Marcus Eriz, the Costa Mesa man who claimed to not perceive why he fired the bullet from his automotive that killed a 6-year-old boy in 2021, acquired a sentence of 40 years to life in jail on Friday.
Orange County Superior Court docket Choose Richard King rejected a protection lawyer’s plea for leniency on the idea of Eriz’s age — he was 24 on the time of the capturing — in addition to the argument that Eriz had suffered childhood trauma.
King stated he might discover no connection between the defendant’s alleged trauma — left unspecified in courtroom arguments — and his resolution to fireside his Glock 17 on the freeway into the automotive the boy was using in.
“The defendant didn’t commit any crimes till this specific day,” King stated. “There was no impulse till this specific day.”
Eriz was within the passenger seat of a Volkswagen on Could 21, 2021, together with his girlfriend Wynne Lee on the wheel and his loaded, personalized gun inside simple attain. He claimed he stored it with him as a result of folks had been “appearing loopy” on the freeways. They had been heading north on the 55 Freeway close to Chapman Avenue in Orange in the course of the morning rush hour.
Joanna Cloonan was in her Chevrolet driving her son Aiden Leos to kindergarten, with the boy strapped right into a booster seat behind her. By her account, the Volkswagen reduce her off and its driver flashed her a sarcastic peace signal. Cloonan responded by flashing her center finger.
A household picture of 6-year-old Aiden Leos, who was shot and killed whereas using in a automotive together with his mom in 2021.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Instances)
At Eriz’s trial in January, there was no dispute that Eriz then grabbed his gun and fired at Cloonan’s automotive as she drove off, the bullet passing by way of the trunk after which the boy’s physique. Jurors, who heard a 911 name of Cloonan begging for assist along with her son dying in her arms, convicted Eriz of second-degree homicide, with an enhancement for using a firearm.
“I’ve no reply why,” Eriz advised police when requested him why he had carried out it.
Nor had been there solutions at Friday’s sentencing listening to.
Marcus Eriz wipes his eyes in court docket in Santa Ana on Friday earlier than Choose Richard M. King sentenced him to 40 years to life in jail.
(Mark Rightmire/Pool picture)
“Whether or not it was to impress your girlfriend [or] to launch your anger, you fired, and that little boy died,” King stated. He described Aiden as “probably the most weak sufferer you’ll be able to even think about” and stated the English language was insufficient to seize his mom’s torment.
In an announcement he learn to the court docket, Eriz, now 27, apologized to the sufferer’s household, requested for God’s forgiveness and stated, “I’m accountable for everybody’s trauma.”
As a younger man, he stated, he had lacked self-discipline and befriended “folks with character flaws like mine.”
“I felt drawn to a quick way of life,” he stated. “Like the buddies I selected, I lived for the second.”
In the course of the 1,042 days he has spent in lockup, Eriz stated, he has been studying avidly, together with a biography of Socrates, which taught him “the significance of introspecting as that first step towards change.”
Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer, accompanied by Deputy Dist. Atty. Dan Feldman, speaks about Aiden Leos’ case Friday in Santa Ana.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Instances)
Eriz’s protection lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Randall Bethune, requested King to strike the firearms enhancement and provides Eriz probation, saying the killing was “a horrible, horrible mistake” and “completely an anomaly as to who Mr. Eriz actually is.”
He stated Eriz’s years in jail had up to now not left him institutionally hardened. “He’s nonetheless as good of a man as after I first met him,” Bethune stated. “His goodness is infectious.”
Deputy Dist. Atty. Daniel Feldman, asking for the utmost sentence of 40 years to life, stated that to hearken to the 911 tape was to listen to “a depth of ache I’ve by no means heard earlier than.”
Feldman stated the defendant’s apology sounded honest, however he had chosen to tug the set off whereas by no means being in peril from the opposite automotive.
“He wished the world to know what he was able to,” Feldman stated. “What he instilled in our group was worry.”
Aiden’s mom selected to not seem in court docket for the sentencing, and at a information convention afterward, Feldman stated, “We had been very grateful that we might stand for her.”
Marcus Eriz is escorted from court docket by a deputy after his sentencing Friday.
(Mark Rightmire/Pool picture)
Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer applauded King for refusing to strike the firearms enhancement on the idea of Eriz’s age, however blasted the state Legislature for permitting judges that degree of discretion.
“That’s what we live with in California immediately,” Spitzer stated, denouncing legal guidelines enacted lately that let leniency for defendants 25 and beneath, which he stated originated with “school professors of their ivory towers who examine mind improvement.”
Eriz’s co-defendent, Lee, of Costa Mesa, is charged with being an adjunct after the actual fact and having a hid firearm in a automotive. She is out on bail awaiting trial.
