Accessory in fatal shooting of 6-year-boy on Costa Mesa Freeway pleads guilty

A woman who was driving during a road-rage confrontation on the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway that ended with her boyfriend firing a shot into another car, killing a 6-year-old boy in a car seat, pleaded guilty Friday to being an accessory to the crime and carrying a concealed weapon in the vehicle.

Wynne Lee, 26, was immediately sentenced to four years behind bars, but with custody credits and time she has already spent on home confinement, Lee has already served out her sentence.

On April 12, Lee’s boyfriend, 26-year-old Marcus Anthony Eriz of Costa Mesa, was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison for firing the shot that killed Aiden Leos on May 21, 2021, on the freeway in Yorba Linda.

A portrait of Aiden Leos was posted when an announcement was made a plaque in his name would be dedicated at the O.C. Zoo. Aiden, 6, was fatally shot in a road rage incident in May 2021.

(File Photo)

The boy’s parents did not wish to attend Friday’s hearing, Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Dan Feldman said.

King said he would not have granted probation to Lee because she contributed to a crime of “great violence” on a victim who was “particularly vulnerable.”

“The impact on the mother is very aggravating” in the case, King said.

The judge noted that at some point, Lee knew Eriz had killed Aiden and yet took steps to help her boyfriend evade authorities. King also pointed out, however, that Lee had no prior criminal record.

As for another judge signing off on home confinement for Lee after she was charged, King said, “It’s not my job to address that. It happened. The defendant gets credit for that as if she were incarcerated.”

Eriz was convicted in January of second-degree murder and firing at an occupied vehicle. Jurors also found true allegations of personal use of a handgun.

Marcus Eriz, right, the gunman who shot and killed 6-year-old Aiden Leos during a road rage confrontation on the 55 freeway in Orange in 2021, sits in Orange County Superior Court prior to Judge Richard M. King sentencing him to 40 years to life in state prison, in Santa Ana on Friday, April 12, 2024.

(Mark Rightmire / Orange County Register/ Pool)

Aiden’s mother, Joanna Cloonan, was driving her Chevrolet Sonic with the child strapped into a child seat in the back seat of the vehicle, taking the boy to kindergarten in Yorba Linda. At about 8 a.m., she and her son were cut off by the defendants in a Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen with Lee behind the wheel of the car. Lee made a peace sign, which Cloonan took as sarcastic, and a few miles later as she was merging over to the Riverside (91) Freeway east, she passed the defendants and gave them a middle finger, Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Dan Feldman said during opening statements of Eriz’s trial.

Lee then positioned their car behind Cloonan’s, and Eriz fired a shot from a 9-millimeter Glock that struck the Chevrolet, went into the passenger compartment and hit the boy.

Cloonan, who was northbound on the freeway, heard a loud bang that sounded like a rock striking her vehicle followed by her son’s cry, Feldman said. She immediately pulled over, the prosecutor added.

Her son, who had turned 6 a week and a half before the shooting, was bleeding from a bullet that ripped through his liver, lungs and heart before coming out of his abdomen, Feldman said. The boy died in her arms.

Lee and Eriz, who lived together in a Costa Mesa apartment, were driving to their workplace at Gerber Glass, a collision repair shop, Feldman said. Eriz kept his loaded gun in the car.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Larry Yellin reduced Lee’s bail from $500,000 to $100,000 on June 27, 2021. Yellin said at the time that Lee was not personally accused of committing a violent act and had no criminal history, but he noted that even after the fatal shooting, she allowed Eriz to keep riding in her car with a gun, which prosecutors say he brandished at another motorist days after Aiden’s death.

Lee’s attorney, Tom Nocella, had asked that bail be reduced to $50,000. But Yellin said the additional road-rage allegation was a factor in setting it at double that amount. Yellin also ordered that she not drive and remain in home confinement with her parents.

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.

Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer slammed state law for allowing day-for-day credits for defendants in home confinement.

“The day Aiden was laid to rest in his tiny casket, Wynne and Marcus were kayaking, enjoying a beautiful California summer day, knowing that Aiden would never get to play in the sunshine again,” Spitzer said in a statement.

“A 6-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. 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.

“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.”