Torrance Man Faces Charges After Son, 3, Is Hospitalized

A Torrance man who told police that he was disciplining his 3-year-old son before the boy was hospitalized with severe head and stomach injuries has been charged with cruel and improper punishment.

Glenn Earl Gambel, 25, who owns a car-detailing company, was charged with one count of willful cruelty and one count of inflicting corporal punishment on a child. Both felonies carry maximum penalties of up to six years in state prison.

“The injuries were sustained apparently when he was disciplining the boy,” Torrance Police Lt. Wally Murker said.

Gambel was released Friday on $25,000 bail and will be arraigned in South Bay Municipal Court on Feb. 16.

He was arrested Thursday after the boy was found unconscious by paramedics called to his apartment on Pacific Coast Highway. Police also took into custody Gambel’s girlfriend, 22-year-old Kimberly Deborah Harris, who is eight months’ pregnant, but released her later that day.

Police first sought to book Gambel for attempted murder but reduced the charges and bail when the boy’s condition improved, Murker said.

“Originally, we thought there was a possibility this child might not live,” Murker said. “But the child is not as seriously injured as we originally thought.”

The boy, who was put on life-support systems in the intensive-care unit of Los Angeles County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, is listed in good condition, Murker said. He is expected to be released this week and placed into protective custody, Murker added.

Emergency room doctors told investigators that the boy showed signs of past injuries. “It appeared he had suffered a head injury in the past several weeks,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Fred Klink said.

So far, investigators have found no previous reports of abuse, Murker said.