LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – Julie Sulpizio, the only living suspect in the 2024 ambush of several Lake County deputies that ended with one deputy dying and two being injured, is competent to stand trial.
That’s according to a court document filed by the Florida Department of Children and Families obtained by News 6.
In the ruling filed on Tuesday, a judge ordered Sulpizio to be transported from DCF/Florida State Hospital to Lake County. A competency review hearing is scheduled for April 29 at 9 a.m., where the judge will make a formal determination.
[TIMELINE: What exactly happened in Lake County ambush attack of 3 deputies]
Sulpizio is accused of luring the deputies into the ambush at her home. The deputies were responding to a disturbance call in rural Eustis in August of 2024.
[WATCH: Lake County woman faces murder charge after deadly ambush of deputies (from 2024)]
They said Sulpizio identified herself as “Helen under God’s will,” accused her neighbors of being involved in pedophilia, and told them that “they needed to trick the evil to come out.”
The sheriff’s office said deputies went to perform a well-being check on Sulpizio’s family members, who were waiting at the home on Brookside Drive with a stockpile of weapons.
Master Deputy Bradley Link was fatally shot in the ambush. Deputies Harold Howell and Stefano Gargano survived their injuries.
Sulpizio’s husband, Michael Sulpizio, and two adult daughters were later found dead from self-inflicted wounds.
[WATCH: New details revealed in deadly Lake County deputy ambush (from 2025)]
Sulpizio was found incompetent by a judge twice last year because of schizophrenia. The judge found Sulpizio was in “imminent danger of harm to herself or others and neglect of self-care,” and ordered her to be treated in a residential facility.
Sulpizio faces the death penalty if found guilty of principal to first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer, conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree, four counts of battery, and three counts of principal to attempted first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer.