CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Charlotte jury on Monday sentenced Lavi Pham and James Salerno to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the March 2020 murder of 20-year-old Mary Collins.
Pham and Salerno were each found guilty of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and concealment of death. Judge Karen Eady-Williams imposed life without parole for murder and consecutive prison terms for the kidnapping and concealment counts after a trial prosecuted by the office of Spencer Merriweather III, the Mecklenburg district attorney.
Collins, who lived with a cognitive disability, was lured to a NoDa apartment after she thought she was meeting friends. Prosecutors said Pham, Salerno and Kelly Lavery restrained her, then beat and stabbed her more than 130 times before wrapping her body and hiding it inside a mattress. Detectives with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department later recovered her remains in the apartment.
The homicide team in the district attorney office prosecuted the case in Superior Court. The trial began Sept. 14, 2026, and ended with the Oct. 12 verdicts and life sentences. Pham is 27 and Salerno is 26, according to court records cited in coverage.
Kelly Lavery previously pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and related charges and was sentenced to 25 to 32 years in prison. Attorneys for Pham and Salerno told the court they plan to appeal the convictions and will be assigned new counsel.
Family members told the court Collins deserved better. The judge described the killing as among the most heinous matters she had encountered on the bench as the life sentences were imposed.
Charlotte homicide cases of this kind are investigated by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and prosecuted by Spencer Merriweather III. The sentences leave both men facing the rest of their lives in prison without parole for killing Collins in the NoDa apartment in 2020.
