Ashlea Harris case - A detailed case overview about the suspicious murder of Harris ahead of Dateline

The brutal murder of Ashlea Harris, an assistant manager at American Eagle Outfitters, is explored on the Dateline episode, Black Friday. The episode, which originally aired on November 10, 2017, follows her case, detailing how Harris's body was discovered by the Fort Worth Fire Department, who responded to a blaze at the River Ranch Apartments, where she lived.

Harris was found bound and brutally beaten, and her apartment was set on fire deliberately to cover her murder. As investigators dug deeper into her murder, they uncovered a web of betrayal and revenge involving two former coworkers. The episode is re-airing tomorrow on Oxygen.

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Who was Ashlea Harris? What happened to her?

On November 28, 2014, there was a fire at Ashlea Harris's apartment at the River Ranch complex. By the time firefighters responded, she was already dead. Harris was found lying on the bedroom floor with her hands and feet bound in duct tape.

According to reports, she had suffered blunt force trauma, and there were also signs of strangulation. Investigators concluded that her apartment was deliberately set on fire using rubbing alcohol as an accelerant to cover traces of the crime.

According to the Amarillo Globe-News, Harris’ apartment showed no signs of forced entry, and her truck remained parked outside. The only missing items were her work keys to the American Eagle store at Fort Worth’s Hulen Mall.

When the police began an investigation, they discovered that Harris had worked long shifts leading up to Thanksgiving and had returned home around 3:30 a.m. the morning of her death. A downstairs neighbor even reported hearing a loud thump, screams, and heavy breathing shortly after 7:30 AM, before calling 911. He also noticed a black Infiniti G35 leaving the parking lot at that time.

The description of the vehicle matched the one driven by Carter Carol Cervantez, a former American Eagle manager, as reported by Harris's manager. Cervantez had worked alongside Harris before being fired months earlier to the incident after being implicated in an $18,000 store burglary in which she allegedly left a back door unlocked.

Her boyfriend, Clarence David Mallory Jr., who was also a onetime employee, had been similarly terminated and barred from working at the chain. It was Harris who had reportedly identified the couple as suspects in the earlier theft.

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Prime suspects identified in the case

According to detectives, Cervantez and Mallory were resentful towards Harris, and she became a target. When investigators searched the couple's apartment, they discovered receipts for duct tape, gloves, shovels, and other items in their apartment.

According to prosecutors, Cervantez and Mallory had been planning a Black Friday heist and needed Harris’ keys to access the store’s deposits. Surveillance footage from Hulen Mall allegedly showed Cervantez attempting to enter the American Eagle store with Harris’ stolen keys the morning after the murder, but apparently the locks had been changed.

Cervantez and Mallory were convicted of Ashlea Harris's murder (Image via Getty)

It also showed Mallory waiting in the Infiniti as Cervantez tried to gain entry. Further investigations also led to the discovery of knives, a loaded gun with Harris’ DNA, and blood traces inside Cervantez’s car. Detectives found text messages that revealed that the pair had been plotting Harris’ death and discussing burial plans before ultimately setting the apartment on fire.

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Arrest, trial, and sentencing in Ashlea Harris's case

Both Cervantez and Mallory were arrested in early December 2014 and charged with capital murder. Prosecutors claimed Cervantez acted as the mastermind in the murder case while Mallory served as the enforcer. When the duo went on trial, Harris’ autopsy was cited as evidence of what prosecutors described as a rage-filled killing.

In May 2016, a Tarrant County jury found Cervantez guilty of capital murder. She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Mallory faced trial the following year, with jurors delivering the same verdict. He received his sentence in August 2017.

For Ashlea Harris’ family, the trial and the verdict brought justice but not closure. According to her stepfather, Charles Cassidy, the family had wished prosecutors had sought the death penalty, but accepted the life sentences as the state’s decision.

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Catch more about Ashlea Harris's murder on Dateline tomorrow.