A prominent Texas judge vanished weeks after sentencing a convicted child murderer to life in prison.
Harris County Judge Kelli Johnson hasn't set foot in her office at the 178th Criminal District Courthouse since April, according to KTRK-TV.
On May 4, officers responded to the judge's home for a crisis intervention call, a police report stated, according to the outlet. The details of the call remain unclear.
This week, a court spokesperson confirmed the judge was out addressing "personal matters" after an unidentified coworker claimed Johnson was "a danger to herself and to the community," the station reported.
Just last month, Johnson presided over the high-profile murder case of Brian Coulter, 34, and sentenced him to life in prison without parole for the fatal beating of his girlfriend's son, 8-year-old Kendrick Lee, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Kendrick died in either late September or early October 2020. His skeletal remains were recovered in October 2021.
Coulter and his girlfriend, Gloria Williams, forced her three other children, now 10, 12, and 17, to live with Kendrick's corpse at a Houston apartment for a year, while they moved out, authorities said, according to the Chronicle.
"Those children have haunted me this past week – they have interrupted my safe space when I leave this building," Johnson told Coulter during his sentencing last month. "In prison, I hope those boys who have haunted my mind, haunt yours."
Since Johnson's absence, other judges have been forced to step in to oversee her cases.
She was first elected in 2016 after 17 years as an assistant district attorney. She shares two children with her wife, and is Harris County's first openly gay female judge.
