Gazlay takes stand in own defense

Erica D. Johnson

Friday, Dec. 12, 2003 | 11:12 a.m.

The alleged 311 Boyz gang member charged in several violent attacks in northwest Las Vegas quoted the Bible on Thursday as he testified in his assault trial.

Steven Gazlay, 19, said he knew taking the witness stand in his own defense was risky, but that he wanted to tell his side of the story.

"In the Bible, it says as long as you tell the truth, the truth will set you free," he said.

Gazlay is on trial for allegedly beating Sean Quinn, 21, with a crowbar or other metal object in a desert area known as "the basin" near the Las Vegas Beltway and Centennial Parkway, where nearly 200 teens had gathered. Quinn's jaw was broken in the alleged attack.

Gazlay is also charged with assault for allegedly raising the weapon at Quinn's friend, James Sarlo.

When Gazlay took the stand late Thursday, he said he never struck anyone and that he'd never even seen Sarlo and Quinn before they testified at his trial.

"Never, ever did I hit anybody, nonetheless Sean Quinn," Gazlay said. "The last fight I was in was in high school."

Gazlay said he'd even broken up a fight between two other teens earlier in the night.

"I would usually let someone fight for my own entertainment, but it wasn't a right matchup," he said.

Quinn identified Gazlay as his attacker when he testified in the trial earlier this week. He said Gazlay struck him with the metal object twice after Gazlay accused him of hitting his sister.

Authorities claim Gazlay was a participant, and perhaps the instigator, in a string of assaults waged by the 311 Boyz in the area near Centennial High School last summer.

He faces four separate cases stemming from a rock attack on a 17-year-old boy, the burning of another teen with a hot butter knife and the destruction of private property.

The night Quinn was injured, Gazlay said he was talking to some friends near his truck when someone told him his 15-year-old sister, Jennifer, had been hit with a beer bottle.

Gazlay said he rushed into the crowd, where people were fighting and throwing rocks, and rescued his sister, who was laying on the ground drifting in and out of consciousness.

"I kneel down to pick my sister up, and I walked toward the truck," he said. "I kick it into first gear and peel it out of there."

Gazlay said he raced up the dirt road leading out of the basin and started to take his sister to the hospital but his brakes went out. He pulled over to the side of the road and popped his hood, he said.

"In my glove box I have a black flashlight, it's a black Mag Light that police carry," Gazlay said.

He said several friends pulled over to ask him if he needed help and one friend offered to take the girl to the hospital.

Gazlay asked the teens who had hit his sister with the bottle.

"I said somebody hit my (expletive) sister. Who the (expletive) hit my sister? I was screaming about my sister. I had my Mag Light in my hand."

Gazlay said he decided to drive home slowly because he lived only a few miles away. As he continued to drive up the dirt road, he said, several people stopped to ask him if he needed help.

That was the last he saw of anyone at the basin, he said.

Gazlay's testimony came after dozens of witnesses gave varying versions of the events that unfolded at the basin.

About 15 to 20 state witnesses had testified either that they saw Gazlay attack Quinn with the metal object that night or they saw Gazlay with the metal object moments after Quinn was hit and kicked by a crowd of other teens.

Nearly a dozen defense witnesses, however, said Gazlay was nowhere around when Quinn was attacked and that they never saw Gazlay with any weapon.

Gazlay had his own take on the parade of teenagers who took the stand during the two-day trial.

"Every witness who came up had a different story," he said, echoing statements that his lawyer, James "Bucky" Buchanan, has repeatedly made. "People who sit there and said they witnessed, they saw me hit Sean Quinn, they're lying."

Buchanan alleged that Quinn's injuries came from an attack by Adam "Taz" Henry and Mark Herman.

Henry, 23, the man identified in police reports as the possible leader of the 311 Boyz, admitted Thursday that he had an earlier fight with Quinn.

"He hit me, I hit him," he said. "Then I got hit with a bottle and that's all I know about that fight."

Henry said he didn't see Gazlay "anywhere that night."

In an earlier case, Henry received informal probation and was ordered to pay restitution for his role in the fight.

Jurors also heard a frantic 911 call made by Quinn's friend, Stephen Thompson, after the attack.

Thompson, 18, said he helped his friends carry a battered Quinn to a pickup truck and the teens sped down a dirt road with a carload of other teens in pursuit.

Thompson made the 911 call from the bed of the truck as the teens raced down Centennial Center near Anne Road. Several teenage girls could be heard yelling in the background.

"We're being attacked by Centennial High School," Thompson yelled. "One of our friends is unconscious and bleeding and we need help!

"We're being chased by a Jeep ... with a bunch of guys in it. They're right behind us."

Thompson said he saw Gazlay on television a few weeks later in relation to an attack on Hansen.

"I pointed at the picture and I told my mom, 'That's the kid that hit Sean,' " Thompson said.

Closing arguments in the case were expected to begin this morning.