An Orange County jury on Thursday found Marcus Anthony Eriz guilty of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of 6-year-old Aiden Leos in a road rage incident on the 55 Freeway.
Eriz, a Costa Mesa resident, was also found guilty of causing great bodily injury and death, and shooting at an occupied vehicle. He is facing the possibility of up to 40-years-to-life in prison when he is sentenced on April 12.
The verdict was announced in a Santa Ana courtroom Thursday morning. Seated alongside his defense attorney, Eriz did not visibly react when the jury’s decision was read aloud.
“The heartbreak of a parent losing a child is so overwhelming that no word exists to describe it,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement. “The short, happy life of Aiden Leos is a life interrupted, abruptly ended by a bullet that pierced Aiden’s heart. The bullet not only killed a little 6-year-old boy; it ripped a hole in the heart of all of Orange County.”
At a news conference outside the courtroom, Spitzer said he had notified Aiden’s mother, Joanna Cloonan, of the verdict and she responded to him via text message.