| Posted on Thu, Apr. 25, 2002 |   |
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FORT WORTH A woman accused of leaving an injured pedestrian trapped in the shattered windshield of her car until he died has been indicted by a Tarrant County grand jury.
Chante Jawan Mallard, a 25-year-old nurse's aide, is now awaiting trial on charges of murder and tampering with evidence in the Oct. 26 death of Gregory Glenn Biggs. She remains in Tarrant County Jail with a bail set at $250,000.
Mallard is accused of hitting 37-year-old Biggs with her Chevrolet Cavalier near the East Loop 820 split with U.S. 287 while driving home from a bar. Panicked, authorities said, she drove the man, still lodged in her windshield, to her home and left him in her garage until he died of blood loss and shock.
Police say friends of the woman took Biggs' body from the garage and put it in Cobb Park, where he was found Oct. 27.
In late February, after receiving a tip that Mallard had been involved in a hit-and-run, police obtained a search warrant for Mallard's house in the 3800 block of Wilbarger Street. Inside her garage, they found the damaged Cavalier. Blood, hair and other evidence was visible inside and outside the car, police say. The car's seats had also been removed and were found in the back yard, one of them burned.
According to the indictment, the tampering with evidence charge stems from the accusation that Mallard had burned the seat to conceal evidence.
The indictment also alleges that Mallard committed two felonies - failure to stop and render aid and kidnapping - when she transported the seriously injured Biggs to her home while he was lodged in the windshield of her car and left him in the garage, preventing him from receiving medical care.
And according to the Texas Penal Code, if a person commits a felony that is clearly dangerous to human life and causes the death of an individual, it constitutes murder.
Murder is a first-degree felony, punishable by five years to life in prison. Tampering with evidence is a third-degree felony, punishable by two to 10 years in prison. Assistant District Attorney Richard Alpert, who is handling the case, declined to comment Thursday, citing the gag order that was imposed last month by state District Judge James Wilson after intense media attention. Defense attorney Mike Heiskell also declined to comment, but said he still "stands on his earlier statements."
In the past, Heiskell has called the murder charge "overreaching" and said that the case was nothing more than a "failure to stop and render aid."
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