HOUSTON (AP) — A judge on Tuesday sentenced a woman to 50 years in prison for forcing three of his children living with the decomposing body of his dead 8-year-old brother for more than a year in a dirty, cockroach-infested apartment in the Houston area.

Gloria Williams38 years old, expressed his deep regret before being sentenced, the The Houston Chronicle reported.

Williams’ sentencing came after he pleaded guilty in October to two counts of injury to a child through abuse involving 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 deputies indicated it was the most disturbing scene they had worked on in their careers and that it “seemed too gruesome to be.” real”.

Lee’s Three Abandoned Brothers I had been living alone for months and they were thin, malnourished and hungry when authorities found them in an unfurnished Harris County apartment that was infested with flies and cockroaches and had dirty 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 brother, then 15, eventually overcame his fear and called authorities. The other two brothers were 7 and 10 years old when they were found by authorities.

Williams was sentenced after a nearly two-day court hearing that focused on the extent of her role in Lee’s death. His 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 fatally hit Lee sometime around Thanksgiving 2020.

A few months after the fatal beating, Williams and Coulter moved out and went to live in 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 his children after his arrest. The two younger brothers have since been adopted, while the older one is with an adoptive family, the newspaper reported.