A man charged in an alleged stalking-related killing in Libertyville bonded out of Lake County Jail late last week after a relative met his bail with a $300,000 cashier’s check.
Bail had been set at $3 million for Kenneth Seplak, 37, of Round Lake Beach, who is accused of the Dec. 23 fatal shooting of a man who had gone on a date with a woman authorities said Seplak was likely stalking.
Seplak was released from custody under stringent restrictions after a relative posted $300,000 to secure his release Dec. 30.
Terms of his bond include a 24-hour curfew at his parents’ home in Round Lake Beach, monitoring by the Lake County Circuit Court’s pretrial bond services personnel, no contact with anyone related to the case, no possession of firearms or weapons and no consumption of alcohol or drugs with random testing planned, according to the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office.
“Safeguards have been put in place,” Christopher Covelli, spokesman for the Lake County Major Crime Task Force, said Tuesday. He declined to comment further on Seplak’s release. The Major Crime Task Force is assisting Libertyville police in the homicide investigation.
Seplak is charged with first-degree murder in the death of David Gorski, 30, who was killed by a single shot that sent a bullet through his right arm and into his chest, according to the Lake County Coroner’s Office.
State’s Attorney Michael Nerheim said Tuesday that his office will request a bond court hearing as early as Wednesday to ask that electronic monitoring be used for Seplak while he is on 24-hour curfew. Nerheim said prosecutors at Seplak’s Dec. 28 bond hearing had requested that electronic monitoring be included as a term of his potential release, but it was not included by the judge at that time.
Libertyville police found Gorski in his car on the center median of Milwaukee Avenue near Hollister Drive about 11:30 p.m. Dec. 23, officials said.
Seplak’s defense attorney, Steven McCollum, said Tuesday that his only comment on his client’s release on bond is that “he has a lot of people who believe in his innocence.”
Seplak is next due in court Jan. 25, but if he is indicted by a Lake County Grand Jury before then, that court date could be affected.
According to information previously released by Covelli, investigators learned that Gorski had seen a movie at Hawthorn Mall in Vernon Hills with a 30-year-old woman from Wauconda.
The woman later told police that she had problems with a stalker, identified by Covelli as Seplak. Covelli said officers learned of at least one recent incident in which Seplak had made an unwanted appearance at the woman’s home.
Officers found Seplak at his house Dec. 24, and GPS data taken from his phone showed he had traveled to the Vernon Hills theater and then to a house in the 41000 block of North Route 83 in an unincorporated area near Antioch.
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A man at that house gave police a bag that contained a handgun and ammunition and said he found it in his car after Seplak had visited the home, according to Covelli.
Covelli said that ballistic evidence connects the bullet that killed Gorski to the gun found at the house and that gunpowder residue was found on Seplak.
Covelli said before Seplak’s release that police are taking precautions to protect the woman.
Attorney Daniel Hodgkinson, also representing Seplak, said previously that Seplak worked for a beverage distribution company for about 10 years until recently being laid off.
“He’s a very steady guy who never missed work,” Hodgkinson said. “He lives with his parents to help take care of them.”
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