Lake Brantley Teens Charged With Attempted Murder in Alleged Ritual Plot

Isabelle Valdez, 15, sat in the back of a police vehicle and remarked that she wished she had acted more quickly. "I should have done it in the morning," she said on the recording. "He was right there, I was following behind him."

That roughly 20-minute squad car video, released by the State Attorney's Office in the 18th Judicial Circuit, became the centerpiece of a March 12 court hearing in which a Seminole County judge denied bond and ordered both Valdez and her alleged accomplice, 14-year-old Lois Lippert, held in pre-trial detention. Both are students at Lake Brantley High School in Altamonte Springs and have been charged as adults with attempted premeditated murder. Both have pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors say the two girls plotted to kill a male classmate as part of a "blood ritual" rooted in Valdez's alleged obsession with Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza. The victim, whose identity has not been released, reportedly reminded Valdez of Lanza. According to court filings, Valdez "believed if she killed the victim, she would have a blood bond with Adam Lanza, which would resurrect him from the dead." Prosecutors also noted the girls' fascination extended to Columbine shooters Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris.

The alleged plan, as described in court by Assistant State Attorney Domenick Leo, was specific and premeditated: grab the boy, push him into a bathroom stall, stab him or slice his throat, and drink his blood. Flowers, candy, cigarettes and gloves were among the items the teens allegedly gathered for the ritual. Prosecutors stated Valdez intended to leave flowers at the scene and smoke a cigarette after the killing. Lippert's alleged role went beyond logistics: prosecutors say she sharpened the knife with Valdez in a school bathroom, supplied the gloves, chocolate, flowers and cigarettes, and drew what prosecutors described as "graphic and disturbing" sketches of the victim for Valdez.

The plot was disrupted on January 23, the day the attack was planned to occur, after an anonymous tip was submitted the previous evening through getfortifyfl.com, a platform that routes school safety alerts to officials and law enforcement. The tip, submitted January 22, identified Valdez as a student planning to kill another student the next day. By 7:38 a.m. on January 23, police had contacted a Lake Brantley security guard to remove Valdez from class.

On the squad car video, Valdez told Lippert, "We're probably going to get like a minimum of four years or so." Lippert replied, "I'm not getting four years." Valdez answered, "Yes, you are, you helped." Valdez also told Lippert she had planned to do her makeup that morning for her mugshot. Lippert called the arrest a "bonding experience." Prosecutors played the footage at the March 12 hearing to argue the girls remained a danger to the community.

During the hearing, Lippert's father, Ross Lippert, took the stand in an attempt to persuade the judge that home supervision was a viable alternative to detention, testifying that his work computer "is already locked down" and that he "can't even access Gmail or Facebook from there." The judge was not persuaded. "I certainly understand that parents want their children home," Leo told the court, "but this is not the case."

The state attorney's office said the decision to charge both teenagers as adults was made "to give the justice system more options to incarcerate and control the defendants long-term than are available in the juvenile justice system." Text messages between Valdez and Lippert, described by prosecutors as indicating an obsession with the intended victim, are among the evidence gathered in the case. Both teens' parents declined to comment following the hearing.