BREAKING NEWS: Man awaiting trial for double murder in Reston dies in prison

A man accused of killing a Reston couple in 2017 died this morning after being taken from the Fairfax County Jail to a hospital.

According to Fairfax County police, Nicholas Giampa, now 24, was found “unresponsive” in his cell at the Fairfax County Adult Jail at around 1:58 a.m.

“Officers immediately began life-saving measures,” the FCPD said in a press release. “Giampa was transported to the hospital in life-threatening condition and pronounced dead.”

The investigation into Giampa's death is ongoing, but “at this stage no third-party negligence is suspected,” police said.

Giampa, a Lorton resident, allegedly shot himself after killing his then-girlfriend's mother, Buckley Kuhn-Fricker, and her husband, Scott Fricker, in their Reston home in the 2600 block of Black Fire Court on Dec. 22, 2017.

Giampa was admitted to Reston Hospital and kept in an artificial coma until early January 2018.

Giampa, who was 17 at the time of the shootings, and Kuhn-Fricker's 16-year-old daughter had clashed with her mother and stepfather after they pressured her to leave him because he expressed his views on racial discrimination in social media posts, the Washington Post previously reported.

Giampa was charged in 2019 with two counts of first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and is scheduled to be tried as an adult. He had been in custody at the county jail since January 19, 2018.

A Fairfax County District Court judge ruled in July 2022 that his social media posts could not be presented as evidence to a jury. An appeals court also upheld a ruling in December 2022 that statements Giampa made to police while still hospitalized in January 2018 should be “suppressed” because the interviews potentially violated his rights due to his “physical condition, cognitive abilities and the manner in which his rights were presented.”

According to court records, Giampa was scheduled to face a criminal trial before a jury on January 6, 2025.