A preliminary hearing for a Yellowknife mother who is charged with holding up two convenience stories in the city has been postponed.
Cynthia Lafferty, 21, was in court Tuesday as the hearing was to get underway but at least one prosecution witness did not show up to testify so the hearing was postponed until next Tuesday.
She remains in custody at the North Slave Correctional Complex (NSCC).
Lafferty is also now charged with assaulting a peace officer earlier this year after an incident with a jail guard at the Fort Smith correctional centre for women.
Lafferty was transferred to Yellowknife not long after that incident.
That new charge will not be part of the preliminary hearing.
The young mother of at least two small children was arrested in Yellowknife in May and charged with robbing two uptown convenience stores in the city at knifepoint, one in January, the other in April.
Police say Lafferty was arrested after a tip from the public.
An image resembling her was also captured by store security video.
The arrest came amidst a rash of convenience store holdups and attempted robberies as well as a bank robbery in Yellowknife.
An arrest was made in the bank robbery but some of the other holdups remain unsolved, including one last Friday at an uptown gas station and convenience store.
Preliminary hearings are held to determine if there is enough evidence to send a case to trial.
Evidence heard during preliminary hearings is not allowed to be published or broadcast.
