Judge defends releasing suspect who claimed she ‘murdered someone and wanted to kill again’ days before she stabbed toddler to death… and why he would do it again
An Ohio judge has defended his decision to release the woman accused of killing three-year-old Julian Wood back on the streets just days before the fatal stabbing -despite a referral for a mental health evaluation.
Bionca Ellis, 32, was arrested on May 29 for a parole violation related to a shoplifting charge for stealing $69 worth of merchandise from a Walmart last year.
As she faced the charges last month, a magistrate judge at the Rocky River Municipal Court noticed that she seemingly became unresponsive – and ordered her to be held for a mental health evaluation, according to records obtained by Fox 8
But Judge Brian Hagan instead released Ellis back into the community on May 31.
Just three days later, police say Ellis stole a knife from a thrift store, and followed Julian and his mother to the parking lot of the Giant Eagle grocery store in North Olmstead, Ohio, where she fatally slashed the young boy in the face and neck and injured his mother.
Still, Hagan said he would not have done anything differently, even now – knowing that Ellis is charged with aggravated murder for the death of the toddler.
He noted that the organization handling mental health evaluations had nobody available, and he thought it would be unjust for Ellis to sit in jail for days on a minor charge.
‘I’m confident in the way the court handled the matter,’ Hagan told Fox 8.
‘We did it by the letter of the law, there was nothing there to send up alarms.’
‘There wasn’t any red flags shooting up that pole,’ he said, explaining that there were ‘no signs of mental distress, no signs of previous, violent acts.’
But it has since been revealed that Ellis had a criminal record going back several months in three different states – and she once even confessed to cops that she had murdered someone and wanted to kill again
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13520393/Judge-released-Julian-Woods-killer.html