Closing arguments took place on Wednesday in the trial of Marcus Eriz, who was charged with second-degree murder in connection to the shooting death of 6-year-old Aiden Leos in 2021.
The young boy was killed while riding in the back of his mother’s car after a road rage incident between his mother, Eriz and Eriz’s girlfriend Wynne Lee on the 55 Freeway in Orange on May 21, 2021.
Aiden’s mother, Joanna Cloonan, was angry that a vehicle cut her off, so she put her middle finger up as she passed that car, authorities said in June 2021.
Prosecutors said that in retaliation, Eriz, sitting in the passenger seat of the car driven by Lee, pulled a Glock 17 from the driver’s seat back pocket and shot at Cloonan’s vehicle.
That bullet went through the car’s trunk, backseat and through Aiden’s car seat before striking him. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital about 30 minutes after he was shot.
The couple was not apprehended until two weeks later outside their Costa Mesa apartment.
There is no dispute as to whether Eriz fired the fatal shot, but his defense team is arguing that the killing does not rise to the level of second-degree murder but instead constitutes voluntary manslaughter.
“We’ve all been on the road and been cut off … We’ve all been on the receiving end of a [middle] finger and maybe we even gave one back,” Orange County Public Defender Randall Bethune said during Wednesday’s closing arguments. “We simply have to [ask if] we understand the distinction [between] acting rashly when we are deliberative people and acting deliberately.”
Prosecuting attorneys, however, believe otherwise, saying that Eriz was very familiar with guns and knew the dangers of firing one on a freeway.
“Instead of giving her the finger back, ignoring her or any other myriad of responses, [he decided] to grab that gun,” the prosecution said. “Was it accidental? Was he unconscious? Did he not know what a gun could do?”
The jury is expected to begin deliberating sometime on Wednesday afternoon.