- GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING
A woman who stabbed and killed a stranger’s toddler to death in a parking lot in a seemingly random act of violence has been sentenced to life in prison.
Bionca Ellis, 34, was told she would never be eligible for parole at her sentencing in Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday for the June 2024 murder of Julian Wood.
Ellis was branded a ‘monster’ by Wood’s father Jarred Wood in court, 18 months after his wife Margot saw their son die outside a Giant Eagle grocery store in Cleveland.
Margot, who was badly wounded during Ellis’ stabbing frenzy, also condemned the crazed killer in court.
‘That woman murdering my son replays in my head every single day. It is my living nightmare,’ she said.
‘I watched him take his first breath when he was born and his last when he died in my arms, covered in blood.
‘The last thing I will ever hear from my son is his scream. I can still see the terror in his eyes and it haunts me every day.’
‘The last thing I will ever hear from my son is his scream and the sound of his pain and fear before he was gone. I can still see the terror in his eyes, and it haunts me every day.
‘If I want my family to be whole, we need to go to the cemetery.’
Margot gave Ellis no mercy and no forgiveness during her emotional speech moments before the life sentence was handed down.
‘You deserve to go to jail for the rest of your life so you can’t hurt anyone else. You don’t deserve a second chance,’ she said.
‘You don’t deserve mercy. You didn’t give my son any… I hate you with every fiber of my being.’
Jarred added: ‘That monster took him from us.
‘Now all of our hearts will forever be missing a piece, and it’s up to all of us to keep his light shining even though his star is gone.’
‘Our home isn’t as loud and chaotic anymore, not the way it used to be. There’s no one dressing up for Halloween as a dinosaur.’
Ellis did not testify at her trial, as her lawyers claimed she was insane at the time of the murder and didn’t know right from wrong.
They insisted she wasn’t the same person when she was taking her schizophrenia, and expressed remorse for what she did.
‘If nothing more, we learned she is two different people,’ attorney Fernando Mack said. ‘What happened on June 3 is a different version of Bionca.’
Prosecutors agreed Ellias was insane, but convinced the jury she knew exactly what she was doing when she saw Margot and her son in the store and followed them outside.
‘What is unique and so heinous about this case is that a defenseless 3-year-old who had absolutely no ability to fight off his attacker was slaughtered by this defendant,’ Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Anna Faraglia said on Monday.
‘The surveillance video of Giant Eagle demonstrates that this defendant carefully chose her victims and executed her plan.’
Ellis grinned and laughed at a hearing days after the horrific killing, which was recorded on surveillance cameras.
But her demeanor was much bleaker in court on Monday. She sat with a sour expression throughout the hearing.
‘I just want to say I apologize. I’m really sorry for what happened,’ she said softly in her defense on Monday.
Julian was stabbed in the face and back as he sat in a shopping cart.
Margot Wood was also slashed as she tried to protect her son.
The youngster’s injuries were too severe to survive.
After the horrific act of violence, Ellis fled the scene but was later arrested.
Investigators have never been able to come up with a motive.
Developing story, check back for updates…
