HOUSTON — Brian Coulter was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Monday after being found guilty of murder in connection with the death of his stepson, Kendrick Lee.
Coulter waived his right to a jury trial, opting for a judge to determine his fate. It took a judge only 20 minutes to find Coulter guilty.
"Those children have haunted me this last week," the judge said after hearing the horrible details of how Kendrick and his siblings lived. "They have haunted my mind, and they have interrupted my safe space when I leave this building."
Kendrick was beaten to death by Coulter in November 2020. Kendrick was 8 years old at the time.
“Our children are our most vulnerable victims,” District Attorney Kim Ogg said. “And even though we can’t bring back little Kendrick Lee, at least we can ensure that his killer never again breathes free air.”
What happened to Kendrick?
Though Kendrick died in 2020, it wasn't until nearly a year later that his body was found inside a west Houston apartment where his three brothers, ages 15, 10 and 7, lived -- alone.
Coulter was married to the boys' mom, Gloria Williams.
In court, the 10-year-old sibling said he was in the room when Coulter allegedly beat Kendrick to death, kicking and punching the child in the back and lower region. He then said he saw Coulter place a blue blanket over Kendrick.
A search warrant revealed that Williams knew Kendrick had died and she didn't call the police because she didn't want to go to jail and didn't want CPS to take her children -- but that didn't stop Williams from abandoning her boys.
The only reason why police found Kendrick's body was because the 15-year-old sibling called 911 after he and his younger brothers had been living alone with their dead brother for almost a year.
A search warrant revealed that Coulter and Williams moved out of the apartment in March 2021. In an exclusive jailhouse interview with KHOU 11 News, Williams said she would check on her children every two weeks.
“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 very bad conditions for anyone to live in,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said when the discovery was made.
Williams was charged with injury to a child, injury to a child by omission and tampering with a human corpse. Her trial starts Friday.
Years of investigation
A 12-page report released by Child Protective Services detailed years of investigations leading up to Kendrick's death.
The report laid out nine times CPS launched investigations into the family but only twice were the allegations confirmed.
The first, in 2015, CPS found the mother’s ex-boyfriend at the time abused a child, leaving “marks and bruises” from physical discipline. The second, in 2020, CPS found the mother committed “medical neglectful supervision” after one of her children threatened to take their own life and attacked police officers.