Hearing delayed in inmate's forgery case - News - GoErie.com

The Erie man is accused of forging a court document to vacate his prison sentence in a 2013 attack.

An Erie man accused of forging a court order in an effort to have vacated a lengthy prison sentence he is serving for a 2013 attack on an elderly Erie couple is expected to make his next court appearance by video.

Adam J. Brown, 27, appeared in Erie 3rd Ward District Judge Tom Carney's court Thursday morning for his preliminary hearing on charges including felony counts of forgery and tampering with records. But the hearing was continued after Brown requested a lawyer, and it is expected to be done by video conference from the state prison where Brown is incarcerated once a new hearing date is scheduled, Carney said.

Brown's permanent state prison location is the State Correctional Institution at Frackville in Schuylkill County, according to Pennsylvania Department of Corrections records.

Brown was charged by Erie County Detectives in October with altering an Erie County court order vacating his 60-to-120-year state prison sentence in the Erie attack, and of falsely implicating a county employee in the fraudulent court order that originated in Erie County. According to information in Brown's criminal complaint, the forged document was found by state prison officials when they searched his cell at the State Correctional Institution at Retreat as Brown was being moved to another state prison in April.

Investigators wrote in Brown's complaint that he was being moved for security reasons after Brown reportedly told a prison official that he was going to make an allegation so he could be taken to an outside hospital, and it was discovered that the incident might be an escape attempt.

As the incident was being investigated, Brown wrote letters to the Erie County District Attorney's Office stating that there was a county employee who assisted him in obtaining the fraudulent court order for $20,000, according to the criminal complaint.

The prison sentence that Brown is serving was handed down after he was convicted at trial in May 2014 of attempted homicide, robbery and other charges in the robbery and assault of an elderly Erie couple at their East 28th Street home in July 2013. Brown slashed the throats of victims Elfreda Karmazin, then 81, and her husband, Frank Karmazin, then 72, who died of natural causes a month after the attack, according to police.

Tim Hahn can be reached at 870-1731 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ETNhahn.

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