Judge finds woman incompetent to stand trial in fatal stabbing of 3-year-old outside supermarket
CLEVELAND (AP) — A woman who authorities say fatally stabbed a 3-year-old boy as he sat in a grocery cart outside an Ohio supermarket and wounded his mother has been found incompetent to stand trial.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge John Russo issued the ruling Friday. He said Bionca Ellis, 33, of Cleveland, will remain hospitalized indefinitely and could eventually stand trial if she improves. Her bail was set at $5 million shortly after the attack occurred, and her trial had been tentatively scheduled to start Dec. 9.
Authorities have said Ellis was inside the Giant Eagle grocery store on June 3 in the Cleveland suburb of North Olmsted when she saw Julian Wood and his mother, Margot Wood, near the front and followed them into the parking lot.
The mother was about to load her groceries into her vehicle when Ellis ran at them with a knife, stabbing the boy twice, in an attack that took less than five seconds before Ellis walked away. The boy died at a hospital while Margot Wood was treated at a hospital for a stab wound to her shoulder — a wound prosecutors have said she suffered after trying to pull the boy out of the cart during the attack.
Authorities have not given a motivation for the attack, which they believe was a random incident. Ellis is being represented by the public defender’s office, which generally does not comment on cases.