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i approached him. and i said, i know whose car y all are asking about. and he says, i just wanna make you aware that i have a former employee that did drive a infiniti g35. reporter: her name, he said, was carter. carter cervantez, that businesslike assistant manager who worked with ashlea so then i ask him, you know, what color is the g35 that she drove? and he mentions that it s a black one. reporter: what was that like, to hear that? well, it beats hearing the color red or white. reporter: and, by the way, chris told detective cedillo, carter left american eagle because she was fired. cedillo filed that away and sorted through the crime scene and talked to witnesses. and a day that began at 8:30 that morning didn t end until 1:00 am. did you get any sleep? no, sir, i didn t. reporter: the story about carter cervantez and her black infiniti was just bugging him. well, i m thinkin about the ....
The verdicts were some consolation for those who loved ashlea harris. i still miss her. she saw the best in everybody. even when you couldn t see it, she could see it. she had such a big heart. and this world is worse off, at least, mine is. reporter: both david mallory and carter cervantez received mandatory sentences of life in prison with no possibility of parole. it wasn t enough for ashlea s mom and stepdad. reporter: you wanted to see the death penalty? death penalty was what i wanted, is what monica wanted. and but it wasn t to be. reporter: now they cling to memories of their ashlea. reporter: tell me about the last time you saw your daughter, physically, in person. ....
Are black people, black men? no, sir, i did not say that. reporter: but, said the prosecutor, that s exactly what she was suggesting. if she was gonna try and play that card, i was gonna make her spell it out. is ebonics a term that is commonly associated with african-americans in this country? i don t know where ebonics is commonly associated with. i associate it with a certain type of speech that i would associate with the word ghetto. reporter: but if she was hoping to play to some random juror s racial bias, she guessed wrong. the jury didn t believe it. not for a second. they found her guilty in less than two hours. as for david mallory, his attorneys argued he had nothing to do with the murder. he was involved with carter, yes, but not with any killing. the jury didn t buy that either rendering a guilty verdict in no time at all. ....
Cedillo knew something else about carter and david mallory. something very important. reporter: remember that burglary at american eagle three months earlier? carter and david mallory were the primary suspects. and ashlea harris was the one who discovered the money missing. and when ashlea came in to open the store, she found the safe open. reporter: ashlea knew that it was carter who closed the night before. and when she showed her boss the security video view of the burglary. she pointed at the monitor and she said, that s david mallory. and i said, who s david mallory? and they said, it s carter s boyfriend. reporter: the math was easy, ashlea figured carter set up the burglary and david carried it out. carter got fired. david sort of disappeared. and both heard that it was ashlea who identified them. they hadn t been charged. not yet but the case was basically actively being investigated when this happened. ....
Then she walked all the way home. over the next few days, police got a warrant for carter and david s cell phones. that camera app, so useful. well, we learned that they had conducted surveillance at ashlea s apartment weeks before that. they had a picture of her apartment. her actual door to her apartment, and they had pictures of her vehicle, the white dodge ram pickup. reporter: in early december, 2014, carter cervantez and david mallory were arrested and charged with the murder of ashlea harris. cold comfort for ashlea s sister. it s just such a loss and it s so pointless. i just don t understand how people could do that. reporter: they were tried separately, but the cases against them were virtually identical. assistant d.a. kevin rousseau led the prosecution. ....