JAN 18, 2024
Opening statements began in the trial of the man accused of killing 6-year-old Aiden Leos in a road rage shooting on the 55 Freeway in Orange.
abc7.com
During day one of the trial, Feldman played the emotional 911 call Aiden's mom placed after she realized her son was hurt. In addition, several people were called to testify including Seal Beach Police Sgt. Joe Garcia.
Garcia was off when he stopped a group of people on the side of the freeway the day of the shooting. He ran in to help and performed CPR on Aiden until first responders arrived.
The prosecutor called the shooting a 'callous and total disregard for human life.' Marcus Anthony Eriz's defense attorney called it 'a momentary lapse of reason.'
www.latimes.com
When investigators caught up to 24-year-old Marcus Eriz after an intensive 16-day manhunt, he said that the Chevrolet’s driver, Aiden’s mother, had flipped him off in traffic. But he otherwise offered scant insight as to why he took hold of his 9-millimeter semiautomatic gun and fired into a stranger’s car that morning in May 2021.
“I just grabbed my gun for some reason ... shot at them,” Eriz told an interrogator, according to a transcript presented in Orange County Superior Court on Thursday, where Eriz is on trial facing
charges of second-degree murder and shooting at a motor vehicle.
The most impactful moment during the trial in the fatal road rage shooting that killed 6-year-old Aiden Leos back in 2021, was when the 911 call from Aiden's mother was played to the jury.
www.foxla.com
Contrary to any evasive actions suggested, Eriz's attorney argued that there is no evidence of him trying to flee or hide. The trial continues with separate proceedings for Lee, Eriz's girlfriend, who is charged as an accessory after the fact.
The trial will resume on Monday where the jury will hear testimony from Aiden's mom, Joanna, and view the video of Marcus Eriz's interrogation following his arrest in Santa Ana.
Attorneys delivered opening statements Thursday in the trial of a man accused in the 2021 shooting death of a 6-year-old boy struck by gunfire on a Southern California freeway as his mother was driving him to kindergarten at Calvary Chapel in Yorba Linda.
www.nbclosangeles.com
For days after the shooting, authorities searched for a suspect and pleaded for the public's help. They sifted through hundreds of tips and at least half a million dollars in reward money was posted.
According to police, Eriz stashed the vehicle in a relative's garage, shaved his beard and began pulling back his hair.
Prosecution said the evidence in the case is overwhelming. "As far as the question of who shot Aiden, just listen to Mr. Eriz, he'll tell you. For no reason other than a woman he didn't know extended her middle finger at him on the freeway."
www.cbsnews.com
"No thought of consequences, no thought of results and no malice and no intent... Just a momentary lapse of reason by a 24-year-old guy," Randall Bethune, defense attorney said.
Prosecution said the evidence in the case is overwhelming. "As far as the question of who shot Aiden, just listen to Mr. Eriz, he'll tell you. For no reason other than a woman he didn't know extended her middle finger at him on the freeway."
"The responsibility, the fact that he might regret it, and you'll hear this in his interview, does not change what happened. And it's certainly not going to bring Aiden back," Feldman said.