One of the Lake Brantley High School students accused of plotting to kill a classmate in January to conjure the spirit of the Sandy Hook mass shooter has been hit with 10 charges of possessing child sexual abuse material, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced Wednesday.
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The new charges against Isabelle Valdez, 15, spawned from the investigation into the bizarre scheme that further implicated 15-year-old Lois Lippert, both of whom are charged as adults with attempted first-degree murder among a slew of other crimes.
In a news release, FDLE said its Cybercrime Task Force began investigating after Altamonte Springs detectives reported obscene videos depicting young children on Valdez’s phone. A further search found more videos featuring children as young as 3.
The case has not been formally filed in Seminole County court as of Thursday morning, and prosecutors have not yet determined whether the case will be handled in juvenile court. In addition to attempted murder, Valdez and Lippert are accused of attempted aggravated child abuse, aggravated stalking, armed burglary and possession of a weapon on school property.
Both have pleaded not guilty.
The pair were were arrested Jan. 23 after the plot to stab a classmate to death was reported anonymously to Altamonte Springs police, according to an affidavit. When asked by her assistant principal, Valdez said the killing was meant to be a “blood ritual” to “reunite” her with Adam Lanza, the 2012 Sandy Hook shooter whom she admired and whose voice she said she could hear in her head.
Valdez told investigators she began plotting after she could no longer hear Lanza’s voice while other voices told her she could hear it again if she killed the student. “We’re soulmates just waiting to be reunited once more,” she wrote in a letter to her parents and included in the affidavit.
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As part of the planning, Valdez would stalk the student around campus and take photos of him without his knowledge, according to detectives. Investigators said Lippert supported the plan by helping test the sharpness of the knife Valdez planned to use and taking “measures to assist Valdez with gathering items she would need to carry out her plan to kill” the classmate, including gloves, cigarettes and flowers.
On May 19, the Seminole County judge overseeing the case received a letter from Valdez expressing remorse for her actions and rejecting Lanza and explained she has a history of mental illness and trauma exacerbated by an online community of mass shooter obsessives.
“I felt seen there, but in reality it was deteriorating me,” she wrote. “I got groomed in this community further into believing that violence was good. The people that were my so-called friends only ever wanted me to harm myself or others.”
Valdez and Lippert are currently jailed without bond. On May 6, a judge allowed Lippert to receive a mental health evaluation.
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