erb

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Blair County judge allowed a psychiatric evaluation of an Altoona woman accused of stabbing a 70-year-old woman in the neck in 2021.

Senior Judge Timothy M. Sullivan on Friday authorized the evaluation of Shannon B. Erb, 47, requested by the district attorney’s office in response to a psychiatric evaluation that found Erb incompetent to stand trial and unlikely to regain competency.

First Deputy Public Defender Julia Burke, who filed a motion to dismiss Erb’s charges in September, said the district attorney’s office had Erb’s appointment with Dr. Erb, a Philadelphia psychiatrist. He expressed no objection to his request to be considered by John O’Brien II.

Erb remains hospitalized at Torrance State Hospital in Westmoreland County under a civil commitment, Burke said. He has been at this facility since May 2022, when he was transferred from the Blair County Jail. According to court documents, Erb is being treated in Torrance for conditions involving psychotic and delusional symptoms.

“The passage of a significant amount of time, lack of recovery, and the professional medical opinion of (Torrance psychiatrist) Dr. Matthew Lang preclude the possibility of his being reinstated,” Burke said in the motion seeking charges. be dismissed.

First Assistant District Attorney Nichole Smith obtained Sullivan’s permission to have O’Brien evaluate Erb for competency.

Pennsylvania law allows a court to stay a case against a legally incapacitated person for 10 years or a shorter period of time, such as the legal maximum for the crime charged.

“In this case, (Erb) is charged with attempted murder with a statutory maximum term of 40 years,” Smith wrote in his request to secure O’Brien’s services. “As a result, this court may postpone proceedings against the defendant for up to 10 years in order to restore the defendant’s legal capacity.”

Smith suggested O’Brien’s review would include his view of Erb’s legal incompetence and whether there is a reasonable likelihood that Erb will regain competency within the next seven years, reflecting his 2021 arrest.

In his petition seeking dismissal of the charges, Burke outlined repeated requests from Torrance and subsequent approvals to extend Erb’s time and treatment at the facility. The defense attorney also stated that the facility used maximum resources for Erb’s treatment and that no improvement was seen.

Altoona police arrested Erb, then 44, on Sept. 5, 2021, after responding to a call of a reported stabbing at 4:47 a.m. at the IDA Tower, 1010 12th Street.

Officers said when the victim arrived, he was on the balcony, covered in blood, with his hand around his neck, yelling at them, “He’s in the living room.”

The police broke the glass door to enter the building and went to the second floor apartment where Erb was waiting.

Officers reported the victim was bleeding heavily from a laceration to his neck and a stab wound to his upper chest. The woman was treated until ambulance crews arrived and took her to UPMC Altoona, police said.

The charges show that while Erb met with detectives at the scene and at police headquarters, he confessed to the stabbing, which he said stemmed from an argument in which the victim told him to be quiet. Before the argument, Erb told police he was yelling on the balcony at someone who wasn’t there.

Officers found a 15-inch kitchen knife believed to have been used in the stabbing.

In addition to attempted murder, police charged Erb with aggravated assault/attempt to cause or cause serious bodily injury with extreme indifference and aggravated assault/attempt to cause or cause serious bodily injury with a deadly weapon and a misdemeanor count of reckless recklessness. endangering another person.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens at 814-946-7456.