Alleged victim’s testimony describes attack

Erica D. Johnson

Thursday, Dec. 11, 2003 | 11:22 a.m.

A 21-year-old man on Wednesday told jurors that alleged 311 Boyz gang member Steven Gazlay pummeled him with a crowbar in an unprovoked attack last summer.

Sean Quinn said he was in a desert area known as "the basin" near the Las Vegas Beltway and Centennial Parkway with about 150 other teenagers when he had a confrontation with another teen and was attacked by an angry mob.

About 10 teens began kicking and punching Quinn, who lay helpless in the center of the crowd, he said.

"I must have fallen down four or five times," he said. "Punches and kicks are coming from everywhere."

When the mob finally relented, Quinn said, 18-year-old Gazlay waged his unprovoked attack. He said Gazlay approached him and accused him of hitting Gazlay's younger sister.

"He comes up to me and says, 'Why'd you hit my (expletive) sister?' " Quinn said.

"As soon as I looked back over I noticed something in his hand, a round, long metal object. As soon as I looked back up I was struck over my face."

Quinn said that action caused several other teens to rush over and join in the beating. Two friends came to his aide, one girl throwing herself on top of him to protect him, he said.

The friends eventually carried a semi-unconscious Quinn to another teen's pickup truck and sped off. Several teens in another car raced after them, following the truck down a dirt road and out of the basin, Quinn said.

"At that point we were being chased, by who, I don't know," Quinn said.

The testimony kicked off Gazlay's trial before District Judge Valerie Adair. He faces one count each of battery with use of a deadly weapon resulting in substantial bodily harm and assault with use of a deadly weapon in an alleged attack on Quinn and Quinn's friend, James Sarlo.

Gazlay is the first of the alleged 311 Boyz to go to trial in connection with a series of violent assaults authorities say the teens waged in the Northwest during the summer.

Prosecutors Christopher Laurent and James Sweetin say Gazlay pummeled Quinn with the metal object until his face was so swollen that it was nearly disfigured. In his opening argument, Laurent said Gazlay's attack on Quinn was completely unprovoked.

"(Gazlay) reels back, bam, right in the side of the head. Then he hits him again," he said, describing the attack.

That action set off another mob-like attack from dozens of other teens, Laurent said. Gazlay also raised the bar to Sarlo when Sarlo tried to help, Laurent said.

"A swarm type attack similar to a pack of wolves attacking a helpless animal."

Gazlay's attorney, James "Bucky" Buchanan described the scene as a melee in which prosecutors couldn't be sure who threw the damaging blows. Quinn was involved in several fist fights throughout the night, he said.

Buchanan said Gazlay plans to testify in the case and tell jurors his version of what happened the night of the alleged attack.

"All these kids were drunk. Some were high on drugs," he said. "Not a pretty sight, but not an incident in which Steven Gazlay participated."

Buchanan said Gazlay's sister was hit in the head with a beer bottle and that she and Gazlay left the party immediately. He said he plans to call at least a dozen witnesses who will testify that they never saw Gazlay hit Quinn and they never saw Gazlay wielding a crowbar.

But Quinn said while he could not identify all the teens who kicked and hit him, he was "110 percent sure" that it was Gazlay who pummeled him with the metal object.

Quinn, who sustained cuts, bruises and a broken jaw, cried on the witness stand as Laurent showed him pictures of his face taken at the hospital following the incident.

"(The pictures show) my face all smashed up," Quinn said. "I couldn't see out of one eye, it was so swollen."

Also on Wednesday, several other state witnesses offered varying views of the fights at the basin.

Patrick Young said he saw Gazlay strike Quinn with the crowbar and he also witnessed the attack that followed. He said Gazlay struck Quinn while he and a girl named Ashley DePaul helped Quinn to safety.

Young said he saw Gazlay with a crowbar at least four to five times during the evening.

"He had the crowbar in his back pocket," Young said.

DePaul, 18, said she noticed Gazlay with a "black, cylinder object," in his hand during the night but that Gazlay was nowhere near Quinn when Quinn initially was attacked.

"I didn't see (Gazlay)," she said. "He was on the other side of the basin when the fight broke out."

Buchanan also plans to call DePaul as a witness for the defense. Testimony in the case was expected to resume this morning.