LAKE COUNTY – The surviving member of the family that ambushed sheriff’s deputies, killing one and injuring two others, has been ruled incompetent to stand trial.
Circuit Judge Brian Welke signed the order Friday committing Julie Sulpizio to a state hospital to be treated for mental illness before she can be tried for murder and other charges in the Aug. 2, 2024 attack.
The ruling states that Sulpizio is a danger to herself and others. The order states that “there is a substantial probability that the mental illness… will respond to treatment and the defendant will regain competency to proceed in the reasonably foreseeable future.
Both the state and the Public Defender’s Office hired mental health experts to evaluate Sulpizio.
The order also presumes that in the interim, she cannot aid her defense attorneys. She is charged with first-degree murder ands other charges, and the state attorney plans to seek the death penalty.
The judge’s order states that she suffers from psychotic spectrum disorder and schizophrenia spectrum disorder.
Rural Eustis neighbors called the Sheriff’s Office to say that she was harassing, then striking them, calling them sinners. An investigation later determined her husband and two daughters convinced themselves that they were pedophiles and were determined to lure them into a trap to kill them.
A deputy confronted Sulpizio, pulling out a Taser that has a light that she called “the light of God.” Ordered to lie on the ground, she shouted, “Let’s go,” and “I can feel him.” She also yelled, “Michael Gabriel Timothy, it’s time now to protect my children!”
She led Master Deputy Bradley Link to her home where he was shot by her husband, Michael.
One of Sulpizio’s daughters in the house racked a firearm and shouted: “My king will kill all of you. You are Lucifer’s children!”
Two other deputies, Master Deputy Harold Howell and Master Deputy Stefano Gargano were wounded trying to rescue Link.
Michael Sulpizio was killed. Savannah Sulpizio, 23; and Cheyenne Sulpizio, 22, died of apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
The house was stockpiled with firearms and conspiracy literature.
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