Latest / Least of These / 247. “Ten Minutes of Violence” - The Case of Julian Wood - North Olmsted, Ohio - [Part 3 - The Defense & Verdict - FINAL]

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247. “Ten Minutes of Violence” - The Case of Julian Wood - North Olmsted, Ohio - [Part 3 - The Defense & Verdict - FINAL] · Least of These

0:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to Lisa These, where I cover the cases that need it most, because every life matters and everyone deserves justice.
0:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm your host, Leia D. Today I'll be bringing you the conclusion of the case of Julian Wood and North Olmsted, Ohio.
0:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Today's case involves some murder of a child, listener discretion is advised.
0:19
[SPEAKER_00]: And with that said, let's get right to it.
1:01
[SPEAKER_00]: In early October of 2025, prosecutors laid out their case against 32-year-old Bianca Ellis and the murder of three-year-old Julian Wood and the attack on his mother Margo.
1:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Kaya Huga County Medical Examiner Dr. Elizabeth Mooney told the jury that Julian Wood suffered two stab wounds to the face and neck, each approximately four inches deep.
1:22
[SPEAKER_00]: With that, the prosecution rested.
1:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Now it was the defenses turned.
1:27
[SPEAKER_00]: The defense had never disputed that Bianca Ellis was the person who had stabbed Julian and Margo.
1:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, the trial centered on one question, whether Ellis was legally insane at the time of the attack.
1:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Having entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, the defense sought to prove that because of severe mental illness, Ellis was incapable of appreciating the wrongfulness of her actions on June 3, 2024.
1:53
[SPEAKER_00]: In order to prove that, the defense called Dr. Megan Testa to this stand.
1:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Dr. Testa was a forensic psychiatrist who served as a court appointed evaluator.
2:04
[SPEAKER_00]: After Ellis' arrest, Dr. Testa evaluated and reviewed years of mental health records.
2:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Dr. Testa told the jury that Bianca Ellis had a long and well-documented history of mental illness.
2:16
[SPEAKER_00]: According to Dr. Testa, Ellis had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and suffering from mental illness at least dating back to 2014.
2:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Records showed Ellis had been receiving services through Mertis Taylor, a community behavioral health organization that provides mental health and addiction treatment services to people regardless of their ability to pay.
2:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Dr. Testa went on to explain to the jury the definition of schizophrenia, stating that the word actually means split mind and not split in a way like multiple personalities.
2:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Split as in the fracture of mental functions, a breakdown between thinking, memory, personality, and perception.
2:55
[SPEAKER_00]: The disorder affects the way a person thinks perceives reality and processes information.
3:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Delusions and hallucinations can become so convincing, the person experiencing them cannot distinguish the delusion from reality.
3:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Their delusions can be just as real as the chair they're sitting in.
3:13
[SPEAKER_00]: As she explained it, what they're seeing feels real, what they're hearing feels real, what they're thinking feels real.
3:21
[SPEAKER_00]: When it came to Bianca, when Dr. Testa first met with her, Bianca made bizarre statements about Jesus, the disciple Matthew, and Taxes.
3:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Dr. Testa then went on to detail four separate psychiatric hospitalizations that had occurred before the attack.
3:37
[SPEAKER_00]: According to Dr. Testa, in November of 2015, Ellis was taken into the ER by her mother after she refused to take her medications.
3:46
[SPEAKER_00]: at the time Bianca was hearing voices and reportedly suicidal.
3:50
[SPEAKER_00]: She was admitted into the hospital where she remained for five days before she was stabilized by medications.
3:57
[SPEAKER_00]: In September of 2023, Ellis was taken to the ER again after she called 911 telling dispatcher she had been out of her medications for weeks, going on to say that she was seeing visions of people coming out of her walls and trying to kill her at night.
4:12
[SPEAKER_00]: She was also talking about Albert Einstein
4:16
[SPEAKER_00]: She hadn't been able to sleep and she was visibly hallucinating at the time she placed a call.
4:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Ellis was admitted and remained hospitalized for 11 days.
4:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, she was stabilized by taking anti-psychotics.
4:30
[SPEAKER_00]: A month after that incident, she was back in the hospital after running out of medication again.
4:35
[SPEAKER_00]: She reported hearing voices telling her to kill herself, had tried to cut her arm with a razor, and then once in the ER, Ellis was talking about food paranoia, seeing visions of whales in fish, hearing voices telling her to go to war, and talking about martial law and airborne disease.
4:51
[SPEAKER_00]: This time, she was hospitalized for seven days and stabilized on medication.
4:57
[SPEAKER_00]: In February of 2024, which was mere months before the attack, Ellis was taken by police to the ER.
5:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Police told professionals at the hospital she had called and asked to be arrested for murdering conspiracy.
5:10
[SPEAKER_00]: There was no evidence to arrest her for that, but she was arrested for disorderly conduct.
5:16
[SPEAKER_00]: While at the ER, Ellis began acting bizarre, talking about the murder of El Chapo, and claimed she was hearing voices in her head, and this time it was the Mafia.
5:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Dr. Testa testified that there was a stark difference in Ellis when she is on her medication versus when she's off.
5:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, Ellis had a long history of non-compliance with her medication.
5:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And even after the attacks, at times she claimed medication was unnecessary and would
5:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Three days after murdering Julian on June 6th, 2024, Ellis was seen by a psychiatrist who worked at the jail.
5:53
[SPEAKER_00]: That psychiatrist noted that Ellis was very limited in her willingness to engage with him, and that when she did answer his questions, many of her answers were bizarre.
6:02
[SPEAKER_00]: He also noted that she seemed paranoid.
6:05
[SPEAKER_00]: And jail Bianca was diagnosed again with schizophrenia, she was prescribed medication,
6:16
[SPEAKER_00]: While in jail, Ellis was observed sitting naked in her cell, eating with her hands, and making illogical statements about dinosaurs.
6:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Under Cross, Dr. Testa admitted that a person being diagnosed with schizophrenia doesn't mean they had zero control over their actions.
6:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And for all the statements Dr. Testa made about Bianca Ellis' mental health, she also admitted that she never evaluated if Ellis was sane at the time of the attack.
6:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Her evaluations were always about competency, and whether or not Ellis understood the charges against her, which the doctor said she didn't in the beginning, but after treatment she did.
7:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Unlike Dr. Testa, forensic psychiatrist hired by the Defense Dr. Sarah Wood had evaluated Ellis for both competency and insanity.
7:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Dr. West took the stand and testified to Bianca's history of mental health issues.
7:31
[SPEAKER_00]: She told the jury that she was competent Ellis had long suffered from a mental health disorder.
7:36
[SPEAKER_00]: She went on to say that she ruled out malingering due to a history of more than a decade and Bianca's behavior when she was at North Coast Behavioral Health and under 24-hour medical observation.
7:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Dr. West had met with Bianca early on to evaluate her competency to stay in trial, and at first found her incompetent.
7:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, as we know, Ellis was eventually deemed competent, which is why there was a trial in the first place.
8:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyhow, in February of 2025, Dr. West met with Bianca Ellis to determine whether or not she was insane at the time the crime was committed.
8:11
[SPEAKER_00]: After speaking at length with Bianca Ellis, reviewing all of the police records Bianca's mental health and medical records, and records from her time at North Coast, where Ellis had two incidents of violence.
8:23
[SPEAKER_00]: One incident where she assaulted a pier, and another where she became aggressive with a nurse because she didn't like the color of her cup.
8:31
[SPEAKER_00]: After a thorough review, it was Dr. West opinion that Bianca Ellis was legally insane at the time she stabbed three-year-old
8:39
[SPEAKER_04]: After that, can you identify what you're paying in it?
8:43
[SPEAKER_01]: So ultimately to summarize, that's my opinion with reasonable medical certainty that Ms. Ellis suffers from a severe mental disease, namely schizophrenia, and was experiencing symptoms at that time, related to this illness that caused her to not know what she was doing, which wrong.
9:02
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Dr. Westopine, that Bianca Ellis didn't appreciate the wrongfulness of her actions.
9:08
[SPEAKER_00]: But the prosecution put on a rebuttal witness that had also spoken at length of Bianca, reviewed all the same records, but reached a completely different conclusion.
9:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Dr. Stephen Noffsinger was the program director for the forensic psychiatry fellowship at UH, and actually, in a funny little twist, Dr. West had been a student of his 17 years
9:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Dr. Knowsinger was undoubtedly an expert in his field, and like I said, he reviewed the records, the indictment, the family history, and conducted forensic interviews.
9:43
[SPEAKER_00]: He told the jury that Bianca Ellis did suffer from a mental health disorder, and always seemed to have some degree of symptoms, periodically those symptoms would worsen.
9:53
[SPEAKER_00]: An interview Zellis told the doctor that she had 15-20 children, but they had all been taken away from her.
10:00
[SPEAKER_00]: At times, Ellis seemed to drift from reality, but at other times her symptoms were manageable.
10:05
[SPEAKER_00]: She had previously worked in fast food, as a home health aid, and at one point had a child care business.
10:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Dr. Noffsinger told the jury that in the months prior, when Ellis refused to leave the hospital in Bakersfield, she had punched officers and asked what she needed to do to stay in jail for two weeks.
10:23
[SPEAKER_00]: She was out of money from traveling and had nowhere to go.
10:26
[SPEAKER_00]: At the time of that incident, Ellis was acting erratically, wearing pink boots, a sweater and wig, and demanding police be called and that they arrest her and keep her in jail for at least two weeks.
10:40
[SPEAKER_00]: It sounded kind of like Ellis was gaming the system.
10:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Out of money and needing a free place to stay, she fought with officers so she'd catch serious enough a charge to land her in jail until her disability payment came through.
10:54
[SPEAKER_00]: But none of that history ultimately answered the question the jury had been asked to decide.
10:59
[SPEAKER_00]: The only question before them was whether Bianca Ellis was illegally insane.
11:03
[SPEAKER_00]: At the exact moment, she stabbed Julian and Margo Wood.
11:08
[SPEAKER_00]: and a sanity evaluation on July 8 of 2025.
11:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Ellis told Dr. Knopf singer that during the stabbing, she had blanked out and something to control her body.
11:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Bianca indicated that she had anxiety at the time of the murder, she was hot, dehydrated, she had slept outside the night before, was worried about how she was going to pay her rent and thought the police had stolen from her.
11:32
[SPEAKER_00]: She told Dr. Knopfinger that she'd had visions of her dying, of Satan killing her, and her voices telling her to kill herself.
11:40
[SPEAKER_00]: She went on to say that she felt Satan was present.
11:43
[SPEAKER_00]: but never once did she say that those voices told her to kill anyone else.
11:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Bianca also admitted to the doctor that she was angry at the time and that she knew what she had done was illegal.
11:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Dr. Knopfinger told the jury that those horrific acts that day could have been committed out of rage rather than mental illness, and then he rendered his opinion.
12:06
[SPEAKER_03]: with regards to legal sanity.
12:10
[SPEAKER_03]: Did you formulate an opinion in this matter sir?
12:13
[SPEAKER_05]: I did.
12:14
[SPEAKER_03]: And what is your opinion?
12:16
[SPEAKER_03]: And what is it based on?
12:20
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, I have opinions on both arms of the legal insanity test.
12:26
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, so let's start with the first part of the arm.
12:30
[SPEAKER_05]: Now, to my opinion, with the reasonable medical certainty that the defendant had the severe mental disease of schizophrenia at the time of the 6, 3, 24 offense.
12:43
[SPEAKER_03]: And what do you base that on sir?
12:45
[SPEAKER_05]: Several reasons.
12:46
[SPEAKER_05]: First of all, we have the defendant report to me.
12:50
[SPEAKER_05]: She reported a history of schizophrenia or schizophrenia, or schizophrenia, a fact of disorder that she had had for many years before the offenses.
12:59
[SPEAKER_05]: And the symptoms she reported, including various hallucinations and delusions, fit with the diagnosis of schizophrenia.
13:10
[SPEAKER_05]: She also reported that she had been psychiatric, hospitalized in received treatment with anesthetic and other medications, all kind of consistent with schizophrenia.
13:22
[SPEAKER_05]: So that was one part of the reason.
13:28
[SPEAKER_05]: That's self-reporting, which we don't rely on, but we take it as one piece of data, and then we look for the presence or absence of corroboration, which in this case there was.
13:40
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, and that's looking at all the records, correct?
13:45
[SPEAKER_05]: Medical records, and the statement from her mother, who corroborated at the Defendant Henskitsa Frania, and then, of course, what we know about it, that once it's diagnosed,
13:58
[SPEAKER_03]: So there is no question that Bianca Ellis has schizophrenia.
14:04
[SPEAKER_03]: Can we agree on that?
14:06
[SPEAKER_05]: We agree.
14:06
[SPEAKER_03]: OK. All right.
14:08
[SPEAKER_03]: So your next point, then, sir, with regards to your opinion?
14:13
[SPEAKER_05]: It's my opinion with reasonable medical certainty.
14:15
[SPEAKER_05]: However, that the defendant did not have a severe mental disease or defect.
14:21
[SPEAKER_05]: At the time of the June 3, 2024 offense, they caused her to not know the wrongfulness of the offenses.
14:30
[SPEAKER_05]: So despite having schizophrenia, it did not cause her to not know the wrongfulness of the offenses.
14:39
[SPEAKER_03]: All right, can you explain that now, just how you have formulated that opinion?
14:45
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, there are several reasons for it.
14:48
[SPEAKER_05]: And let me break this down here.
14:50
[SPEAKER_05]: First of all, the defendant had a rational motive for the offenses that was unrelated to her severe mental disease of schizophrenia.
15:02
[SPEAKER_05]: And there's multiple pieces of evidence that would support that rational motive.
15:07
[SPEAKER_03]: All right, so let's talk about them.
15:09
[SPEAKER_03]: What did she tell you?
15:11
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, she told me.
15:14
[SPEAKER_05]: Nine of you to her on June 12th of this year, that her rage caused the stabbing's rage to control of her to make her do the quote wrong thing.
15:26
[SPEAKER_05]: She quote blanked out, which you further explained, meaning that she experienced rage in anger.
15:34
[SPEAKER_05]: She quote blanked out and her rage took over.
15:39
[SPEAKER_05]: She felt rage and blanked out because for the offense, she was hot, dehydrated, had slept outside the previous night, had not eaten that day and was worried about not having to pay any money and being unable to pay her rent.
15:58
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, Dr. before we go on to be, all those things, some of those are self-report, don't
16:09
[SPEAKER_05]: There is some corroboration, but I think we can also have higher confidence in motives that people self-report that are not helpful to the case, whereas if they promote a self-serving motive, then we have a recent question then, look for more corroboration.
16:37
[SPEAKER_05]: We look at the victim and witness accounts of the offense, which, whenever I reviewed him, indicated that she appeared angry close in time to the offense.
16:47
[SPEAKER_05]: So we have witnessed statements, first of all, from Diane Spayhar, the volunteers of America's store, employee, total officers that Nasella's look angry and distraught as she walked through the store with a knife in her hand.
17:02
[SPEAKER_05]: And then secondly, Margo would told officers that the defendant had an evil look on her face during the offenses, which would be consistent with anger in rage.
17:12
[SPEAKER_03]: What is a consistent with schizophrenia, sir?
17:16
[SPEAKER_05]: It's independent of schizophrenia.
17:19
[SPEAKER_03]: How so?
17:20
[SPEAKER_05]: It's not a symptom of schizophrenia.
17:22
[SPEAKER_05]: Anger in rage or anger control problems in rage or not symptoms of schizophrenia.
17:29
[SPEAKER_03]: All right.
17:31
[SPEAKER_03]: then you go on to C&D?
17:34
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, thirdly, when you review the video footage from giant eagle and things out of it, to me it looks evident that the defendant does appear to be unhappy and walked in an angry purposeful fashion and certainly not a disorganized fashion.
17:55
[SPEAKER_05]: And then, forthly, if you look at simply the timing and sequence of events, what happened in the minutes, the 20s, so minutes, 20 or so minutes before the offense, it all kinds of lines up why she would be upset.
18:13
[SPEAKER_05]: So we know that she went, yeah, with an Adortholmsted police station in Lobby,
18:19
[SPEAKER_05]: from 1440 to 1444 hours, seeking to retrieve items.
18:23
[SPEAKER_05]: She believed it had been wrong.
18:24
[SPEAKER_05]: They taken from her when she had been recently in jail, including cash and a gift card that she valued at $700.
18:33
[SPEAKER_05]: That she said she had to have to pay her rent and purchase food in water with.
18:39
[SPEAKER_05]: And we know that she was turned away in the lobby because the police officer that handles those complaints was not there that day.
18:48
[SPEAKER_05]: and they told her we don't know anything about your missing items, so she was unsuccessful in her effort to retrieve her missing items from the police station.
18:58
[SPEAKER_05]: We then have directly after that, it's all on video.
19:01
[SPEAKER_05]: She goes through the parking lot, gets out of her wheelchair.
19:09
[SPEAKER_05]: gets rid of a luggage and goes over to volunteers of America where she's seen walking through the store, selecting the two knives from the volunteers of America.
19:21
[SPEAKER_05]: We have her then only a few minutes later entering the giant Eagle Store with one knife in hand and then locating the victims in the giant Eagle outside by the cash registers there.
19:37
[SPEAKER_05]: doing a 180 and turning and walking behind them, following out them out and then committing the offenses at $1,500.
19:46
[SPEAKER_05]: So the close relationship in time to the defendants on successful efforts to retrieve for missing $700 worth of items.
19:56
[SPEAKER_05]: The close relationship with that with getting the knives and committing the offenses
20:07
[SPEAKER_05]: To me, indicates a cause of relationship between her rage and anger and the offenses.
20:14
[SPEAKER_05]: For this is the fourth reason why she didn't have the subunmental disease.
20:19
[SPEAKER_05]: At the time of the offense, which caused her to not know the wrongfulness, there was no psychotic motive, which caused her to believe that the offenses were right.
20:28
[SPEAKER_05]: There's different types of motives, there's rational motives, there's psychotic motives, but the defendant still knew that they had done something wrong, and then there's psychotic motives, which you call us someone to think and do the right thing.
20:42
[SPEAKER_05]: And only the latter one constitutes insanity.
20:47
[SPEAKER_05]: So in this case, there was no psychotic motive, which caused her to believe that the offenses were right.
20:54
[SPEAKER_05]: Now, she did report to me when I interviewed her on June 12th of this year, a number of symptoms.
21:01
[SPEAKER_05]: And even if you accept those symptoms at face value as accurate, which part of them were not corroborated by the contemporaneous evidence, but even if you take them at face value as accurate, none of them would indicate
21:16
[SPEAKER_05]: She had a psychotic motive which caused her to believe that the offenses were right.
21:21
[SPEAKER_05]: So she reported to the anxiety, the time of the offense, that she was thinking of cutting her arms, this loss of control over body, visions of herself dying in planets and a black
21:44
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm sorry, hearing voices telling her to kill herself, feeling like she was overthrown by a monster that was stronger than me, the single voice of Satan telling her to kill herself, the strong presence from the spirits, especially Satan, the stopter from dropping the second knife.
22:03
[SPEAKER_05]: But again, even if you accept it, she experiences the symptoms, which they're not corroborated, but even if you accept them,
22:11
[SPEAKER_05]: Had she experienced them, they would not have caused her to believe that committing the murders and the other offenses was a right thing to do.
22:20
[SPEAKER_05]: So for example, as she heard voices telling her to kill herself, that would not cause her to believe that it was right to kill the victim.
22:30
[SPEAKER_05]: There's simply no connection there, or feeling that Satan was present telling her to kill herself.
22:37
[SPEAKER_05]: or that she had a loss of control of her body, that would not cause her to believe it.
22:41
[SPEAKER_05]: It was right to commit the offenses.
22:45
[SPEAKER_03]: But what is she was in a psychosis or disorganization?
22:50
[SPEAKER_03]: Her thoughts were all over the place because of her mental illness.
22:55
[SPEAKER_05]: We're keeping in mind the legal test for insanity is not psychosis.
23:00
[SPEAKER_05]: It's not disorganization.
23:01
[SPEAKER_05]: It's very specific.
23:04
[SPEAKER_05]: Is did she have symptoms of a severe mental disease or defect at the time of the offense that caused her to not know the wrongfulness of the offense?
23:13
[SPEAKER_05]: So not all psychotic symptoms would meet that test and certainly thought this organization would not.
23:21
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, and you have, I believe, did you hit the NC of number four, sir?
23:32
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
23:33
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
23:33
[SPEAKER_03]: So number five and number six.
23:36
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, number five is I asked her on June 12th.
23:39
[SPEAKER_05]: And this is on the video.
23:41
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, did you know at the time of the offense that it was against the law to disturb other people?
23:47
[SPEAKER_05]: And she clearly said yes.
23:48
[SPEAKER_05]: She knew that it was illegal.
23:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Dr. Knopfinger believed Bianca Ellis had stabbed little Julian out of rage, and that even with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, even if she had experienced everything she reported?
24:01
[SPEAKER_00]: None of that would have convinced her that killing Julian was the right thing to do.
24:06
[SPEAKER_00]: She had attacked Margo and killed Julian because she was angry.
24:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Her motive for murder wasn't psychotic.
24:13
[SPEAKER_00]: According to Dr. Knopfinger, it was rational and unrelated to her disease.
24:18
[SPEAKER_00]: She was not insane by the very specific legal definition, and therefore she was guilty of the crime she was accused of.
24:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And with that, it was time for closing arguments.
24:51
[SPEAKER_00]: At close, prosecutors walk the jury back through the timeline.
24:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Through the surveillance once again, they watched as Bianca carefully selected a knife, walked into the bin store and finally the giant eagle.
25:03
[SPEAKER_00]: The prosecutor laid out the choices she made that day that led to the murder of an innocent three-year-old child.
25:10
[SPEAKER_00]: The state conceded that Bianca Ellis did suffer from a mental disorder, namely schizophrenia, but that's not why she made the choices she made that day, and she should be held accountable for Julian's death and the attack on Margo.
25:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, the defense argued that the actions Ellis displayed that day were not the actions of a rational person.
25:40
[SPEAKER_04]: My first learned of this incident, I learned through the media like a number of you, and I sent to myself what crazy person would kill a three-year-old child.
25:56
[SPEAKER_04]: Those of my words, I said this world is going to have, it has faith, it would have it.
26:04
[SPEAKER_04]: I give signs to the case.
26:10
[SPEAKER_04]: And then I began learning about this woman right here.
26:14
[SPEAKER_04]: I came to understand that there was mental illness.
26:19
[SPEAKER_04]: I came to understand how this came to be.
26:25
[SPEAKER_04]: The elephant in the room is this.
26:30
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, three year old child.
26:32
[SPEAKER_04]: Who's like, who's taken from him?
26:36
[SPEAKER_04]: Not by his fault, not by his mother's fault.
26:42
[SPEAKER_04]: Bianca calls the death of that child.
26:47
[SPEAKER_00]: The defense walked the jury through the same events but argued that at the time Bianca Ellis was hallucinating, hearing voices and could not be held accountable because simply put, she wasn't in a right mind.
26:58
[SPEAKER_00]: They accused the prosecution of trying to normalize Bianca Ellis in her actions.
27:11
[SPEAKER_04]: They make the announcement and they have to concede because they can't be around him that she's mentally ill, but they want to normalize her behavior on that day.
27:21
[SPEAKER_04]: She was in control.
27:23
[SPEAKER_04]: She was well-organized.
27:26
[SPEAKER_04]: Her mind was working several of the park from her schizophrenia.
27:40
[SPEAKER_04]: When June 3rd, it's nothing normal about her behavior.
27:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Prosecutors had the last word, and they delivered a fiery rebuttal asking the jury to find Bianca Ellis guilty on all counts.
27:56
[SPEAKER_03]: You decide ladies and gentlemen, the defense wants you to believe that I want to normalize beyond the health.
28:10
[SPEAKER_03]: Her actions normalize herself because, like I said before, many people in our country suffer with mental illness every single day, but they don't go out and murder people.
28:33
[SPEAKER_03]: No one is going to stand before you and tell you that Bianca Ellis is not a schizophrenic.
28:40
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm not here to tell you that.
28:42
[SPEAKER_03]: She is.
28:44
[SPEAKER_03]: She was her own pe.
28:46
[SPEAKER_03]: She was living her own life doing her own thing.
28:53
[SPEAKER_03]: Going to California, going to Florida, functioning herself.
28:59
[SPEAKER_03]: Nobody was
29:04
[SPEAKER_03]: But on June 3rd, 2024, Bianca Ellis killed Julian Wood and stabbed the mother.
29:16
[SPEAKER_03]: It was aggravated murder all day every day.
29:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And with that, the jurors were off to deliberate.
29:25
[SPEAKER_00]: After roughly a day of deliberations, the jury returned to the courtroom.
29:30
[SPEAKER_00]: On October 15, 2025, they rejected beyond the elicis and sanity defense.
29:36
[SPEAKER_00]: She was found guilty on every count.
29:39
[SPEAKER_00]: One count of aggravated murder, two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, two counts of felonious assault, one count of endangering children, and one count of misdemeanor theft.
29:49
[SPEAKER_00]: She was facing life and prison with no possibility of parole.
30:13
[SPEAKER_00]: After the verdict, prosecutor Michael O'Malley made a statement to the press.
30:18
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, In my years as prosecutor, I have seen unimaginable acts of violence, but this is among the most heartbreaking, beyond the Ellis' horrific actions weren't nothing less than life without parole.
30:30
[SPEAKER_00]: My thoughts and prayers remain with Julian Wood's family as they continue to
30:37
[SPEAKER_00]: At Sentencing, Julian's parents both gave victim impact statements.
30:41
[SPEAKER_00]: They, of course, were asking for the maximum penalty.
30:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Julian's father, Jared, spoke about how the loss of his son had impacted his family, stating in part, now all of our hearts will forever be missing a piece.
30:54
[SPEAKER_00]: It is up to all of us to keep his light shining.
30:58
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, Margot addressed the court.
31:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Her statement left the court room in tears.
31:04
[SPEAKER_00]: While it's difficult to listen to, I think it's important that we hear it.
31:08
[SPEAKER_00]: It emphasizes what family members of victims of violent crimes go through every single day.
31:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's Marbo Wood.
31:37
[SPEAKER_02]: A mother should never have to bury their child.
31:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Your mother is supposed to go first.
31:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Not her children.
31:49
[SPEAKER_02]: A mother should receive her child's death certificate at three years old and his cause of death is by homicide.
31:58
[SPEAKER_02]: That woman murdering my son,
32:07
[SPEAKER_02]: It is my living night care.
32:11
[SPEAKER_02]: The last thing I will ever hear from my son is his scream, the sound of his pain and fear before he was gone.
32:25
[SPEAKER_02]: And I can still see the tear in his eyes and it haunts me every day.
32:36
[SPEAKER_02]: He was my baby boy, in the day he died, a part of me died with him.
32:49
[SPEAKER_02]: My older son has autism.
32:54
[SPEAKER_02]: He doesn't fully understand why his little brother is best friend isn't here anymore.
33:02
[SPEAKER_02]: He asks us about heaven.
33:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And if we can just wake up baby Julian, so he can come home and be here with us.
33:13
[SPEAKER_02]: He thinks if he goes to the hospital, he can go and see him.
33:20
[SPEAKER_02]: When his dad goes to run an errand or leaves for work, my son worries that he won't come home.
33:28
[SPEAKER_02]: I have to call my husband on video chat, so he can make sure his dad is dead.
33:35
[SPEAKER_02]: The days, Jared and I were here for trial, he thought we both died, so my aunt and my mom had to reassure him that we were okay and we would be home later.
33:50
[SPEAKER_02]: When his friends or teachers at school are absent due to being sick or having appointments, when they come back he runs to them and gives them a big hug and yells your alive.
34:06
[SPEAKER_02]: You have not only hurt me, you have not only taken away my youngest son, you have caused trauma to my other children.
34:24
[SPEAKER_02]: My daughter was only two months old when she killed my sweet boy.
34:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Julian gave his sister all the love and affection a big brother could ever give in that short time.
34:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Coming home from preschool, he would take off his backpack and run to give her a big hug in a kiss.
34:43
[SPEAKER_02]: He helped with bath time to next meet during diaper changes and it would help with giving her a bottle.
34:50
[SPEAKER_02]: They were like two peas in a pod.
34:52
[SPEAKER_02]: They'll grow together.
34:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Wherever she was, he was right next to her.
34:59
[SPEAKER_02]: My daughter is 18 months.
35:04
[SPEAKER_02]: And now she only knows going to the cemetery to see her brother.
35:09
[SPEAKER_02]: She will never get another hug, a kiss, or a cuddle from her older brother.
35:16
[SPEAKER_02]: He is now just her guardian angel.
35:19
[SPEAKER_02]: She will never know how much she loved her, and how happy was to see her when she was born.
35:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Only the stories that we tell her.
35:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Julie and brought laughter, light, and love in our home, but his infectious laugh.
35:39
[SPEAKER_02]: He helped with my oldest son and so many ways with communication and play.
35:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Our home isn't as loud and chaotic anymore.
35:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Not the way it used to be.
35:49
[SPEAKER_02]: There's no one playing with dinosaurs and chasing around his big brother with them.
35:54
[SPEAKER_02]: My boys aren't wrestling in the living room and dancing to the minions movies.
35:59
[SPEAKER_02]: There's no one dressing up for Halloween as a dinosaur.
36:10
[SPEAKER_02]: My son would have been five in two days.
36:13
[SPEAKER_02]: She took that from us.
36:15
[SPEAKER_02]: She took birthdays, holidays, milestones, graduations, seeing what kind of man he would have turned into, no grandchildren, no nieces or nephews for his siblings.
36:28
[SPEAKER_02]: When you murdered him, you took his potential lives, moments and memories from all of us.
36:35
[SPEAKER_02]: If I want my family to be whole, we have to go to the cemetery where all of my children can be together.
36:46
[SPEAKER_02]: My oldest doesn't like going because it makes some sad.
36:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, when I take pictures of my son, it's just his name on a wall, surrounded by flowers and dinosaurs that people leave him.
37:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Instead of taking pictures, instead of taking photos of him making funny photos, cute smiles, or laughing pictures.
37:17
[SPEAKER_02]: I hate you with every fiber of my being, because of you, I live in constant fear.
37:27
[SPEAKER_02]: For months I couldn't leave my home.
37:31
[SPEAKER_02]: If I did leave my home, I needed someone by my side, and even then I was stricken with fear.
37:42
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't take my children to the store by myself anymore.
37:46
[SPEAKER_02]: because I fear something might happen.
37:50
[SPEAKER_02]: I leave my kids at home with my mom and go by myself because if anything happens, it'll just happen to me.
37:59
[SPEAKER_02]: I hate that I'm here and my son is gone.
38:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Just because you have a mental illness, does it mean you can use that to justify you murdering my son.
38:14
[SPEAKER_02]: what you did was unforgivable and you can never be taken back.
38:19
[SPEAKER_02]: You deserve to go to jail for the rest of your life so you can't hurt anyone else.
38:25
[SPEAKER_02]: You don't deserve a second chance.
38:28
[SPEAKER_02]: You don't deserve mercy.
38:29
[SPEAKER_02]: You didn't give my son any.
38:33
[SPEAKER_02]: You belong in prison where there is no chance of you getting out.
38:37
[SPEAKER_02]: The jury got it right.
38:40
[SPEAKER_02]: When they read the verdict that you were guilty on all counts,
38:44
[SPEAKER_02]: It felt like the first time I can't actually breathe in the last 499 days.
38:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I knew in my heart that you were going exactly where you need to be in prison.
38:58
[SPEAKER_02]: You don't deserve the luxury of a mental facility where you can earn privileges and possibly be released back into the world.
39:05
[SPEAKER_02]: That's too good for you.
39:07
[SPEAKER_02]: The world is safer with you behind bars.
39:12
[SPEAKER_02]: I urge you to give her the maximum penalty without parole, so she has no chance of hurting another innocent soul like my sweet baby boy she went in.
39:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Margo Woods said, the jury got it right, but the defense?
39:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you probably already know what's coming.
39:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Fernando Max said he and his co-counsel respectfully disagreed with the verdict.
39:39
[SPEAKER_00]: He went on to say that Bianca Ellis was unstable from January to June of 2024 because she wasn't taking her medicine, and that since she'd been in jail and on her medication, she'd had no incidents in custody.
39:52
[SPEAKER_00]: When it came to Ellis herself, she also addressed the court with a half-ass apology.
39:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Stating, I just want to apologize.
39:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I am really sorry for what happened.
40:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Her defense team asked the judge to weigh her mental health in his decision on sentencing, asking that she only received 20 years.
40:10
[SPEAKER_00]: The prosecution asked Judge Russo to sentence her to the maximum, assistant prosecutor Anna Faraglia stated, Mercy is given by God.
40:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Courtrooms, judges, dispense justice.
40:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Judge Rousseau weighed both sides.
40:26
[SPEAKER_00]: He sentenced Bianca Ellis to life in prison with no chance for parole.
40:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Before concluding the hearing, though, he also spoke about the broader failures that allowed Ellis' mental illness to go and treat it, urging local leaders to expand access to effective mental health treatment.
40:42
[SPEAKER_00]: The judge stated, I urgently implore our city and county leaders to continue providing facilities and programs
40:52
[SPEAKER_00]: No family should have to lose a child, and no family should have to watch their loved ones deteriorate because meaningful and effective mental health services were unavailable.
41:24
[SPEAKER_00]: In the days after sentencing, one Facebook post from the North-Omsted Police Department seemed to capture what so many in the community were feeling, it said.
41:33
[SPEAKER_00]: While we would do anything to have stopped this before it happened, nothing was more important than getting justice for Julian.
41:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Life without parole where she can sit and think about why she's there until the day she dies is the best outcome.
41:46
[SPEAKER_00]: I know the argument of now we have to pay for her for the rest of her life.
41:50
[SPEAKER_00]: I will gladly pay for that, not just for Julian, but for every person that would have ultimately been another victim of hers that now won't be.
41:59
[SPEAKER_00]: She's where she belongs.
42:01
[SPEAKER_00]: We sincerely hope this brings Julian some peace.
42:04
[SPEAKER_00]: While he deserves to be living his best life, justice is all we can do for him now.
42:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Rest in peace, sweet boy, we're so sorry this happened to you and your family.
42:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Just know this department and this community will never stop fighting for you and we will never
42:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Julian Wood should have been starting elementary school around the time this trial was taking place.
42:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of celebrating birthdays, the first day of kindergarten and family vacations, his parents spent years sifting through hearings, watching surveillance video of the worst day of their lives and fighting to make sure the little boy they loved is remembered.
42:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Friends and family have described Julian as energetic, joyful, and obsessed with dinosaurs, especially green ones.
42:49
[SPEAKER_00]: That simple image became a symbol throughout the trial and across North Olmstedt, a reminder of the little boy with the big smile whose life was stolen in a matter of seconds.
43:00
[SPEAKER_00]: While the legal proceedings continue, nothing can undo what happened outside that giant
43:10
[SPEAKER_00]: In late 2025, through her attorneys, Ellis filed an appeal.
43:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Court TV reported that her legal team claimed that Bianca Ellis had been erroneously convicted because the jury had been misled by the state's expert witness and the prosecutors themselves.
43:25
[SPEAKER_00]: and the legal filing to defense argued that Dr. Knopfinger's entire evaluation was conducted under the wrong legal standard, writing in part.
43:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Rather than opining on whether Miss Ellis was able to know the wrongfulness of her actions as required by Ohio Law, he instead asserted that she did not have an affirmative belief that her conduct was right.
43:45
[SPEAKER_00]: The distinction is significant, rather than assessing her ability to appreciate the moral weight of her actions as the law
43:53
[SPEAKER_00]: He instead substituted his own more stringent standard that would find legal insanity only where a positive belief of rightness existed.
44:03
[SPEAKER_00]: The attorneys went on to say that noffsinger misstated the required standard for NGRI or not guilty by reason of insanity.
44:11
[SPEAKER_00]: They misstated it approximately 12 times during his testimony and then prosecutors doubled down repeating it during their closing argument.
44:19
[SPEAKER_00]: the filing continued stating, the prosecution advised the jury, again erroneously, that an NGRI verdict would fail short of holding Bianca accountable, is it any wonder then that a jury so misinformation would lose its way?
44:34
[SPEAKER_00]: At the bottom, this jury was tricked, not only by a misunderstanding of the facts, but those facts need to be screened through the applicable law, not some made-up
44:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Ellis' new legal team also accused her trial attorneys of providing ineffective counsel for failing to object to Dr. Noffsinger's testimony.
44:55
[SPEAKER_00]: But the jury had heard it all, weighed the facts and the trial attorneys had brought in their own expert witnesses who gave an opposing opinion.
45:03
[SPEAKER_00]: and they had rendered their verdict.
45:06
[SPEAKER_00]: They heard all of the testimony about Bianca Ellis' mental health, seen the medical records, and they still found her guilty.
45:12
[SPEAKER_00]: There was no slide of hand by the prosecution, and Dr. Noffsinger was an expert in the field who trained their expert.
45:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure don't seem like a trick to me, but what do I know?
45:25
[SPEAKER_00]: The state has yet to respond to the filing and no hearing date has been scheduled to date of this recording.
45:31
[SPEAKER_00]: But when and if there is, I'll be sure to keep you updated.
45:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And that my friends is all I've got for this week.
45:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Be sure to join me next Thursday, same time, same place for an all new episode.
45:43
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45:50
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45:54
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46:05
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46:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening.
46:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for caring.
46:13
[SPEAKER_00]: If you know something, say something, and until next time, be good to each other.
47:00
[SPEAKER_00]: a mom should never take a toddler to the grocery store and come home without him.
47:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure if I was on the jury if I could find it in me to utter the words not guilty by reason of anything.
47:11
[SPEAKER_00]: And this may piss some people off, but I don't think a person capable of randomly attacking a toddler and stabbing him to death should ever be walking among us.
47:20
[SPEAKER_00]: even if they were hearing voices, seeing stars, whatever I literally do not care.
47:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Because if she had been found not guilty by reason of insanity, if the defense had been able to prove she was legally insane, there's a chance she would be walking free.
47:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure, she'd stay at the mental hospital until a doctor deemed her safer society, and maybe if she takes her medication, she's not a danger.
47:44
[SPEAKER_00]: That seems to be the consensus.
47:47
[SPEAKER_00]: But she has a history of stopping her medication for whatever reason, and then she becomes dangerous.
47:53
[SPEAKER_00]: And in a polite and civilized society, you just can't let someone out there to hurt innocent people.
47:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Now let me just say that I do have compassion for people suffering with severe mental illness, but you can't let compassion outweigh common sense, and it's our duty to protect innocent lives.
48:11
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm with the prosecution on this one, the mercy part is up to God, justice is for the courts and Ellis doesn't belong out there in the streets.
48:19
[SPEAKER_00]: In my opinion, she was mad and wanted her property back, her gift cards, or whatever it was.
48:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And she'd spin up all her money traveling.
48:26
[SPEAKER_00]: She needed a place to stay.
48:28
[SPEAKER_00]: No better way to get locked up than to kill someone.
48:31
[SPEAKER_00]: She walked into that Ben store and didn't find an easy victim, so she went to the giant eagle, and she knew she'd be able to kill a kid, and so she did.
48:40
[SPEAKER_00]: What did it for me is the fact that she knew to ask for an attorney when police tried to interview her.
48:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Because like you're so crazy, you don't know right from wrong.
48:49
[SPEAKER_00]: But you know you need legal counsel before you talk to police.
48:52
[SPEAKER_00]: She sure had no problem calmly talking to police on multiple other occasions.
48:57
[SPEAKER_00]: She had no problem confessing to a fake crime when she wanted to go to jail, and now suddenly she wants a lawyer because she knew what she did was wrong, and probably knew that she could get the death penalty.
49:09
[SPEAKER_00]: And oddly enough, as I'm recording this final episode, I've been keeping up with the Lindsay Clancy case, as I'm sure many of you have to, and I've got to tell you, I'm not 100% on where I stay with that one, and while these are two entirely different cases, they have one thing in common.
49:28
[SPEAKER_00]: I got to actually say, I had a lot of compassion for Lindsay Clancy.
49:32
[SPEAKER_00]: She tried to get help in all the things, but when I heard that she immediately began asking for an attorney once she was coherent, I'm like 95% done.
49:41
[SPEAKER_00]: She didn't ask about her kid, she wanted a lawyer and to know if her body was broken.
49:46
[SPEAKER_00]: To me, that speaks volumes.
49:48
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to hear the rest of the evidence before I completely make up my mind, but that bout did it for me.
49:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And I say all this, having experience with people suffering severe mental illness, likes gets a frinea, psychosis.
50:02
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not a doctor or anything, but I've had my fair share of helping someone while an active psychosis, both strangers and someone I love very much.
50:11
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'll tell you, asking for a lawyer just doesn't track for me.
50:16
[SPEAKER_00]: I know it's different for everyone, and I've seen that with my own two eyes.
50:20
[SPEAKER_00]: But never have I ever known a person suffering severely with mental illness be competent enough to ask for a lawyer right after committing a crime.
50:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And as a victim advocate, I've had to tell my people to police stop talking to the cops until we've gotten them stabilized.
50:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it was never for murder or anything violent, but I've had them confess to every petty crime they've ever committed.
50:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And where they got the drugs they just got caught with while telling the police about the shadow people and the narwhal in the corner.
50:49
[SPEAKER_00]: So in my experience, I'm just not buying it, not in this case or any other, sorry, not sorry.
50:56
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's about all I got to say about that.
50:58
[SPEAKER_00]: You all know I love you more my luggage and I can't wait to talk at you next week, but until then, bye-bye-bye.