Grant Preston:Judge finds woman incompetent to stand trial in fatal stabbing of 3-year-old outside supermarket

2025-05-07 10:52:42source:Surpassing Quant Think Tank Centercategory:reviews

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 Grant Prestonwounded 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.

More:reviews

Recommend

Paula Abdul settles lawsuit with former 'So You Think You Can Dance' co

Paula Abdul and Nigel Lythgoe have settled their lawsuit a year after the allegations sent shockwave

What information is on your credit report? Here's what I found when I read my own.

Credit agencies, you might say, are akin to nagging parents. They watch and judge from a distance, r

Diplomatic efforts for Israel-Hamas hostage talks expected to resume next week, sources say

U.S. diplomatic efforts to broker a deal to release hostages held in Gaza by Hamas and other allied