CLEVELAND — Emotional testimony, including new details from the mother of a 3-year-old boy killed in an attack at a North Olmsted grocery store, marked day three of Bionca Ellis’ murder trial.
Ellis, 34, is accused of fatally stabbing Julian Wood and injuring his mother, Margot Wood, outside of the North Olmsted Giant Eagle in June 2024. She’s facing 10 charges, including murder, attempted murder and felonious assault.
Defense attorneys have entered a not guilty plea by reason of insanity on behalf of their client. During opening arguments, they told the jury Ellis was not sane at the time of the attack.
Margot Wood testified on Wednesday morning that she had had no connection or previous encounters with Ellis before June 3, 2024. That day, Wood said she left her newborn daughter at home with her mother and went to the grocery store with her 3-year-old son, Julian, to fetch plants and supplies for dinner.
At the court’s request, a pool camera did not show Wood’s face on Wednesday. But her voice conveyed extreme emotion as she recalled the events from last summer.
Surveillance video showed Ellis following Margot and Julian Wood from the registers to the parking lot. Wood explained she wasn’t aware the defendant was nearby until she was getting ready to unload groceries from her cart.
“I went to open my trunk, then I turned to my right and I saw her coming towards us,” she said.
Wood described noticing a knife in Ellis’s hand and rushing to push her son in the shopping cart out of the way.
“I moved and she stabbed him in the side of his face. And then she stabbed me,” she said. “I couldn’t believe this was happening. It was so fast.”
She continued, “She stood up and stabbed him in the back… and he was crying.”
A prosecutor asked Wood what Ellis did following the attack.
“She just walked away… like nothing. She just walked away,” she recalled.
Another witness testified on Wednesday that he saw the attack and rushed after Ellis.
“When I pulled up next to her, I asked her, I said, ‘Do you know you stabbed that kid?’ And her response was [shrug], just a shrug of her shoulders,” said Travis Bush, a witness who said he was at the store that day picking up a DoorDash order when he saw the stabbing.
The state also called witnesses from the North Olmsted Police Department, who booked, searched and talked to Ellis at the jail following her arrest.
“She seemed, in my opinion, like she understood because she did what I told her to do,” recalled Officer Joann Felton.
Two people from the Cuyahoga County Regional Forensic Science Laboratory also testified about the evidence and DNA analysis collected after the stabbing.
Through testimony, prosecutors highlighted the impact of the stabbing.
“Sir, a pretty traumatic event for you, you would agree?” asked assistant prosecutor Anna Faraglia.
“100%,” replied Bush.
Faraglia also asked whether Wood knew, had ever seen or had communications with Bionca Ellis before the stabbing. She said “no” in response.
Prosecutors plan to call more witnesses for testimony on Thursday, including the medical examiner and another detective.
