Texas pair arrested for suspected Black Friday murder

[December 09, 2014]  By Marice Richter
 
 DALLAS (Reuters) - Two former employees of an American Eagle Outfitters store in Fort Worth, Texas, beat, strangled and set on fire an assistant store manager to steal thousands of dollars of Black Friday sales, according to police documents released on Monday.

Carter Cervantez, 25, and her boyfriend Clarence "David" Mallory, 19, have been charged with capital murder in the Nov. 28 death of Ashlea Harris, 31, police said.

Bond was set at $500,000 each and lawyers for the arrested pair were not immediately available for comment.

Harris was last seen by a friend, who had stopped by her apartment after she completed a shift for Black Friday, a major shopping day coming after the Thanksgiving holiday, at about 3 a.m. on Nov. 28, police said in an arrest affidavit.

Harris was found dead in her apartment several hours later when firefighters responded to a fire alarm. Her body was partially burned and she had been beaten. Her hands and feet were bound with duct tape, police said.

A neighbor told police that he had heard a thump and screaming from the apartment, the police affidavit said.

Police said they believe the pair killed the woman and took Harris's keys with plans to steal Black Friday profits of about $50,000 from the store, according to the affidavit.

Both were questioned and denied involvement, the affidavit said.

(Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Ken Wills)

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