Posted on 03/08/2002 5:34:52 AM PST by chance33_98
H2 CLASS="StoryHead">Lawyer: Driver Is Not A Monster
FORT WORTH, Texas -- A woman accused of hitting a homeless man with her car, driving home with him lodged in her broken windshield and ignoring his pleas as he bled to death in her garage is not the monster being portrayed by prosecutors, her attorney said.
Police said Chante J. Mallard, 25, waited two days for the man to die, ignoring his pleas for help, and then dumped his body in a park with the help of friends.
Mallard was charged with murder Wednesday night and released after posting bail. She faces five years to life in prison if convicted.
"She is not the monster that police and prosecutors are making her out to be," said Mike Heiskell, Mallard's attorney. "She was simply a frightened, emotionally distraught young woman who had an accident, panicked and made a wrong choice."
Heiskell said his client is guilty only of failing to stop and render aid -- not murder.
He said the victim, Gregory Biggs, died a few hours after Mallard drove home and was in her garage no more than 24 hours. He said her friends advised her not to call for help and suggested dumping the body.
Biggs, whose body was found in a park on Oct. 27, suffered cuts and broken legs but had no internal injuries that would have caused his death, according to the medical examiner's office.
"There's a pretty good possibility he'd be alive if he'd gotten help, but she concealed the body in the garage ... so that's why she's charged with murder," Fort Worth Police Lt. David Burgess said.
When Biggs' body was found, authorities suspected he had been hit by a car, but they had no leads until a tipster came forward last week.
Biggs, 37, had struggled with mental illness and had been staying at a homeless shelter, where workers said he often brought them flowers. He was estranged from his mother and sister. He also had a 19-year-old son who only recently found out about the tragic death, relatives said.
The son, Brandon Biggs, has questions for Mallard, but he said he isn't angry.
"I pray for her, actually," the high school senior told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Friday's editions.
"I'd just like to talk to her -- just ask questions and see why, to get a better understanding I suppose," he said.
Police reported finding Biggs' blood and hair on Mallard's car, still in her garage more than four months after the crash. The windshield and front seats had been removed.
The tipster told police that Mallard said she was drinking and taking the drug Ecstasy one night in October when her car hit the man along a Fort Worth highway near her house.
The tipster said Mallard drove home, had sex with her boyfriend, then went back to the garage to find Biggs still alive, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.
In her statement to police, however, Mallard said she felt "like someone had slipped her something" and did not mention any drug use, the Dallas Morning-News reported in Friday's editions. Heiskell said the tipster's claims were embellishments.
"This was not a friend of Chante's. In fact, they were enemies," he said. He added that the tipster wanted to portray Mallard "in the worse light possible."
Mallard later told investigators she apologized to the victim when she returned to the garage several times, but she never called for help as he moaned and pleaded with her, according to the affidavit.
"We intend to prosecute this fully," said Richard Alpert, a Tarrant County assistant district attorney.
Mallard told investigators she removed the car seats and burned them because she was afraid of being caught and going to jail, according to the affidavit. She planned to burn the car and buy another one after receiving her income tax refund, according to the affidavit.
Charges may be filed against the friends who helped dump Biggs' body, Burgess said.
Previous Story:
Huh?
What "inaction" are you talking about?
She rammed him through her windshield and kept him there until he was dead.
That's about as "inactive" as "hanged until dead" at a gallows.
Bullsh*t. If ever there was a "man bites dog" story, this is it. If "crap like this" went down "every day" this wouldn't be news, let alone drop dead ugly news that stops everyone in their tracks with shocked disgust.
Even most so-called decent people have lost the good sense to see the rain coming.
"Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies."
;>
No way in hell the boyfriend gets the blame! The dumbass, homeless, worthless white guy destroyed this woman's windshield, for crying out loud! How can he possibly pay her insurance deductible if he is not only indigent but dead? The nerve of the guy! The sheer gall!
In an article posted yesterday, there was a color picture of this woman.
Oh, please, get real. She "did nothing"? Sure. In the same sense that some schmuck can claim "Hey, I didn't kill him, all I did was pull the trigger, and then I did nothing," or, "I didn't hang that guy, all I did was kick a chair. Then I did nothing. Nothing at all. You gonna put me away for kicking a chair? Good luck trying. Here's ten bucks, buy yourself another chair, I'm outta here."
Absurd, isn't it.
Your really missing the point. I am not advocating a charge of murder one way or the other...and if you would read what I posted my point would be clear to you....now sit down and put on your thinking cap and we will try one more time....
Running someone over, and if they die, and you sought help, is not murder....Can you possibly comprehend this? It is either manslaughter, negligent homicide etc....but it is not murder....ALL I AM SAYING IS THAT THE MURDER CHARGE WILL HINGE ON HER FAILURE TO SEEK HELP.....Jimney Christmas....How hard is this to understand?
In case you still don't understand: she concealed the body in the garage ... so that's why she's charged with murder
My original post pointed out that concealing a body in a garage is not grounds to be charged with murder...It has not, will not, nor ever will be, GROUNDS FOR MURDER. The grounds for murder will arise out of her unwillingness (not inability) to seek help...but in my opinion they will never pin her with murder...just a hunch.
BTW, I figured out how the media will play this. It's too late to kill this story, and now we all know it's a black on white crime, so they can't conceal that (who wants to bet that somebody, somewhere got his a$$ chewed royally for printing those photos?) so here's what the media will do :
For this story, the homeless will cease to be victims of society and proof of the savage heartlessness of capitalism, and revert to being degenerate, crazy bums.
That's how the media tries to keep white Americans from responding to vicious black on white crimes with the group outrage black Americans show when the races are reversed : Try to prove to the reader that the victim "doesn't count". Like when those black thugs ran over a white man : The media made a point of letting us know that the victim lived in a trailer, and had the middle name of 'Bimbo'. Of course , the media would prefer to bury the stories entirely, like it did with the Wichita Horror, the Chicago Torching, the Chicago Disembowelment, the Seattle Mardi Gras Riots, the NYC Puerto Rican Day Wildings, the Flint Gang Assault, etc etc etc. But if it's too late, just let the reader know that the victim is poor, lives in a trailer, etc. Sadly, it's been an effective tool to date.
(I swear, if I see one white person in D-FW forming a "candlelit vigil" for anything except to protest this man's sensless, savage murder, I'll run amuck.)
I'm almost certain it happened in MARTIN FROST'S district---and I'm almost as certain he won't do a THING to have justice prevail---and see to it that all involved get lethal injection for the HATE CRIME they comitted!!!
Hello, Repubs...USE IT TO DEFEAT FROST LIKE THE DEMONRATS USED THE DRAGGING DEATH AGINST BUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
lawyers can be funny people
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