Helen Jeong and Hetty Chang -
NBC Los Angeles
A California man was convicted of shooting and killing a 6-year-old boy who was in the back seat of his mother's car on a southern highway as they headed to daycare on the morning of May 21, 2021.
Marcuz Anthony Eriz, 26, was found guilty of one felony count of murder, one count of shooting at an occupied vehicle, and two counts of discharging a firearm that caused serious bodily injury and death.
He faces
a maximum sentence of 40 years to life in state prison.
Aiden Leos died the same day as the incident, after receiving a single shot in his abdomen fired by Eriz, after his girlfriend, who was driving his car, became involved in an incident during the trip with Aiden's mother, who responded by showing him the middle finger, the authorities indicated.
Marcus Anthony Eriz and Wynne Lee.Orange County Prosecutor's Office, California
The grieving mother testified that Eriz smiled at her shortly before rolling down the passenger side window and firing his gun.
“The anguish of a mother who loses a child is so overwhelming that there is no word to describe it,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement shortly after the verdicts were read.
“While we will never know what Aiden would have become, we know that the search for justice did not end until his killer was captured and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Eriz's girlfriend, Wynne Lee, has been charged with felony accessory after the fact and a misdemeanor charge of having a firearm concealed in a vehicle.
She faces a maximum sentence of three years in state prison and one year in Orange County Jail if she is convicted of all charges.
During closing statements last Wednesday, a prosecutor reiterated to jurors that Eriz had intended to hurt someone when he pulled his gun out of the back seat of the car.
Video of the police interrogation showed that the young man had told police that he had been carrying a loaded 9mm Glock pistol for months
because people were “acting crazy” on the roads.
“(Aiden's mother) expressed her frustration by pointing the finger at him.
That was it: the problem that Mr. Eriz had planned, the one that he was waiting for,” said Daniel Feldman, deputy prosecutor of Orange County.
“This was not a situation where he had no choice.
“This was his choice.”
In response, Eriz's defense attorney, Randall Bethune, argued that he had a "violent emotion."
In the days after the shooting, authorities searched for a suspect and asked the public for help.
They reviewed hundreds of tips and at least $500,000 in rewards were offered.
Eriz hid the vehicle in a relative's garage, shaved his beard and began to put his hair up, the police explained at the time.
The couple was arrested outside their Costa Mesa apartment about two weeks after the shooting.
Both are being tried separately.