A Charlotte jury found Lavi Pham and James Salerno guilty, and the court sentenced both to life without parole.

Life without parole after a first-degree murder verdict is the judgment on that count. WBTV reported Judge Karen Eady-Williams imposed it Monday and that both defense teams said they will appeal and get new lawyers. The stab-wound number is not the same in WBTV, the Observer, and WSOC. Kelly Lavery's 2022 plea is a separate case.

WBTV reported that on Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, a jury found Lavi Pham and James Salerno guilty of murdering 20-year-old Mary Collins in April 2020, and guilty of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, and concealing a death. The station reported both were then sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. The Charlotte Observer reported the same three guilty verdicts, spelled him James "Jimmy" Salerno, used the wording concealment of death, and reported the jury had deliberated for a day, with fourteen sheriff's deputies lining the courtroom before the decision was read. A life term after those verdicts is the judgment on the counts the jury decided.

Where the accounts split is the scene and the number of wounds. WBTV reported Collins' family reported her missing in late March 2020, that she was found dead on April 4, 2020, inside an apartment on Rollerton Road, and that she was stabbed 130 times and bludgeoned before her body was wrapped in plastic and stuffed in a mattress. The station reported family members told police she lived with a cognitive disability and had been going to the NoDa area to meet friends. The Observer reported she was stabbed 133 times in Pham's apartment, wrapped in duct tape, and placed in a mattress whose springs and fluff were gone and replaced with trash, sitting on a bed frame under blankets, and that she had been dead for four days. The Observer described speech and developmental delays. WSOC, in a story published Monday morning while the jury was still out, reported prosecutors told jurors she was stabbed more than 130 times. One hundred thirty, more than 130, and 133 are all in Monday's coverage.

The defense theory did not stop the murder verdicts. WBTV reported both men have maintained they did not murder Collins, and that their attorneys argued Kelly Lavery, Pham's girlfriend, was the one who killed her while Pham and Salerno concealed the death. The Observer reported both deny they helped kill Collins but have admitted helping hide the body and not reporting her death. The jury found them guilty of first-degree murder. WBTV reported that in June 2022 Lavery pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, concealment of a body, and first-degree kidnapping, and was sentenced to 25 to 32 years. The Observer reported she is serving up to 32 years. The next defendant is not described the same way. WBTV reported America Diehl was charged with concealing a death and has not yet gone to trial. The Observer reported Salerno's date that weekend is also charged with accessory to murder and that Diehl's case is ongoing. Concealing a death and accessory to murder are not the same count name.

WBTV reported that after the sentences Judge Karen Eady-Williams told the court, "In all my years on the bench, this is probably one of the worst, most heinous, most evil, most cruel matters that I have ever encountered." The station reported Collins' grandmother, Mia Alderman, spoke after the verdict and said the family had not been destroyed. It reported Pham told the court, "No one deserves to go through what she went through. There are no words I can say to fix what can't be fixed." WBTV reported the attorneys said they plan to appeal and that both men will be assigned new counsel. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.