Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer announces, charges filed against suspects Marcus Eriz and Wynne Lee in the death of Aiden LeosPhoto byMark Rightmire/The Orange County Register via AP
The woman who was driving her boyfriend when he shot and killed a 6-year-old boy on the 55 Freeway in 2021 pleaded guilty to a felony and a misdemeanor in connection to the shooting on Friday, according to prosecutors.
Wynne Lee, 26, of Costa Mesa pleaded guilty to a felony for accessory after the fact and one misdemeanor count of having a concealed firearmPhoto byOrange County District Attorney’s Office
Wynne Lee, 26, of Costa Mesa pleaded guilty to a felony for accessory after the fact and one misdemeanor count of having a concealed firearm in a vehicle. She was sentenced to the maximum of three years for the felony and one for the misdemeanor.
Since she’d been on court-ordered at-home confinement since June 21, 2021, her sentence resulted in credit time served, granting her release. The Orange County Office of the District Attorney cited state law that allows defendants on court-mandated house arrest to accrue credit.
She received 2,106 days credit, more than the 1,460 days — or four years, which was the maximum sentence for her in the case, City News Service reported.
The issue rankled prosecutors and prompted the judge to respond.
“It’s not my job to address that. It happened,” Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard King noted referring to another judge signing off on home confinement for Lee after she was charged, CNS reported. “The defendant gets credit for that as if she were incarcerated.”
Prosecutors were angered by the law that allowed Lee to be granted her release without serving time behind bars.
“A six-year-old little boy is dead and instead of coming forward while the rest of Southern California was desperately searching for his killer, she helped the murderer hide critical evidence and then continued to live her life like nothing ever happened,” Spitzer said in the news release.
“Her behavior is despicable and I, along with our entire Orange County community, am outraged that the state Legislature continues to water down our laws to give criminals charged with egregious crimes break after break,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “The fact that someone charged with being an accessory after the fact to a murder of a child is earning not only actual credits, but also good time credits while sitting at home instead of doing their time in a jail cell is disgraceful.”
Lee’s former live-in boyfriend, Marcus Anthony Eriz of Costa Mesa was convicted by a jury in January of second-degree murder and shooting into an occupied vehicle for the May 21, 2021, killing of Aiden Leos.
Superior Court Judge Richard King said Aiden was “a 6-year-old in the back seat, the most vulnerable victim that you can even imagine, going to kindergarten being driven by his mom.”
The mother of Aiden Leos gave tearful testimony about the road-rage shooting that took her son's life on an OC freeway.Photo byScreenshot: ABC7news.com
Aiden’s mother, Joanna Cloonan and her son, in a silver Chevrolet Sonic, and Lee and her passenger, Eriz, in a white Volkswagen station wagon, were involved in a road rage over a perceived unsafe lane change, authorities said. Aiden’s mom flipped them off, Aiden’s mother had flipped off the driver of the Volkswagen after the driver cut her off and gave a peace sign; prosecutors said the mother later testified at trial.
Eriz pulled a loaded pistol, opened a window and fired a round into the rear of Cloonan’s moving car. The bullet pierced the car, ripped through the back of Aiden’s car seat and went through the boy’s heart, prosecutors said.
Aiden was fatally shot on May 21, 2021, 10 days after his birthday.Photo byABC7.com
Cloonan heard a loud noise and heard her son say, “Ow,” before she pulled over to the side of the freeway, pulled her son out of his car seat and called 911 as he lay dying, prosecutors said. He later died at a hospital.
“I don’t think the English language can even attempt, for anybody, to even describe what Aiden’s mother went through after he said ‘ouch,’” King said. “She pulls over, and her little boy dies in her arms.”
While Lee didn’t fire the shot that killed Aiden Leos while he was on his way to kindergarten in May 2021, prosecutors said she was driving the car and kept a Glock 17 handgun in the pouch on the back of the driver seat. Prosecutors said Lee helped Eriz hide “critical evidence” of the killing in the days that followed Leos’ death, which resulted in a region-wide manhunt.
Lee and Eriz then drove to work and lived their lives as normal, prosecutors say. The couple was involved in another incident the next week in which Eriz allegedly brandished a gun at a Tesla on the 91 Freeway.
Eriz didn’t realize that Leos died from that initial gunshot until one week after the shooting, when a coworker told him that his car looked like the one police were searching for in connection to the death of a little boy. Eriz then looked up the incident on the internet and found the news coverage.
After it became clear to Eriz and Lee that the boy had died in the shooting, Eriz hid the Volkswagen the couple used to drive to work together daily in a family member's garage and did not drive it again, prosecutors said.
Lee and Eriz were arrested on June 6, 2021.
Spitzer said in a statement that the day Aiden was buried in his tiny casket, Lee and Eriz were kayaking, “enjoying a beautiful California summer day, knowing that Aiden would never get to play in the sunshine again.”
Eriz apologized in court Friday.
“He was a son, a little brother and a friend to others. He looked as if he brightened up the world everywhere he went and truly one of God’s little angels,” Eriz said. “And I am so sorry for ever hurting him, and for the pain that he went through because of me.”
“He never deserved it. And neither did his family,” Eriz said.
However, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer fired back, “this wasn’t a horrible mistake; this is a cold-blooded murder.”
“Marcus Eriz pulled out his gun and fired it into a moving car because he wanted to world to know what he was capable of — and what he took was the life of a little six-year-old boy and the sense of security of drivers everywhere who worry that driving on our freeways could be a death sentence, not because of a crash but because of a bullet,” Spitzer said in a statement after the sentencing.
“The short, happy life of Aiden Leos is a life interrupted, abruptly ended by a bullet that pierced Aiden’s heart,” Spitzer said when Eriz was convicted. “The bullet not only killed a little 6-year-old boy; it ripped a hole in the heart of all of Orange County.”
“Six-year-old boys should be playing outside in the sunshine, soaking in all the magic and wonder that is boyhood, not lying dead in a tiny, child-size coffin because a man he never met decided to execute him for no conceivable reason,” Spitzer added.
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