The trial of Kabary Salem, a former Olympic boxer accused of a October 2019 strangulation murder of his 25-year-old daughter, began Monday morning in the courtroom of Lebanon County Judge Bradford Charles.
Salem is facing a general criminal homicide charge and could be convicted of first- or third-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter. The commonwealth is not seeking the death penalty.
Palmyra to Staten Island
Prosecutors allege that Salem, then a Staten Island, New York, resident, killed his 25-year-old daughter, Ola Salem, in Palmyra, then drove to Staten Island and left her body in a park, where it was discovered a few days later.
Salem and his daughter were allegedly in Palmyra to open a restaurant.
A 2020 report in pix11.com said that Staten Island police believed Salem was unhappy with his daughter’s boyfriend. “We believe the father found out she was still dating the boyfriend and not complying with the Muslim religion,” an unidentified law enforcement officer told pix11.com.
After the killing, Salem went to Egypt and Kuwait. He was apprehended upon his return to New York by the U.S. Marshals and the NY/NJ Regional Fugitive Task Force, according to silive.com.
Salem was originally charged in New York with his daughter’s murder, according to a 2020 report in the New York Post. In June 2024, days before trial in New York was to start, Staten Island prosecutors transferred the case to Lebanon County when they learned that their medical examiner had concluded that the crime happened in Pennsylvania, the Staten Island Advance reported.
The New York Post also reported in 2020 that Salem is a former professional boxer and member of the 1996 Egyptian Olympic boxing team.
Day one ends with opening statements
Jury selection began on Monday morning and ran smoothly, with the judge and attorneys questioning a pool of 80 potential jurors if they had any knowledge of the case, knew any potential witnesses, or had any reason that they couldn’t serve fairly and impartially.
Defense attorney Jay Nigrini asked individual jury candidates whether Salem’s Muslim faith or use of an Arabic interpreter at some points in the trial might affect their verdict. None said either would have any bearing on their decision.
Opening statements of the attorneys began at 3 p.m after seven women and five men were selected as jurors.
Speaking for the commonwealth, Deputy Attorney General Lauren Eichelberger told jurors the evidence would prove that Salem strangled his daughter to death in Palmyra, put her body in his trunk, drove to Staten Island, then “dumped her in the woods, threw some sticks on her, and just walked away.”
In addition to other evidence, Eichelberger told jurors they would see surveillance video and GPS evidence from Salem’s car that would track his movements after his daughter’s death, plus hear testimony that one out of several tissue samples removed from under Ola Salem’s fingernails matched DNA obtained from the defendant.
Asking the jury to return a first-degree murder verdict, Eichelberger told jurors that Ola Salem “spent her last moments fighting for her life, struggling to breathe, knowing that her father was killing her.”
Eichelberger did not suggest a possible motive for Kabary Salem to kill his daughter.
Defense attorney Jay Nigrini painted a very different picture of what happened. Ola Salem had a history in New York of drug addiction and mental health problems, Nigrini said. Her father brought her to Palmyra not just to help him open a restaurant, but to “get her away from New York and give her a clean start.”
On the day Kabary Salem last saw his daughter, Nigrini said, the two of them got into an argument at work, which initially cooled down, but flared up again while the two were driving. Nigrini told the jury they would learn that Kabary finally told his daughter to “stop driving and get out,” which she did. The last time Kabary Salem ever saw of his daughter was her flagging down another vehicle and getting in it.
Kabary Salem assumed, Nigrini said, that his daughter had returned to New York and her old friends. After not hearing from her for days, he went to New York and cooperated with authorities who by that time had found Ola’s body.
As to the Kabary Salem’s DNA being found under his daughter’s fingernails, Nigrini told the jury that no one could say how long it had been there.
Nigrini ended by suggesting to the jurors that “someone else, in some other location,” killed Ona Salem.
Deputy Attorney General Brian Zarallo is also trying the case for the commonwealth. Nigrini is being assisted at trial by Lebanon County chief public defender Megan Tidwell.
Trial, which is expected to last all week, was scheduled to resume Tuesday morning with the commonwealth calling its first witnesses.
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