CLEVELAND — The woman accused of fatally stabbing a 3-year-old boy and injuring his mother outside a northeast Ohio Giant Eagle was given a bond of $5 million on Monday.
Bionca Ellis, 32, was arrested by officers while she was walking from the parking lot with a kitchen knife in her hand last Monday, police said.
Ellis was inside the Giant Eagle grocery in the Cleveland suburb of North Olmsted when she saw 3-year-old Julian Wood and his mother Margot Wood near the front and followed them into the parking lot, said Sgt. Matt Beck, a detective with North Olmsted police.
Margot was about to load her groceries into her vehicle when Ellis ran at them with a knife, stabbing the boy twice, Beck said. Julian died at a hospital.
Investigators believe the attack was random.
Ellis was indicted on charges of aggravated murder, murder, attempted murder, felonious assault, endangering children, tampering with evidence and misdemeanor theft.
During her arraignment on Tuesday at the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, Judge Nancy Margaret Russo asked Ellis a series of questions – many of which Ellis did not answer. At this time, Ellis was appearing via video.
Here is part of the exchange:
Judge Nancy Margaret Russo: “Miss Ellis? Miss Ellis? Miss Ellis? Please raise your head.”
Ellis: “Where is this coming from?”
Judge: “I just need to ask you a few questions. I need to make sure you understand them? Do you have an attorney?”
Ellis: “I’m looking for one.”
Judge: “Do you have the money or means to hire an attorney?”
Ellis: “Repeat that.”
Judge: “Do you have the money or means to hire an attorney?”
Ellis: “Possible.”
Judge: “Have you received and read your indictment?”
Ellis: “I don’t know.”
Judge: “You don’t know if you’ve received it? Have you received it? Ma’am, just tell me whether or not you’ve received it, please. Miss Ellis, we’ll be out of here in a few minutes if you just answer these questions. Miss Ellis, have you received your indictment?”
Ellis: “What’s her name? What’s the judge’s name?”
Judge: “Russo.”
Ellis: “Russo? Russo with an R?”
Judge: “Have you received and read your indictment? Yes or no? If you haven’t received it, I’m going to send it over there. So you need to tell me that. Miss Ellis? Why don’t you want to answer these questions? We’ll come back to her when she’s ready to talk to me.”
Ellis was dismissed after not answering the judge's questions and eventually brought back to the video arraignment.
It was a similar outcome.
She held her head down and did not respond to some of the judge's questions.
That's when a defense attorney asked to enter a not guilty plea for Ellis while noting her mental health, but the judge stopped the proceedings saying this could be a capital murder case. It was then ordered that an attorney go to review the indictment with Ellis.
A short time later, Ellis was brought into the courtroom where she whispered the following responses to the judge’s questions.
Judge: “Do you have the money or means to hire an attorney?”
Ellis: “Yeah.”
Judge: “Have you received your indictment?”
Ellis: “I don’t know.”
Judge: “Have you read it?”
Ellis: “No.”
Judge: “You have not read it? We have a copy here. You can read it.”
Ellis: “I don’t want to read it.”
Judge: “You don’t want to read it?”
Ellis: “No.”
Judge: “Are you willing to accept that the public defender has read it to you?”
Ellis: “I asked her not to.”
Judge: “You asked her not to? Well, but she did read it to you, correct?”
Ellis: “No.”
Judge: “She didn’t read it to you?”
Ellis: “No.”
Judge: “OK. Well, we can read it in open court.”
As the judge read through the indictment, Ellis appeared to smile at times before ultimately pleading not guilty to the charges.
Before the judge announced her bond, Julian’s father took to the stand to address the court.
"That day, one week ago, she took everything from us. There’s nothing that could ever replace my son or anything that my wife and I, even our other kids, are going through. It’s horrendous. I really wish no bail. Period. Or extend it to the maximum limit possible that you can, at the very least. Just do whatever you can to keep this monster behind bars.”
Ellis is due back in court for a pretrial hearing at 9 a.m. on June 17, with Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge John Russo assigned to the case.