‘I Watched You Cry During This Case’: What Ohio Woman Who Killed 3-Year-Old Did At Arraignment Is Chilling

A Cuyahoga County jury started deciding Tuesday whether Bionca Ellis killed 3-year-old Julian Wood because of mental illness or anger. The 34-year-old woman is accused of attacking Julian and his mother, Margot Wood, outside a Giant Eagle store in North Olmsted on June 3, 2024, without any reason.

As per Cleve Land, both sides in the trial agree that Ellis has schizophrenia, a serious mental illness she has had for over 10 years. Her lawyers say she is responsible for Julian’s death but that her mental illness stopped her from understanding that what she did was wrong. Prosecutors say that Ellis knew exactly what she was doing and was angry, not insane.

Defense attorney Fernando Mack talked directly about how emotional the case was during closing arguments. “I watched you cry during this case,” he told the jury. “I’ve been practicing for 31 years. This is one of three cases where I felt as you did.” But he told them that their decision should be based on facts, not feelings. He said that prosecutors were trying to make Ellis’s actions seem normal when she was actually very sick with mental illness.

Her Actions That Morning Tell A Very Different Story

A few days before what happened, Ellis had been let out of jail on a small charge. She thought police did not give her money back. On June 3, just minutes before the attack, she went to the North Olmsted police station trying to get the money but had no luck. 

Security video then showed Ellis stealing two knives from a thrift store nearby before going to Giant Eagle. Inside the store, she walked around for about a minute holding a big knife where everyone could see it. She then saw Julian and his mother and followed them to the parking lot.

When Margot Wood opened her car trunk, Ellis stabbed Julian in the face. Wood was then stabbed in the shoulder before Ellis stabbed Julian a second time in the back. The little boy died from his injuries. Just like a case where a jury looked at disturbing Google searches showing a man looked up dead bodies before killing his pregnant mistress, prosecutors focused on what Ellis did before the attack. 

Prosecutor Anna Faraglia told the jury that Ellis knew what she was doing. “Many people in our country suffer with mental illness every single day, but they don’t go out and murder people,” she said. The defense brought up Ellis’s behavior at her court hearing a week after her arrest, when she smiled, as proof she was still insane. During the trial, Ellis sat with her head down and looked like she did not care. She needed months of treatment at a state hospital before she was well enough mentally to stand trial.