Ohio woman gets life sentence for stabbing 3-year-old to death outside grocery store

An Ohio woman received a life sentence without the possibility of parole for fatally stabbing a 3-year-old boy outside a grocery store, in an attack that also injured the child’s mother.

Bionca Ellis, 34, of Cleveland, reportedly showed no emotion as Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge John Russo handed down her sentence for the June 2024 attack that killed 3-year-old Julian Wood and injured his mother, 37-year-old Margot Wood, according to The Assocaited Press.

“I have seen unimaginable acts of violence — but this is among the most heartbreaking,” prosecutor Michael C. O’Malley said in a statement. “Bionca Ellis’ horrific actions warrant nothing less than life without parole.”

A jury found Ellis guilty of aggravated murder, felonious assault, child endangering and aggravated theft earlier this month, despite her lawyers entering a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.

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“At the time that she’s arrested and all the way through, she’s deemed incompetent, really, so it’s hard for us to swallow,” Ellis’ attorney, Fernando Mack, said, according to the AP. “To think that she was only OK just for that moment, just for that day, but all the other days we’ll concede that she had some severe mental disease kicking in.”

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Crime scene tape is seen June 3, 2024, where a 3-year-old boy was fatally stabbed by a woman as he sat in a grocery cart in this Giant Eagle supermarket parking lot in North Olmsted, Ohio.  (Hannah Drown/Cleveland.com, File)

The attack took place outside the Giant Eagle grocery store in North Olmstead. Authorities said Ellis entered the store armed with two knives that she had stolen from the Volunteers of America Thrift Store next door. They said she spotted Julian and his mother near the front and followed them into the parking lot.

Michael O’Malley, Cuyahoga County prosecutor, briefs the press after an opioid trial in Cleveland, Ohio on October 21, 2019.  (Megan Jelinger/AFP)

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The mother was about to load her groceries into her vehicle when Ellis ran at them with a knife, stabbing the toddler twice before walking away. The boy died at a hospital while Margot Wood was treated for a shoulder stab wound. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.