SURPRISE, AZ (AZFamily) — On a quest for closure, Brittany Mudd and Nick Bernardi recently sat down for an exclusive interview after their 10-year-old son with autism was the target of a murder plot devised by his classmates at a West Valley school.

The plan was foiled in October 2024. Surprise police arrested four 5th-graders, ages 10 and 11, over the elaborate scheme.

“How do we know we’re not going to run into them? What school system are they in like, we don’t have any of that information,” said the victim’s step-father, Nick Bernardi. “So, we’re kind of just flying blind now, protecting our child like we always have, you know, and just making sure that he’s happy, healthy, safe. But we really want to know what was the end result.”

The students involved participated in a juvenile

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