Brian Coulter and the Killing of Kendrick Lee: Trial and Appeal

Brian Coulter is the Houston man convicted of capital murder for beating eight-year-old Kendrick Lee to death in late 2020 and then leaving the boy’s body in a west Harris County apartment where three surviving brothers lived alongside the remains for nearly a year. On April 15, 2024, Judge Kelli Johnson of the 178th Harris County Criminal District Court found Coulter guilty after a bench trial and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.¹ The case drew national attention as much for what followed the killing as for the killing itself.²

Who Kendrick Lee Was and How He Died

Kendrick Lee was one of four children living with his mother, Gloria Williams, and her boyfriend, Brian Coulter, in a second-floor apartment in the Alief area of west Harris County. Investigators determined that Coulter beat Kendrick to death in the fall of 2020. The indictment was updated to place the approximate date of death at October 5, 2020, based in part on a photograph the eldest brother sent to Williams that a forensic entomologist testified showed a body that had been dead for at least four days.³

The medical examiner ruled the cause of death as “homicidal violence.” According to trial testimony, Coulter used his fists, a Spider-Man figurine, and a model jet to beat the boy until he “stopped moving,” then covered the body with a blue blanket.⁴ The violence was not new. Text messages introduced at trial showed that as early as March 2020, Williams had accused Coulter of beating the children and causing Kendrick’s eye to swell shut.³

A Year Alone With the Body

After Kendrick’s death, Coulter and Williams continued living in the apartment with the body and the three surviving boys. Around March 2021, the couple moved to a separate apartment roughly 25 minutes away and left the children behind. The boys were about seven, ten, and fifteen years old.⁵

The apartment had no electricity, no furniture, and no beds. Roaches were everywhere. The bedroom door had been fitted with a deadbolt on the outside, and the children were frequently locked inside, forcing them to use the room itself as a bathroom.⁴ Williams reportedly returned every few weeks to drop off limited amounts of food. Coulter returned as well, and the surviving brothers said he continued to beat them during those visits.⁶ One of the boys sustained a broken jaw so severe it later required surgery, but no medical treatment was sought for months.⁷

How the Case Was Discovered

On October 24, 2021, the eldest brother, identified in court records as Jordan and then fifteen, called 911. He told dispatchers that his mother had abandoned him and his brothers months earlier and that his eight-year-old brother had been dead inside the apartment for about a year.⁶ Harris County Sheriff’s deputies found Kendrick’s skeletal remains on a bedroom floor, still covered by the blue blanket. Deputy Corey Castro described a “very distinct smell” and an apartment overrun with insects.²

The three surviving boys were thin, malnourished, and hungry. Two of them have autism, but investigators noted the children were “extremely aware and verbal.”² Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez later described the scene as the most disturbing his officers had encountered, saying it “seemed too horrific to be real.”⁸

Coulter and Williams were questioned the night of the discovery and initially released. Two days later, on October 26, 2021, both were arrested at a public library, where surveillance footage showed they had been searching for news articles about the case.⁹ Coulter was initially charged with murder; the charge was later upgraded to capital murder, and he also faced counts of injury to a child causing serious bodily injury and tampering with evidence.¹⁰

The Trial

In January 2024, Coulter waived his right to a jury trial. His attorney Jimmy Ortiz told reporters the decision was Coulter’s own. Bench trials on capital murder charges are unusual in Harris County.¹⁰ Testimony began on April 9, 2024, before Judge Kelli Johnson.

Prosecutors Celeste Byrom and Edward Applebaum built their case on the surviving brothers’ testimony, forensic evidence, text messages, and a jailhouse phone call. In her opening, Byrom told the court that Coulter liked the phrase “F.O.E.,” meaning “family over everything,” but that the evidence showed “this man did not put family over everything — he put Brian Coulter over everything.”¹¹

The three surviving brothers, by then ages 10, 12, and 17, testified that Coulter killed Kendrick and continued to abuse them afterward. The eldest described how Kendrick lost the ability to walk after a beating and later identified the remains, saying, “He was only bones.” A jailhouse recording captured Williams telling Coulter, “We’re gonna get in trouble for this,” referring to the remains. A forensic entomologist testified to the timeline of decomposition, and a therapist who treated the youngest child testified about the trauma of living with the body.³ Prosecutors also displayed photographs of the skeletal remains, the skull, and the insect residue around the body, along with body camera footage from the initial discovery.¹²

Defense attorneys James Stafford and Jimmy Ortiz worked without much to work with. Coulter pleaded not guilty but rejected plea negotiations, refused to cooperate with medical experts for a possible mitigation strategy, and stayed disengaged throughout; Stafford later nicknamed him “Mr. Irrelevant.”¹³ Coulter’s parents declined to participate. The defense presented no witnesses and no evidence, resting immediately after the state’s case. Stafford’s argument leaned on the gap in the forensic record, telling the court that the medical examiner and anthropologist could describe broken bones but “cannot tell you beyond a reasonable doubt what caused his death.” In closing, he asked Judge Johnson to consider murder or injury to a child instead of capital murder.¹¹

Verdict and Sentence

On April 15, 2024, Judge Johnson found Coulter guilty of capital murder. The conviction carried an automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.¹⁴ Addressing Coulter from the bench, Judge Johnson called it “one of the most horrific set of facts that I’ve ever had to witness, to listen to, and to imagine,” adding that the children “have haunted me this last week.”¹ Coulter remained impassive throughout. Stafford later said that waiving the jury had been “the wisest” decision his client ever made, telling reporters a jury would likely have “jumped the rail and killed him on the spot.”¹³

The Appeal

Appellate lawyer Terrence Gaiser was appointed to handle Coulter’s appeal and filed an eighteen-page Anders brief, a filing in which an appointed attorney declares the appeal frivolous and asks to withdraw. Stafford said publicly he was surprised the appellate attorney did not challenge the capital murder conviction in favor of a lesser offense. Another appellate lawyer, Pat McCann, noted that because trial counsel had not raised objections to Judge Johnson’s decision-making during the trial, there was “really nothing that could be done at this point” on those grounds.¹⁵

What Happened to Gloria Williams

In October 2024, Gloria Williams pleaded guilty to two counts of injury to a child by omission causing serious bodily injury. She opted to have a judge decide her sentence rather than accept a negotiated deal. On November 12, 2024, after a two-day punishment hearing, Judge Susan Brown sentenced Williams to 50 years in prison. She will be eligible for parole in 25 years.¹⁶

Prosecutors emphasized that Williams never sought help for the children over many months, and they presented text messages in which she questioned Coulter’s abuse while continuing to profess love for him. They also told the court that Williams and Coulter had at one point discussed obtaining a freezer to store Kendrick’s remains rather than reporting the death.¹⁶ Her attorneys argued she had been psychologically manipulated by Coulter. In an affidavit read in court, Williams wrote, “I was scared of losing Brian and being on my own again without any money,” and expressed “deep regret” before sentencing.⁸ Prosecutors noted that the plea structure was designed specifically to spare the three surviving children from testifying again.¹⁷

Williams relinquished her parental rights after her arrest. The two younger boys have since been adopted, and the eldest is in the care of a foster family.⁸

Prior CPS Contact With the Family

A 12-page child fatality report from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services documented at least nine separate CPS investigations of the family between April 2015 and November 2020, involving allegations of physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect.⁷

CPS substantiated only two of those investigations. In one, a former boyfriend’s physical discipline left marks and bruises on a seven-year-old, who was later adopted by that boyfriend’s parents. In the other, CPS removed a 16-year-old daughter from Williams’ care for medical neglect; that case closed on December 31, 2020, just weeks after investigators believe Kendrick was killed.⁷ The earliest report on file, from April 2015, involved Coulter himself, who was found to have spanked an ex-girlfriend’s child and left bruises that lasted for weeks.¹⁸ In the other investigations, caseworkers reported that they observed no injuries and the children denied being abused. Robert Sanborn, president and CEO of Children at Risk, called the pattern evidence of an “overburdened safety net” and said the repeated investigations should not have been allowed to continue without intervention. No specific policy changes tied to the case have been publicly reported.

1
Fox 26 Houston. Brian Coulter Found Guilty of Killing 8-Year-Old Boy, Sentenced to Life in Prison
2
ABC 7. Houston Abandoned Children: Brian Coulter, Gloria Williams
3
Houston Chronicle. Kendrick Lee’s Siblings Testify at Brian Coulter Trial
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ABC 7 Chicago. Brian Coulter Convicted in Death of Kendrick Lee
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ABC 7 New York. Gloria Williams, Brian Coulter: Deadly Child Abandonment
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ABC 13. Gloria Williams Texts, Boy Left to Decompose in Apartment
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Click2Houston. State Report Shows Multiple Investigations Prior to Abandoned 8-Year-Old’s Death
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CBS 42. Texas Mother Sentenced to 50 Years for Leaving Kids in Dire Conditions
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ABC 7 New York. Houston Children Abandoned: Brian Coulter Arrested
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Houston Chronicle. Kendrick Lee Murder Trial: Brian Coulter
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Houston Chronicle. Harris County Man Kills Child: First Day of Trial
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ABC 13. Boy Left to Decompose in Apartment: Brian Coulter Trial
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Houston Chronicle. Brian Coulter’s Lawyer Calls Case Most Horrific
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ABC 13. Brian Coulter Trial: Kendrick Lee Murdered Boy Found Decomposing in Harris County Apartment
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Houston Chronicle. Brian Coulter Appeal: Kelli Johnson Trial
16
Houston Chronicle. Abandoned Children: Gloria Williams Sentencing
17
Fox 26 Houston. Gloria Williams Houston Sentenced
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ABC 13. Houston Crime: 8-Year-Old Boy Killed, Texas DFPS