The woman who was caught after a 3-year-old boy was stabbed to death in front of his mother at a shopping store was found incompetent to stand trial.
Police said a video from a shopping center showed Bionca Ellis, 32, of Cleveland following a mother and her young son around the North Olmstead Giant Eagle store in June. Police say Ellis stabbed the child and the mother in what they called a random attack after following them into the parking lot.
“Bionca has tried a number of medicines that did not help her.”
Ellis faced many charges in June, such as extreme murder, attempted murder, felonious attack, and putting children in danger.
According to records from the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, Ellis was not able to stand trial after a 20-day review by a doctor.
The doctor told her that if she got the right care, she had “a substantial chance of restoration to competency within the required time limit.”
Ellis has to get help at North Coast Behavioral Health for a year before the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office can take her back into their care. If care makes her competent again, she could go to court.
People said that officials should have treated Ellis’s claimed mental sickness just days before the deadly attack.
An accusation that Ellis broke her probation by stealing items from a Walmart last year led to a judge ordering her to see a psychiatrist.
“I’m not sure she fully knows the simple rules the court has set for her,” Rocky River Municipal Court Magistrate Gregory Sponseller said in June.
Ellis was let go, though, because there wasn’t a mental health worker available at the time.
A few days later, Ellis is said to have killed the child by stabbing him.
The suspect had a history of running into trouble with the police in other states. Her mother said that the system let her daughter down.
“Bionca has tried a number of medicines that didn’t help her.” Yolanda Eggleton said, “The voices and hallucinations just got the best of her.”
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