Stabbed 130 times in NoDa: Mary Collins’ case sits with jury after 6 years

The gruesome case of a 20-year-old who was stabbed 130 times and stuffed into a mattress inside a NoDa apartment will be handed over to a jury Friday afternoon.

Even the defense has described the 2020 death of Mary Collins as “one of the worst murders in Charlotte’s history.” After a three-week-long trial, Mecklenburg prosecutors and defense attorneys presented their closing arguments to the nine-woman, six-man jury Friday morning.

A nearly four-hour procession of slideshows and arguments recapped conflicting testimony and replayed the ample amount of phone video that captured a friend group’s unrelenting drug use before and after Collins’ death.

Prosecutors say Lavi Pham and James Salerno, middle-school friends who are now co-defendants, should be convicted of first-degree murder, felony murder by rape and premeditated murder, as well as first-degree kidnapping and concealing a death. Four people were arrested in Collins’ death, but only Pham and Salerno are currently on trial. They helped kill Collins, lied to police and her family and hid the body in Pham’s mattress, prosecutors with Mecklenburg District Attorney’s Office say.

The family helplessly searched for the 20-year-old, who struggled with developmental delays and whose speech was at times difficult to understand.

Defense attorneys for Pham and Salerno contend that both are not guilty of murder — only of helping to conceal Collins’ stabbed and swollen body after Pham’s girlfriend killed her.

The case is full of finger-pointing and conflicting testimony. Collins’ family has repeatedly expressed concerns about how long it took the case to go to trial and how some of the defendants have been released on bond. Now, the jury will decide what really happened and who is guilty.

According to prosecutors, Collins went to Pham’s unit inside Yards at Noda apartments on March 28, 2020 — a Saturday. She didn’t tell her grandmother where she was going. She just said she was going to a friend’s house. Collins got into an Uber at 2:30 p.m. Her family never saw her again.

She spent the next two days with Pham, who was her ex-boyfriend, and his other friends. Inside the two-bedroom apartment was Pham’s new girlfriend, Kelly Lavery, his best friend, Salerno, and Salerno’s date, America Diehl.

They drank and did drugs: cocaine and Xanax from the dark web, prosecutors said. Pham and Salerno took videos throughout the days-long bender. Some of those videos, played on the fifth floor of the Mecklenburg County Courthouse, showed Lavery juggling knives. Prosecutors said she and Pham had an “obsession” with knives.

Text messages shown in court also suggest Pham may have invited Collins over as part of a threesome plan he’d devised with Lavery. Pham’s defense attorney, Miranda Mills, has repeatedly denied that, but messages show Pham and Lavery texted about slipping molly and Xanax into Collins’ drinks and lines of cocaine as part of a “plan.”

Pham and Salerno, represented by Christopher McCartan, say that Lavery killed Collins by hitting her over the head with a Fireball liquor bottle and stabbing her more than 130 times. According to testimony, Pham and Salerno moved Collins into the bathroom after Lavery hit her, but Lavery followed and stabbed her over and over, leaving blood on the tiles, walls and shower curtain — which had images of knives on it.

Lavery pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, kidnapping and concealment of a body in 2022 and is serving up to 32 years in prison.

Prosecutors, relying on testimony from Diehl, say that Pham and Salerno raped and stabbed Collins, too. Prosecutors did not show evidence of a sexual assault test but repeatedly reminded the jury that Diehl testified under oath that Pham and Lavery told her they had raped Collins.

Diehl is charged only with accessory to murder after the fact and concealing a death.

Salerno did not take the stand or present evidence beyond his attorney’s opening and closing arguments. Pham took the stand during trial and apologized to Collins’ family. He says he was too intoxicated to understand what was happening. If the jury agrees, he could have an involuntary intoxication defense.

Collins’ family had posted missing person signs around the neighborhood after Pham told them that Collins had left the apartment with other friends and said he didn’t know where she was. One of Salerno’s friends called in a tip to police, telling them to go check the apartment again. Police body-worn camera footage played in court showed officers finding Collins’ body, bagged and duct-tapped, inside Pham’s mattress, which was covered with sheets and blankets.

The group had emptied the mattress of its springs and fluff and filled it with Collins and trash — including a used condom. They also cleaned the bathroom with bleach and gloves. Diehl said the others threatened to rape and kill her if she didn’t help.

All sides closed their arguments Friday afternoon. After giving instructions to the jury, Judge Karen Eady-Williams handed the case over to jurors just after 3 p.m. They spent about an hour and a half deliberating before the judge dismissed them for the weekend at 4:55 p.m.

This story was originally published October 9, 2026 at 3:12 PM with the headline “Stabbed 130 times in NoDa: Mary Collins’ case sits with jury after 6 years.”