This morning brought incremental movement in the case of 19-month-old Ky’mani Moore, who died on December 21, 2018 in the trailer home shared by his mother, Alyssa Carpenter, and her boyfriend, Jason Forsyth, in Old Lycoming Township, Pennsylvania.

Ky’mani’s death was ruled a homicide caused by “multiple acute and chronic blunt force trauma injuries.”

After over a year of investigation, Jason Forsyth, who had been in custody since October of 2019 on charges of stealing Alyssa’s credit card, was finally charged in January of 2020 with third-degree murder, endangering the welfare of children, recklessly endangering another person, involuntary manslaughter, and two counts of aggravated assault in Ky’mani’s death. 

Jason was seen in court this morning at 9:00 AM, at which time Lycoming County President Judge Nancy L. Butts scheduled an omnibus motion hearing for Tuesday, October 13 at 9:00 AM. 

For those unfamiliar, an omnibus motion is made by defense counsel and is essentially comprised of several smaller motions lumped together. These can include things like motions to suppress certain evidence, to preclude eyewitness testimony or the introduction of a defendant’s prior crimes, to dismiss the case outright, and other such motions pertinent to each individual case.

An omnibus motion in Pennsylvania is supposed to be made within 30 days of arraignment unless the court for some reason extends the deadline. Since Jason was arraigned on March 16 of this year, I’m sure the COVID-19 pandemic had a lot to do with the exception to the normal time frame. 

Jason and his public defender, Matthew Welickovitch, had requested bail modification in early July, but it was denied on July 28. 23-year-old Jason Micah Forsyth is being held without bail in Lycoming County Prison.

At the time of Ky’mani’s death, Alyssa was pregnant with Jason’s child, a daughter born in June of 2019, who was removed from the couple’s custody at birth. Alyssa regained custody of the little girl in March of this year. In late 2019, she rekindled her relationship with Ky’mani’s father, 21-year-old Darven Moore. The two were arrested on drug charges in March after a search warrant was executed on Alyssa’s mobile home. Alyssa was able to post bail, but it is unclear if she retained custody of her daughter. Darven remains in Lycoming County Prison with bail set at $99,000. I’d pay real money to be a fly on the wall if Darven ever crosses paths with the man boy accused of the murder of his son. 

Alyssa and Darven were also in court this morning at 9:00 AM for a pre-trial hearing before Judge Butts. Again, I have to wonder if they crossed paths. Darven’s case has been updated with a scheduled omnibus motion hearing at 11:00 AM on October 13, but there is no update yet on Alyssa’s case.

Anyway, Alyssa, now 22, was pregnant at the time of their arrests, and she and Darven welcomed another son in July of this year. The little guy has a heart defect and multiple other issues; he underwent open heart surgery days after birth and remains in the hospital two months later. The baby’s middle name is Ky’mani in honor of the older brother he never met.

If you haven’t heard my interview with Ky’mani’s paternal grandma, Melissa Moore, you should definitely give it a listen. Melissa’s was my first ever interview on Suffer the Little Children Podcast, and I truly appreciated her openness and candor during our heartbreaking conversation. (I apologize in advance for the cringey opening theme, which I changed shortly thereafter by popular demand.)

Click here for my ongoing coverage of Ky’mani’s case.

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Sources: The Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania Web Portal, Facebook