Inset: Julian Wood (Ripepi Funeral Home). Background: Bionca Ellis at her sentencing hearing (Law&Crime).
With a steadying breath, the mother of a 3-year-old boy approached the podium, preparing to speak to the Ohio judge presiding over the sentencing of the woman who had fatally stabbed her son outside a grocery store.
On June 3, 2024, Margaret Wood and her young son Julian were at a Giant Eagle supermarket in North Olmsted, near Cleveland. Their routine shopping trip turned tragic when 34-year-old Bionca Ellis suddenly attacked, fatally stabbing Julian as he sat in a shopping cart.
“I was there to witness my son’s first breath when he was born, and tragically, his last, as I cradled him, covered in his blood,” Margaret tearfully recounted to the court on Monday. “No mother should have to endure burying her child. Children are meant to outlive their parents. Receiving a death certificate for my 3-year-old, with ‘homicide’ as the cause, is a pain no parent should bear. The memory of that woman taking my son’s life haunts me daily, a nightmare I can’t escape.”
The jury found Ellis guilty of murder, attempted murder, felonious assault, and child endangerment. On Monday, the judge sentenced her to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Wood described how her final memories of Julian are the echoes of his screams and the images of his pain-stricken face.
“His eyes, filled with terror, are a sight I cannot forget,” she said. “Every day, that haunting memory stays with me.”
The boy’s father, Jared Wood, told the judge how his son had a way of helping people, including helping his nonverbal older brother with autism speak and become more comfortable expressing himself. He loved dinosaurs and French fries from McDonald’s.
“He was funny, outgoing, fearless, and full of life, love, and laughter. The energy he brought to the world was boundless,” he said.
Ellis’ defense attorneys blamed the course of events on her not taking her medication. They said that she had no prior criminal convictions and that when she does take her medication, she is polite and well-mannered. But when she is not taking them, the lawyers said, she’s like a different person.
Ellis had not taken her medication for months before the murder, her attorney said.
The convicted murderer apologized in a brief statement.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge John J. Russo said no sentence could “capture the enormity” of the victim’s family’s loss. He said while mental illness does not excuse Ellis’ actions, the “glaring gap in our county’s mental health support system is not lost on this court.”
“It’s in this spirit, I hope we all continue to confront the gap between the need for mental health treatment, and its effective and equitable distribution and provision to all of those in our community,” he said.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Ellis had stolen two knives from the Volunteers of America Thrift Store next to the grocery store moments before the stabbing, authorities said.
Ellis is said to have then walked next door into the supermarket, “spotted” the mother and son, and “followed them.” Margot Wood paid for their groceries, and they left the store, walking into the parking lot, prosecutors said. But still, Ellis lurked behind.
The now-convicted defendant followed them to their vehicle and “immediately stabbed the 3-year-old,” who was in the shopping cart, “multiple times,” the prosecutor’s office stated. “His mother attempted to pull him out and was also stabbed. Several people called the police and reported the stabbing.”
North Olmsted police officers responded to the scene and saw Ellis walking toward a nearby road “with a knife in her hand,” authorities said. She was arrested.
Wood and Julian were transported to an area hospital, where the child passed away. Wood was treated for her injuries.
Ellis had reportedly submitted a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. Authorities did not believe the suspect and victims had any prior connection — and that the attack was a “random act of violence,” the local outlet reported. It took jurors about 24 hours of deliberating before they returned with the guilty verdict.
