LOS ANGELES — A Southern California man who opened fire on a car during a highway rampage, killing a 6-year-old on his way to kindergarten, was sentenced Friday to a maximum of 40 years to life in prison. prison.
Marcus Anthony Ellis, 27, of Costa Mesa, was found guilty by a jury in January of second-degree murder and shooting into an occupied vehicle in the May 21, 2021, slaying of Aiden Leos. received.
High Court Judge Richard King said Aiden was “the most vulnerable victim imaginable, a six-year-old child in the back seat, driven to kindergarten by his mother.”
“I don't think it would be possible for anyone to even try to explain in English what Aiden's mother went through after she said, 'It hurts,'” Dr. King said. “She stopped the car and her young son died in her arms.”
Prosecutors said Elise fired shots at the car after his girlfriend, who was driving the car, cut off Aiden's mother on Route 55. Aiden's girlfriend said he gave a peace sign and Aiden's mother brushed them off.
Eliz, who was in the back seat, rolled down the window and fired a handgun into the car. As her mother drove away, she heard a noise and heard her son scream, authorities said. Aiden, who was in the back seat of the car, was shocked.
Ellis apologized in court Friday.
“He was a son, a brother, and a friend to others. He seemed to light up the world wherever he went. Just one of God's little angels,” Elise said. said. “And I'm so sorry for all the hurt I've caused him and the pain he's been through because of me.”
“He never deserved it, and neither did his family,” Elise said.
Ellis was supposed to have been sentenced to 15 years to life, but he was sentenced with an enhanced sentence adding 25 years to life, and the judge decided to rejected the enhancement.
King said he could not connect the mitigating factors argued by the defense, such as childhood trauma or age at the time, to Elise's actions that day.
“This was not a terrible mistake. This was a cold-blooded murder,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer.
“Marcus Ellis pulled out a gun and fired at a moving car because he wanted the world to know what he was capable of. And what he did was take the life of a 6-year-old boy and the driver. It was a sense of security.''There are people everywhere who worry that driving on the highway could be a death sentence, not because of an accident, but because of a bullet,'' Spitzer said in a statement after the verdict.
Ellis' girlfriend, Win Lee, is charged with one count each of accessory after the fact and carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle. Her case is pending and she maintains her innocence.
If convicted of both charges, Lee faces up to three years in state prison and up to one year in Orange County Jail, the District Attorney's Office said.
The shocking violent incident on the highway sparked an investigation that ended with the arrest of two people on June 6, 2021, about two weeks after the shooting. The reward for information in this case has increased to more than $300,000.