Mom Lived Alongside Slain Son's Remains, Then Abandoned Children. She's Been Sentenced to 50 Years

The Texas mother who abandoned her three children in a home to live with their slain 8-year-old brother’s decomposing remains has been sentenced for her role in the boy’s death, authorities said. 

Gloria Williams, 38, was sentenced to 50 years in prison after pleading guilty in October to two charges of injury to a child in connection with the death of her 8-year-old son Kendrick Lee at the family’s Houston apartment, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release shared on Wednesday, Nov. 13.

In April, Williams’ husband, Brian Coulter, 34, was sentenced to life in prison without parole for beating the boy to death in late 2020, prosecutors said.

“We expect parents to protect their children, not hurt them, because children really are our most vulnerable victims,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said in the release. “This case shocks the conscience not just because a child lost his life, but because of his parents’ complete and total disregard for human life.”

Two siblings testified during Coulter’s trial that they saw Coulter repeatedly beating Kendrick, per the release. After the boy died in late 2020, Coulter then covered the body, and he and Williams moved to a different apartment while the boy’s three siblings were forced to stay behind, prosecutors said.

In October 2021, Williams’ 15-year-old son had called police to report that his sibling “had been dead for a year and his body was in the room next to his,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez had told reporters at the time.

The boy’s skeletal remains had been covered with a blue blanket inside the apartment, prosecutors said in the release.

“The apartment was in a horrible condition. We saw soiled carpet, no furniture at all. No bedding, no blankets that we could see. We saw roaches and flies and a very bad condition for anyone to live in,” Gonzalez said, PEOPLE previously reported.

At a press conference announcing the charges in 2021, Lt. Dennis Wilford described Coulter as “manipulative” but said Williams still bore responsibility for her son’s death. 

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As part of Williams’ plea agreement, she requested that the children not have to testify again about the death, per the release. According to the district attorney’s office, Williams will have to serve at least half her sentence before she will be eligible for parole.

“By pleading guilty and waiving the right to a jury trial, the defendant finally acted like a protective mother,” said prosecutor Edward A. Appelbaum, per the release. “For one day of her children’s lives, she was a good mother.”

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.