The grandmother of one of Gloria Williams' daughters has described the woman at the center of Houston's shocking child abuse case as being 'very unstable,' and accused her of failing to protect her six children, including the eight-year-old boy who was beaten to death and left to rot in an apartment with his siblings for a year.
Williams, 35, has been charged with injury to a child by omission and tampering with evidence - a human corpse. A judge set her bond at $900,000 on Wednesday.
Her boyfriend, Brian Coulter, 31, is charged with felony murder in connection with the November 2020 beating death of Williams' eight-year-old son, Kendrick Lee. His bond was set at $1million.
The child's skeletal remains were discovered by the police on Sunday inside an unfurnished Houston apartment with soiled carpet, flies and roaches, where his three starving brothers, ages 15, 10 and 7, had been living alone with no blankets and surviving on junk food deliveries from mom and handouts from neighbors for months.
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Melody Robinson, the grandmother of Gloria Williams' 13-year-old daughter, who's been in her care from age 2, said the mom in the Houston House of Horrors case is 'very unstable'
This photos from four years ago shows Robinson (center), Robinson's son and Willimas (left), along with her six children. The boy in the colorful T-shirt is Kendric Lee, who was beaten to death in November 2020
Booking photos released by the Harris County Sheriff's Office show Brian Coulter, 31, charged with beating to death his girlfriend's eight-year-old son. The mother, Gloria Williams, 35, is charged with starving and neglecting her children
Williams appeared in Houston court on Wednesday and was ordered held on $900,000 bond
Authorities on Wednesday alleged that Coulter punched and kicked Kendrick to death around Thanksgiving Day last year, and Williams refused to report him to the police, claiming she was afraid her children would be taken away and she would end up in jail.
Melody Robinson, the paternal grandmother of Williams' 13-year-old daughter, who has had custody of the girl from age two, told KTRK the mom-of-six was 'very unstable.'
Robinson said her son previously dated Williams for about three years, and at one point the whole family lived with her, including Williams two daughters and four sons, at least two of whom are autistic.
In separate interviews with Fox 26 and KTRK, Robinson said Williams did not have her life together and had refused help from relatives
'Our job, as a mother, is to protect our children,' Robinson said. 'She failed that baby. She failed her kids in that area. She did not protect her children.'
Robinson revealed that she has recently received conservatorship of Williams' 17-year-old daughter.
Law enforcement officials found William's three surviving sons, ages 15, 10 and 7, living alone with the corpse of their brother at the CityParc II apartment complex in Houston
Harris County Sheriff's Department officers are seen above at a Houston apartment complex on Sunday afternoon, after Williams' eldest son called 911
Kendrick Lee, the 8-year-old boy whose body was found decomposing next to his siblings, is pictured with his siblings in an undated photo
'The 17-year old-wanted to be with me and so the mom didn’t want her and told me just take her and didn’t want her back,' the grandmother said.
Linda Smith, the grandmother of one of Williams' young sons, told DailyMail.com in an interview on Wednesday that had she known what was going on, she would have adopted her grandson, Ja'Veon Kirklin, 7, along with his brothers.
Meanwhile, Coulter's family have released a statement, seeking to distance themselves from the accused child killer.
'We are deeply saddened by the events that have unfolded. This is not who we raised our son to be,' the Vasconcellos family said. 'Our hearts and prayers go out to those brave children....Our relationship with Brian has been distant for years.'
Coulter and Williams were arrested on Tuesday at a public library, where they were said to have been looking up news stories online about their own case.
During Williams' court appearance, a prosecutor read aloud a statement of probable cause, which revealed that three of the mother's surviving children witnessed their brother's fatal beating.
The children claimed Coulter struck the eight-year-old with closed fists and kicked him in his face, feet, back, testicles and buttocks.
Williams' 7-year-old son told deputies Coulter continued kicking Kendrick, who was lying on the floor and not moving, while staring at the younger brother who was in the room.
After Kendrick's eyes turned black and he stopped blinking, Coulter covered him with a blue blanket, the prosecutor stated.
When Williams entered the bedroom to check on her son and saw that he was dead, she began crying and fighting with Coulter.
Her 15-year-old son told investigators he believed his mother would call the police on Coulter, but 'she never did.' She then moved out of the apartment, leaving her surviving children with their brother's rotting corpse and without any adult supervision.
William's 10-year-old son told investigators that when Williams came by the apartment at a later date and lifted the blanket off of Kendrick, she found that 'his body, feet and teeth had turned into a skeleton,' and that 'his hair was off.' His decomposing corpse was said to have been covered with cockroaches.
The 10-year-old also claimed that Coulter would beat him as well, hitting him on the face, stomach, buttocks and legs, and broke his jaw three weeks ago.
When police arrived at the apartment on Sunday, they found the child with a swollen jaw. At the hospital the following day, the boy said that his mother 'was aware of the injury but did not seek or obtain medical aid for him,' the prosecutor said.
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Heartbroken grandmother reveals she would have adopted the four children had she known of horrific abuse
Linda Smith, 71, is the grandmother of one of Gloria Williams' five children who were abandoned in Texas House of Horrors
The grandmother of one of the young children who were abandoned and neglected by their mother exclusively tells DailyMail.com, 'I wish I would have known how bad of a situation those kids were in; I would have adopted all of the kids.'
Linda Smith, 71, said she is sickened by what Gloria Williams and her boyfriend, Brian Coulter are accused of doing to her children.
Smith sat down with DailyMail.com and shared pictures of Gloria's children, Jordan Lee, 15, Trevon Lee, 10, Ja'Veon Kirklin, 7, and deceased Kendrick Lee, 8. Smith revealed Williams has another child, 17-year-old Jasmine Rene Whitaker, who was not in the house.
Smith's son, Jonathan Kirklin, is the father of 7-year old Ja'Veon Kirklin. He has been in and out of jail for the last several years and hasn't been a part of his son's life.
'All of Gloria's kids lived with me for a short time in 2014, my son went to jail for about 6 months,' she said.
'I soon found out when my son was in jail and I was at work, Gloria would have different men come over to my house. I don't know what she was doing with them. As soon as I found out I confronted Gloria with it, of course she denied it. But I told her she and her kids had to leave.'
Kendrick, pictured in a much younger photo, is pictured with his mother Gloria
Smith said Gloria and her kids left the house and it was years before she saw Ja'Veon again, 'Gloria just disappeared.'
A few years ago, Smith said Williams called her and asked her to meet at a McDonald's and she brought Ja'Veon along for Smith to see. 'Looking back on it now, I think if I would have asked her, she would have let me adopt Ja'Veon. It was just a feeling I got.'
Smith said she found out about what happened to her grandson and Gloria's other children from the media. 'I'll adopt all of them. I'm heartbroken to hear what happened to them and especially Kendrick.'
'I regret kicking her out, I should have never done that. I've asked myself, What else have this kids gone through with all of the guys that have been in and out of her life? Were the kids molested, abused?'
At one point, Smith had to sit down in a
