California man sentenced to 40 years to life for fatal freeway shooting of 6

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A California man was sentenced Friday to 40 years to life for the fatal shooting of a 6-year-old boy who was riding in the back of his mother’s car on the freeway, prosecutors said.

Marcus Eriz, now 27, was sentenced in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana for killing Aiden Leos in May 2021 while the boy was on his way to kindergarten, the district attorney’s office said in a statement.

Eriz was convicted by a jury in January of second-degree murder and shooting at an occupied motor vehicle.

“What he took was the life of a little six-year-old boy and the sense of security of drivers everywhere who worry that driving on our freeways could be a death sentence, not because of a crash but because of a bullet,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in the statement.

An email message seeking comment was sent to Eriz’s attorney, Randall Bethune.