Lawyer Wants Wrongful Death Suit Dismissed Against Sapikowski

Hillsborough, N.C. — An attorney for a Chapel Hill man accused of shooting and killing his parents more than two years ago has asked that a wrongful death lawsuit be dismissed.

Claiming Adam Sapikowski was insane, the defense attorney provided psychiatric reports in which Sapikowski claimed his parents abused him for several years and that his father hit him with a baseball bat on several occasions.

The executor of James and Alison Sapikowski's estate and trustees of several family trusts filed the wrongful death suit in April.

Adam Sapikowski was 16 years old in May 2005 when police found his parents' bodies wrapped in blankets behind a barricaded door in their Chapel Hill home. Investigators believe they had been there for weeks.

"The families reject and strongly disagree with the characterizations of Jim and Alison Sapikowski by the man who is accused of murdering them," the Sapikowski family said in a written statement Friday afternoon, adding that they are "confident the truth will be properly revealed."

Last year, defense attorneys filed court notices indicating several different trial defenses they may adopt, including insanity, diminished capacity and self-defense.

Sapikowski has undergone several psychological evaluations and at one point was under a suicide watch at Raleigh's Central Prison after he told  Orange County Jail officials he was afraid he would end up doing something "crazy" to himself.

The case could go to trial early next year.