Judge To Hear Update On Accused Teen Killer's Mental State

HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. — A progress report is due Monday on the mental health status of a Chapel Hill teenager accused of killing his parents.

Superior Court Judge Wade Barber wants to know how Adam Sapikowski, 17, is doing and how he is coping at Raleigh's Central Prison, where he was transferred nearly two weeks ago.

Sapikowski's attorney, Johnny Gaskins, said his client was not doing well and could file a motion to have him moved back to a mental facility.

In May, Sapikowski was arrested and put in the Orange County Jail. In mid-September, he told jail officials that he was afraid he would end up doing something "crazy" to himself. Since the jail does not have resources to deal with mental illness, the teen was transferred to Umstead Hospital in Butner.

On Nov. 16, a hospital psychiatrist testified that Sapikowski suffered from depression and posttraumatic stress disorder and had flashbacks of killing his parents, James and Allison Sapikowski. But he said the teen had gotten better and could be released from the hospital.

The state Department of Correction and the state Division of Health and Human Services then decided that Sapikowski would be held at Raleigh's Central Prison until his trial, which may not be until late next summer.

James and Allison Sapikowski's bodies were found in their Chapel Hill home in May. Chapel Hill police believe the bodies may have been in the house for two weeks before they were discovered.

During a court hearing in June, Sapikowski's former court-appointed attorney, James Williams, suggested that the teenager might have been a victim of abuse. Two Raleigh lawyers, Gaskins and Rosemary Godwin, have since taken over Sapikowski's defense.