Newly released court documents have revealed how two of the siblings found abandoned alongside their brother’s body at a home watched his murder. Prosecutors say the mother’s boyfriend beat the eight-year-old to death. The children’s mother said that she had confronted her boyfriend, who said he was sorry and that “he lost it and punched the child until he went to sleep”.
Earlier this week, Gloria Williams, mother to the boys, and her boyfriend, Brian Coulter, were arrested and charged. They were arrested on Tuesday evening at a public library. Prosecutors say they were in the process of searching for news articles about themselves.
Court documents read aloud during a probable cause hearing relayed that Coulter had beaten one of Williams’ children to death. Two of the victim’s brothers said that Coulter had struck the eight-year-old in the face, feet, buttocks, back, legs and groin, and continued to hit him after he had stopped moving.
After killing the boy, Coulter is alleged to have laid out the body on the floor and covered him up. Court documents say that Williams entered the room and began to cry after she saw the body. She then sent the other children from the room while she fought with Coulter.
Williams herself, meanwhile, claimed that she saw her boyfriend assaulting her eight-year-old son and stopped him. She then checked on the child the next morning and found him dead under a blue blanket.
She added that she had confronted Coulter, who said he was sorry and that “he lost it and punched the young child until he went to sleep”.
Thus far, Williams has been charged with injury to a child by omission, injury to a child causing serious bodily harm, and tampering with evidence, namely a human corpse. Coulter, meanwhile, has been charged with murder. Both may yet face additional charges.
The horrific scene at the home was only discovered on Sunday after the eldest of the children, a 15-year-old boy, called the police and explained how his younger brother had been dead for a year. He also told how Williams had moved out of the apartment many months ago.
“For many agency veterans, it was the most disturbing case they had worked in their entire law enforcement career,” said Sheriff Gonzalez. “It seemed too horrific to be real.”
The three surviving children were taken to the Texas Children’s Hospital to be assessed and treated.
“Very horrific situation out here, very tragic,” Gonzalez said in a news conference on Sunday. “Been in this business a long time and I had never heard of a scenario like this. It really caught me by surprise.”