Charlotte jury returns guilty verdicts in NoDa stabbing death of Mary Collins
A Charlotte jury has found two men guilty in the NoDa stabbing murder of Mary Collins.
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Lavi Pham and James “Jimmy” Salerno were found guilty Monday of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and concealment of death after deliberating for a day. Fourteen sheriff’s office deputies lined the courtroom before the jury’s decision was read aloud.
Collins, a 20-year-old who struggled with speech and developmental delays, was found stabbed 133 times in Pham’s apartment in 2020. Police found her wrapped in duct tape and stuffed into a mattress. The springs and fluff were missing and replaced with trash. Police found it sitting atop a bed frame with blankets over it, body-camera video played in court showed. Collins had been dead for four days.
Pham was Collins’ ex-boyfriend, and Salerno was Pham’s friend since middle school.
Collins went missing after she came to Pham’s home at the Yards at NoDa. She didn’t tell her grandmother, who she lived with, where she was going when she got into an Uber at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 28, 2020. That was the last time her family saw her.
Her mother and grandmother later went looking for Collins at Pham’s apartment. She was inside, dead, but he and his friends told them they didn’t know where she was.
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That weekend, Collins was with Pham, his new girlfriend, Kelly Lavery, and Salerno. Salerno at one point brought over a date, America Diehl. The group drank alcohol and used a series of drugs — including cocaine and Xanax from the dark web, prosecutors say. They took videos of themselves under the influence inside the unit, which was nestled behind a popular stretch of stores and restaurants in Charlotte’s arts district and on North Davidson Road.
Prosecutors argue that Pham and Lavery, had lured Collins there under a plan to get her to agree to a threesome. While text messages support that claim, Pham has denied it.
Diehl said Lavery hit Collins over the head with a Fireball liquor bottle and then stabbed her in the bathroom. She also said that Pham and Salerno told her they had also raped and stabbed Collins, and that they would do the same to Diehl if she didn’t help them hide the body and clean up the blood.
Both men deny they helped kill Collins but have admitted to helping hide the body and not reporting her death.
Lavery pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, kidnapping and concealment of a body in 2022 and is serving up to 32 years in prison. Salerno’s date that weekend is also charged with accessory to murder. Diehl’s case is ongoing.
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This is a developing story.
