Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2003 | 11:06 a.m.
About 20 associates of the 311 Boyz gang allegedly congregated outside a northwest Las Vegas home early Sunday and called out to two men who lived there and threatened to beat and stab them, police said.
About 3 a.m., Roberto F. Martinez, 33, and Robert L. Martinez, 18, heard someone using a loudspeaker outside their home in the 8100 block of Guava Nectar Avenue. Two men were at the residence, east of North Rancho Drive and Durango Drive, calling the teen out, saying they were "going to get" him, the Martinezes told police.
It apparently stemmed from problems the younger Martinez had for the last year with members of the gang, police said. Some of the alleged gang members are facing charges in connection with attacks and fights that occurred over the summer, and the younger Martinez is a witness to some of the gang's violence.
The teen had been attacked "by self-admitted 311 Boyz gang member Jayson Porter" last school year at Centennial High School, and Martinez "has been harassed by numerous 311 Boyz gang members for the last year," the Metro Police report notes.
The majority of the 311 Boyz are current or former Centennial High students.
When the Martinez men stepped out in front of their home Sunday, they were confronted by two men who pulled out knives, according to the report. The Martinez men told police they ran back into their garage and grabbed a large wood stick and a baseball bat, and one of the people outside told them, "We're going to finish what Jayson Porter started," the report notes.
The elder Martinez called police on his cell phone, and the people in front of the house used their own cell phones, apparently to call some of their friends to join them, police said. As Metro officers were en route several more carloads of people showed up, the elder Martinez told police.
When Metro arrived there were about 20 people outside the Martinez house, but as they saw the patrol cars coming, they fled.
All of the people that police were able to stop denied being members of the 311 Boyz gang, but they all acknowledged that that they know the gang's members "and associate with them at school and after school," the police report noted.
The victims were unable to give a good physical description of the two men who threatened them with knives because it was too dark to get a good look at their faces, police said.
One person was arrested, however. Kyle Davis, 21, of Las Vegas, was charged with possession of a dangerous weapon. Davis could not be reached for comment.
Information about the alleged threats against the Martinez men and the arrest of Davis could be added to the myriad charges piling up against the 311 Boyz, authorities said.
But when Assistant District Attorney Chris Laurent was contacted Monday about the case, he said he didn't know about what had happened outside the house on Guava Nectar.
The lieutenant in charge of the Metro gang unit also was unaware of the arrest on Monday, police said. Calls to the gang unit on Monday were referred to Laurent.
There were reports that some of the people stopped by police near the Martinez home Sunday morning were cited for curfew violations, but as of this morning police spokesman Jose Montoya had been unable to determine whether that was true.
He explained that there apparently had been a lag in the communication about the case between graveyard shift patrol officers and gang officers.
On Tuesday, he also said he was unable to provide much information about the case.
"We cannot talk about it in detail because it could be made part of the ongoing (311 Boyz court) case," Montoya said.
Montoya said that while it is possible that other arrests could have been made, he could confirm just the single arrest of Davis. Montoya could not confirm what type of weapon Davis was alleged to have possessed.
The 311 Boyz have gained national notoriety as violent gang of white teens, mostly from good homes in the affluent northwest part of the valley, who allegedly went on a summer spree of violence, videotaping each other fighting and attacking other people.
While police and prosecutors routinely refer to the 311 Boyz as a "gang" -- meaning that the group members profited or benefited from their alleged criminal activity -- sociologists, attorneys and others have questioned whether they are a gang under legal definitions.
The 311 Boyz also is purported to be a hate group because some police have interpreted the numerals to be a reference to the 11th letter of the alphabet times three, or KKK. Attorneys for the youths have denied they are racists, saying the name comes from an alternative rock band.
Neither Martinez could be reached for comment.
Attempts to reach prosecutors on Tuesday to determine whether a decision has been made to fold the Sunday incident into their burgeoning 311 Boyz case also were unsuccessful.
Nine members of the 311 Boyz face several charges including attempted murder, coercion and mayhem in connection with the July 18 fight in which 17-year-old Stephen Tanner Hansen's face was crushed with a large rock.
Those charged in connection with that case are Chris Farley, 18; Scott Morse, 18; Jeff Hart, 17; 16-year-old twins Anthony and Brandon Gallion; Ernest Bradley Aguilar, 17; Steven Gazlay, 18; Dominic Harriman, 19, and Matthew Castello, 17.
Hansen has had to undergo several reconstructive surgeries and was left partially blind in his left eye.
Other charges stemming from other violence followed in the wake of the Hansen investigation.
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