A pair of Utah residents accused of a bank robbery in Casper waived their preliminary hearings in federal court in Cheyenne on Tuesday. Thirty-eight-year-old James Thain and 34-old Mindy Lawrence appeared before U.S. Magistrate Kelly Rankin in separate hearings. Rankin ordered Thain held without bond, noting, among other things, that he had a previous conviction for bank robbery in Utah in 2003, that he hasn't been employed since September of 2013 and that he has no established residence or known family ties.

Lawrence received a continuance on her detention hearing because her attorney, Gay Woodhouse of Cheyenne, hadn't been able to meet with her yet. The two are accused of robbing a Bank of the West branch in Casper on January 29th. Prosecutors say a witness to the robbery followed the pair after the robbery and alerted police about their location.

A Casper police spokesman says the couple was arrested after crashing a rental car in an alley near the intersection of 12th and McKinley streets. The pair has been tentatively linked to connected to robberies in Rock Springs and Laramie but have not been charged.

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