CLEVELAND – In a dramatic courtroom decision on Monday morning, a judge delivered the harshest possible sentence to a woman found guilty of murdering a 3-year-old boy in an unexpected assault that occurred last summer in a grocery store parking lot in Ohio.

Bionca Ellis, whose trial concluded earlier this month, faced multiple charges, with the most severe being aggravated murder. This conviction came after a jury found her responsible for the brutal attack.

During Monday’s proceedings, the judge sentenced the 34-year-old Ellis to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, ensuring she will spend the rest of her life behind bars.

Throughout the trial, Ellis chose not to testify in her own defense. Her legal team entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, arguing that Ellis has long struggled with mental health issues and was not mentally stable at the time of the incident.

The victim’s mother, Margot Wood, provided emotional testimony during the trial. She tearfully recounted the horrifying moment when Ellis, armed with a knife, attacked her son Julian at a Giant Eagle grocery store in North Olmsted. Wood herself was also injured in the assault. She testified that she had no prior acquaintance with Ellis.

Ahead of Ellis’ sentencing on Monday, she told the court: “That woman murdering my son replays in my head every single day. It is my living nightmare. The last thing I will ever hear from my son is his scream and the sound of his pain and fear before he was gone. I can still see the terror in his eyes, and it haunts me every day.”

Julian’s father, Jarred, also spoke in court, saying his young, dinosaur-loving son was smart, funny and had a way of lifting up others.

He told the court, “That monster took him from us.”

He added, “Now all of our hearts will forever be missing a piece, and it’s up to all of us to keep his light shining even though his star is gone.”

Margot Wood told Ellis in court, “You deserve to go to jail for the rest of your life so you can’t hurt anyone else. You don’t deserve a second chance. You don’t deserve mercy. You didn’t give my son any.”

Mental health experts testifying for the defense describe Ellis as mentally ill and said she didn’t know right from wrong.

On Monday, defense attorneys told the sentencing judge that Ellis is “two different people” depending on whether she’s medicated or not and said they disagree with the verdict.

Ellis briefly spoke ahead of her sentencing, saying, “I just want to say I apologize (inaudible.)”

Nexstar’s WJW has reported in the past on mental health concerns. WJW found that Ellis was released from jail on another case days before the murder despite a recommendation in court to have her get another mental health evaluation.

A prosecution expert, however, testified that he believes Ellis carried out the attack because she was angry and wanted to be arrested.

Prosecutors said during the trial that Ellis felt someone at the North Olmsted Police Department had taken her money after she was arrested on a probation violation a few days before the deadly attack. When Ellis did not get the money she said she was owed from the department, security video shows, she went to a nearby thrift store and took knives from a bin.  A few minutes later, she went to the Giant Eagle, waving a knife in her hand.