LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – The state filed a motion requesting that an expert evaluate the competency of Julie Sulpizio, the woman accused of luring Lake County deputies into an ambush which killed one and wounded two others.
The Feb. 5 request names Dr. Jason Demery, a mental health expert chosen by the state, and calls for the court to enter an order appointing him to evaluate Sulpizio’s current mental state ahead of trial.
Last year, the state announced it would seek the death penalty against Sulpizio, now 49, in the event she is found guilty of first-degree murder in the deadly Aug. 2 ambush. Her attorney filed a written plea of not guilty in October, including a clause affirming the attorney’s capability of representing Sulpizio “regarding minimum standards for attorneys in capital cases.”
Master Deputy Bradley Link was fatally shot late Aug. 2 while responding to a disturbance call in rural Eustis. Sulpizio directed the arriving deputies to a second home on Brookside Drive, where her family members were waiting with a stockpile of weapons, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
After putting Sulpizio in handcuffs, deputies reportedly went to the home to perform a well-being check on her husband, Michael Sulpizio, and their adult daughters, Cheyenne and Sylvana. As the deputies entered the house, they were shot at; Link was shot several times and was trapped in the house as the other deputies retreated, according to the sheriff’s office. Michael Sulpizio and the two daughters later died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds, deputies said.
At the celebration of Link’s life, which was held about a week later in the Clermont church he attended, Lake County Sheriff Peyton Grinnell said that Link’s wife Brittany had called the fallen deputy’s cellphone while he was still inside the home.
“One of the assailants in the home removed Brad’s phone from his person and answered that phone call. The assailant asked Brittany, ‘Who is this?’ Brittany stated, ‘I am Brad’s wife. Who are you?’ To which the assailant responded, ‘So you say that you are supposedly the dead man’s wife?’ That will forever be the worst phone call of Brittany’s life,” Grinnell said.
The other deputies who were shot that night — Harold Howell and Stefano Gargano — have since been released from the hospital after being treated for their injuries, according to the sheriff’s office.
Sulpizio first pleaded not guilty on Aug. 7 to the charges recommended by arresting officers. She was indicted on Aug. 19 by a grand jury on nine charges; principal to first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer, conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree, four counts of battery — one of them on a law enforcement officer — and three counts of principal to attempted first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer.
She remains jailed without bond.
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