Your support helps us to tell the story
A woman has been found incompetent to stand trial in the murder of a three-year-old boy in an Ohio parking lot.
Bionca Ellis, 32, has been charged with fatally stabbing Julian Wood outside a Giant Eagle grocery store in North Olmsted, about 42 miles northwest of Akron, in June. Police say she attacked both the boy and his mother.
Julian was stabbed in the face and back while he was sitting in a grocery cart, investigators said. When his mother, Margot Wood, tried to pull him to safety, she too was attacked. Both were rushed to hospital but Julian died. Ellis, who had followed them out of the store, was arrested.
The judge in the case has now ruled that Ellis is not fit to stand trial.
Judge John Russo ordered her to receive in-patient care at Northcoast Behavioral Healthcare for 20 days in case she’s able to be restored back to competency. She’s also been ordered to take all medication prescribed to her. According to court documents obtained by FOX 8, a doctor determined Ellis was “incompetent to stand trial.”
The judge may decide to try Ellis if she is restored to competency.
Days before the killing, Ellis had been released from jail on a probation violation without a psych exam. A magistrate had recommended a mental health evaluation for her.
During a prior arrest, Ellis talked about committing murder to a police officer. Footage of the incident, which took place at a women’s shelter in Cleveland, was caught on an officer’s body-worn camera.
She told the officer she killed people in Bakersfield, California but her admission did not make sense at the time. Ellis said she used a gun to kill people. When an officer asked if anyone had found the bodies of any of the people she had killed, she said: “I don’t know. I probably ate ‘em.”
After that encounter, police took her to a hospital for a mental health evaluation. There, she fought with medical staff. Ellis is also facing charges for assaulting staff at a hospital in California, but officials said her murder claims were unfounded.
Ellis has pleaded not guilty to Julian’s murder.
