Absolute Monster Stabs Toddler’s Face Repeatedly In a Grocery Store

Absolute Monster Stabs Toddler’s Face Repeatedly In a Grocery Store

Julian Wood was born on October 29th, 2020, just a few days before Halloween, to parents Margot and Jared Wood. In one of his first pictures, taken in a bassinet at the hospital, he wore a onesie that read “My First Halloween,” and behind him, a sign displayed his name and his birth weight of 7 lbs, 11 oz. Julian had red hair, dark eyes, a cheerful laugh, and what his family called a rambunctious attitude and a cheesy smile.

Julian, nicknamed “Gu Gu,” was a sweet little boy who had just started preschool in October of 2023 and liked his teachers and classmates there. He loved dinosaurs, and his favorite color was green. He also loved his family; he would wrestle with his big brother every chance he got, and his family said he was obsessed with his new baby sister. Pictures taken when she was born show him carefully looking into her bassinet and gently holding her.

His family adored him, and dozens of other pictures give glimpses into his happy life. Many show him playing with and hugging his brother, from playing hide-and-seek and cornhole in the backyard to plucking out notes on a tiny piano together. In one, he tagged along at his brother’s Little League games; in another, he shared a red dinosaur balloon with his little sister.

In the pictures, he grew from a wide-eyed baby with just a fringe of red hair to a confident toddler. He had dino-themed birthday parties, a blue and yellow dinosaur Halloween costume, and plenty of dinosaur pajamas, toys, and shirts. He and his siblings posed with the Easter Bunny in the spring, and the whole family dressed in matching outfits and posed with Santa at Christmas. Unlike many of the stories we cover, image after image show a toddler who was happy, wanted, taken care of, and very loved.

Julian’s third birthday was in October of 2023, a few days after he started preschool. His last day of preschool was May 29th, 2024, a Wednesday. His family snapped a picture of him smiling in his favorite green coat that day. Five days later, on Monday, June 3rd, his mother took him with her when she went to pick up some items at the Giant Eagle grocery store in North Olmsted, Ohio.

While there, she encountered Bionca Ellis, a 32-year-old woman originally from Cleveland. By that time, Bionca had been on a downward spiral for several years. Early posts on her social media included selfies that looked normal; she took pictures wearing nice clothes with her hair and makeup done, and posted about wanting to get a fancy set of fingernails. Over time, though, her posts seemed less normal.

For a few months in 2019, she seemed obsessed with Medusa, posting many images of art featuring the mythical woman. Later, in mid-2023, she posted selfies using filters that made her look like a Gollum-like creature and a devil with horns. Later that year, she posted screenshots of text about Greece, France, NATO, and World War II, but she provided no context to explain why she thought the information was important. After those cryptic posts, she linked a few songs that she liked, but by the end of the year, she had either stopped posting online or made her posts private.

According to her mother, Yolanda Egleton, Bionca had struggled with mental health issues and had been seeing hallucinations and hearing voices that weren’t there for years. In May of 2023, she was arrested for stealing $69 worth of merchandise at a Walmart in North Olmsted, Ohio, and eventually, the Rocky River Municipal Court placed her on probation for that incident. She violated her probation by not attending required classes over the next several months.

We were able to trace her movements in large part because of the trail of arrest warrants she left in her wake. In January of 2024, she got into an altercation at a hospital in Kern County, California. When the hospital tried to release her, she refused to leave and started kicking and punching hospital staff and security guards. Police were called and arrived to find her on the floor of an exam room. In the police car, she told the officers she wanted to do something that would get her locked up for at least two weeks, but wouldn’t answer when they asked her why she wanted to be in jail so badly.

In February, she didn’t show up at her court hearing in California, so a warrant was issued for her arrest for three counts of battery on a person. By February 24th, she was back in Ohio at a women’s shelter in Cleveland. She told staff there she had killed someone in Bakersfield, California, and that she wanted to confess to police.

Officers in Cleveland talked to her, and she told them she had killed a woman and dumped her body in a field somewhere that might have been near a river. Now, according to the police report, she said the victim was a white female, approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall, 150 lbs, and that she was a bartender or worked at a bar. In addition to confessing to murder, Bionca also told Cleveland Police that if they didn’t arrest her, she was going to kill someone at the shelter because she wanted to—and I’m quoting this—”kill someone and eat their flesh.”

Now, it’s still unclear whether she actually killed someone. Police in California said they had several unsolved homicides that matched the description that she gave, but Bionca wasn’t a suspect in any of those cases. With no evidence to support her confession, California officers wouldn’t have been able to hold her in jail, and they decided not to send someone halfway across the country to enforce her outstanding battery warrants.

Since California law enforcement didn’t want her, Cleveland reached out to North Olmsted to see if they wanted to jail her for her probation violation, but they declined. Since no one wanted to arrest her, Cleveland officers took her to a local hospital for a mental health evaluation. During the evaluation, she became extremely irate, agitated, and began fighting with the officers and hospital staff trying to help her, and she had to be sedated for her own safety.

Details about her hospital stay have not been released, but we know she was out a few weeks later because she was arrested again in March—this time in Orlando, Florida. We have no idea how she got from Ohio to California and then to Florida. She tried to rent a room in a hotel there, but she didn’t have any money. When she refused to leave, she was arrested for trespassing. She told police she was on vacation in Florida, and as she had before, she told officers there she wanted to be locked up in jail.

“I want to go to the… like, go to prison… because I don’t have anywhere to go.”

“Well, you haven’t done anything to go to jail.”

“But I don’t have any money to, like, have a bed to go to sleep in. I’m not even from here. I’m from Ohio. I was just trying to come here for a vacation.”

But after a few days, she was released again and made her way back to Ohio. Somehow, she either got or already had an apartment on Puritas Avenue in Cleveland. She had been staying at a women’s shelter just a few months before, and it’s unclear exactly when she lost access to her apartment, but by May of 2024, court records show she had been officially evicted for owing back rent.

Even though they didn’t arrest her when the Cleveland Police asked them to in February, on May 30th—the day after Julian’s last day of preschool—North Olmsted police arrested Bionca on the shoplifting probation violation. Someone had called the police because they were concerned for her welfare. Bionca said she had gone lightheaded because of her medicine but was feeling better when officers arrived.

“Hello, are you all right?”

“Yeah, I’m going over here to the bus stop.”

“Are you okay, though? Somebody called because they were concerned about you.”

“Yeah, I kind of… I kind of get lightheaded from my medicine.”

“Do you need assistance at all, or do you need an ambulance or anything? Are you feeling all right?”

“No, I think the temperature is just getting to be just right.”

“Okay. Do you have an ID on you, just so I can tell them that you’re all right? Thank you.”

Before letting her leave, they ran her name and the warrant popped up. When the officer told her, “All right, Bionca, you know you’ve got warrants,” she replied, “Oh, probably for here, yes.” She held her arms out willingly for the handcuffs and was arrested with no resistance.

“All right, Bionca, you know you got warrants, girl?”

“I don’t know, they’re probably here, yeah.”

“So we got to check on those. All right, you got anything crazy on you? No guns, knives, drugs, bombs, nothing like that?”

“No.”

“All right, I’m going to cuff you in the front, okay? Is that fair?”

“Go ahead.”

“Face me for a second right here. Thank you, ma’am. I don’t want to pinch you.”

Bionca was back in jail, but again, she wouldn’t stay there for long. The North Olmsted police didn’t know she had outstanding warrants for a low-level violent crime in California; they checked their database, but those crimes were not listed. They also didn’t know she had told the Cleveland Police that she was going to kill someone and that she wanted to eat someone’s flesh.

According to North Olmsted police detective Sergeant Matthew Beck, their databases don’t track every encounter with law enforcement, especially ones that happen across state lines. He said it’s not physically possible to do that at a national level—it would be an overload to the system. Still, even if the police weren’t tracking those kinds of crimes, surely Bionca’s probation officer would have access to additional information, right? At least the warrants for crimes in California. Criminals can’t just get away with violating their probation by committing crimes across state lines, right?

But in fact, the Rocky River Court did not have access to any national databases and was not alerted to her additional crimes or to the fact that she had been committing crimes in multiple states. When asked why, Clerk of Court Deborah Comery told reporters, and I quote, “We’re not the FBI.”

Even though the local police and parole officers couldn’t do anything, a local magistrate still recommended Bionca have a mental health check before she was released. During her arraignment on the probation violation, the magistrate noticed she was acting strangely. You couldn’t tell if she understood what was going on, and they thought she might have fallen asleep during the procedure.

But the team that the Rocky River Municipal Court used for mental health evaluations didn’t have anyone available to see her, and wouldn’t for a few days. So Judge Brian Hagen overruled the magistrate and released Bionca without a hearing. With that decision, Bionca and whatever dark messages her voices were whispering in her head were set free on the public once again.

On June 3rd, Bionca walked to the North Olmsted police station on Lorain Road, which happened to be located just across the road from the shopping plaza that held the Giant Eagle. She arrived there pushing a wheelchair with a suitcase in it. She told officers inside that she wanted her money back—cash she claimed was in her possession when she was arrested four days earlier. After officers checked their logs and told her she hadn’t been carrying any cash, she left the same way she arrived: on foot. She rolled the wheelchair a few yards from the station and abandoned it near a flight of stairs, then she skipped down the last few stairs and down the sidewalk.

After leaving the police station, Bionca made the five-minute walk across Lorain Road into the Water Tower Square Plaza. She stopped at the Volunteers of America thrift store in the plaza and stole two kitchen knives. In the footage filmed in front of the thrift store, she can be seen smacking one of the knives against a concrete post before walking off. She made a brief stop at the nearby Bins & Things store, then she made the two-minute walk to the Giant Eagle grocery store and went inside.

Surveillance footage from inside the store shows Bionca entering the store holding what appears to be a 6-to-8-inch knife in her right hand. The footage is absolutely bone-chilling. She walked past the service desk and cash registers, casually swinging the knife by her right side. Though it seems impossible, no one noticed her or the knife.

She passed Julian and his mother Margot as they left the self-checkout area. Margot was pushing a shopping cart, and Julian was sitting in the cart. The moment Bionca saw them, she immediately turned around and followed them out of the store. Although it is obvious on the surveillance footage, there is no indication that Margot noticed Bionca’s quick change of direction or even realized she was there. She doesn’t speed up, look around, or change direction.

The footage ended at the exit of the store, but Bionca continued to follow them across the parking lot. When Margot stopped the cart and turned to open the trunk, Bionca stabbed baby Julian in the face. Margot tried to pull Julian from the cart and protect him, but Bionca stabbed him again in the back, and stabbed Margot in the shoulder. Then she turned and walked away.

In less than five seconds, the attack was over. Five seconds was all it took to butcher a baby and cut the heart out of a happy family.

Just after 3:00 p.m., the North Olmsted 911 dispatcher received multiple calls reporting a black female dressed in all black who was stabbing people in the parking lot of Giant Eagle. One caller, a Giant Eagle employee, told the dispatcher:

“There’s a child. He’s bleeding all over the place. We’re at North Olmsted Giant Eagle. I don’t know what happened to him.”

The dispatcher asked if he was breathing. The employee responded:

“I don’t know, they’re doing CPR on him. I’m at North Olmsted, Ohio, Giant Eagle… someone just stabbed a kid and a lady in the parking lot. Screams in the parking lot as we were parking or walking to our car, and… we saw the kid.”

Since the police station was so close by, officers and first responders arrived almost immediately. Some officers pursued Bionca, who was merely walking away and carrying the bloody knife. A caller to 911 told police where she had gone, reporting that she had walked down Dover Center Road near a local pizza place. The caller could see the blood on her knife. Bionca didn’t make it very far and was quickly arrested without any incident.

Others tried to help Margot and Julian. Paramedics tried to resuscitate the toddler and stop his bleeding. They rushed them both to St. John Hospital, but it was too late. Julian had been wounded too deeply; he was pronounced dead at the hospital. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office said his death was caused by the injuries he sustained in the attack. Margot was hospitalized but is expected to recover from her injuries.

According to Sergeant Beck, Bionca had never met Margot or Julian before, and she did not know the family. They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were chosen completely at random. He said:

“The investigation into the motive in this attack is still ongoing, but everything learned thus far points that this was a random act of violence. There’s no indication why she committed this. There’s some mental health concerns that we have, but nothing concrete at this point.”

The mayor of North Olmsted, Nicole Daily Jones, expressed her grief and the grief of a community shaken to its core, saying:

“This was a terrible tragedy for our entire community. As North Olmsted mayor and a mother myself, I cannot fathom what this family must be going through. To lose their young child in such a violent and senseless manner is absolutely heartbreaking. I know that all the residents of North Olmsted join me in sharing their profound grief. We are all terribly sorry for their loss, and I ask everyone to keep them in thought and prayer.”

The mayor arranged for grief counselors for the officers, first responders, and other city employees affected by the tragedy. Giant Eagle brought in counselors as well for their staff.

This same Giant Eagle branch had been the sight of another senseless tragedy about a year earlier, in June of 2023, when Bernard Smith entered the store and shot his ex-wife, who worked there, and then proceeded to remove himself from the earth. A local man and regular shopper, Al Zelich, said the double tragedy so close to home made him fearful. He said:

“It’s scary knowing you can’t even go to the grocery store anymore. And after things that have happened in the past, it’s like, you know what’s going on. It kind of sucks you can’t go to the grocery store and you have to worry about being assaulted.”

After her arrest on the day of the murder, Bionca was charged with aggravated murder, arraigned at the Rocky River Municipal Court, and held in the North Olmsted jail on an initial bond of $1 million. On June 4th, the evidence was presented to a grand jury, and they indicted her on one count of aggravated murder, two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, two counts of felonious assault, one count of endangering children, one count of tampering with evidence, and one misdemeanor count of theft for stealing the knives used in the attack.

On June 17th, she was arraigned on the new charges in Cuyahoga County Court, but not until Judge Nancy Russo forced her to listen to the charges in open court after Bionca repeatedly acted strange, inappropriate, and difficult. At one point, her attorney told the judge, “There are some mental health issues. I believe she hasn’t been on her medication.”

During the first exchange with the judge, which was conducted over video, Bionca kept her head down and refused to participate or answer any questions. After a short break during which her attorney spoke with her and read the charges, Bionca appeared again over video and told Judge Russo she did not know if she had heard the charges against her. When her attorney reminded her she had just read them out loud, Bionca continued to deny knowing her charges. Her attorney tried to waive her right to an arraignment, but the judge refused the motion, saying, “This could be a capital murder case. I don’t think that’s appropriate.”

The dialogue went as follows:

Defense Attorney: “Good morning, Your Honor. Ashlin Carol on behalf of Miss Ellis, we would—”

Judge Russo: “Excuse me, I’m going to ask her the question.”

Defense Attorney: “Oh, sure.”

Judge Russo: “Miss Ellis? Miss Ellis? Miss Ellis, yeah, please raise your head. Where is this coming from? I just need to ask you a few questions. I need to make sure you understand them. Do you have an attorney?”

Bionca Ellis: “I’m looking for one.”

Judge Russo: “Okay. Do you have the money or means to hire an attorney?”

Bionca Ellis: “Repeat that.”

Judge Russo: “Do you have the money or means to hire an attorney?”

Bionca Ellis: “Possible.”

Judge Russo: “Okay. Have you received and read your indictment?”

Bionca Ellis: “I don’t know.”

Judge Russo: “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?”

Bionca Ellis: “What was her name?”

Defense Attorney: “Miss Ellis.”

Bionca Ellis: “What was her name?”

Defense Attorney: “The judge.”

Bionca Ellis: “What’s the judge’s name?”

Defense Attorney: “Russo. Russo, that’s right. Russo with an ‘R’.”

Judge Russo: “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? All right, we’ll come back to her when she’s ready to talk to you, Your Honor.”

Defense Attorney: “Could I just let the court know our office does represent Miss Ellis on another case, and we understand there are some mental health issues, and I do believe they have—”

Judge Russo: “I’ll come back to her, okay?”

Defense Attorney: “Just to clarify, I do believe she hasn’t been on her medication.”

Judge Russo: “Okay. Come back in the courtroom. Ellis? Miss Ellis? Miss Ellis, thank you. Have you received the indictment?”

Bionca Ellis: “I don’t know.”

Judge Russo: “Would you like me to send it to you or read it out loud to you? Thank you, thank you. That’s not responsive. Would you like me to do either of those things, Miss Ellis? Do you understand on the indictment that the state has reserved the right to add the death penalty? Do you understand that? Have you read that?”

Bionca Ellis: “ASAP.”

Judge Russo: “What’s ASAP?”

Defense Attorney: “Your Honor, we would like to enter a not guilty plea for Miss Ellis. We would like to waive a reading of the charges, waive any defects in time or manner of service. As I said, our office has reached out to the jail to get mental health services for Miss Ellis. They were working with her on a previous case and our social worker has gotten involved, so we would like to ask that counsel be appointed and that the public defender’s office be one of those two attorneys… and ask for a reasonable bond.”

Judge Russo: “Has she received the indictment? Have you discussed it with her?”

Defense Attorney: “I personally have not, but I do know attorneys from my office did go see her last week, and that there were some notable mental health issues.”

Judge Russo: “Did they go with… did they go with the indictment?”

Defense Attorney: “That I don’t know.”

Judge Russo: “Well, then how am I expected to arraign her?”

Defense Attorney: “I would like to waive that time period for her.”

Judge Russo: “This could be a capital murder case. I don’t think that’s appropriate. So if somebody wants to go over there now and go over it with her, I’ll hold it. So send somebody over there.”

Defense Attorney: “I’ll reach out to the office, okay.”

Judge Russo: “We’ll come back.”

Finally, Judge Russo had Bionca brought downstairs into the courtroom where she could address her face-to-face. After prodding from the judge, she answered questions but refused to speak louder than a whisper. While the judge read her charges out loud, Bionca acted chillingly inappropriate: she giggled, smiled, blinked, smirked, and raised her eyebrows while staring at the camera. The judge asked if she pled not guilty. Bionca answered by saying “Si” instead of “yes.” Finally, when the judge asked if she meant yes or no, Bionca said “yes.”

Judge Russo: “Ready? I’m ready. Going back to case number 692604, Bionca Ellis. Hello, Miss. Do you have an attorney?”

Bionca Ellis: (Whispering)

Judge Russo: “You do? Do you have the money or means to hire an attorney?”

Bionca Ellis: “Yes.”

Judge Russo: “Have you received your indictment?”

Bionca Ellis: “I don’t know.”

Judge Russo: “Okay. Have you read it?”

Bionca Ellis: “No.”

Judge Russo: “You have not read it? We have a copy here, you can read it.”

Bionca Ellis: “I don’t want to read it.”

Judge Russo: “You don’t want to read it?”

Bionca Ellis: “No.”

Judge Russo: “Are you willing to accept that the public defender has read it to you?”

Bionca Ellis: “I asked her not to.”

Judge Russo: “I’m sorry?”

Bionca Ellis: “I asked her not to.”

Judge Russo: “You asked her not to? Well, but she did read it to you, correct?”

Bionca Ellis: “No, she didn’t read it to you.”

Judge Russo: “Okay, well we can read it in open court, okay? It’s a 10-count indictment.”

“Count 1 alleges that on or about June 3rd, 2024, the defendant did purposely and with prior calculation and design cause the death of J.W., birth date October 29, 2020. The State of Ohio reserves the right to seek a superseding indictment containing the appropriate 2903.01(A) aggravating circumstances specifications, and so you understand that means the state is reserving its right to add a death penalty specification.”

“Count 2 alleges that on or about June 3rd, 2024, the defendant did purposely cause the death of J.W., birth date October 29, 2020.”

“Count 3 alleges that on or about June 3rd, 2024, the defendant did cause the death of J.W., date of birth October 29, 2020, as a proximate result of the offender committing or attempting to commit an offense of violence that is a felony of the first or second degree, to wit: felonious assault, Ohio Revised Code Section 2903.11(A)(1), and/or endangering children in violation of Ohio Revised Code Section 2919.22(B)(2).”

“Count 4 alleges that on or about June 3rd, 2024, the defendant did knowingly cause serious physical harm to J.W., date of birth October 29, 2020.”

“Count 5 alleges that on or about June 3rd, 2024, the defendant did torture or cruelly abuse J.W., date of birth October 29, 2020, a child under 18 years of age, and furthermore, the violation resulted in serious physical harm to J.W., date of birth October 29, 2020.”

“Count 6 alleges that on or about June 3rd, 2024, the defendant did attempt to purposely cause the death of Margot Wood.”

“Count 7 alleges that on or about June 3rd, 2024, the defendant did attempt to cause the death of Margot Wood as a proximate result of the offender committing or attempting to commit an offense of violence that is a felony of the first or second degree, to wit: felonious assault, Ohio Revised Code Section 2903.11(A)(1).”

“Count 8 alleges that on or about June 3rd, 2024, the defendant did knowingly cause serious physical harm to Margot Wood.”

“Count 9 alleges that on or about June 3rd, 2024, the defendant did, knowing that an official proceeding or investigation was in progress or was about to be or likely to be instituted, alter, destroy, conceal, or remove any record, document, or thing with the purpose to impair its value or availability as evidence in such proceeding or investigation.”

“Count 10 alleges that on or about June 3rd, 2024, the defendant did, with purpose to deprive the owner, Volunteers of America store, of property or services, to wit: knives, knowingly obtain or exert control over either the property or services without the consent of the owner or the person authorized to give consent.”

Judge Russo: “I have now read the indictment to you. Do you wish to enter a plea of not guilty?”

Bionca Ellis: “Same.”

Judge Russo: “Pardon me?”

Bionca Ellis: “Same.”

Judge Russo: “What’s ‘same’ mean? Yes or no?”

Bionca Ellis: “Yes.”

Judge Russo: “Okay.”

At the end of the hearing, the judge allowed Julian’s father, Jared Wood, to make a brief statement.

Judge Russo: “I understand the victims are represented and they want to make a comment before I set bond. Is that true?”

Prosecutor: “Yes, sir.”

Judge Russo: “Okay, good morning, sir. Could you start with your name?”

Jared Wood: “My name is Jared Wood, father of the deceased, husband of Margot. Your Honor, 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… it’s horrendous. I really wish no bail period, or extend it to the max limit possible by law. At the very least, just do whatever you can to keep this monster behind bars. Thank you, sir.”

Judge Russo: “Is there anything else you would like to say?”

Jared Wood: “That’ll be it. Thank you, Your Honor.”

Judge Russo: “Thank you.”

Judge Russo increased her bail to $5 million and also ordered GPS monitoring and no contact with any of the victims or the victims’ families if Bionca managed to make bail. As of now, she has not done so and remains in jail, thank goodness.

Defense Attorney: “Before I pronounce bond, Your Honor, we would just ask that you consider assigning the public defender’s office, recognizing this is not our number. We did represent her at the first appearance unit. I did meet with her on Friday. We have had contact with her family and begun working on the case.”

Judge Russo: “Thank you, Your Honor. When the original bond was set out of municipal court, the bond was set at $1 million, and it was before the passing of one of the alleged victims. I do not believe that bond is appropriate given the change in circumstances and the allegations that are contained in this indictment. Bond is set at $5 million cash, surety, or property. GPS, no contact with any surviving victim or victim’s family. DNA ordered. Judge John Russo pre-trials June 17 at 9:00 a.m. I’ll assign counsel.”

Defense Attorney: “Thank you, Your Honor.”

Bionca Ellis: “You want me to sign?”

On June 17th, Bionca appeared in court for a pre-trial hearing to discuss the discovery and a potential conflict of interest.

Judge John Russo: “One thing that I wanted to note… so before the case was indicted and assigned to the court, a staff member of mine noted that they had attended the wake of the decedent in this case. I indicated to that staff member if they could explain to me how they found themselves at the wake and if there are some concerns that the court should at least put on the record. And so I am going to put it on the record.”

“Staff indicated that their partner had, if I’m correct, grown up with the decedent’s father while they were youths and maybe played basketball—like CYO basketball—and things of that sort. My staff indicated that they had no interaction with the decedent’s parents, including the named victim in the counts that are before me as well, and had never met any of the parties regarding the family.”

“Staff did tell me they went, and that was the first time that they met the parents, which was at the wake, so that brief moment. They also told me that they donated to the GoFundMe that somehow might be out there. And so I want to note that I became aware of that before the case was even assigned to me. And so then I felt it at least compelling… I don’t know any of the parties, nor have I had any contact with the parties, nor have I had any discussions with my staff regarding that, but I thought I’d put it on the record.”

“I don’t believe there’s any conflict. I don’t feel conflicted at all. And so I place that on the record for you to take into consideration if you believe that you think there’s a conflict with the court. I don’t see one just because I don’t know any of the parties. But if you want to take that to your staff or your superiors and have conversations, you can let me know, or if you want to speak to it now.”

Prosecutor: “Your Honor, on behalf of the state, we have no objection. In the efforts of being transparent, the members of the Wood family are related to a staff member in the prosecutor’s office as well, and that person will have no contact or anything with regards to this case. So with regards to that, we’d like to put that on the record as well and let the defense know.”

Judge John Russo: “Very good, thank you. And Mr. Johnson and Mr. Mack, I don‘t know if there’s a concern, or if you’ll just take it under advisement and let the court know if there are any concerns that you have, whether we’re on the record next time or through a motion, or if you want to speak to it now.”

Defense Attorney: “Thank you, yeah. Okay, all right. Very good.”

Judge John Russo: “All right. I’ll allow you to pick a future date with my bailiff, and I’ll have that date just between the parties. I’ll continue to ask that you update the court on when the autopsy report is provided to the state, just to make sure the external hard drive has been submitted as well. Okay? Thank you.”

Prosecutor: “Very good, thanks.”

At a hearing on July 16th, Bionca’s attorneys presented the court with an evaluation of her mental state that deemed her incompetent and not able to assist in her defense, which meant she can’t be tried in her current mental condition. The state will enlist their own psychiatrist to confirm the claim at her next court appearance on August 13th.

Bailiff: “Watch out.”

Judge John Russo: “All right, so we’re here this morning, case 692604, Bionca Ellis. She’s present in court this morning with her counsel, Mr. Mack, Mr. Johnson, and Mr. Summers. Assistant County Prosecutor Miss Falia and Miss Patton are here on behalf of the State of Ohio. We’re here this morning for this matter. The Court is looking for a few updates from the parties as well.”

“I’ll note for the record that we did set it for trial for December 9th. It looks like we inadvertently put December 6th on the journal entry, so that in fact is a wrong date—that’s a Friday, I think, so it’s in fact December 9th that the trial date is set. With respect to this case… if I can go to the State of Ohio. I know there had been some discussions about discovery and where that discovery might be, as well as I think the autopsy report, and then I could go to the counsel for Miss Ellis and hear from them. Thank you, Miss Falia.”

Miss Falia: “Good morning, thank you, Your Honor. Good morning, yes, we have been complying with our discovery requirements. We have sent over documentation for the defense with regards to the autopsy. It is my understanding that it in fact has been completed and the state should have it in its possession by the end of the week, and then we will transfer it over to defense counsel. In addition, the state still has some outstanding subpoenas for some additional documentation. As we get that, we will turn that over as well.”

Judge John Russo: “Okay. All right, thank you. Mr. Mack, Mr. Johnson, if you want to be heard then this morning, I’ll hear from both of you. Any concerns about that discovery or anything for the record regarding Miss Ellis?”

Defense Attorney: “I don’t think so, Judge.”

Judge John Russo: “Okay, very good. And then with respect to Miss Ellis…”

Defense Attorney: “Judge, during the month of June, Mr. Johnson and I met with Miss Ellis, and as a result of that interview, we came back to this court. We petitioned the court to see if we can get an expert to interview Miss Ellis, and that was in fact done during the first week of July. Subsequently, our expert communicated with Mr. Johnson and me and believes that at this point, Miss Ellis is incompetent and not able to assist in her defense and cannot stand trial. So we’re asking the court to respectfully have her referred to Northcoast Behavioral so that she can be restored, if possible.”

Judge John Russo: “All right, Mr. Mack. I know for the State of Ohio, you know that report is under seal as provided to counsel. They have the opportunity to have that interview, which they did. The court is unaware…”