The woman who was driving her boyfriend when he shot and killed a 6-year-old boy on the 55 Freeway in 2021 pleaded guilty to a felony and a misdemeanor in connection to the shooting on Friday, according to prosecutors.
Wynne Lee, 26, of Costa Mesa pleaded guilty to a felony for accessory after the fact and one misdemeanor count of having a concealed firearm in a vehicle. She was sentenced to the maximum of three years for the felony and one for the misdemeanor.
Since she’d been on court-ordered at-home confinement since June 21, 2021, her sentence resulted in credit time served, granting her release. The Orange County Office of the District Attorney cited state law that allows defendants on court-mandated house arrest to accrue credit.
Prosecutors were angered by the law that allowed Lee to be granted her release without serving time behind bars.
“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,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “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.”
While Lee didn’t fire the shot that killed Aiden Leos while he was on his way to kindergarten in May 2021, prosecutors said she was driving the car and kept a Glock 17 handgun in the pouch on the back of the driver seat.
Lee’s then live-in boyfriend, 27-year-old Marcus Anthony Eriz, was sentenced to 40-years-to-life in prison earlier this month for the murder of Leos.
Prosecutors said Lee helped Eriz hide “critical evidence” of the killing in the days that followed Leos’ death, which resulted in a region-wide manhunt.
While driving on the 55 Freeway near Chapman Avenue in Orange on May 21, 2021, Leos’ mother flashed her middle finger in the direction of Lee and Eriz just after 8 a.m. Eriz then grabbed the Glock and fired a single shot at the car, which pierced Leos.
Prosecutors said Leos said “ow,” which grabbed his mother’s attention. He later died at a local hospital.
Lee and Eriz then drove to work and lived their lives as normal, prosecutors say. The couple was involved in another incident the next week in which Eriz allegedly brandished a gun at a Tesla on the 91 Freeway.
Eriz didn’t realize that Leos died from that initial gunshot until one week after the shooting, when a coworker told him that his car looked like the one police were searching for in connection to the death of a little boy. Eriz then looked up the incident on the internet and found the news coverage.
Lee and Eriz were arrested on June 6, 2021.