LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – A grand jury has indicted the Lake County woman accused of luring Lake County deputies into an ambush that killed one deputy and injured two others.
According to the State Attorney William Gladson’s office, Julie Sulpizio was indicted for principal to murder in the first degree of a law enforcement officer. The indictment means the state attorney’s office can pursue the death penalty in the case.
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“The State Attorney’s Office has 45 days to make that decision and will do so after a thorough review of all available evidence. That decision has not yet been made,” said a statement from Gladson’s office.
Lake County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a call on Aug. 6 about a woman behaving erratically in a Eustis area neighborhood. Deputies say Julie Sulpizio, 48, accused neighbors of pedophilia and that she was doing God’s will. Neighbors said she was trying to convince them to walk to her home, and they didn’t trust her.
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Deputies went to Sulpizio’s house to perform a well-being check on her husband, Michael Sulpizio, and adult daughters, Cheyenne and Sylvana, and as they entered the house, they were shot at. Master Deputy Bradley Link was shot several times and trapped in the house as the other deputies retreated.
As deputies tried to rescue Link, two others, Master Deputy Harold Howell and Master Deputy Stephen Gargano, were shot and taken to the hospital. Link died of his injuries.
Deputies said the two daughters and Michael Sulpizio died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
Julie Sulpizio was also indicted on charges of:
- Three counts of principal to attempted first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer
- Conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree - premeditated
- Battery on a law enforcement or other officer
- Three counts of Battery
Sulpizio remains jailed without bond.
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