A 30-year-old man is facing a slew of charges in connection with a brutal attack on a young woman in Bella Vista in which police say he slashed her face with a knife and stole her purse.
Cory Harley, according to South Detective Division Capt. Laurence Nodiff, is no stranger to law enforcement. A telephoned tip led cops to Harley's residence on South Street near 6th, Nodiff said, where he was arrested in the attack on Monday.
Harley is accused of approaching Ashley Hackett, 23, from behind, assaulting her and robbing her as she walked home on 9th Street near Fitzwater in the early morning of Nov. 11. Nodiff said that Harley cooperated with police after his arrest and led them to the clothes he'd worn during the attack and the knife he used, which they recovered from a water inlet at 5th and Monroe streets.
"She is absolutely an innocent victim minding her own business walking home when this thug attacks her from behind, slashes her face -- which cut through, according to doctors, three layers of tissue and required more than 100 stitches," Nodiff said. "She lives every day with a large scar on her face, which is going to require her to have several plastic surgeries."
Nodiff said a former relative of Harley's heard he was wanted in the attack, of which police had released surveillance video, and called in the tip. Police are evaluating whether the tipster will receive the $12,500 reward offered by the city and Fraternal Order of Police in the case.
Harley is being held on $500,000 bail and was charged Tuesday with aggravated assault, robbery, reckless endangerment and related offenses.
"If that knife would've been a little bit further down on her cheek, it could've hit one of her major arteries and killed her. So this individual is reprehensible," Nodiff said. "We are glad that . . . we were able to put this guy behind bars."
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McClatchy-Tribune News Service
