Trial on hold for now: Family matriarch charged with Lake deputy's murder ruled incompetent
Julie Sulpizio, 49, faces the death penalty on the charge of being a principle to the murder of Master Deputy Bradley Link, who was shot leading a team of deputies into her family's Brookside Drive home in Eustis. Her husband and two daughters were waiting inside the house as she tried to lure in neighbors to kill, saying they were acting on God's behalf.
A psychological evaluation of Sulpizio resulted in two diagnoses: psychotic spectrum disorder and schizophrenia spectrum disorder. In an order signed Friday to place her in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families, Circuit Judge Brian Welke said she is 'in imminent danger of harm to herself or others and neglect of self-care.'
That means the trial is on hold — at least for now. In addition to the murder charge, Sulpizio is accused of being a principle to the attempted murder of three other deputies and conspiracy to commit murder.
Deputies were called Aug. 2 to Brookside Drive after neighbors complained Julie Sulpizio was accosting people and trying to get them to go to her house. When authorities arrived, they found two dead dogs in the front yard. A group of deputies led by Link went inside only to be confronted with gunfire by her husband, 49-year-old Michael Sulpizio, and daughters Cheyenne, 23, and Savannah, 22.
Link shot back as he was trapped inside, allowing other deputies to escape while he was killed in the shootout. A SWAT operation to rescue Link — whose body-worn camera continued recording as the situation unfolded — failed after two deputies, Harold Howell and Stefano Gargano, were shot multiple times. They survived their injuries.
The standoff ended after the Sulpizios inside the house were found dead. According to court records, Link's recording captured one of the women contemplating suicide before three gunshots rang out. Autopsy reports obtained by the Orlando Sentinel document Cheyenne and Savannah Sulpizio were killed by gunshots to the center of their foreheads while Michael Sulpizio was shot on the side of his head — suggesting he killed his daughters before killing himself.
While the medical examiner's report said the Lake County Sheriff's Office was investigating the women's deaths as homicides, it concluded manners of death for all three Sulpizios were 'undetermined.'
Sheriff's Office investigators said the family claimed to have been inspired by God in their attempts to lure neighbors they believed were pedophiles to the house to kill. Inside the home they found a stockpile of weapons along with 'anti-government propaganda and conspiracy theory-related media,' Sheriff Peyton Grinnell said. The contents of that material have not been released.
Link, remembered as a hero who long dreamed of working in law enforcement, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor and Purple Heart.
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