Ex-311 Boyz gang member arrested in Idaho

Felon and former 311 Boyz gang member Steven Gazlay and his girlfriend, charged with swindling a lender, were arrested in Idaho this weekend after skipping a court appearance in Las Vegas.

Less than a week after a prosecutor said Gazlay and Dana Nee, both 36, had apparently fled the state while free on bail, the couple were arrested in Madison County, Idaho, on Sunday afternoon, according to a jail official there.

Gazlay, a Las Vegas resident, has eight felony convictions and was released from prison in 2019. He made headlines in 2003 as a member of the 311 Boyz — a Las Vegas Valley gang that committed a string of violent acts that culminated with the maiming of a teen with a rock.

In his latest criminal case, Gazlay and Nee, also known as Dana Bevers, are charged in a 2020 mortgage scam that police say defrauded a hard-money lender. They were indicted on charges of theft, coercion, conspiracy, forgery, obtaining and using personal information of another, and mortgage lending fraud.

Las Vegas police said Gazlay used identity theft and a string of false documents to persuade a Yuma, Arizona, lender to issue a $707,375 home equity loan to him on a property he did not own. Police said Gazlay then used some of the money to fund a gambling spree in Las Vegas.

Gazlay met a real estate developer in spring 2020 at a Las Vegas real estate rehab project, according to transcripts of grand jury testimony.

That developer then agreed to let Gazlay rent a condominium from him at The Martin high-rise tower in Las Vegas for $2,300 a month, but Gazlay never paid the owner a dime, according to the transcripts. Around the same time, the developer sold an 8,100-square-foot, six-bedroom, six-bath Las Vegas estate for $1.8 million to a Houston-based Esports company.

According to the grand jury transcripts, Gazlay had befriended the developer and was able to take a photo of a $1.3 million escrow check resulting from the sale of the home. Gazlay also obtained a photo of the developer from his passport and used the documents to feign ownership of the mansion for the loan.

Gazlay purported to own the Esports company, but the phony ownership paperwork he provided had been signed in 2018, when he was incarcerated at High Desert State Prison, Las Vegas police Detective Michelle Wilson testified.

While in custody late last month in front of a judge, Gazlay said he had posted bond against his $100,000 bail.

He called the delay in his release from the Clark County Detention Center “an unconstitutional incarceration issue” and spent at least another week behind bars.

His mother, Jeannette Gazlay Arnone, also is charged in the case.

Authorities in Las Vegas could not be reached for comment due to the Presidents Day holiday.

Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.