HAZARD – The trial for a woman who allegedly stabbed two people and attempted to stab another while trying to rob a Perry County business was delayed until September.
Lilli Nichole Hurt, 20, of Bonnyman, has been lodged in the Kentucky River Regional Jail in Hazard since Sept. 27, 2012, after police said she entered the BP station on Grapevine and attempted to take money from the store’s cash register. During the course of the robbery, police alleged, Hurt stabbed two people, one an employee of the business, before fleeing the property.
Police later located Hurt and placed her under arrest, but not before she was alleged to have assaulted a police officer. She is facing three counts of attempted murder along with charges of first-degree robbery and third-degree assault.
Hurt appeared in Perry Circuit Court on Thursday, at which time her attorney, Brent Flowers, argued for a continuance in the case as the public defender’s office has undergone issues in obtaining an expert to evaluate Hurt’s mental health at the time of the incident. A psychologist is scheduled to evaluate her between March 22-24, Flowers said, but it would take three weeks before his report will completed, and the defense would not be prepared by the original April 22 trial date.
“We anticipate a mental health defense in this case,” Flowers said, requesting that the trial be delayed until at least August.
“We obviously won’t be ready by April,” he added.
Commonwealth’s Attorney John Hansen offered no objections to the delay, while Judge William Engle set a new trial date for Sept. 9.
Hurt, meanwhile, remains lodged in the Hazard jail on a $500,000 bond. She is scheduled for a pretrial conference on July 31.
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