Aiden Leos died after being shot in a suspected road rage incident as his mom drove him to kindergarten.
LOS ANGELES, June 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A Southern California couple was charged Tuesday in connection with the road-rage death of 6-year-old Aiden Leos last month, with the man being accused of murder.
Prosecutors in Orange County, California, charged Marcus Anthony Eriz, 24, with murder and shooting at an occupied vehicle. Eriz’s girlfriend, Wynne Lee, 23, was charged with being an accessory and illegally carrying a concealed firearm.
“With respect to the charges against both, I absolutely am convinced they’re rock solid,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said.
The couple’s Tuesday arraignment was postponed to June 18 and a judge set their bail at $2 million for Eriz and $500,000 for Lee pending that hearing. Eriz could face 40 years to life in prison if convicted on all counts. Lee faces up to three years in prison and one year in county jail.
Eriz and Lee were arrested Sunday after a weekslong search for suspects in the boy’s killing on a Southern California freeway.
Aiden was fatally shot May 21 on State Route 55 in Orange, southeast of Los Angeles, as his mother was driving him to kindergarten.
Authorities said they believe Lee was driving and Eriz fired the shot that killed the boy.
According to the boy’s mother, Joanna Cloonan, and those who stopped to help her, Cloonan made a hand gesture to a vehicle that cut her off, which then drove behind her, and someone fired into Cloonan’s vehicle. Aiden, who was sitting in the back seat, was shot in the abdomen and pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
The case stunned the region and made national news.
California Highway Patrol Assistant Chief Don Goodbrand said authorities have recovered the weapon used in the attack and the vehicle in which the suspects were riding, a white Volkswagen Golf SportWagen.
Police had appealed to the public for information on the case and offered up to a $500,000 reward, and Goodbrand said authorities received several tips that were useful in the investigation.
The Los Angeles Times reported investigators identified the couple after getting a tip and enhancing an image of the vehicle’s license plate. They also discovered both commuted to work in the Inland Empire region of Southern California and were in the area of the shooting when it happened. — NNN-AGENCIES
