ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. (TCD) — A 26-year-old man faces a maximum sentence of 40 years to life in state prison after fatally shooting a young child during a road rage incident in May 2021.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office announced Jan. 25 that a jury convicted Marcus Eriz of one count of second-degree murder, one felony count of shooting into an occupied vehicle, and two felony enhancements of the personal discharge of a firearm causing great bodily injury and death in connection with a confrontation on the 55 freeway near Chapman Avenue that left 6-year-old Aiden Leos dead.
On Friday, May 21, 2021, shortly after 8 a.m., Leos’ mother, identified by KTTV-TV as Joanna Cloonan, was driving him to kindergarten at Calvary Chapel in Yorba Linda when 26-year-old Wynne Lee reportedly cut her off in a Volkswagen SportWagen.
According to the district attorney’s office, Leos’ mother testified in court that she flipped off the driver. Eriz reportedly became upset and fired his gun at the back of Cloonan’s car, where the victim sat. According to KTTV, the bullet went through the boy’s liver, lungs, and heart, as well as his abdomen.
Cloonan reportedly said she “heard a large noise and heard her son say, ‘ow.'” Leos’ mother pulled over to the side of the freeway, got her son out of the back seat, and called 911. The child was transported to Children’s Hospital of Orange County, where he later died.
The California Highway Patrol arrested Eriz and Lee on Sunday, June 6, 2021, following an “intense manhunt.”
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement, “The short, happy life of Aiden Leos is a life interrupted, abruptly ended by a bullet that pierced Aiden’s heart. The bullet not only killed a little 6-year-old boy; it ripped a hole in the heart of all of Orange County.”
Eriz’s sentencing is set for April 12.
The co-defendant, Lee, faces one felony count of accessory after the fact and one misdemeanor count of having a concealed firearm in a vehicle. She faces a maximum sentence of three years in state prison and one year in the Orange County Jail if convicted. Lee posted $100,000 bond following her arrest and is currently on GPS monitoring pending her trial.
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