Witness’s mother accused of coaching

Wednesday, June 2, 2004 | 9:20 a.m.

With no physical evidence that alleged 311 Boyz gang member Scott Morse was one of the rock throwers in the attack that left Stephen Tanner Hansen with a crushed face, Morse's trial has boiled down to the credibility of witnesses' testimony.

The quest to determine credible testimony became so heated on Tuesday that the mother of one witness was even accused of coaching her daughter while she was on the stand.

A bailiff in District Judge Michael Cherry's courtroom accused the mother of Jennifer Gazlay of using head signals to help her daughter through some tough questions posed by Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Laurent during cross examination. The questions were about Morse's location during the evening of the attack.

Jeanette Gazlay and Jennifer Gazlay are the mother and sister, respectively, of alleged 311 Boyz gang leader Steven Gazlay, who was once a codefendant with Morse.

Morse is the only one of the nine originally charged in the 311 Boyz case to go to trial because all of the others pleaded guilty to lesser charges. Morse faces three counts of attempted murder with the use of a deadly weapon, as well as multiple counts of coercion and battery with use of a deadly weapon.

With the jury sent out of the courtroom, Jeanette Gazlay was called to the stand to face the accusations.

"If I was going to instruct my daughter as to how to testify, and in Jesus' name I did not, but if I was going to do that, I would have done so before court."

Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Laurent said the jury would have to be told of the alleged coaching because it spoke to the bias and credibility of Jennifer Gazlay's testimony.

Cherry ruled Laurent could ask Jennifer Gazlay if she were being coached, and when the jury returned she answered the questions with "No sir, that was not true."

Laurent proceeded to challenge Jennifer Gazlay's testimony, saying her statements to police and her testimony before the court were inconsistent.

Specifically, Laurent said that while Jennifer Gazlay told the police she did see who threw the rocks at Craig Lefevre's truck as it sped away from the house party, she testified in court she didn't see who the throwers were.

Jennifer Gazlay said in court she didn't see who threw the rocks, but that she did see that Morse was nowhere near the scene of the rock throwing. She testified instead that Morse was next to her, hugging mutual friend Ashley Erickson during the time of the attack on the pickup truck.

After fleeing the party in a pickup truck, Tanner and his two friends were allegedly assaulted by party-goers who climbed the wall of the gated community and threw rocks at the boys as they were driving away.

Laurent said he knew why her testimony was now different from her earlier police statements.

"I'm the same prosecutor that's been prosecuting your brother for the last nine months," Laurent said. "You don't know the time frames. For Scott Morse you said you didn't see who threw the rocks. You don't know when that hug took place."

Prior to Jennifer Gazlay's testimony, the defense called several witnesses who were attending the party in an attempt to refute damaging claims made by state witnesses on Friday. Friday's witnesses claimed that Morse was not just a rock thrower -- he had even bragged that his rock had hit the truck.

But Chris Erickson, who said he drove Morse to the party, testified Morse never left his sight during the melee.

Bonnie Smith, whose Jeep was smashed when Lefevre put his truck in reverse to escape the group of angry teens surrounding him, testified Morse was with Erickson and herself at the time that the rocks were thrown.

In an attempt to discredit her motives for testifying, Laurent attempted to have Smith's alleged involvement in some fights caught on video tape brought in during cross examination. The fights on the tapes involved the alleged 311 Boyz members. Cherry would not admit the tape, saying it was in "no way connected to her testimony."

Chelsea Hammack corroborated Smith's testimony, saying she saw Morse, Erickson and Smith standing together when the rock throwing occurred.

T.J. Geick testified he saw Morse while he was walking to his car, which would have been at the same time the rock throwing was said to be taking place.

The defense was to continue its case today, with presentations including the videotaped testimony of Ashley Erickson, who after having a car accident and because she is 6 1/2 months pregnant was deemed unable to appear in court.

Matthew Costello, Dominick Harriman, Brandon Gallion, Anthony Gallion, Bradley Aguilar, Jeff hart, and Christopher Farley all originally faced the same charges as Morse. But all, save Anthony Gallion, whose case was dismissed, have entered plea agreements to lesser charges.