Gazlay trial kicks off series of actions in 311 Boyz case

Erica D. Johnson

Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2003 | 9:29 a.m.

Opening arguments this morning were expected to kick off the first of several trials involving the 311 Boyz gang.

Steven Gazlay, 18, is on trial on one count each of battery with use of a deadly weapon causing substantial bodily harm and assault with use of a deadly weapon in an alleged attack on two teens with a crowbar last summer.

Jury selection in the trial concluded late Tuesday before District Judge Valerie Adair.

Gazlay became the most outspoken of the 311 Boyz after he and eight other teens were charged with multiple felony counts, including attempted murder, in an attack on 17-year-old Stephen Tanner Hansen.

Gazlay, who was labeled by prosecutors as the instigator of several fights involving the gang, also faces two additional cases. He is charged with burning a teen with a hot butter knife and ramming his truck into a neighborhood's iron gate entrance, damaging it.

Gazlay initially appeared on local and national media outlets proclaiming his innocence. He said he was not a member of any gang and did not participate in any violence associated with the 311 Boyz.

Defense attorney James "Bucky" Buchanan said Tuesday that Gazlay would testify in the crowbar case.

Attorneys defending the teens have for months alleged that the intense publicity surrounding the gang could possibly taint a potential jury pool. Videotapes showing the teens engaged in violent fistfights surfaced on local and national media outlets.

During jury selection on Tuesday, most prospective jurors said they were familiar with the cases involving the 311 Boyz through newspapers and television.

Most prospective jurors, however, said they could set aside the pre-trial publicity and be fair and impartial if selected to sit on the jury. Jurors are instructed to consider only testimony and evidence presented in court.

Still, other prospective jurors said they had never heard of the cases involving Gazlay or the other 311 Boyz.

Several people said they had seen some footage of the videotapes involving the 311 Boyz on television news.

"I saw part of a video. It was dark. There were some kids fighting," one prospective juror who works as an elementary school teacher said.

"I was just surprised that Las Vegas was on the national news."

Another woman said she had teenage children but that they were enrolled in private school. She said she had heard about the case involving Gazlay but that she could be fair when deciding his case.

"I do recognize the defendant from television," she said. "But I realize that the media can put things out there that are not true anyway."

Another man said he had followed the 311 Boyz cases and that he'd already formed a biased opinion against the teens. He was immediately excused.

Prosecutors Christopher Laurent and James Sweetin say Gazlay attacked Sean Quinn, 20, with a crowbar or another metal object in a desert area known as "the basin" near the Las Vegas Beltway and Centennial Parkway on July 21.

When Quinn's friend, James Sarlo, jumped in to help Quinn, Gazlay allegedly attacked him with the weapon as well. Quinn was later treated for a broken jaw, broken nose, cuts and scrapes.

Adair said the trial is expected to last through Thursday or Friday. Prosecutors plan to call 25 witnesses. Buchanan plans to call 12 witnesses, he said.