Friday, Sept. 19, 2003 | 11:15 a.m.
Three of six alleged 311 Boyz who faced battery charges in Juvenile Court were placed on probation and ordered to perform community service, a prosecutor who handles juvenile cases said Thursday.
Thomas Geick, Chad Cladderbuck and Joseph Trujillo pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a July 3 beating in which two teenagers were injured. The brawl was videotaped.
Geick pleaded guilty to one felony count of battery causing substantial bodily harm, and Cladderbuck and Trujillo each pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor battery count, prosecutor Catherine Harris said.
"All three received forms of probation, which ranged from three months to a year and included community service," Harris said.
Police say the 311 Boyz are a gang of teens from an affluent area in the northwest valley near Centennial High School. Authorities believe the group is responsible for a series of violent attacks over the summer, including one attack in which a teen's face was crushed with a rock.
Police are still investigating whether the gang is responsible for more crimes.
On Wednesday another teen, Kyle Hadley, pleaded guilty to a felony battery count in the July 3 incident during a Juvenile Court hearing, Harris said. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 13.
Further details on that case were not released because the cases were in Juvenile Court. Records in Juvenile Court are sealed.
Brandon Gallion, 16, and Jeff Hart, 17, also face felony battery charges including attempted murder in that attack and could be prosecuted as adults.
A hearing to determine if Hart will be certified as an adult is scheduled for Sept. 22. Gallion's certification hearing is scheduled for Oct. 1.
Gallion and Hart were indicted along with seven other alleged gang members in a July 18 incident in Summerlin that injured Stephen Tanner Hansen, 17. The left side of Hansen's face was crushed when one of the teens threw a rock through the windshield of the car in which Hansen was riding.
The others indicted in that case are Ernest Bradley Aguilar, 17, Stephen Gazlay, 18, Anthony Gallion, 16, Mathew Costello, 17, Christopher Farley, 18, Dominic Harriman, 19, and Scott Morse, 18. All had not guilty pleas entered in District Court Tuesday.
Prosecutors are charging them as adults under a Nevada law that automatically certifies children 8 and older charged with serious crimes such as attempted murder as adults. Defense attorneys, however, are asking that the cases be returned to the juvenile system.
In a separate case, a 23-year-old man police say is also associated with the 311 Boyz has negotiated with prosecutors, the man's attorney said.
Adam "Taz" Henry, 23, faced a felony battery charge in connection with the May 17 beating of 20-year-old Sean Quinn, who police say was attacked in a desert near Centennial Parkway and the Las Vegas Beltway.
Prosecutors reduced that charge to a misdemeanor and Henry was placed on an informal probation, defense attorney William "Lew" Wolfbrandt said.
Henry was also ordered to pay $200 in restitution. He will return to court in six months for a status check.
"If he pays the $200 and stays out of trouble, the case goes away," Wolfbrandt said.
The cases, in which prosecutors say white affluent teens were involved in a summerlong spree of violence, have captured the attention of national and world media. James Buchanan, attorney for Gazlay, is scheduled to appear on NBC's "Dateline" news magazine, and home video of the teens' alleged violent acts has been shown on national news programs.
Police reports allege Henry was one of the men who attacked Quinn while dozens of other teens watched. They say Gazlay, 18, joined in the fight and attacked Quinn with a crowbar. Gazlay faces a battery charge in the incident.
Police believe Henry could be one of the leaders of the gang and that he could have influence over the gang's younger members. But Wolfbrant denied that his client has any association with the gang.
"I don't see any gang and Adam is certainly not a leader of anything," he said.
District Attorney David Roger said today alleged members are being prosecuted as individuals.
The teens charged in the July 3 incident could not have been charged as adults unless prosecutors charged them with murder or attempted murder or a Juvenile Court judge had certified them as adults, Roger said.
There was no evidence in that case to suggest that the teens intended to kill the victims, Roger said.
"We evaluated the roles of these three defendants and determined that their participation in the crime was minimal," he said. "Therefore, we concluded that certification of these defendants as adults was not required."
If charged with battery in the adult system, the teens could have received a sentence ranging from probation to 10 years in prison. If convicted, they would be classified as convicted felons.
Roger said prosecutors must look at each defendant in each case individually.
"We have to look at each defendant and determine what their role was in the crime as well as how significant their past criminal history is," he said. "The range of punishment for each defendant will vary based upon their role."
Judge Bill Dressel, of the National Judicial College in Reno, said the various cases are indicative of a national trend regarding juveniles in the court system. In jurisdictions across the country, he said, it is not unusual to see children charged as adults.
"In the last five years you've seen more of this," he said. "This is becoming something not only in Nevada but nationwide that prosecutors are pursuing adult charges against juveniles, especially in cases involving violence or deadly weapons."
Like the 311 Boyz case, many cases involving juveniles stem from an increase in gang violence, he said.
"These young people are committing crimes not only among each other but also relating to other people outside of the gang," he said.
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