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Chante Mallard Windshield Murder Case
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Fort Worth Startle-Gram
| Posted on Thu, Jan. 09, 2003 |   |
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Man pleads in windshield case
Star-Telegram Staff Writer FORT WORTH - One of the men who helped remove and dump the body of a homeless pedestrian lodged in a car windshield entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors Wednesday and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. In a short hearing before state district Judge James Wilson, Clete Denel Jackson, 28, of Fort Worth pleaded guilty to tampering with physical evidence and agreed to testify against Chante Jawan Mallard, the woman charged with hitting Greg Biggs with her car then driving home and leaving him in the windshield until he died of blood loss and shock. In exchange for his guilty plea, Jackson -- who was facing up to 20 years in prison because he had a previous felony conviction -- was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The Tarrant County district attorney's office also agreed not to prosecute Jackson's girlfriend, Raini Dae Ellingson, who was facing perjury charges because of inconsistencies in her statements about the case to a grand jury and at bond reduction hearing. Jackson is the second defendant to accept a plea agreement and promise to testify against Mallard. In September, Jackson's cousin, Herbert Tyrone Cleveland, 25, of Fort Worth pleaded guilty to tampering with physical evidence in helping dump Biggs' body and was sentenced to nine years in prison. They were the only two charged in the case other than Mallard. Prosecutor Richard Alpert, who is handling the case with Christy Jack and Miles Brissette, said the plea agreements were important because jurors in Mallard's trial will now have an opportunity to hear from eyewitnesses about exactly what happened. Mallard, who remains in the Tarrant County Jail with bail set at $250,000, is expected to go to trial in June. Dressed in a standard-issued tan jumpsuit, Jackson, flanked by his defense attorney Bill Harris, solemnly entered the courtroom Wednesday and walked to the judge's bench. When Wilson asked how he pleaded to the charge, Jackson looked up at the ceiling and quietly said the word "guilty." Afterward, the judge allowed Jackson to visit for a moment with his only supporter in the courtroom, Kerah Scranton, his ex-wife and the mother of four of his nine children. "He is not a bad person," Scranton said. "I think he just made some bad decisions. We all do at points in our life." Defense attorney Harris said Jackson was trying to do the right thing by leaving Biggs' body in an area where it would be found, while minimizing his involvement. "There had been some talk about burning the body and the car," Harris said. "He thought the body should be left where it could be found. "You have to understand, in his world, trying to do the right thing but not getting involved with authorities is the prudent way to proceed. He was trying to see that the family recovered their loved one for a proper burial." Mallard, 26, a nurse's aide, is accused of hitting Biggs with her Chevrolet Cavalier in October 2001 while driving near the East Loop 820 split with U.S. 287. Authorities said she panicked and drove the car, with 37-year-old Biggs embedded in the windshield, to her home and left him in the garage until he died. Jackson and Cleveland later helped remove the body and dump it in Cobb Park, where it was found Oct. 27, 2001. Police arrested Mallard in February after a woman told police that she heard Mallard talking about the incident at a gathering. Inside Mallard's garage, authorities found the damaged Cavalier with blood and hair visible. The car's seats had been removed and were found in the home's backyard, one of them burned. Jackson and Cleveland were later indicted after investigators Ron Sears and Bill Foster of the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office, and Brisette, the assistant district attorney, pursued the case, Alpert said. "They were able to accurately locate, apprehend and take statements from Herbert Tyrone Cleveland and Clete Denel Jackson," Alpert said. "The thoroughness of the investigators left them [Jackson and Cleveland] few options." |
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