FILE — In this June 8, 2021 file photo Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer announces, in Santa Ana, Calif., charges filed against suspects Marcus Eriz and Wynne Lee in the death of Aiden Leos, right, the 6-year-old boy who was shot and killed on his way to kindergarten in his mother’s car. (Mark Rightmire/The Orange County Register via AP)
A California woman who pleaded guilty in connection with the road rage shooting death of a 6-year-old boy killed in his car seat while riding in his mother’s car to kindergarten will not do any jail time after getting more credits for time served on home confinement.
Wynne Lee, 26, of Costa Mesa, pleaded guilty to one felony count of accessory after the fact and one misdemeanor count of having a concealed firearm in a vehicle in the 2021 killing of 6-year-old Aiden Leos, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office announced in a news release.
Lee has been on court-ordered home confinement and GPS monitoring since June 21, 2021. She received 2,106 days credit, more than the 1,460 days — or four years, which was the maximum sentence for her in the case, City News Service reported.
The issue rankled prosecutors and prompted the judge to respond.
“It’s not my job to address that. It happened,” Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard King noted referring to another judge signing off on home confinement for Lee after she was charged, CNS reported. “The defendant gets credit for that as if she were incarcerated.”
In a statement, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer called the lack of punishment disgraceful and the defendant’s behavior despicable.
“A six-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,” Spitzer said in the news release. “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.”
Lee’s former live-in boyfriend, Marcus Eriz, 27, was sentenced earlier this month to 40 years to life in state prison for shooting Aiden. Eriz was convicted in January of second-degree murder, shooting into an occupied vehicle, and two felony enhancements of the personal discharge of a firearm causing great bodily injury and death, officials said.
The shooting happened on May 21, 2021, when Aiden’s mother, Joanna Cloonan and her son, in a silver Chevrolet Sonic, and Lee and her passenger, Eriz, in a white Volkswagen station wagon, were involved in a road rage over a perceived unsafe lane change, authorities said. Aiden’s mother had flipped off the driver of the Volkswagen after the driver cut her off, prosecutors said the mother later testified at trial.
Eriz pulled a loaded pistol, opened a window and fired a round into the rear of Cloonan’s moving car. The bullet pierced the car, ripped through the back of Aiden’s car seat and went through the boy’s heart, prosecutors said.
Cloonan heard a loud noise and heard her son say, “Ow,” before she pulled over to the side of the freeway, pulled her son out of his car seat and called 911 as he lay dying, prosecutors said. He later died at a hospital.
The California Highway Patrol launched a search across Southern California for the shooter and pleaded for public help to find the white Volkswagen SportWagen.
Eriz and Lee were arrested at their home in Costa Mesa on June 6, 2021.
Spitzer said in a statement that the day Aiden was buried in his tiny casket, Lee and Eriz were kayaking, “enjoying a beautiful California summer day, knowing that Aiden would never get to play in the sunshine again.”
“The short, happy life of Aiden Leos is a life interrupted, abruptly ended by a bullet that pierced Aiden’s heart,” Spitzer said when Eriz was convicted. “The bullet not only killed a little 6-year-old boy; it ripped a hole in the heart of all of Orange County.”
“Six-year-old boys should be playing outside in the sunshine, soaking in all the magic and wonder that is boyhood, not lying dead in a tiny, child-size coffin because a man he never met decided to execute him for no conceivable reason,” Spitzer added.
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