Gerald Oglesby: Nevada dad who killed son, 5, for 'talking back' waited 13 minutes for 911 call
HENDERSON, NEVADA: A Nevada father accused of beating his 5-year-old son waited 13 minutes to call 911 after his son stopped breathing, according to an arrest report. Henderson police were called to an apartment in the area of Center Street and Burkholder Boulevard at 1.30 am on Wednesday, March 16 after receiving a report that the 5-year-old was unconscious and not breathing.
In the report, Gerald Oglesby, 33, admitted to whipping his son with an electrical cord from a cable TV box and punching him in the stomach when the child was "back talking him" about why he had to go to bed. Oglesby told police that he knew "something was wrong" after the incident, because his son "was not acting normal." The boy began to vomit, was unable to walk properly and had trouble breathing. The report states, "Gerald did not call the paramedics or anyone else to see if he could get some help." Instead, he went and laid on the couch with the child, "rubbing his body for comfort."
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According to the report, the five-year-old boy became unresponsive and did not react when Oglesby got an ice pop from the freezer and placed it on his neck to see if he would respond. "Gerald admitted that something was wrong with (his son) but he was afraid and did not want to call the police for help because we would not understand his method of discipline," an investigator wrote in the arrest report. "Gerald stated he did not want to lose custody of (his son) and so he chose not to call to get help."
Oglesby told police he started CPR on his son after the child "took two fast breaths then stopped breathing." The 33-year-old father said he knew the child was dead when he could not get the boy to start breathing on his own. At that point, Oglesby texted child's mother a few pictures of the boy he had stored on his phone, then texted his sister and told her that the 5-year-old was dead "because he had whipped him too hard," the report states.
Oglesby told the police that he started smoking a marijuana cigarette and called 911 from his phone and when emergency dispatchers tried to perform CPR on the child, he told them he had already tried and it didn't work. Police in their investigation found that the 5-year-old may have endured further abuse earlier that day. The report states, "Additional items recovered at the apartment and interviews completed with witnesses revealed (the child) may have been physically abused by Gerald at an earlier time frame the same day causing even more physical injury that (sic) was initially believed."
According to the report, Oglesby admitted to whipping his son with electrical cords on at least two occasions after he was awarded custody of the child last February. He told investigators he'd used a cell phone cord to whip the child on the arms, back, abdomen and neck when his son "started backtalking" in December of 2021.
Oglesby was arrested for open murder and booked into jail in Henderson.