Suspect found guilty in 8-year-old’s death
For nearly 20 minutes, Judge Kelli Johnson balanced Brian Coulter’s fate and the testimony of three children who were forced to live in an apartment for nearly a year with their brother’s decomposing body before she found him guilty.
The four-day bench trial ended with Coulter guilty of capital murder in the beating death of 8year-old Kendrick Lee, his girlfriend’s child. During the trial, prosecutors pinpointed Kendrick’s death to either late September or early October 2020. His skeletal remains were found in October 2021.
Coulter, 34, will serve a life sentence in prison without parole.
No one stepped forward after the verdict to share how the abuse that led to Kendrick’s death impacted them. The judge, however, had words for the defendant, lamenting how the disturbing evidence — which included photos of Kendrick’s remains — followed her home from the courthouse.
“Those children have haunted me this past week — they have interrupted my safe space when I leave this building,” Johnson said. “In prison, I hope those boys who have haunted my mind, haunt yours.”
The judge expressed hope that the surviving children, ages 10, 12 and 17, will lead happy lives surrounded by those who love them.
Prosecutor Edward Applebaum said he planned to inform the children’s adoptive families of the verdict. He called the children brave for testifying against Coulter.
The decision capped three days of testimony from Harris County Sheriff ’s Office investigators; forensic analysts who reviewed the child’s skeletal remains, which included fractured ribs and pelvis; and the surviving siblings who were forced to live in the squalid apartment after Coulter and their mother moved out.
The youngest child recalled Thursday peeking under a blue blanket and seeing that nothing remained of his brother’s body but bones. The eldest child said he frequently saw Coulter lock the younger boys in the bedroom to keep them out of the kitchen.
Prosecutor Celeste Byrom urged the judge during their closing arguments earlier on Monday to find him guilty of capital murder while defense attorneys, who declined to present any witnesses to challenge Coulter’s case, recommended lesser charges of either murder or injury to a child.
The judge denied a request by one of Coulter’s defense attorneys, James Stafford, for an instructed verdict, a rarely granted motion which could have acquitted him of capital murder. The attorneys argued that the prosecutors fell short of proving their burden of proof on a capital murder charge.
“I know this is a horrible (case),” Stafford said. “Everyone in this court wants justice to be done, but it has to be based on what was said on the witness stand.”
His co-counsel, Jimmy Ortiz, told the judge that the younger boys failed to specify how Coulter hurt Kendrick and the severity of those injuries during their testimony.
The eldest child testified that he never saw Coulter hurt his little brother, which Ortiz noted.
Stafford announced plans to appeal Coulter’s verdict.
The lawyers declined to comment while leaving the courtroom.
The mother of the children, Gloria Williams, is slated for trial in the coming weeks. Her attorney did not respond to a request for a comment by deadline and prosecutors declined to discuss her pending case.
Applebaum argued that Coulter often gaslit Williams as the abuse against Kendrick and the rest of the children escalated. He admitted to hitting her children early on in 2020 but downplayed the severity of it.
The prosecutors painted Coulter as being spiteful, jealous and angry as he increasingly competed with the children for Williams’ attention.
Byrom noted that while Coulter and Williams moved to a new apartment in March 2021 after Kendrick’s death, they never brought the surviving children with them. The new lease included some of Williams’ children as residents but not Kendrick.
“That is indicative that this defendant wanted those children out of his life,” Byrom said. “The death of Kendrick got him exactly what he wanted.”