Erb

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Blair County judge has authorized a psychiatric evaluation of an Altoona woman charged in 2021 with attempted homicide after she was accused of stabbing a 70-year-old woman in the neck.

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 deeming Erb incompetent to stand trial and unlikely to be restored to competency.

First Assistant Public Defender Julia Burke, who filed a motion in September to have Erb’s charges dismissed, offered no opposition to the district attorney’s request to have Erb evaluated by Dr. John O’Brien II, a Philadelphia psychiatrist.

Burke said Erb remains hospitalized at Torrance State Hospital in Westmoreland County under a civil commitment. She has been in that facility since May 2022 when transferred there from the Blair County Prison. At Torrance, Erb has been under treatment for conditions with psychotic and delusional symptoms, according to court documents.

“The passage of a significant amount of time, her lack of improvement and the professional medical opinion of (Torrance psychiatrist) Dr. Matthew Lang, make it unlikely that she will be restored to competence,” Burke reported in the motion asking for the charges to be dismissed.

First Assistant District Attorney Nichole Smith secured Sullivan’s permission to move forward with having O’Brien evaluate Erb for competency.

Pennsylvania law allows a court to put a hold on proceedings for a legally incompetent person for the shorter period of either 10 years or the statutory maximum of the charged offense.

“In this case, (Erb) is charged with a lead count of attempted homicide with a statutory maximum of 40 years,” Smith wrote in her request to secure O’Brien’s services. “Consequently, this court may stay proceedings against the defendant for up to 10 years to restore her legal competency.”

Smith proposed that O’Brien’s examination will include his opinion regarding Erb’s legal incompetency and if there is reasonable probability for Erb to regain competency within the next seven years, reflecting her 2021 arrest.

Burke, in her petition seeking the dismissal of charges, outlined Torrance’s repeated requests and subsequent approvals for Erb’s time and treatment within the facility to be extended. The defense attorney also referenced the facility’s use of maximum resources for Erb’s treatment and seeing no improvement.

Altoona police arrested Erb, then 44 years old, on Sept. 5, 2021, after responding to a call at IDA Tower, 1010 12th St., at 4:47 a.m. for what was reported to be a stabbing.

Officers said that upon arriving, the victim was on the balcony with her hand on her neck, covered in blood, yelling to them: “She’s in the living room.”

Upon shattering a glass door to get into the building, police went to a second floor apartment where Erb was waiting.

Officers reported that the victim was bleeding severely from a laceration to the neck and a stab wound to the upper chest. Police reported rendering treatment until ambulance crews arrived and took the woman to UPMC Altoona.

Criminal charges indicate that Erb, at the scene and when meeting with detectives at police headquarters, admitted to the stabbing which she said developed from an argument where the victim told her to be quiet. Before the argument, Erb told police she had been on the balcony yelling at someone who wasn’t there.

Officers found a 15-inch kitchen knife that was believed to be used in the stabbing.

In addition to attempted homicide, police charged Erb with a felony count of aggravated assault/attempts to cause or causes serious bodily injury with extreme indifference and aggravated assault/attempts to cause or causes serious bodily injury with a deadly weapon and a misdemeanor count of recklessly endangering another person.

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