deplorable conditions.”

    Three children were discovered abandoned in their apartment Sunday with the remains of their 9-year-old brother who had been dead for a year, Texas authorities say. The oldest of the siblings — a 15-year-old — alerted deputies that his brother was dead in their Harris County bedroom in the room next to his, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said. When deputies arrived, they found the 15-year-old and his 10 and 7-year-old siblings living inside the home without any adult supervision, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said in a news briefing. Skeletal remains of the 9-year-old were found in the apartment and the body was not concealed, the sheriff said in the briefing streamed by KHOU. The body had been in the apartment for a year, Gonzalez said in a tweet Monday.

    “Very horrific situation out here, very tragic,” the sheriff said. “I’ve been in this business this for a long time and I had never heard a scenario like this.” Parents of the children had not lived in the apartment for “several months,” leaving the children in what Gonzalez called “pretty deplorable conditions.” The youngest of the two living siblings “appeared malnourished and showed signs of physical injury,” the sheriff said.

    The children’s mother and her boyfriend were located late Sunday night, according to Gonzalez. Charges have not been announced. Gonzalez said the children were “fending for each other” and the 15-year-old “was basically doing the best he could.” “Our hearts break for those three. They are still children,” the sheriff said. The parents and the identity of the deceased child have not been publicly disclosed. Deputies were continuing to investigate the scene Monday morning.

    https://www.star-telegram.com/news/s...BjR4VYk-Fl3XIY
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    Medical examiner: Death of child whose remains found in west Harris County apartment ruled homicide

    Nakia Cooper, Digital Managing Editor

    HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – Authorities have confirmed that the death of a child whose skeletal remains were found in a west Harris County apartment with three siblings has been ruled a homicide.

    According to the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office, the child suffered homicidal violence with multiple blunt force injuries.

    The heartbreaking story out of the Houston area has captured headlines across the country. It involves three brothers, ages 15, 10 and 7, left alone in an apartment for months, while the body of their 9-year-old brother was decaying inside another room in the home.

    Harris County Sheriff’s deputies were sent around 3:15 p.m. Sunday to conduct a welfare check at the apartment located at 3535 Green Crest after the 15-year-old called and said his younger brother had been dead for a year in the apartment.

    When deputies arrived, they found the three boys living in horrid conditions, and sadly, evidence of what the teen described.

    “The deceased one, or the skeletal remains, we believe at this point is going to be another juvenile, possibly a sibling that passed away,” a somber Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said. “It appears the skeletal remains have been there for an extended period of time.”

    Chris Downey, a criminal defense attorney for Downey Law Firm, said the person(s) responsible could face charges ranging from criminally negligent homicide to capital murder. He said the Harris County District Attorney’s Office could also seek child abandonment charges as well.

    “You’ve got some children in the apartment who presumably were witnesses to what happened or may have relevant information about what happened and you have children in the apartment who may potentially be the culprit,” Downey said.

    Downey also said the other tragedy is that no sensible adult stepped up and acted sooner.

    “This was happening in an apartment complex where there were neighbors all around it. The nature of the modern world, perhaps we don’t spend as much time or come into contact with each other as we should but it’s a wake-up call to all of us. Pay attention.”

    Gonzalez said the older brother told them his parents have not lived in the apartment for months.

    Many questions remain, including who was feeding the children and who was paying the rent at the apartment.

    “I haven’t been told they were necessarily locked in, but at that age, it appears they were basically fending for each other,” Gonzalez explained.

    Gonzalez said the children appeared to be malnourished and showed signs of physical injury
    .
    Neighbors said there were no obvious signs that anything was wrong.

    “We never smelled anything coming out of that apartment. Never seen anyone open the door as well, so it’s kind of a shock,” said Bodiul Alam, who lives a few doors down. “Time to time, we’ve seen a couple with a kid come in and out and most likely, it was like six months ago, and nothing recently at all.”

    The brothers were transported to the hospital to be assessed and treated for their injuries. They are now in the custody of Child Protective Services and Gonzalez said everyone is working together to provide the boys the support they need.

    CPS released the following statement:

    “Child Protective Services is currently investigating alongside law enforcement to ensure the immediate safety of the children. The children are being evaluated at an area hospital and the Department of Family and Protective Services is seeking emergency custody of all three boys.”

    The mother’s boyfriend was located with her and was also questioned and released. It is not known if he is the father of any of the children.

    The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services left a “Notice of Removal of Children” at the apartment regarding the three surviving boys. The agency confirms they have a history with the family, but did not have any active investigations before the recent discovery.

    When asked why there were no charges filed against the parents, deputies would not comment on specifics, only saying the case was under investigation.

    https://www.click2houston.com/news/l...uled-homicide/
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    Senior Member CnCP Addict maybeacomedian's Avatar
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    Mom, boyfriend charged after boy’s body found in home with abandoned kids, TX cops say

    By Mike Stunson | Fort Worth Star-Telegram

    A mom and her boyfriend were arrested Tuesday in the death of an 8-year-old boy whose body was discovered in an apartment where his siblings were abandoned, Texas cops say.

    The Harris County Sheriff’s Office initially said the boy was 9 years old, but they later determined he was 8 years old at the time of his death last year. The boy’s 15, 10 and 7-year-old siblings lived inside the home without any adult supervision while the 8-year-old boy’s decaying body laid unconcealed, the sheriff’s office said.

    The mother of the children and her boyfriend were located Sunday night but were released by deputies after being questioned, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said. Later on Tuesday, the sheriff announced their arrests.

    The 31-year-old boyfriend of the children’s mother was charged with murder, Gonzalez said. The mother, 35, was charged with injury to a child by omission and tampering with evidence (human corpse), the sheriff said. Additional charges are expected to be filed.

    They were caught at a public library, where KTRK reported they were reading news articles about themselves.

    “Glad we have arrested the two responsible for the death of this innocent child, and the abuse of the other children,” Harris County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Edison Toquica said. “Houston, it’s a sad situation when individuals responsible for the welfare of innocent children are the ones that turn their back on them.”

    The Harris County Medical Examiner ruled the 8-year-old boy’s death a homicide, saying he sustained multiple blunt force injuries, according to KPRC. The man is believed to have beat the boy to death before he and the mom moved out of the apartment, KTRK reported.

    That left the three other children alone in the home and they were “fending for each other,” Gonzalez said, McClatchy News reported. He said the oldest of the siblings “was basically doing the best he could.”

    A neighbor sensed something was wrong and said she began giving food to the 15-year-old about six months ago, KTRK reported.

    “I didn’t want to push him away by asking questions because I knew he was starving and needed food,” she said.

    The boys attended a local school district, but officials said they hadn’t been to class since May 2020, KHOU reported.

    Gonzalez said the youngest two boys “appeared malnourished and showed signs of physical injuries.” All three were hospitalized for assessment and treatment.

    The children are in foster care, according to KHOU.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/mom-boyfr...131017149.html
    https://archive.md/Xpg8C

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    Boyfriend Broke Kid’s Jaw Weeks Before House of Horrors Discovery: Cops

    By Justin Rohrlich
    Daily Beast

    A Texas man charged with felony murder for allegedly beating his girlfriend’s 8-year-old son to death—then abandoning the victim's three young brothers to fend for themselves in a filthy home alongside the decaying corpse—had subjected the children to regular physical abuse, breaking the middle child’s jaw in recent weeks, police said Wednesday.

    Brian Ward Coulter, 31, killed the boy, Kendrick Lee, with his fists and feet around Thanksgiving 2020, according to a criminal complaint filed in Harris County District Court. Initial reports listed Kendrick’s age as 9, but authorities later said he was 8.

    Coulter and the kids’ mom, Gloria Yvette Williams, 35, left the “dry… skeletal remains” behind in the Houston-area apartment they shared with the four kids, two of whom are believed to be on the autism spectrum, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said at a press conference.

    The surviving brothers, aged, 7, 10, and 15, were only rescued from the "deplorable" home on Sunday after the 15-year-old reportedly texted his mom to say he couldn’t take it anymore, then called 911.

    Investigators said that Williams and Coulter had been together for a few years and abuse was commonplace for Williams’ boys, who had two different fathers, one of whom has since died.

    “I think that the beatings were consistent...mainly involving the younger children,” Harris County Sgt. Dennis Wolfford said.

    After Kendrick died, the couple stuck around in the Houston apartment for a while, Wolfford said, but then ditched the boys in the bare, roach-infested space for no reason other than their own convenience.

    “Common sense would tell you that they [were] distancing themselves from a dead child,” Wolfford said. “By the time they moved out, you’re talking about probably five to six months after death. They know the entire time that there’s a dead body in this apartment…. So they go live in another apartment so that they don’t have to be around it.”

    Coulter and Williams moved into a new place about 25 minutes away, according to police. The rent for the Houston apartment continued to be paid for by government assistance, they said.

    Williams occasionally stopped by to provide some food and also sent some food via delivery, Gonzalez said. At one point a few weeks ago, Coulter allegedly attacked the middle child, leaving him with a broken jaw.

    The kid never saw a doctor but will now undergo surgery to fix his shattered face, Wolfford said. The three surviving brothers were all “very thin,” he added.

    Gonzalez described the apartment as having been in “deplorable condition,” with no furniture, no bedding or blankets, soiled carpet, and an infestation of insects.

    The boys were not allowed to leave the apartment, and there was some evidence that they had been locked up in different parts of the home.

    “This is a textbook case of a person that abuses children,” said Wolfford.

    Investigators don’t believe Williams, who has six children in total, was abused by Coulter, who reportedly didn’t father any of the four abandoned kids. Williams is charged with two counts of injury to a child by omission and one count of tampering with evidence —specifically, a human corpse. She is also facing charges of failure to provide medical care and failure to provide adequate supervision.

    Little is known about Coulter, whose Instagram page is filled with videos of himself eating well, photo's of himself sporting diamond jewellery, and professing his love for his girlfriend and family.

    In testimony provided by the two youngest boys during a Wednesday court hearing for Williams, both recounted the moment they said Coulter killed their brother, saying he kicked and punched the 8-year-old until he had black eyes and stopped moving.

    Williams allegedly told police she saw the attack happen, as well. She claimed she tried unsuccessfully to stop Coulter, who she said apologized the next day, saying he had snapped and beat the boy “until he went to sleep,” reported local ABC affiliate KTRK.

    Williams said in court that she knew her son was dead last November but that Coulter told her not to report it to police, and that she feared the kids would be taken away and she would be jailed.

    Wolfford told reporters the eldest child was “just absolutely afraid and basically hoping or relying on his mother to, at some point, contact law enforcement and advise of his deceased brother in the house. And that didn’t happen, and I think after a year’s time, the 15-year-old finally said, ‘Enough is enough.’”

    Last Sunday, the teen called 911. When officers arrived, they found Kendrick’s decomposing body out in the open.

    “It appears they were basically fending for each other,” Gonzalez said at the time. “The older sibling was doing the best he could to take care of the others.”

    When police rescued the boys, they asked them if they were hungry. They asked for donuts, which the cops duly provided.

    While Williams had occasionally been providing food, Gonzalez said cops “didn’t see anything that was healthy,” describing it “more like junk food, noodles and chips and soft drinks and things like that.”

    The kids hadn’t attended school since May 2020, according to KTRK. The local school district twice filed truancy papers against Williams, but charges were dismissed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The children had been getting additional sustenance from a neighbor who supplied food and charged their cellphone after the apartment’s electricity was shut off, a spokesperson for the Harris County Sheriff's Department confirmed to The Daily Beast.

    Residents of the CityParc II development, which is about 20 miles from downtown Houston, couldn’t understand how things got so bad for so long without anyone spotting a problem.

    Isaac Ford, 54, told The Daily Beast he had seen Williams around the complex now and again, but never saw her kids.

    “It’s just so strange how a whole body could be in a house for a whole year with nobody coming in or out and seeing it,” Ford said.

    One neighbor told The Daily Beast that maintenance staff had recently been “coming around to all the apartments to see if they needed to be repaired.” She wondered how none of the workers noticed a dead body in the unit.

    “I’m concerned nobody smelt nothing,” the neighbor said, declining to be identified out of concern for her own safety. “Something’s not adding right. Something ain’t right.”

    Another neighbor, who also requested anonymity, said that the odor emanating from the apartment was so foul, she couldn’t run her air conditioner because it brought the stench inside her home. The neighbor said she asked building management to look into it, but nothing happened.

    The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences in Houston, the entity responsible for all autopsies in Harris, listed Kendrick’s cause of death as “homicidal violence with multiple blunt force injuries.” Officials there declined to provide additional information, and told The Daily Beast that the autopsy report would not be available until after the criminal case has been adjudicated.

    Coulter and Williams were detained for questioning last Sunday by police, who found the duo at a public library, looking online for news about the case. They were initially released because investigators needed more time to gather evidence, Wolfford said.

    “I will say those children will be very vital, and key witnesses, in the prosecution of Mr. Coulter,” he said Wednesday.

    The three surviving boys are now under the care of state child welfare authorities. In an interview with the Daily Mail, the grandmother of the 7-year-old child said she would have gladly adopted all four of the kids had she known what was going on.

    Coulter’s mom, Debbie Vasconcellos, immediately hung up without comment when contacted on her cellphone by The Daily Beast. Coulter’s father did not respond to a voicemail seeking comment. Relatives of Williams were unable to be reached on Wednesday. Attorney information for Coulter and Williams has not yet been made available.

    Coulter is now undergoing a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation. A judge set his bail at $1 million. Williams’ combined bail for all three charges added up to $900,000. Police said more charges are expected to be filed.

    Said Wolfford on Wednesday, “This one affected us.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/boyfriend-broke-kid-s-jaw-weeks-before-house-of-horrors-discovery-cops/ar-AAQ1Tz4
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    Related:

    ‘I Didn’t Do It’: Murdered Kendrick Lee’s Mother Claims She Didn’t Know Her Son Was Dead, Though His Remains Were Left with Abandoned Siblings for Nearly a Year

    By Ellen Killoran | CrimeOnline.com


    “I checked on them every two weeks,” the mother said when asked why she abandoned her children with their brother’s body

    The mother of a murdered 8-year-old boy whose skeletal remains were found on Sunday nearly a year after he was killed, has apologized, but claims she didn’t kill her son or even know that he was dead.

    Gloria Williams, 35, is being held on $900,000 bail in connection to the death of her 8-year-old son Kendrick Lee, whose remains had been left in his Harris County, Texas, home for nearly a year with his three brothers. Kendrick’s 15-year-old brother called police on Sunday to say that the dead boy was in the apartment, and responding officers found his body there along with three surviving brothers, at least two of whom were severely malnourished, and one had a recently broken jaw that had not been treated.

    Williams’ boyfriend Brian Coulter, 31, has been charged with murder, and is accused of hitting and kicking the boy until he died in November 2020. Williams has been charged with with injury to a child by omission and tampering with evidence; a human corpse.

    But in a jailhouse interview with KHOU reporter Grace White, Williams claimed she did not realize Kendrick was dead — without offering any explanation for how this could be plausible. She simply answered “no” when White asked her if she knew her son was dead.

    As previously reported, investigators believe that Kendrick’s surviving brothers were left alone in the apartment for several months, possibly dating back to March 2021.

    “I checked on them every two weeks,” was the mother’s answer when asked why she left her children alone. Police reportedly believe that Williams periodically visited the apartment and brought the children food, but neighbors told local media they had no idea there were any children in the home besides the 15-year-old brother, who they sometimes gave food.

    When officers arrived on Sunday, there was no electricity in the home, according to multiple reports.

    “I’m sorry. I didn’t do it,” Williams told the reporter. It is unclear exactly what she was referring to.

    The boys are currently in custody of Child Protective Services. Coulter is being held on $1 million bond.

    https://www.crimeonline.com/2021/10/...nearly-a-year/
    https://archive.md/M93dh

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    Edited:

    Texas Man Indicted After Allegedly Murdering Girlfriend’s 8-Year-Old Son, Abandoning His Skeletal Remains and Three Surviving Kids in Houston Apartment

    By Jerry Lambe
    Law & Crime

    A 35-year-old mother and her 31-year-old boyfriend have been formally indicted for allegedly killing her 8-year-old son then abandoning the victim’s three young brothers to live in the apartment with his skeletal remains for nearly a year. A Harris County grand jury on Tuesday returned a true bill formally indicting Brian W. Coulter and Gloria Y. Williams on a slew of felonies in the death of Kendrick Lee and the subsequent suffering of his siblings, Houston ABC affiliate KTRK reported.

    “Brian Coulter has been indicted for capital murder,” Harris County Assistant District Attorney Andrea Beall reportedly said during a Tuesday press conference. “It’s the intentional knowing and killing of a child under 10, and Gloria Williams has been indicted on injury to a child, serious bodily injury, and tampering with a corpse, which is a second-degree felony.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...ent/ar-AASWqnP
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
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    DFPS report details years of abuse allegations involving family of slain Kendrick Lee

    By Courtney Carpenter
    ABC 13 News

    HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Four months ago, a horrific scene was discovered at a west Houston apartment. Investigators found 8-year-old Kendrick Lee's body decaying in one of the rooms and his siblings living in the apartment, abandoned by their mother.

    The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services recently released a report on the death of the young boy, showing Kendrick and his siblings had been involved with state protective services for years.

    The first report of abuse dates back to April 2015 when DFPS said their investigation found Brian Coulter, who is charged with Kendrick's murder, was physically abusive. The reports say Coulter spanked an ex-girlfriend's 7-year-old child, leaving excessive bruises on the boy for weeks.

    "As I looked through this report, an incident and I thought, 'Probably there is going to be three previous incidents because they wouldn't have let it go beyond three,' and then you keep going and it's 13. I think to myself, quite alarming," said Bob Sanborn, the president and CEO of Children at Risk.

    Sanborn said though some of the investigations were closed with the situation deemed "safe," this pattern should not have been allowed to continue.

    "To me, it's sort of that same old story of an overburdened safety net on the part of the state. There aren't enough staff members to sort of put all of this together. There's not enough thinking going on because they are too busy...It's just very obvious that this young man fell through the crack and lived in this hell for too long for any child," said Sanborn.

    Throughout the 12-page report, some of the allegations were not confirmed, still, Sanborn says, this report shows these children were failed.

    "We will point the fingers at these parents. This boyfriend, who is clearly abusive and belongs in jail, but there are many people that were part of this. Thirteen instances, that's outrageous," said Sanborn.

    https://abc13.com/houston-crime-8-ye...ices/11597148/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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