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Michael Ainsworth / DMN
The defense says Chante Mallard sought no help because she thought Gregory Biggs was already dead.Posted on 06/25/2003 7:15:26 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Fire captain: It wasn't too late for man in windshield
Prosecutors say victim would have survived with medical aid
06/25/2003
FORT WORTH – Given up to an hour to respond, any Fort Worth firefighter – including Chante Mallard's brother, a lieutenant in the department – could have saved the life of a man Ms. Mallard is accused of murdering, a Fire Department captain testified Tuesday in court.
"There's not a member of the Fort Worth Fire Department that could not have saved [Gregory] Biggs' life with basic life support," Capt. James Sowder, a 24-year department veteran, told the 12-member jury in Ms. Mallard's murder trial. "Mr. Biggs' life could have been saved at the scene."
Instead of summoning aid, prosecutors charge, Ms. Mallard, 27, drove to her house with Mr. Biggs entangled in her car windshield. She then left him in her garage to die and later helped to destroy evidence and dump Mr. Biggs' body in a Fort Worth park, prosecutors allege.
Ms. Mallard is accused of striking Mr. Biggs with her car in October 2001 after a night of drinking and taking drugs.
Michael Ainsworth / DMN The defense says Chante Mallard sought no help because she thought Gregory Biggs was already dead. |
Ms. Mallard's brother, James, was on duty when Mr. Biggs was struck, Capt. Sowder said. The engine company in which Lt. Mallard worked has a direct line, and Ms. Mallard could have called him to help, Capt. Sowder said.
But Ms. Mallard didn't call her brother, nor did she call for help from any member of the Fire Department or police, prosecutor Miles Brissette said.
Ms. Mallard's defense team told the jury during opening arguments Monday that Ms. Mallard, a registered nurse's aide, believed Mr. Biggs was dead when she left him lying within the windshield of her car and fled her home.
Evidence will prove that Mr. Biggs was already dead when Ms. Mallard arrived at her home after the crash, defense attorney Jeffrey Kearney said.
Dr. Raymond W. Swienton, an emergency physician at John Peter Smith Hospital, testified that Mr. Biggs' would have survived his injuries, which included several leg fractures and a near leg amputation, if medical personnel had reached him within an hour of his being struck.
Even a person with limited or no medical expertise could have used a tourniquet to stop Mr. Biggs' bleeding, affording him more time until help arrived, Dr. Swienton said.If he had received such aid, "he had an excellent chance of survival," Dr. Swienton said. "I have not had a person with similar injuries to Mr. Biggs' die in the operating room."
Mr. Biggs' injuries became fatal because the former bus driver and bricklayer received no treatment at all, Dr. Swienton said.
Earlier Tuesday, Fort Worth forensic scientist Max Courtney said bloodstain evidence inside Ms. Mallard's car suggested that Mr. Biggs was alive after initial impact.
Mr. Courtney, while not explicitly testifying that Mr. Biggs was still alive in the hours after Ms. Mallard struck him, said blood patterns within her car "come from a cough, or a gasp or a wheeze coming from the victim's mouth."
He said that Mr. Biggs also gripped a map holder within Ms. Mallard's car door.
During testimony Tuesday morning, defense attorney Reagan Wynn spent 1 ½ hours quizzing Mr. Courtney on technical aspects of bloodstain patterns in Ms. Mallard's 1997 Chevrolet Cavalier.
Earlier, prosecutors displayed bloodied sections of Ms. Mallard's car, including its door, armrest console and seat belt.
At one point, state District Judge James R. Wilson ordered the jury out of the courtroom as Mr. Wynn probed Mr. Courtney's credentials and biases as the first expert witness called by the prosecution. The judge overruled defense objections to the forensic scientist's testimony.
Ms. Mallard looked straight ahead or down at the table during most of the three-hour morning session, never looking at the witness stand, the judge or the pieces of her car.
The trial resumes at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
E-mail dlevinthal@dallasnews.com
Chante Mallard
Thread history:
06-23-2003
Trial begins in death-by-windshield casePre-Trial Articles:
06-22-2003
Windshield case: Was it murder?
(Chante Mallard Murder Trial)06-18-2003
Windshield case attracts spotlight -
Mallard trial focuses natl media, legal eye on FW courts again
03-07-2002:
Man Lives 2 Days Stuck In Broken Windshield
(THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE - The woman should be SHOT!)
03-07-2002:
Police: Hit-Run Victim Lived Two Days Trapped in Windshield of Woman's Car
03-07-2002:
Texas Woman Charged With Allowing Hit-and-Run Victim to Die in Broken Windshield
03-07-2002:
Hit-and-run victim lodged in windshield for days
03-08-2002:
Woman accused of hitting man, leaving him to die on windshield
[Lawyer says case "overblown"]
03-08-2002:
Update on Man in Windshield story-
Woman had sex while man was dying in garage, "A mistake" she says
03-08-2002:
Police: Hit-run victim left to die in car windshield
03-09-2002:
Windshield death suspect back in jail - Bail raised to $250,000 -
Informant Receives Death Threats
03-13-2002:
Man died in hours, doctor says -
Windshield Hit & Run Murder Charge Stands - Suspect Still in Jail
03-15-2002:
Son sues suspect in windshield fatality -
Murder Suspect Still in Jail
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As a healthcare provider--Mallard makes me feel physically ill (and seething with anger) to think that she turned her back on this dying man while she plotted her cover-up.
"There's not a member of the Fort Worth Fire Department that could not have saved [Gregory] Biggs' life with basic life support,"
I hope this woman rots in jail for the rest of her life, but this statement is absurd.
He can make an educated guess, but he doesn’t know for a fact that medical attention would definitely have saved his life.
Not yet...Same thing happened yesterday with the blood spatter expert.
When Biggs' body was found in the park, authorities had no leads until four months later, when a tipster said Mallard talked about the incident at a party.
The woman said they were discussing who would be the designated driver, because some in the group had been drinking, and that Mallard said she couldn't use her car, police said. The woman recalled that Mallard giggled when she said "I hit this white man," according to the police report.
The woman said Mallard told her she "was messed up" on ecstasy pills and drunk. Mallard and her boyfriend later went into the garage to see if the man was dead, but he was alive and even asked for help, the woman told police.
I'll check the DMN later tonight and post the new thread for today's trial coverage either tonight or in the morning.
Gonna be a long day I think.
See ya'll later!
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