‘I’m sorry. I didn’t do it’: House of horrors mother claims she didn’t know son was dead in jailhouse interview
Gloria Williams claims she checked on her starving sons every two weeks after allegedly abandoning them in an apartment with their murdered brother’s corpse
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The mother accused of abandoning her three children inside the Texas house of horrors with the rotting corpse of their murdered brother has said she is “sorry” in a jailhouse interview.
Gloria Williams told KHOU11 on Thursday she “didn’t do it” and claimed not to know her son Kendrick Lee was dead as she spoke out for the first time since her arrest on Tuesday.
The 35-year-old mother-of-six also insisted she had been checking on her sons every two weeks, despite officials saying the three surviving children were malnourished and “very thin” when they were found alone with Kendrick’s skeletal remains in a Houston apartment on Sunday.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t do it,” Ms Williams said from behind bars at Harris County Jail.
When asked if she knew her son was dead, she replied: “No.”
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However, Ms Williams told investigators on Sunday that she found her son dead last November, the court heard during her bond hearing on Wednesday.
Ms Williams allegedly said she saw her boyfriend Brian Coulter punching Kendrick and tried to stop him.
The next day, she said she came into the bedroom and found her son dead and covered in a blanket.
Ms Williams told investigators she confronted Mr Coulter, who told her he was sorry and had lost control and repeatedly punched her son “until he went to sleep”.
She said she knew her son was dead but failed to report his death because Mr Coulter asked her not to and she feared her children would be taken away from her and she would be sent to prison.
The 35-year-old has been charged with injury to a child by omission, injury to a child, serious bodily injury and tampering with evidence (human corpse).
When Ms Williams was asked by KHOU11 why she had left her children alone in the apartment, she replied: "I checked on them every two weeks."
The outlet reported that she then refused to answer further questions or go into any more detail.
Mr Coulter is charged with the murder of Kendrick for allegedly beating and kicking the eight-year-old death on or around 20 November last year.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said in a press conference Wednesday that they believed the boy died around Thanksgiving, estimating between 20 and 29 November.
New details of the timeline of events have now come to light as it has emerged that Mr Coulter was being held behind bars from 23 to 29 November following an incident with a gun at a Buc-ee’s in Luling, 140 miles west of Houston.
Luling Chief of Police Bill Sala told ABC13 the Buc-ee’s manager called 911 to report an “intoxicated” man possibly armed with a handgun at around 7am on 23 November.
An officer arrived on the scene to find Mr Coulter believed to be high in a car and Ms Williams in the passenger seat.
Mr Coulter was armed with a .45 caliber handgun and was found in possession of marijuana.
There were no children with the couple at the time, the police chief said.
The 31-year-old was charged with unlawfully carrying a weapon and cited for marijuana possession.
He was taken into custody and released on 29 November on bond. The charges in the case are still pending.
Ms Williams was also cited for the drug possession but released.
At the time, the couple told the officer they had been driving all day from Houston to San Antonio and back to Houston, ABC13 reported.
Based on the grim discovery this week, Mr Coulter had allegedly murdered Kendrick just one or two days earlier before the couple went on their road trip together.
Chief Sala said his department had received a call from a “highly intoxicated” Mr Coulter just two weeks ago where he “cussed out” his administrative assistant and demanded his gun be returned to him.
The gun was not returned to him.
It is not clear when Mr Coulter came into possession of the firearm, allegedly unlawfully.
However, according to investigators, the 31-year-old repeatedly abused his girlfriend’s children.
Harris County Sergeant Dennis Wolfford described Mr Coulter as a “textbook case of a child abuser”.