It wasn’t the pot. It was a shotgun that led to felony charges for 2 women

RALEIGH Police who were searching a hotel room for pot Wednesday night found little, but they did charge 18- and 20-year-old women with having a sawed-off shotgun with its serial number scratched off.

Officers told a magistrate who issued a search warrant that they had been on a foot patrol at the Days Inn at 3901 S. Wilmington St. and smelled marijuana in the area where Room 209 is.

The cops did what is known as a “knock-and-talk” investigation at Room 209 and spoke with a woman who came to the door, Officer T.E. Brooks told the magistrate. Brooks wrote that police spotted marijuana and drug paraphernalia on a table inside while talking to the woman.

Taionna Monia Lake, 18, and Keonna Marie McCoy, 20, were arrested on two misdemeanor charges each, one for having a half-ounce or less of pot and one for having a bong for smoking marijuana that was attached to a gas mask a smoker could wear.

What led to the women being held on $25,000 bail each was a shotgun that had been cut off to have a 12½-inch barrel and that had scratches and divots in the metal where a serial number should have been, arrest warrants said.

The barrel length made the shotgun a weapon of mass destruction under state law, and possession of that and possession of a gun that’s had its serial number removed are felonies.

Lake told booking officers at the county detention center that she has no permanent address. McCoy said she lives on Golden Acres Street in Rolesville.

Ron Gallagher: 919-829-4572, @RPGKT

This story was originally published September 14, 2017 at 11:15 AM with the headline "It wasn’t the pot. It was a shotgun that led to felony charges for 2 women."