Attorneys delivered opening statements Thursday in the trial of a man accused in the 2021 shooting death of a 6-year-old boy struck by gunfire on a Southern California freeway as his mother was driving him to kindergarten.
Aiden Leos was killed May 21, 2021 in a tragic car-to-car shooting that followed a confrontation on the 55 Freeway in Orange County. A shot was fired after a driver cut off Aiden's mother, who responded by displaying the middle finger, authorities said.
Marcus Eriz, 26, has pleaded not guilty to murder and discharging a firearm at a vehicle. He was arrested following a days-long law enforcement search for the shooter.
During opening statements Thursday, a prosecutor told jurors that Eriz acted callously when he fired a round that went through the trunk of the Leos' car and into the back seat. Aiden, strapped into a booster, was struck in the liver, lung and heart.
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Aiden's mother, Joanna Cloonan, said she heard her son say, "Ow," pulled to the side of the freeway as he was bleeding and flagged down an off-duty police officer.
The trial included the frantic 911 call from Cloonan after she stopped on the side of the road and testimony from the off-duty-officer, a member of the Seal Beach Police Department. Cloonan is expected to testify early next week.
Eriz was arrested about two weeks later.
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“This is not a road rage case,” Senior Deputy District Attorney Daniel Feldman said. “This is an expression by Mr. Eriz of cold indifference. This is an expression by Mr. Eriz of his callous and total disregard for human life.”
Defense attorneys said Eriz, 24 at the time, displayed a lapse of reason and judgement and did not intend to kill anyone when he opened fire.
Eriz's attorney, Randall Bethune, said his client did not realize he had killed someone until days later, when a co-worker commented that Eriz's girlfriend's car looked like the one that authorities were searching for in connection with the 55 Freeway shooting.
“He had no hindsight, no clue as to the consequence of his actions in the moment,” Bethune said.
For days after the shooting, authorities searched for a suspect and pleaded for the public's help. They sifted through hundreds of tips and at least half a million dollars in reward money was posted.
According to police, Eriz stashed the vehicle in a relative's garage, shaved his beard and began pulling back his hair.
He and his girlfriend were arrested outside their apartment in the Orange County city of Costa Mesa about two weeks after the shooting. Eriz and girlfriend Wynne Lee, who is charged with being an accessory after the fact and having a concealed firearm in the vehicle, are being tried separately.
