| Jeremy M. Perkins, of Amherst, was indicted today by an Erie County grand jury, charged with murdering his mother three months ago. Perkins, 28, was arrested March 13, several hours after his mother, Ellie Perkins, 54, was killed in the family's home in the 1400 block of Hopkins Road. At his arraignment, he was ordered to remain jailed without bail at his arraignment. John R. Nuchereno, Perkins' attorney, entered a not guilty plea on his behalf before Erie County Judge Michael F. Pietruszka. Homicide prosecutor Kenneth Forrest Case told the judge Perkins was indicted on two counts of second-degree murder and weapons charges for allegedly stabbing his mother 77 times. After the brief court session, Nuchereno said the fatal stabbing "was the working of a 28-year-old mind which is very, very ill." Perkins, who was recently found mentally fit for court proceedings by two court-assigned psychiatric experts, has a history of paranoid schizophrenia that his family was reportedly treating with vitamins and some medical therapy. |