LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – The state of Florida intends to seek the death penalty against Julie Sulpizio, the woman accused of luring Lake County deputies into an ambush that killed one deputy and injured two others, according to court records.
The notice of intent was filed in the Circuit Court of The Fifth Judicial Circuit on Tuesday in the event Sulpizio is found guilty of first-degree murder.
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In August, a grand jury indicted Sulpizio principal to first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer, which paved the way for the State Attorney’s Office to pursue the death penalty.
[TIMELINE: What exactly happened in Lake County ambush attack of 3 deputies]
Lake County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a call on Aug. 6 about a woman behaving erratically in a Eustis-area neighborhood. Deputies said 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.
Deputies went to Sulpizio’s house to perform a well-being check on her husband, Michael Sulpizio, and their 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 Stefano Gargano, were shot and taken to the hospital. Link died of his injuries.
[‘WHO IS YOUR GOD?’ Disturbing details revealed in fatal ambush of Lake County deputies]
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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