A St. Albans man charged with murdering his uncle in April has been ordered to undergo a mental competence evaluation and could be sent to Riverview Psychiatric Center for a 30-day observation, according to court records.
Jeremy Erving, 25, has been held without bail at the Somerset County Jail since his arrest April 8 and his attorney, Phil Mohlar, said Thursday that he has no plans to request a change in bail conditions. Erving waived his right to fight the state’s bail decision when he pleaded not guilty in May.
“Right now the court has ordered some evaluations, and whether they will end up taking him to Riverview for a period of time for observation, we don’t know yet,” Mohlar said. He said it is standard for mental health evaluations to be ordered in major cases in which competence issues could arise.
The request was filed by the state, but Mohlar said he did not object to it.
Assistant Attorney General Bud Ellis, who is prosecuting the case, said Thursday that so far the state does not have any specific concerns about Erving’s mental health.
Court records indicated Erving could be sent to Riverview, the state mental health hospital, in Augusta, based upon the findings of the evaluation, but both Mohlar and Ellis said Thursday they were not sure whether that would happen.
“We’re waiting for the evaluation to get completed. The state is still in the process of examining evidence. There’s laboratory testing being done. We’re still in the evidence gathering and sharing phase of things,” Mohlar said.
Erving was pulled over by police for operating under the influence in the Penobscot County town of Dexter on the night of April 7, according to an affidavit by Detective Hugh Landry, of the Maine State Police. His girlfriend and her father came to bail him out of jail, and he told them he had shot his uncle, Randy Erving, in the head after the two had spent the afternoon drinking together, the affidavit said.
Erving’s girlfriend and her father took him to the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office, where police questioned him about the shooting.
“I asked, ‘So you remember you shot him?'” Landry wrote. “And Jeremy stated, ‘Well, …’ and stated he was the only one there; it was pretty obvious.”
Rachel Ohm — 612-2368
Twitter: @rachel_ohm
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