Man died in hours, doctor says
Posted on 03/13/2002 1:26:23 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Man died in hours, doctor says
Examiner: Victim stuck in windshield didn't live for days as witness said; murder charge stands
03/13/2002
The man who was left to die in a Fort Worth woman's car windshield succumbed to his injuries hours, not days, after being struck, the Tarrant County medical examiner said Tuesday.
Gregory Glenn Biggs, 37, was struck by a car driven by Chante J. Mallard, 25, in October and was left entangled in her windshield after she drove home and parked the car in her garage, police said.
Police said last week that Ms. Mallard left the man in her garage for days, apologizing to him but ignoring his pleas for help.
Ms. Mallard's attorney had challenged that police account saying the man had been alive for less than 24 hours in the garage.
Tarrant County Medical Examiner Nizam Peerwani said Tuesday that Mr. Biggs, who suffered severe leg injuries, died hours after the accident.
"We have not come up with any definitive time frame, but it is certainly consistent with hours, not days," he said. "The body was not that decomposed at all. He wasn't hit that many days prior to being discovered."
After Mr. Biggs died, Ms. Mallard and at least one friend dumped his body in a nearby park, where he was found Oct. 27, police said.
Ms. Mallard, a nurse's aide who was fired after the murder charge became public last week, is being held in the Tarrant County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail.
Attorneys in the case have been placed under a gag order by 371st District Judge James Wilson.
Before the gag order, Ms. Mallard's attorney, Mike Heiskell, said the accusations against her had been blown out of proportion.
Mr. Heiskell said that Ms. Mallard did not talk to Mr. Biggs while he was in her garage and that the body was there for less than 24 hours, not the three days contended by police.
The new information will not change the charge of murder, said Fort Worth police Lt. Duane Paul, a department spokesman.
"The amount of time, be it an hour or a day, does not matter because it appears she didn't do anything to come to the aid of Mr. Biggs," Lt. Paul said. "The amount of time is irrelevant."
He said the discrepancies in how long Mr. Biggs had been left in the garage were due to differing accounts from Ms. Mallard and the person who told police about her.
The woman who reported Ms. Mallard in February said Ms. Mallard giggled when she told her about hitting the man and leaving him in the garage for days.
Investigators questioned Ms. Mallard and arrested her Feb. 26.
Police said it is not uncommon for a witness and a suspect to have conflicting stories.
"Generally when a suspect comes and speaks with a detective, a lot of times the statements they provide are self-serving," Lt. Paul said. "We have to weigh ... the facts of the investigation."
Police said Ms. Mallard struck Mr. Biggs in October as he walked along U.S. Highway 287 near the Loop 820 split and drove home with him stuck in her windshield.
Mr. Biggs, a former school bus driver and bricklayer who was homeless at the time of the accident, was not dead, police said. Ms. Mallard left him trapped in her car, which she hid in the garage of her home on the South Side of Fort Worth, investigators said.
The case has been turned over to the Tarrant County district attorney's office, and Dr. Peerwani said he expects to provide a more exact time range next week after he reviews the investigators' findings.
E-mail dwitham@dallasnews.com
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Hit-run victim lived hours, not days, medical examiner says Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Dr. Nizam Peerwani said the extent of Biggs' injuries, including the near amputation of his left leg, indicates that the 37-year-old man died from a loss of blood quicker than the two- to three-day time frame police originally stated.
"He couldn't have died instantaneously," Peerwani said. "There was some interval of time before he died. ...
"No way are we going to support two or three days that he was alive. We are talking in hours."
Chante Mallard, the 25-year-old nurse's aide charged with murder in Biggs' death, remained in Tarrant County Jail on Tuesday with bail set at $250,000.
Police spokesman Duane Paul said investigators received conflicting information about the man's time of death during a Feb. 26 interview with Mallard and from the woman who first tipped police after hearing Mallard discuss the accident at a party in mid-February.
Mallard told police the accident occurred in the early morning hours of Oct. 26, the day before Biggs' body was found by two men in Cobb Park. The tipster said Mallard told friends at the party that Biggs did not die for a couple of days, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
"She (the tipster) was told one thing. The detectives were told another thing by Chante Mallard," Paul said. "We're trying to sort through everything and determine exactly what the time frame was."
Paul said regardless of how long it took for Biggs to die, evidence shows he was alive after the accident.
"The amount of time that it took for Mr. Biggs to die does not affect our investigation or our case," Paul said. "It still appears that she did not render any type of aid for Mr. Biggs, either sought aid or provided any type of medical assistance for Mr. Biggs."
Peerwani, who performed the autopsy on Biggs, said he wants to review police and crime lab reports before providing the district attorney's office with a more specific estimate of the time of death.
Peerwani said he attibuted the death to injuries from a hit-and-run accident but said the body's lividity indicated Biggs probably had been struck elsewhere and later dumped in the park.
Peerwani later changed the manner of death from undetermined to homicide after a police investigation revealed Biggs had been struck by Mallard's car near the East Loop 820 and U.S. 287 split. Police said Mallard panicked, then drove home a few miles with the injured man lodged in her windshield.
There, she parked the car in the garage and apologized profusely to Biggs but never sought help for the dying man, police said. Friends of the woman, who police are still seeking, later helped dispose of the body in Cobb Park, police said.
Peerwani said he changed the ruling to a homicide because Biggs "would have survived had he been taken for medical treatment."
Peerwani said the condition of Biggs' body at the time it was found indicates it was dumped at the park within a day or so of the accident.
"The body was fairly well preserved, not decomposing," Peerwani said. "I don't think this accident occurred two or three days before the body was found. Based on preservation of the body, I would suggest it is not anymore than a day or so."
Peerwani said he has previously ruled a few cases homicides based on another person's failure to seek medical attention, but he called the circumstances behind Biggs' death unique.
"I've never had a case like this in 25 years," he said.
Deanna Boyd, (817) 390-7655 dboyd@star-telegram.com
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Oh! OK. That should make everything alright.
Well, I feel better for one. As a matter of fact I'm willing to forgo having this woman spend every stinking day of the rest of her miserable, rotten life in jail!
That is, after we subject her to..."The Comfy Chair".
"Ximenez, did you bring the marshmallows?!?"
Like the attorney says; "...blown way out of proportion." </sarcasm>
Mmmmm! I like the cake donuts. Got any of those?? :O)
Hey, it got my attention. The only problem with this was everyone beat me to the comments. Since most responses were identical to my thoughts, it means we have some brilliant people posting here. LOL
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