Mother, Boyfriend Charged In 2020 Death Of Sierra Vista Toddler

Kenny Gamble II [Photo courtesy of Gamble family]

The death of two-year-old Kenny “Bubs” Gamble continues to affect his siblings, extended family, and the Sierra Vista emergency responders who valiantly attempted to save the toddler’s life in June 2020.

But last Thursday, the #JusticeForBubs campaign took a step closer to healing after a Cochise County grand jury indicted the boy’s mother, Alysha Hop, and her boyfriend, Daniel Jawara Foster, on felony charges in connection to the boy’s care and death.

Arizona Daily Independent has confirmed Hop and Foster are now the subjects of nationwide arrest warrants which come with a $1 million bond requested by the Cochise County Attorney’s Office. Additional release conditions will be imposed by a judge once each is taken into custody and has their initial court appearance.

The saga of Gamble’s death goes back to just before 11 a.m. June 3, 2020 when officers and paramedics responded to a 911 call from Foster, now 30, about an unresponsive child. The boy was in the apartment with Foster and another child while Hop went shopping.

Three days later, the boy was removed from life support at a Tucson hospital and became an organ donor in death. An autopsy by the Pima County medical examiner listed Gamble’s cause of death as blunt trauma to the head resulting in ischemic / hypoxic encephalopathy – a lack of oxygen or blood flow to the brain.

The medical examiner also identified 15 purple colored contusions consistent with bruising, four of which were located on the boy’s head. But the autopsy was inconclusive at the time on whether the boy’s injuries were the result of a homicide or an accident.

SVPD Det. Paul Youman spent weeks nailing down the timeline of Gamble’s activities in the days before the 911 call. Forster was eventually listed as a suspect in the official police report, while Hop was noted as a person of interest.

Despite some challenges posed by COVID-19 for the last year, Youman kept the investigation moving forward. At one point he obtained a court order with the assistance of the county attorney’s office to obtain records from the Arizona Department of Child Safety. In addition, Youman and prosecutor Lori Zucco had Gamble’s medical records reviewed by a forensic specialist.

This June, members of the Gamble and Hop families gathered at a Sierra Vista park to commemorate the boy’s life. At the time, County Attorney Brian McIntyre said the investigation into the death was ongoing and his office was continuing to review the medical evidence “to determine the most appropriate outcome.”

On Aug. 26, the grand jury was presented with Youman’s investigation, resulting in multiple felonies against Hop and Foster.

Neither McIntyre, Zucco, nor Youman were available Monday to comment on the timing of last week’s indictments. Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Hop or Foster is asked to call SVPD dispatch at 520-803-3555.

Public records show Youman also reviewed more than a dozen reports related to Foster’s contacts with law enforcement in recent years. Arizona Daily Independent has obtained many of those police reports, including ones which describe Foster as a suspect in a 2016 assault, a 2017 domestic violence incident, and a 2018 claim of sexual misconduct for having intercourse with a teenaged minor.

The sexual misconduct allegation against Foster was reported to the Huachuca City Police Department by the minor’s mother. However, no investigation was conducted, and no direct contact was made with the minor.

Instead, Officer Kyle Arnett asked the mother to bring the girl into the police department at some time to make a formal report. Arnett also instructed the mother to record a conversation with Foster on her phone in hopes Foster would admit to the crime.

However, last week’s grand jury indictment does include criminal charges against Foster in connection to a July 2018 assault in which Foster’s then-girlfriend alleged she was beaten by Foster in Bisbee and forced into his car. The county attorney’s office had that case reopened and included the details -which include photographs of the woman’s facial and bodily injuries- presented to the grand jury.

The exact charges included in Foster’s indictment for the July 2018 case are not yet public.