Woman sentenced in brutal killing of 20-year-old: Friday, July 1

On Thursday, a judge sentenced a woman in connection the killing of a 20-year-old woman in Charlotte's NoDa neighborhood. Kelly Lavery, one of four people arrested in connection to the murder, was sentenced to 25-32 years in prison for the death of Mary Collins.

Prosecutors say Collins was lured to an apartment and then brutally killed during the first COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020. Collins' friends and family described her as sweet, kind and innocent.

On March 28, 2020, authorities said Kelly Lavery and Lavi Pham sent Collins an Uber because she didn't drive and lured her to their apartment

Detectives said Lavery and Pham were in a relationship, and Collins knew the pair because she had previously briefly dated Pham. She thought she was heading to hang out with friends. Police believe Lavery, Pham and their friend Jimmy Salerno attacked Collins when she arrived.

READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/crime/mary-collins-homicide-suspects-court-appearance/275-0dc80821-12c5-4d99-bfa1-c8315ed52dbf

It's a budding business. A law that makes the sale of hemp products legal in North Carolina was about to expire, but North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper signed legislation on Thursday that keeps the state's burgeoning hemp industry operating lawfully.

The General Assembly had given final approval Wednesday to language that would make hemp products for industrial use and others with personal care uses like CBD permanently exempt from the state's list of illegal drugs.

Such language was required by the end of June so that North Carolina growers could keep participating in a production program run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The state had run its own pilot production program for several years until recently.

There are more than 1,500 licensed hemp producers in the state.

“Agriculture is North Carolina’s largest industry and giving North Carolina farmers certainty that they can continue to participate in this growing market is the right thing to do for rural communities and our economy,” Cooper said in a news release announcing he had signed three bills.

READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/politics/north-carolina-politics/hemp-could-become-illegal-north-carolina/275-fe1d8211-dc0c-42b8-9176-74f849a408cd

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