A Costa Mesa woman whose boyfriend shot and killed a 6-year-old Aiden Leos He pleaded guilty to accessory after the very fact during a 2021 traffic altercation on a busy Orange County highway on Friday, April 26, but won’t serve any additional time in custody on account of credit for time already served .
Wynne Lee, 26, was sentenced to 4 years in prison after pleading guilty to aiding and abetting, a felony, and misdemeanor carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle. However, she received greater than 4 years credit for her time served leading as much as trial and her good behavior.
Lee was released on bail under GPS monitoring since shortly after her arrest. Under state law, defendants in court-ordered home confinement receive the identical credit for time served and good behavior as those that remain in local custody pending trial.
It was not a plea deal negotiated with the prosecution, but moderately a plea that Lee made on to the court. Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard M. King clarified that Lee had not been given any assurances in regards to the amount of her sentence before her plea. The four-year prison sentence imposed by the judge was the utmost sentence permitted by law.
Lee confirmed to the judge in a soft voice that she understood what she was admitting and the rights she was giving up. She made no formal statement before her sentencing. Both Lee and her attorney declined to comment after the hearing.
Because Lee didn’t spend any additional time in custody, house arrest or on probation or parole, Lee's electronic monitoring was officially ended by the judge at the tip of Friday's hearing.
As a part of her plea, Lee admitted to helping Marcus Erizher live-in boyfriend escapes arrest, regardless that she knew Eriz was chargeable for Aiden's death. She also admitted that a firearm – belonging to Eriz – was hidden in a vehicle she was in charge of.
Judge King found that Aiden's death was against the law of great violence, involving a very vulnerable victim and deeply affecting the boy's mother. However, he also acknowledged that Lee had no previous criminal record.
Aiden's mother was not present on the trial or the sentencing. No one spoke to the court on behalf of Aiden or Lee.
Lee's driving during a strenuous morning commute on the 55 Freeway sparked the confrontation that led to Aiden's violent death.
Lee and Eriz were in Lee's Volkswagen Golf sports automobile on the way in which from their home in Costa Mesa to the Highland auto repair shop where they worked. Aiden's mother, Joanna Cloonan, took her son from their home in Costa Mesa to Calvary Chapel Pre-School in Yorba Linda.
Lee accelerated behind Cloonan's Chevrolet Sonic within the carpool lane, abruptly drove past Cloonan's automobile, after which immediately jumped back into the carpool lane, cutting Cloonan off and checking the brakes.
A “peace sign” Lee threw at Cloonan did little to calm the mother's anger, and as Cloonan began to drive away from the sports automobile to exit the highway, Cloonan gave her middle finger.
Cloonan later testified that he saw Eriz, who was sitting within the passenger seat next to Lee, smiling. Moments later, the mother heard a loud noise and Aiden, who was sitting in a automobile seat behind her, shouted “Ow!” When the mother looked back, she saw Aiden's head hanging down.
A single shot fired by Eriz had penetrated the trunk of Cloonan's automobile, entered Aiden's back, traveled through his liver and lungs, pierced his heart, after which exited his right abdomen. The mother screamed, “Aiden, Aiden, Aiden!” as he lay dying in her arms on the side of the road.
The Mass manhunt to seek out Aiden's killer and the vehicle from which the fatal shot was fired, spanned greater than two weeks.
As commuters passed under overpasses every day, banners read “Who Shot Aiden?” California Highway Patrol investigators and other law enforcement officers swarmed door-to-door to businesses along the 55 Freeway, trying to find footage from surveillance cameras trained on the roadway were. Meanwhile, the reward for locating those chargeable for Aiden's death rose to $500,000.
Lee and Eriz continued to commute every day from Costa Mesa to Highland in the course of the manhunt, although they later used Eriz's red pickup truck as a substitute of the sports automobile.
By the trim and tires of a suspect vehicle captured on surveillance footage and comparing them to DMV records, investigators narrowed their search to several dozen specific cars, including the one driven by Lee and owned by her parents. A tipster also contacted authorities and told them that Lee and Eriz were driving a vehicle matching the outline.
Eriz told police that he only learned he was chargeable for Aiden's death per week after the shooting and said he decided not to show himself in because he didn't consider Lee had done anything fallacious and didn't need to that she discovered in trouble.
Unlike Eriz's police interview, which was played during his trial, the complete details of Lee's conversations with police were never presented in open court. But an official had previously testified that after the shooting, Lee apparently denied the crime and told Eriz before his arrest, “You don't know for sure it was you.” The officer said that when Lee was asked why she hadn't come forward sooner, she replied, that she was “afraid of incriminating herself…or that she wasn’t sure if they were.”
There is not any evidence that Eriz knew the boy was within the automobile or that he intended to kill the mother.
During Eriz's trial, prosecutors argued that he felt disrespected by Cloonan and was waiting for a probability to make use of a weapon he had been carrying for months “in the hope that someone would step out of line.” The defense countered that Cloonan provoked Eriz and caused him to act rashly in the warmth of passion.
A jury in January convicted Eriz of second-degree murder. He was Sentenced earlier this month to 40 years to life in prison.
After Lee's sentencing, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said it was a disgrace to see Lee receive recognition for his time served and good behavior “while sitting at home instead of in a jail cell.”
“The day Aiden was laid to rest in his tiny casket, Wynne and Marcus kayaked and enjoyed a beautiful California summer day, knowing Aiden would never play in the sun again,” Spitzer said in an announcement. “A six-year-old little boy is dead, and as a substitute of coming forward while the remainder of Southern California desperately looked for his killer, she helped the killer hide vital evidence after which went on together with her life as if nothing had ever happened…
“Their 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 one break after another,” the added Prosecutor added.
image credit : www.mercurynews.com