Texas
Mother sentenced to 50 years for leaving kids in dire conditions as son’s body decomposed
HOUSTON (AP) — A judge on Tuesday sentenced a woman to 50 years in prison for forcing three of her children to live with the decomposing body of their dead 8-year-old brother for more than a year in a soiled, roach-infested Houston-area apartment.
Gloria Williams, 38, expressed deep regret before being sentenced, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Williams’ sentence came after she had pleaded guilty in October to two counts of injury to a child for abuse that involved 8-year-old Kendrick Lee, who was beaten to death by her boyfriend, and another child, the newspaper reported.
When authorities discovered the boy’s body in October 2021, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said many officers indicated it was the most disturbing scene they had worked in their careers and that it “seemed too horrific to be real.”
Lee’s three abandoned brothers had been living alone for months and were thin, malnourished and hungry when authorities found them in an unfurnished Harris County apartment that was infested with flies and roaches and had soiled carpet.
Authorities said the children had waited for Williams to call authorities to report that their brother had been beaten to death by her boyfriend, Brian Coulter. Investigators say the mother never made that call and the oldest surviving sibling, then a 15-year-old, finally overcame his fear and called authorities. The two other siblings were 7 and 10 years old when they were found by authorities.
Williams was sentenced following a nearly two-day court hearing that focused on the extent of her role in Lee’s death. Her defense attorneys blamed Coulter for most of the abuse. Coulter was sentenced in April to life in prison without parole for Lee’s death. The sheriff’s office had previously said Coulter had consistently hit the younger children and had fatally beaten Lee sometime around Thanksgiving in 2020.
A few months after the fatal beating, Williams and Coulter moved out and went to live at another apartment about 25 minutes away, leaving the three surviving siblings to fend for themselves as their brother’s body slowly decomposed, authorities said.
Williams relinquished parental rights over her children after her arrest. The two younger siblings have since been adopted, while the eldest is with a foster family, the newspaper reported.
Maryland
12 college students charged with hate crimes after assault
BALTIMORE (AP) — A dozen students at a university on Maryland’s Eastern Shore have been arrested after they lured a man to an off-campus apartment, beat him up and called him a homophobic slur, according to local police.
In addition to assault and false imprisonment, the 12 young men are facing hate crime charges for allegedly targeting the assault victim because he’s gay, Salisbury police said in a news release. According to charging documents, one of the defendants made a fake account on a dating app and promised the man sex with a 16-year-old.
Steve Rakow, an attorney representing one of the defendants, vehemently denied the alleged motive. He said the man never reported the incident because he was trying to have sex with a teenage boy.
The man’s age is not included in court documents. Under Maryland law, the legal age of consent is 16 in most cases.
“Let me just set the record straight — this is not a hate crime,” Rakow said in an email.
Salisbury University officials announced last week that the 12 students were suspended. Officials said the school is working with law enforcement as the investigation continues and “condemns all acts of violence.”
University President Carolyn Ringer Lepre said she was creating a taskforce focused on LGBTQ+ inclusiveness.
“Our community is reeling from an act of visceral hate,” Lepre said in a statement posted to social media. “We are witnessing a campus filled with anguish that something so unspeakable could happen from within the community that we all love.”
Rakow, in turn, accused the university administration of jumping to conclusions by issuing the suspensions, saying that “apparently, due process doesn’t apply to academia.”
Attorneys for the other students either declined to comment or didn’t respond to requests from AP. Some of the defendants don’t yet have attorneys listed in online court records.
Salisbury University is located on the Eastern Shore, about 100 miles southeast of Baltimore.
Charging documents say the Salisbury Police Department started investigating after two witnesses told campus police that they had seen a video of the Oct. 15 assault.
Police later obtained the footage from a phone belonging to one of the defendants. It also showed the victim’s car leaving the scene. Police used his license plate number to identify and contact the man, who said “he never notified law enforcement of the attack in fear for his safety due to retaliation and being threatened by the attackers,” the documents say.
The man went to an apartment “for the purpose of having sexual intercourse” with someone he believed was 16, according to the documents. Shortly after he walked into the apartment, a group of “college-aged males appeared from the back bedrooms” and forced him onto a chair in the middle of the living room, police wrote. They slapped, punched, kicked and spit on him while calling him derogatory names and preventing him from leaving, according to police.
Police said the victim received a broken rib and extensive bruising.
Some of the defendants have been charged with more counts than others.
Mississippi
Man charged with shooting 5 people after not being allowed into party
LAUREL, Miss. (AP) — A 34-year-old man has been charged in the shooting of five people during a weekend party in Mississippi after he was denied entry into the event.
The shooting happened at the Cameron Center in Laurel shortly after midnight Sunday, Laurel Police Chief Tommy Cox told WJTV-TV.
Daniel Gomez allegedly shot the people after he wasn’t allowed into the facility, according to police. He has been charged with five counts of aggravated assault and one count of driving under the influence.
Cox said the five victims had non-life threatening injuries.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has placed a hold on Gomez.
Cox did not immediately return an email seeking further details about the shooting and whether Gomez has a lawyer. Online jail records for the Jones County detention center did not list an attorney for him.
Mother sentenced to 50 years for leaving kids in dire conditions as son’s body decomposed
HOUSTON (AP) — A judge on Tuesday sentenced a woman to 50 years in prison for forcing three of her children to live with the decomposing body of their dead 8-year-old brother for more than a year in a soiled, roach-infested Houston-area apartment.
Gloria Williams, 38, expressed deep regret before being sentenced, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Williams’ sentence came after she had pleaded guilty in October to two counts of injury to a child for abuse that involved 8-year-old Kendrick Lee, who was beaten to death by her boyfriend, and another child, the newspaper reported.
When authorities discovered the boy’s body in October 2021, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said many officers indicated it was the most disturbing scene they had worked in their careers and that it “seemed too horrific to be real.”
Lee’s three abandoned brothers had been living alone for months and were thin, malnourished and hungry when authorities found them in an unfurnished Harris County apartment that was infested with flies and roaches and had soiled carpet.
Authorities said the children had waited for Williams to call authorities to report that their brother had been beaten to death by her boyfriend, Brian Coulter. Investigators say the mother never made that call and the oldest surviving sibling, then a 15-year-old, finally overcame his fear and called authorities. The two other siblings were 7 and 10 years old when they were found by authorities.
Williams was sentenced following a nearly two-day court hearing that focused on the extent of her role in Lee’s death. Her defense attorneys blamed Coulter for most of the abuse. Coulter was sentenced in April to life in prison without parole for Lee’s death. The sheriff’s office had previously said Coulter had consistently hit the younger children and had fatally beaten Lee sometime around Thanksgiving in 2020.
A few months after the fatal beating, Williams and Coulter moved out and went to live at another apartment about 25 minutes away, leaving the three surviving siblings to fend for themselves as their brother’s body slowly decomposed, authorities said.
Williams relinquished parental rights over her children after her arrest. The two younger siblings have since been adopted, while the eldest is with a foster family, the newspaper reported.
Maryland
12 college students charged with hate crimes after assault
BALTIMORE (AP) — A dozen students at a university on Maryland’s Eastern Shore have been arrested after they lured a man to an off-campus apartment, beat him up and called him a homophobic slur, according to local police.
In addition to assault and false imprisonment, the 12 young men are facing hate crime charges for allegedly targeting the assault victim because he’s gay, Salisbury police said in a news release. According to charging documents, one of the defendants made a fake account on a dating app and promised the man sex with a 16-year-old.
Steve Rakow, an attorney representing one of the defendants, vehemently denied the alleged motive. He said the man never reported the incident because he was trying to have sex with a teenage boy.
The man’s age is not included in court documents. Under Maryland law, the legal age of consent is 16 in most cases.
“Let me just set the record straight — this is not a hate crime,” Rakow said in an email.
Salisbury University officials announced last week that the 12 students were suspended. Officials said the school is working with law enforcement as the investigation continues and “condemns all acts of violence.”
University President Carolyn Ringer Lepre said she was creating a taskforce focused on LGBTQ+ inclusiveness.
“Our community is reeling from an act of visceral hate,” Lepre said in a statement posted to social media. “We are witnessing a campus filled with anguish that something so unspeakable could happen from within the community that we all love.”
Rakow, in turn, accused the university administration of jumping to conclusions by issuing the suspensions, saying that “apparently, due process doesn’t apply to academia.”
Attorneys for the other students either declined to comment or didn’t respond to requests from AP. Some of the defendants don’t yet have attorneys listed in online court records.
Salisbury University is located on the Eastern Shore, about 100 miles southeast of Baltimore.
Charging documents say the Salisbury Police Department started investigating after two witnesses told campus police that they had seen a video of the Oct. 15 assault.
Police later obtained the footage from a phone belonging to one of the defendants. It also showed the victim’s car leaving the scene. Police used his license plate number to identify and contact the man, who said “he never notified law enforcement of the attack in fear for his safety due to retaliation and being threatened by the attackers,” the documents say.
The man went to an apartment “for the purpose of having sexual intercourse” with someone he believed was 16, according to the documents. Shortly after he walked into the apartment, a group of “college-aged males appeared from the back bedrooms” and forced him onto a chair in the middle of the living room, police wrote. They slapped, punched, kicked and spit on him while calling him derogatory names and preventing him from leaving, according to police.
Police said the victim received a broken rib and extensive bruising.
Some of the defendants have been charged with more counts than others.
Mississippi
Man charged with shooting 5 people after not being allowed into party
LAUREL, Miss. (AP) — A 34-year-old man has been charged in the shooting of five people during a weekend party in Mississippi after he was denied entry into the event.
The shooting happened at the Cameron Center in Laurel shortly after midnight Sunday, Laurel Police Chief Tommy Cox told WJTV-TV.
Daniel Gomez allegedly shot the people after he wasn’t allowed into the facility, according to police. He has been charged with five counts of aggravated assault and one count of driving under the influence.
Cox said the five victims had non-life threatening injuries.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has placed a hold on Gomez.
Cox did not immediately return an email seeking further details about the shooting and whether Gomez has a lawyer. Online jail records for the Jones County detention center did not list an attorney for him.
