Prosecutors: Mother got funds for dead child
Woman accused of abandoning kids received government assistance for them, officials say
The mother of three abandoned children collected about $2,000 in government assistance a month for her children — including Kendrick Lee after his November 2020 death in a west Harris County apartment, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors divulged how the mother, Gloria Williams, afforded two apartments without a job and what financial funds she received in court Friday while asking a judge to raise her bail. In the courtroom was one of the Harris County Sheriff ’s Office detectives who worked the horrifying case, in which deputies last month found her children alone and malnourished in the apartment with the skeletal remains of their 8year-old brother in a bedroom.
Authorities entered one apartment belonging to Williams and found it fully furnished. The other, a third-floor unit at 3530 Green Crest, was empty and is where the children were forced to live with the decomposing body.
Williams received financial assistance for each child with a disability, Harris County District Attorney’s Office prosecutor Andrea Beall said. Funds intended for Kendrick, believed to be autistic, continued after his death, she continued. His death went unreported for 11 months until his 15year-old brother on Oct. 24 called police.
Williams also continued receiving funds for her oldest daughter who no longer lived with her, Beall said.
Carolyn Towner, sister of Williams’ ex-husband Daryl Towner, gathered outside the courthouse later on Friday to elaborate on Towner’s marriage to Williams in 2017. She said two of Williams’ children, including Kendrick, were autistic and that he had problems communicating.
“I remember his sweet little face coming into the kitchen and he was mumbling something and pointing,” the sister said. “I remember getting down on eye-level to this baby. ‘What do you want, baby?’ He pointed to something on the counter and I gave it to him.”
The item Kendrick wanted was
a dessert, she said.
The sister said Towner helped care for the children until his death in 2019 and after that, the family lost contact with Williams and the kids. Williams at some point started dating Brian Coulter — the man charged in Kendrick’s death.
The jurist, Kelli Johnson of the 178th District Court, agreed to hold Williams on a $1 million bail for the injury to a child, causing serious bodily injury — elevating the combined bail to $1.55 million, court records show.
Defense attorney Neal Davis III, appointed Monday to represent the mother, argued that a bail review hearing was not necessary so early in the criminal case and that she would be unable to pay most any bail amount.
Even if she could make bond, Davis said, she may be unable to find a job because of the publicity surrounding the allegations, Davis said.
“This is a pretty bad case,” Davis said, adding that any government checks she was receiving will have ceased. He has also been unable to reach Williams’ family to determine if they can provide financial support for her bail, he said.
Williams is charged with injury to a child by omission, injury to a child causing serious bodily injury and tampering with evidence, in this case a human corpse. Coulter, charged with murder, is accused of beating Kendrick to death.
Williams told investigators that she did not report the abuse or death because Coulter told her not to, according to court records. She also feared that Child Protective Services would take her children away and she would go to jail — which ultimately happened. The state agency took custody of her children.
Weeks before the rescue, authorities believe Coulter punched another of Williams’ children in the jaw. That child then required reconstructive facial surgery because the untreated wound escalated to an infection, prosecutors said.
Coulter is slated to return to court on Dec. 15 for an arraignment, while Williams is scheduled for an appearance next year.