Clovis mother slain

Police arrest husband in first homicide of '08

Clovis police officers investigate the city's first homicide of the year May 2 when a mother was found stabbed to death in her home on Sierra Madre Avenue. Her estranged husband was arrested on suspicion of murder.

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A Clovis mother trying to start a new life was fatally stabbed with kitchen knives from her own home May 2 in the city's first homicide of the year.

Charlotte Ellis, 33, died of multiple wounds to the heart, right lung and liver, according to the Fresno County Coroner's Office. The Clovis Police Department arrested her estranged husband, Cantrell Ellis, 37, on suspicion of murder, burglary, spousal abuse and assault with a deadly weapon, according to a department report.

Police received a 911 call from the victim at about 2:30 a.m. May 2, the report said. She told them her husband had broken into her home in the 2600 block of Sierra Madre Avenue, near Shaw and Temperance avenues.

"He had broken in and she was afraid," police spokeswoman Janet Stoll-Lee said.

When police arrived three minutes later, they found the victim stabbed multiple times, and her husband in the house with the suspected murder weapons -- knives from the kitchen.

Cantrell Ellis, of the 2300 block of Holland Avenue, was arrested, and Child Protective Services removed the couple's two children, a 7-year-old boy and an 18-month-old girl who were living with their mother.

The children were home at the time of the crime.

A second victim, who police are not identifying, escaped the house after he was allegedly choked by Cantrell Ellis. The 38-year-old man was in the home when Ellis allegedly broke a back window, but had left before Charlotte Ellis was stabbed.

Hours after the killing, neighbors and friends stood outside the home watching as police investigated the crime scene.

"This is crazy," one man said. "I've never seen cops in this neighborhood."

A friend of the victim, who didn't want to be identified, said Charlotte Ellis was a wonderful person trying to get out of an abusive relationship.

"She was just loving. Not a mean bone in her body," the friend said. "You don't ever meet people like that."

Cantrell Ellis was cited nearly two weeks before the slaying on suspicion of spousal abuse charges. On April 20, Charlotte Ellis called 911 because her husband had allegedly shoved her to the floor causing her to hit her head. They were living together at the 2300 block of Holland Avenue then. Soon after, she moved to the 2600 block of Sierra Madre.

Police cited Cantrell Ellis and referred the couple to the department's SAFER (Support, Awareness, Feedback, Education/Enforcement and Responsibility) program, which provides support and counseling for domestic violence victims and abusers. The program was started in 2004, a year after Clovis had seven homicides related to domestic violence.

This is the first homicide case in Clovis since 2006. In February, Kelly Renee Jones was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the 2006 death of 85-year-old Urelda Stovall. Jones, who was Stovall's caretaker, was accused of giving her a toxic amount of drugs.

E-mail Gabriel Alexander at galexander@clovisindependent.com.