Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - "GUN NUT" & GIRLFRIEND nabbed in road rage death of 6-year-old Aiden Leos

Episode Date: June 8, 2021

California Police arrest two fatal road-rage shooting of 6-year-old Aiden Leos. Marcus Anthony Eriz, 24, and Wynne Lee, 23, were arrested in Costa Mesa Sunday night more than two weeks after Aiden Leos was fatally shot in his mother’s car. Police believe that Lee was driving the vehicle and the Eriz fired at least once into the car where Leos was riding in the backseat. As the Daily Mail first reported, Eriz’s social media accounts indicate he is a “gun fanatic.” His Instagram account features several photos of guns and videos of Eriz shooting firearms.Joining Nancy Grace today: Wendy Patrick - California prosecutor, Author: “Red Flags” www.wendypatrickphd.com 'Today with Dr. Wendy' on KCBQ in San Diego Dr. Jillian Peterson - Forensic psychologist, Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Hamline University (St. Paul, MN), Expert on Mass Shootings and Violence Prevention Dr. Michelle Dupre - Forensic Pathologist and former Medical Examiner, Author: “Homicide Investigation Field Guide” & "Investigating Child Abuse Field Guide", Former Police Detective Lexington County Sheriff’s Department Karen L. Smith - Forensic Expert, Lecturer at the University of Florida, Host of Shattered Souls Podcast, @KarensForensic, barebonesforensic.com Spencer Coursen - Founder and President: Coursen Security Group www.CoursenSecurityGroup.com, Author: "The Safety Trap: A Security Expert’s Secrets For Staying Safe in a Dangerous World", www.TheSafetyTrap.com, Instagram: @s.coursen, Twitter: @SpencerCoursen Alexis Tereszcuk - CrimeOnline.com Investigative Reporter, Writer/Fact Checker, Lead Stories dot Com, Twitter: @swimmie2009  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. In the last hours, a major bombshell in the case of a little boy gunned down dead, sitting in the car in traffic with mommy. We now know an arrest of two people has gone down, a man and a woman. And he said, Mommy, my tummy hurts. So she went and she picked him up. And he was bleeding on her. She had blood on her clothes. And then he started turning blue, and that's when the ambulance took him. And that was the last time that my mom saw him alive.

He passed away. Please help us find the people that did this to my little brother he's only six and he was so sweet he was a very very loving boy so please help us find who did this to him you are hearing six-year-old Aiden's sister Alexis begging for help and believe me, thousands of people, including you, including us, all of us joined together to try and find the person that murdered a six-year-old little boy shooting into the car at mommy after a traffic argument in the last hours. Listen.

These videos and photos are from Marcus Anthony Ariza's Instagram account. 24-year-old Ariza was arrested along with 23-year-old Wyn Lee. According to CHP officers, six-year-old Aiden Leos' mom was driving her Chevrolet on the 55 North coming up to the 22 in Orange. That's when she was involved in a road rage incident with a driver and passenger in a white Volkswagen station wagon over a perceived unsafe lane change. Officers say someone in that VW fired at least one round at the Chevrolet, hitting and killing the young boy who was riding in the back of his mom's car in a booster seat. We are now hearing the names Marcus Anthony Ariz and Wyn Lee, a man and his girlfriend. You were just hearing ABC7, Jessica DeNova. But now listen to ABC7 Eyewitness News lesson.

We spoke with a neighbor at this apartment building where police say the suspects were arrested more than two weeks after that fatal shooting. John Dougherty tells us over the last several years he has seen Ariz walking around the building but didn't speak much to him. You described him as arrogant. Yeah, he was, I thought, just the way he walked, the way he talked, I didn't really hear him talk, but he walked like he's, you know, a badass guy, you know. I know he had a couple of guns in there too, so I know that. This neighbor says he saw CHP officers

in the parking lot most of the morning Sunday. Then he heard arrests happen in the afternoon, saw a woman handcuffed on the ground. Joining me, an all-star panel to make sense and process what we are just learning, a man and a woman. He allegedly a quote gun nut in the case of six-year-old little boy Aiden riding in the back seat with mommy on a booster seat when suddenly he's shot. What we know is that the bullet entered the back of Mommy's vehicle, traveled through the vehicle to kill little Aiden.

With me, Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor, author of Red Flags at WendyPatrickPhD.com. Host of Today with Dr. Wendy KCBQ San Diego, Dr. Jillian Peterson, forensic psychologist at Hamline University in St. Paul, expert on shootings and violence prevention, Dr. Michelle Dupree, forensic pathologist, former medical examiner and author of the Homicide Investigation Field Guide and former detective with Lexington County as well, Karen L. Smith, Senior Lecturer, University of Florida, host Shattered Souls podcast at Karen's Forensics, also barebonesforensics.com. Spencer Corson, founder, president, Corson Security Group at corsonsecuritygroup.com, and author of The Safety Trap. And you can find them at thesafetytrap.com.

But now to Alexis Tereschuk, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. Alexis, first, I want to hear about the arrest and what we know about this man and his mistress. What do we know? What we know is he is 24 years old. His girlfriend is 23 years old. They live together and they were arrested on Sunday, June 6th. What do we know about them as people? He has been caught on video target practicing. Nothing wrong with that. But it's been said that he is obsessed with guns. Why would he have a gun in the vehicle with me? And who

is the woman that was allegedly driving the car? So his Instagram, which was public until hours after he almost 24 hours after he was arrested, it was still available, had years going back at least four years, pictures and videos of him with various types of weapons, an AR-15 rifle that he was using for target practice, everything he used in his videos with target practice, but multiple posts of guns. And in fact, his most recent post, which was just days before Aiden was killed,

showed a homemade gun. He had fashioned his own gun. Couldn't really tell what it was. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. A homemade gun. Did you just say a homemade gun? I did. Okay, stop right there. To Spencer Corson, founder, president of Corson Security Group, a homemade gun. Now, listen, I took target practice every six months for the full 10 years I was in the district attorney's office. All right. But making your own gun, that's a whole nother level. Who would make their own gun?

So I think it's important that we when we say he was making his own gun, he was modifying his own weapon platform, which means. OK, stop right there. Spencer, you know what? I like you. I really do. I think you're smart. I like your book. I like what you stand for. But don't start with me.

Okay. Well, when you say make your own guns, people think that they're probably printing it out with... The six-year-old boy dead. And according to cops, the woman drove the car while the boyfriend hung out like it's the wild, wild west. Like he's James Bond and start shooting. That's in the movies.

But he didn't shoot a KGB spy. He shot a six year old little boy on a booster seat. So start with me. You're 100,000% correct. And that is exactly what these posts that he shows on his social media demonstrate. That he is untrained. Did he say modify his gun platform? Is that what you said?

His Instagram posts demonstrate a blatant disregard for the proper use of weapons and a reckless disrespect for their capability. I didn't think you'd say it again. Nancy, there's a difference between making your own gun, which means printing it at home and modifying a gun that you bought at a store. And to say that he made his own gun would be inaccurate, misrepresent the facts and would paint an improper picture in the mind of the audience.

What does it mean in your mind to modify your own gun? Imagine if you buy a car and you put on a new muffler. He bought a rifle and put on a new optic. Alexis Treschuk, you said he made his own gun. Before we get in an all out. What? In the picture, this, it looks like, at first glance, this does not look like a gun. It looks like a piece of metal, but in a T shape.

So maybe an odd piece and maybe then you think, okay, it is a gun, but it is clamped in metal. So he, he's welding it. You know, he worked in an automobile place where they fix cars. So he can do welding and things like that. So, but it's in a clamp as if, you know, he has formed this metal that is not in the – I am not a gun expert. So to me, it does not look like a gun that I – So he's not just adding on, let's just say, a silencer, which is totally illegal. He's actually welding pieces together.

I'm looking at his Instagram right now, and the pieces that he are welding together are car parts. The schematics above it are for a car. None of this is for a weapon. Okay, you and I can fight, have a little hair fight about how he is modifying his gun platform. But I know this, and I'm going to go to a shrink on this, Dr. Jillian Peterson, I know this, where you put your time and your energy and your money, there lies your heart. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. You spend all your time, all your energy, all your money on your children, that's your heart.

Or on the church, that's your heart. On porn, on drugs, on whatever, on guns, that is where your heart is. Dr. Jillian Peterson. Yeah, Nancy, I think that's right. I study mass shooters and have interviewed a lot of perpetrators, and we see this same fascination, obsession with guns where it is their main hobby. And in some cases, I think it gives them this sense of power and control to be handling and using guns all the time that they might not have in other areas of their life. Okay, hold on right there. A sense of power and control that they may not have in other areas of their life.

Let me be clear. I support the right to bear arms. I support it. It's in our Constitution. There are times I'm not happy about the outcome of it, but I support the right to have a gun. I don't like guns because I'm a gun violence victim. But I want to follow up with you, Dr. Jillian Peterson. This is not about

taking away anybody's gun. I want to talk to you about what you just said, the sense of power, because I'm bringing it back to the road rage incident, that feeling of I'm going to get them, that B-I-T-C-8 shot a bird at me. Screw her. You get your gun out, hanging out your window like a James Bond or Bourne identity and start shooting at this car. And you don't shoot a KGB agent. You shoot a six-year-old little boy sitting on his booster seat. That feeling of power, that get back, that revenge.

Tell me about that, Dr. Jillian Peterson. Yeah, this is a crime that we would call reactionary violence, right? It's not, there's not a purpose to it. It's not planned out. There's no reason for it. It's impulsive. It's irrational. It's angry. It's stupid. Somebody triggered him and the gun was sitting right there and he spends a lot, a lot of his time. I don't like anything you're saying because I don't like that new word, triggered. It

triggered me because people are shifting blame. There's a lot of blame shifting going on right now about that triggered me. Wendy Patchett, California prosecutor, author, red flags. It triggered her. B.S. B.S. Because somebody shooting a bird at you, if you cut them off for traffic and you have a little argument on the road, that is not a trigger. No. When you shoot into that car, there is no justification for that. You know, the old adage, sticks and stones can break my bones, but words

can never hurt me. Words or gestures, which equal a message, are not justification for shooting. That is not a trigger. Trigger, the word, is being used to justify all sorts of things right now. I don't like it. Yeah, Nancy, you're bringing up a great distinction between why does one have a gun, all right? You had to do target practice. You were a DA. Our other guests may have them for self-defense. But this is for solving problems, which is absolutely unbelievably ridiculous. You don't use a gun and don't use violence to solve problems like this. This is somebody who felt slighted and saw violence as a solution. That is a difference.

And when you look at mass shooters and people that actually use violence as some kind of a justification, we want to make sure we don't get caught up in exactly what you said. There isn't a way you can justify this being a trigger. Violence is not a solution, and having a gun in the car, as opposed to at home for self-defense perhaps, having a gun in the car is not going to fly as some sort of a justification, or even, Nancy, as a circumstance in mitigation. I guess, Dr. Jillian Peterson, you, like Spencer Corson, you guys are the experts in your field. I'm accepting what the two of you are saying as being correct. Well, Nancy, I need to apologize because I just re-looked at this video. Oh, dear Lord in heaven. Alexis Tereshak, are you listening?

I was wrong he is building a homemade version of a mac 11 it is known as a cobray m11 it is a at home assault weapon that he is fabricating in his shop i am i am in disbel. I cannot believe I got this wrong. I can't believe we got Alexis and I got it right. Wildly inappropriate in my earlier assessment. Spanky, spanky. Can we get back to Abe? Can we get off you for a minute, Spencer? As fascinating as you are and get back

on the six-year-old little boy. I want to get back to, and I'm going to come back to this, that this guy is hunched over his workbench making a gun at night. But I want to figure out how that factors into what he did, according to police, to this little boy. And Dr. Julian Peterson, like Corson, like Karen, like Dr. Dupree, you guys are the experts in your fields. I bow to your superior knowledge in your area. And Dr. Julian Peterson, when you say trigger,

yes, that may have triggered him when the mommy shot a bird at him because of a cutoff in the lanes. But triggering is being used as a justification for bad acts, which under the law, not a justification. The only time you can shoot under the law is for self-defense. I'm not talking about target practice. I'm not shooting at clay pigeons. I'm talking about in a situation when you shoot at a person, the only time that that is acceptable under the law is in self-defense or accident. That's it.

There's no triggering. That is BS, that it triggered him to start. Yes, jump in. Yeah, so I want to be clear. There is nothing that justifies what he did. And I'm a parent of young kids. I have a seven-year-old boy. This one is a gut punch for me.

There's absolutely nothing that can justify that. When I say trigger, I think of it, and it's a bad word, I agree, from a psychological standpoint. That's what set him off. What pushes people over the edge. It's kind of this slow build. And then the last thing that actually causes violence in many ways is so bizarre and it's so irrational that it's hard to make sense of it. Guys, how did, and we'll digress in a moment

back to Spencer Corson about how he's making home a gun. And Alexis and I are going to take great satisfaction in that triumphant moment. But back in the middle of the road, let's get out of the weeds. Take a listen to our cut 15. This is ABC 7 Eyewitness News. How did they catch this guy and his girlfriend? It's the critical new clue in the search for Aiden Leos' killer. A photo of the suspect's vehicle. How are those people living with themselves right now?

That's what's angering me. You know, I just don't get it. They're not going to get away with this. You know, one way or the other, they're going to get what is coming to them. The car described by the CHP as a 2018 or 19 white VW Golf Sport Wagon. The license plate unknown. The female driver and male passenger in the car. The deadly road rage shooting erupting last Friday as Aiden's mother was taking him to school.

I just hope whoever sees the car, maybe who owns it, will come forward and allow come forward and, you know, allow this family to have some peace and to, you know, give justice to Aiden. A gun-toting auto shop worker, age 24, along with a 23-year-old girlfriend, arrested in a road rage incident, shooting death of a six-year-old little boy, Aiden Leos. That's the bombshell. That's the breaking news right now. Now, how did they track him down? That's what I'm trying to figure out. When we last met, we were talking about how to catch this killer.

And we all speculated it would have to do with the make and model of the vehicle of the shooter and the tag number. But the vehicle of the shooter and the tag number. But the video didn't accurately catch the tag number. It had to be enhanced. That takes time. Thousands of tips pouring in. Take a listen to our cut 16. This is John Finoglio, KTLA 5.

I've been praying for these people. I mean, they shouldn't take this kid's life. A collective sigh of relief and a step closer to justice for Aiden Leos. I'm glad they got this person. That's one of the evilest things I've ever heard is somebody shooting into a car on the freeway and then killing a kid. The California Highway Patrol announcing the arrest of two suspects in the road rage shooting death of the six-year-old boy last month. They've been identified as 24-year-old Marcus Anthony Aries and 23-year-old Nguyen Le. CHP says the couple was arrested at their Costa Mesa home Sunday afternoon. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. For those of you just joining us, a major break in the case of the shooting death of little six-year-old Aiden

with the arrest of two very unlikely suspects, a 24-year-old auto worker and his girlfriend. Take a listen to Zerreen Shah speaking with the mom. Our cut 16. What are your words for the person who did this? They took my son's life away. And he was beautiful and he was kind and he was precious and you killed him for no reason and i want to find them and i want there to be justice to be served for my son i was driving on the freeway and there was a car behind me that cut me off abruptly. I was in the carpool lane with my son and as I started to merge away from them,

I heard a really loud noise and my son said, Ow! And I had to pull over and he got shot. Take a listen to more from our friends in Reedshaw speaking with mommy Joanna. Officials say it's unclear what sparked the incident, but say the bullet went through the trunk, hitting the toddler in a back booster seat. Joanna frantically trying to save her child. I pulled over and I took him out of the car and I tried to put my hand on his wounds

while calling 911 because he's losing a lot of blood. Aiden dying a short while later. He sang all the time and the children at the preschool, everybody loved him. This is a once-in-a-lifetime kid. I miss him. And the person who did this can't get away with it. How did they track him? How have they caught the two? And, Garen, let me guarantee you, this woman is right in the thick of it. She's boiling in the same pot as her boyfriend, the Trigger Man.

Take a listen to KTLA. We're looking for a white sedan. If you were traveling northbound 55 in the city of Orange between 755 this morning and 815, especially if your vehicle has a dash cam, we want to see that video and see what we can see because it was a white sedan that we're looking for. Viewers saw images of what was been described as a gray-colored sedan, a Chevy sedan. Have you spoken to the mother who was driving that vehicle? Our investigators are talking to her. We're trying to get as much information as we can.

It was a silver Chevrolet sedan. So let's go straight out to Alexis Tereschuk, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. Alexis Tereschuk, tell me what we know about how the perps were caught. So the description of the car changed a little bit. They were saying there was a sedan. It ended up being a station wagon, and they described it. So they said it was a white VW, maybe a Golf station wagon. Okay, wait, wait, wait. A white VW Acadia Golf station wagon. Is that what you just said? White VW Golf station wagon, not Acadia.

Yeah, that's two different things. So, all right. That's hardly, in my mind, a getaway car. A station wagon? No, it's like your mom's car. All right, go ahead. So then they knew the direction the traffic was going. They knew the direction the car was going.

The police actually got a picture of the actual car. It's a little bit north of there. Actually, the car was seen in Riverside, which is not just a little bit north. It's a good 45 minutes away from where they were. And so they had a picture of it, but the license plate was, the angle of the photo was just, it wasn't straight on from the back or the front.

We have plates on both sides in California. So the police had to do, they had to enhance the image and they were able to see a little bit. But in the meantime, they released this picture to the public so that people could know exactly what it looked like. And hundreds of tips started pouring in.

Hundreds, hundreds, not one or two. They said hundreds of tips came in about the vehicle and people who thought they had seen it. And there was, it started off, someone started a GoFundMe for the family. There was $10,000. All of a sudden, people found out more about it. They donated to this family, and they donated so much money. The family put this up for a reward. They said, here's $50,000.

If you will tell us what happened, we will give you $50,000. The city council members, two of them donated money. More money was donated. The reward is up to $500,000 for people that give information to catch these folks. And so this was a huge incentive. Wow. And the tips came. That is huge because I was thinking they did it all based on the video of the car, which had to be enhanced.

It was at such an angle, you could barely see the tag plate. And I was going crazy about trying to enhance that tag plate. But the reality is, think of looking at the side of a minivan. You're looking at the passenger door. You can't read the tag on the front or the back. The car was just a little bit beyond that. You could see a little slice of the tag. You really could not see the tag. That reward made the difference. I want to go to Karen L. Smith, forensic expert, lecturer, University of Florida. Karen, I've told this story before. The first time I went to APD Homicide to work up a murder case, I walked by car theft. Car theft is an art. And I learned about this when I prosecuted a serial car thief who was obsessed with VWs. And in the end, I mean, I had like 11

or 12 similar transactions on him, all VWs. In the end, he lowered himself into a VW dealership. That's how he finally got caught. But I learned this. Every year or other year, cars, whether we see it or not, redesign. And part of that is very often in the tailgates or the headlights. They may add another little tiny panel or they may reconfigure the way that the lights work or how they are positioned on the back to enhance the image of the car. And that is one of the ways, one of the ways, that car theft experts identify the make and model. They have volumes and volumes at that time. They look like photo albums of car make and model. Now it's all on computers, a lot easier. But that is how they do it, Karen. Yeah, it is. And let me tell you something,

that photograph that was taken in Riverside was so key. Along with public information, Nancy, let's not discount the public coming forward here. They saw something. They said something. And I'm not going to say that it was because the reward was a half a million dollars. I think that people have a conscience. And I think that a six year old little boy being killed in a car is enough for people to come forward and say, I don't want these thugs out on the road with me. It could have been any one of us. And the fact that this car was found, the forensics inside that car, they can have scrubbed it. They can clean it. I don't care. Every contact leaves a trace, Nancy. You know that as well as I do. And the investigators are going to be scrubbing that car for DNA, for latent prints, for partials, for anything that they can find to put these two people inside that car. that this guy, 24-year-old autoworker, gun nut, Marcus Anthony Arias, hung out the window of his girlfriend's car, Wyn Lee, and started firing. One shot went through the back of mommy's vehicle.

How did that end up killing baby Aiden? Nancy, this is a travesty. It's just tragic. One of the things that's so important about this is that because the bullet went through the trunk of the car, we call that an intermediary target. It expands the bullet. It makes the bullet have much more damaging power because it's not pristine. So when it hits the body, it just does a lot more damage. We would look at the trajectory of where that bullet went into the car and then through the car seat and then into this dear child. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Alexis says her mother was driving her brother to kindergarten at Calvary Chapel in Yorba Linda when a white sedan cut her mom off on the 55 freeway near Chapman in Orange as she tried to switch lanes.

Another family member says Aiden's mom made a gesture and that the suspect's car pulled behind them and shot into the back of their car around 8 a.m. She heard something, but she didn't identify it as a gunshot because no one would think that someone just shot a bullet into my car. So, yeah, it wasn't until that she grabbed him and there was blood all over her clothes. Alexis says the suspect's car was a white Volkswagen Jetta. She says her mom told her that a woman was driving and a man was in the passenger seat. Police scoured the freeway for hours for any clues today and are now searching for little Aiden's killer. We're never full again. He was, he was amazing and I hope that they know

what they took today. The DA made it very clear that the more time that passed without these two coming forward, the less sympathy or empathy he would have with them. And they never did come forward. They were busted based on the video of the Volkswagen vehicle and hundreds of tips that poured. And the reality is Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor and author, she's on the hook just as much as he is. Yeah, that's right. This looks like something that could very well be charged exactly that way as a conspiracy. And you bring up a great point because my predictions did not pan out. My prediction was that perhaps one of the two of these folks would be overcome with the kind of grief that led to all these tips from the public and turn themselves in or confess to somebody.

And actually, that is what the local DA said would potentially be examined as a mitigant. But you're right, Nancy, that's not what happened. So now, as a result, yes, both the shooter and the driver are going to be on the hook as the facts shake themselves out to see what the respective levels of culpability are going to be. Alexis Torres shot CrimeOnline.com. Do we know the caliber of the bullet? And have you seen these mug shots? You can look at them on CrimeOnline.com. The defendant, the male, his eyes are wide open in a very bizarre manner.

But I'm looking specifically at the tattoo. He's got all the way across his neck like a choker. There is the quote dove of peace on his right side flying. And then it says, have faith. And that's all I can read because his collar breaks in. I can't read the rest of it. And the girlfriend, just nothing stands out really about her. So, Alexis, A, what do we know about this guy? What does that tattoo say? And B, do we know the caliber of the weapon?

So we can only see about the guy. We can only see the tattoo just because it's covered by the shirt. But the interesting thing is all of his pictures for years, there is not a single picture of him on his social media that shows him clean shaven. But here in his mugshot, he has completely looked so different. He also had a chin piercing, like a silver ball, like right in his chin, right below his lip. That's gone in the mugshot as well. It looks like he drastically changed his appearance from his last social media post, which was right, you know, just a few days before he, before the little boy was shot. Tattoos and crazy eyes.

That's what I'm seeing. So Spencer Corson, founder, president, Corson Security Group at CorsonSecurityGroup.com, author of The Safety Trap, who just got in a street fight with myself and Alexis Tereschuk. Let's talk about the Cobre MAC-11. Thoughts? Yes, this is a weapon that is only used for one thing, and that is to kill people. And if you are building this at home, it's because you want to shoot someone. And if you want to shoot someone, you're going to look for an excuse to do so. I mean, a Mac 11.

I remember the first time I dealt with a Mac 11, it was two dope dealers that were trying to shoot down another dope dealer. And instead, they shot down a 12-year-old little boy on his way home from band practice, nicknamed Moonbeam, who, with his dying breath, called out for his mother. That's my experience with a Mac 11. So do you believe in the photo that we see of him? He's putting together or trying to create something like a Mac 11. And what does that mean to you? Not only do I believe it, but he flat out says it in the caption that he's making a

Cobra Mac 11. And what it says to me is that he wanted to he wanted to have the he wanted to behold the power that that weapon would provide and that his disrespect for that capability and his almost childlike infatuation with their capacity for violence, he was looking for an excuse to shoot someone. He did, and that little boy died as a result. He should, I don't know if California has the death penalty,

but I certainly hope they do. This guy, Costa Mesa, California man, Marcus Anthony Arias. We know that he's Wynlee's boyfriend. She's one year younger than him. They both worked in the Inland Empire in San Bernardino County. And he's been described as arrogant and noisy. He is a welder. He's a car enthusiast. He worked as an auto body tech. He quit. He took to, he's taken to Instagram quite a lot. And I find that very, very telling, Alexis, because you find out about a lot of people on their social media that they wouldn't normally reveal, say, on a job interview. Exactly.

Unless you were applying to work at a target practice place, because that is what his Instagram is filled with. Many, many, many videos and pictures of him doing target practice, but also in, not just in the controlled environment of, you know, a target practice place inside with, with the barriers and you have to wear protective eye gear and ear protection. There are videos of him just outside using a large, and, and Steve can talk about what kind of rifle it is, but a large rifle, shooting it with one arm, just kind of holding

it with one arm and flinging it, and it goes up in the air as he's shooting far away. This is sort of a cavalier video of him showing off his firearm skills, or lack thereof. But he also, strangely enough, you would think that when you had, if you've done this,

you know, there is a manhunt out there for you because you have to know this. This guy, Marcus, he just last Thursday, he quit his job in January at the auto shop. Just last Thursday, he texted his boss and said, can I have my job back? Which I find just such a strange thing. And his boss said, she said, we had no idea. You know, when he quit, he left on good terms. We had no problem with him. He just asked for his job back the other day. And then three days later, he is finally arrested for this crime. To Dr. Jillian Peterson, forensic psychologist, why do people reveal so much about themselves on social media it's a good question i think social media in some ways it's sort of the identity that we want to present to the world right we get to create whatever we want and present ourselves in this way that makes us seem

you know stronger or more successful or more powerful than perhaps we really are. And so the fact that he's spending this much time pushing this image of himself out to the world, I think is rather telling. Guys, take a listen to our friend Tina Patel, CBS LA. We had a chance to talk to a couple who pulled over right after this happened. They didn't see the shooting. They saw the mother on the side of the road. Here's what they said she told them. I mean, she was hysterical, obviously. So my baby, my baby, and we didn't know what happened. It took a bit to figure out that her son got shot. So she was driving another car up, I guess, passed her up. And as she changed lanes, I guess they went behind her,

and it was like, we don't know. Basically, they shot into the back of her car, and they hit her. You know, I'm thinking about the mind frame of someone that would shoot into the back of a car of a woman with children in the car on the freeway. I mean, to me, it's very obvious, Wendy Patrick, since the little boy was on a booster, you could see that there's a child in the car. That is going to be one of the huge issues that no doubt will be litigated in this case, is could they see the child?

Does it matter? How did they shoot? So that is definitely going to be a consideration. How fast did it happen? Because you're right, we can look at these facts and look at the tragedy of what happened. But you can imagine, I'm going to put my defense attorney hat on for a minute

because that's the way I started my career. The defense is going to argue exactly that, Nancy, that it wasn't obvious. But then the prosecution is going to come back and say, does it matter when you fire a gun? Shouldn't you assume you're going to kill somebody, especially obviously we're going to look at what kind of gun was used, but that's going to be the counter argument. It's a great point. So where does this stand right now, Alexis Tereshak? What's next for these two?

They are scheduled to appear in court in the district attorney in Orange County has said he gave them, as we heard, he gave them every opportunity to turn themselves in. He said, if you turn yourself in, this could be considered, he said, quote, a mitigating factor. So I will take that into consideration when charging you. But they did not turn themselves in. The police had tips. They did their investigation. They found them.

They arrested them. He said that is going to play a part in factors that they are going to. We have something called enhanced charges out in California, and it varies by county. It's up to the district attorney and the Orange County district attorney had made it very clear that he is planning to use these enhanced charges, which make it if it's a crime committed with a gun or against a child, lots of different reasons, it can extend the sentence by 25, 35, multiple years. Good. It can be on top of it.

Good. Because not only do they shoot the little boy dead, then they leave mommy hanging in the wind, twisting in pain until the case is solved. We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, we wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace Crime Story signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.