Man found guilty of killing 6-year-old boy during road rage incident in California
Almost three years after a 6-year-old boy was fatally shot during a road rage incident, a Southern California man was convicted of murder on Jan. 25, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said.
A jury convicted Marcus Anthony Eriz, 26, of one felony 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.
He will be sentenced on April 12 and faces a maximum sentence of 40 years to life in state prison.
On May 21, 2021, 6-year-old Aiden Leos was shot and killed while he was in the back seat of his mother’s car as they drove on a freeway on his way to kindergarten.
According to the DA’s office, Aiden’s mother, Joanna Cloonan, testified at the trial, sharing how she flipped off the driver of a Volkswagen who cut her off. After driving away, she said she heard a loud noise and her son say, “Ow,” before pulling over on the side of the freeway and discovering that Aiden had been shot.
Aiden later died at Children’s Hospital of Orange County.
Eriz’s girlfriend, Wynne Lee, who was the driver, was also charged with one felony count of accessory after the fact and one misdemeanor count of having a concealed firearm in a vehicle. If convicted of all charges, Lee faces a maximum sentence of three years in state prison and one year in the Orange County Jail.
After the California Highway Patrol launched a manhunt, Eriz and Lee were arrested on June 6, 2021.
“The heartbreak of a parent losing a child is so overwhelming that no word exists to describe it,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer in the Han. 25 press release, in part. “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.”
Back in May 2021, Aiden's mom recounted the tragic incident while talking to NBC4 Los Angeles. She recalled her son sitting in his booster seat in the rear passenger side of the car when the bullet struck him.
“As I was merging away from the carpool lane, I heard a loud noise, and I heard my son say, ‘Ow,’ and I pulled the car over as soon as possible, and he had been shot,” she said. “I tried to save him by calling 911, but he was losing a lot of blood.”
“He just didn’t deserve that. No one deserves that,” she added.
Cloonan described her son as “unbelievably kind and sweet,” adding, “I want my son to be remembered for the beautiful soul that he was.”
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
