LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – Julie Sulpizio, the woman accused of luring Lake County deputies into an ambush that killed one and wounded two others last year, has been ordered back to jail after being found competent to proceed.
The order, filed April 15, states Sulpizio was to be taken to the appropriate detention facility within seven days and would be brought before the court the morning of May 1 to “make a determination on the issue of competency.”
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Sulpizio in February was found incompetent to proceed with her trial, reportedly examined by psychologists who determined that she was suffering from psychosis and schizophrenia.
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 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.
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.
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.”
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.