HENDERSON (KTNV) — A father accused of beating his 5-year-old son to death didn't immediately call 911 after the child stopped breathing, according to an arrest report obtained by 13 Action News.
The report details what happened in the 13 minutes Gerald Oglesby allegedly spent with the unconscious boy before calling Henderson police.
Police were called to an apartment in the area of Center Street and Burkholder Boulevard at approximately 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday after receiving a report that the 5-year-old was unconscious and not breathing.
In the report, police state Oglesby, 33, admitted to whipping his son with an electrical cord and punching him in the stomach on Tuesday night, when the child was "back talking him" about why he had to go to bed.
"Gerald explained as soon as he struck (his son) in the abdomen, he knew he struck him too hard," an investigator wrote.
Oglesby told police his son started acting abnormally. The child allegedly could not walk normally and eventually went to lay facedown on the couch. Oglesby says he saw his son throw up on a pillow shortly after laying down.
Based on "the color and odor of his vomit," Oglesby told police he knew something was "not right" with the child.
"Gerald did not call the paramedics or anyone else to see if he could get some help," the report states. Instead, he went and laid on the couch with the child, "rubbing his body for comfort."
According to the report, the 5-year-old boy soon 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. "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." He knew the child was dead, he said, when he could not get the boy to start breathing on his own.
At that point, police say Oglesby "immediately" texted the child's mother a few pictures of the boy he had stored on his phone, then texted his sister and told her the 5-year-old was dead "because he had whipped him too hard," the report states.
He then started smoking a marijuana cigarette and called 911 from his phone, police were told. Emergency dispatchers reportedly instructed Oglesby to perform CPR on the child, but Oglesby "refused" because he had already tried it and it didn't work, according to the report.
Police and paramedics soon arrived at the apartment and attempted life-saving measures on the child, but he could not be revived.
Detectives got a search warrant and collected evidence at the apartment, the investigator writes. What they found led them to believe the 5-year-old may have endured further abuse earlier that day, police said.
"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," the report states.
Oglesby admitted to whipping his son with electrical cords on at least two occasions after he was awarded custody of the child last February, according to the report.
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.
The afternoon of his son's death, Oglesby told police he'd whipped the boy with the electrical cord from a cable TV box, splitting the boy's chin open.
Oglesby was arrested for open murder and booked into jail in Henderson.
