Baltimore man held without bail in stabbing of 6-year-old
A Baltimore City District Court judge ordered Alan Geslicki to be held without bail Friday morning. The 32-year-old is charged with stabbing his girlfriend’s son, 6-year-old Seron O’Neal, to death in a Southwest Baltimore home earlier this week.
During a bail review hearing Friday, a public defender representing Geslicki said he “is struggling with some substance abuse issues.”
Assistant Public Defender Clarke Rich asked if Geslicki could be released into home detention and receive substance abuse and mental health treatment.
But Judge James H. Green denied her request, calling the allegations against Geslicki “horrific and devastating.”
Baltimore City Assistant State’s Attorney Kevin Reinoso argued that Geslicki exhibited a “violent nature that resulted in one of the most heinous outcomes: the death of a child.” Reinoso said O’Neal was stabbed approximately 10 times.
He also cited Geslicki’s past convictions to argue that he had a pattern of aggressive outbursts. Reinoso described alleged assaults against a “random individual” and an emergency medical provider.
Some of Geslicki’s prior run-ins with the law occurred in New Jersey and Florida, Reinoso said, indicating that Geslicki has “out-of-state ties, from the top of the East Coast to the bottom” and could therefore pose a flight risk.
Reinoso also noted that Geslicki fled the scene of the stabbing Tuesday night, before officers found him a couple of miles away and apprehended him. Charging documents stated that officers who apprehended Geslicki noticed what appeared to be blood on his hands and clothes.
Rich said Geslicki grew up in New Jersey and attended high school there but has been living in Maryland for several years, including with his girlfriend.
Previously, Geslicki received substance abuse treatmen and had been in recovery, Rich said. At the time of his arrest, he was employed at the Maryland Transit Administration working on trains, and was studying to obtain his commercial driver’s license, in hopes of becoming a truck driver, Rich said.
Rich said she planned to submit a request for Geslicki to receive a medical evaluation, adding that he appeared to be suffering from the effects of withdrawal. Geslicki’s bail review was postponed by one day due to illness. Geslicki appeared via webcam Friday morning.
Neighbors of the family in Morrell Park mourned O’Neal, a first grader at James McHenry Elementary/Middle School. They said the young boy frequently could be seen playing with other children in the neighborhood, and loved to show off his bike.
One neighbor said he saw the child outside shoveling snow with Geslicki following a recent snowstorm.
On a GoFundMe established for O’Neal’s funeral and medical costs, a woman identifying herself as O’Neal’s mother said he was a “bright light” at his age, and called his killer a “monster.” O’Neal loved playing Roblox, dancing and taking videos on his mother’s phone, she wrote.
“An innocent life, that was taken from this world so soon. A smile that will no longer light the darkness,” she wrote of her son.
