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Mallard pleads not guilty to murder - smoked pot, took ecstasy and drank heavily before hit and run
The Dallas Morning News ^ | June 23, 2003 | From Staff and Wire Reports

Posted on 06/23/2003 2:51:13 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP

Mallard pleads not guilty to murder

06/23/2003

From Staff and Wire Reports

FORT WORTH, Texas - A former nurse's aide smoked pot, took ecstasy and drank heavily in the hours before she hit a homeless man and drove home while he was lodged in her windshield, prosecutors and defense attorneys told jurors as her murder trial began Monday.

Chante Jawan Mallard, 27, faces life in prison if convicted. She pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, tampering with evidence, before attorneys began their opening statements on the murder charge.

Although she had taken drugs, Mallard could have stopped at a nearby fire or police station or called an ambulance after she hit Gregory Biggs on a highway in the early hours of Oct. 26, 2001, prosecutor Christy Jack said.

Chante Mallard in court
Michael Ainsworth / DMN
A sheriff's deputy escorts Chante Mallard into the courtroom on the first day of her murder trial at the 371st District Court at the Tarrant County Justice Center.

"All of a sudden -- bam -- he was just there," Mallard said in a statement to police, which Jack read to jurors.

Mallard did stop briefly to try and get Biggs off her car, but when she couldn't, she drove about a mile to her home, Jack said. Mallard then called one of her friends to pick her up, Jack said.

She and her friend then went to find Mallard's ex-boyfriend to figure out what to do next. When they couldn't find him, they went back to the house, where Mallard took the friend into the garage, Jack said. By that time, Biggs was dead, still lodged and bleeding in the jagged windshield.

The friend told Mallard to call 911, Jack said.

"Chante refused because she didn't want her parents to know what she'd done and didn't want to go to jail," Jack said.

Defense attorney Jeff Kearney said Mallard was in a drug-induced haze and had been hit in the face with flying glass when the car hit Biggs. He said she doesn't dispute what happened, but it was an accident, not murder.

She was just one exit from her home, so she kept driving with "a body entirely in her car, the head in the floorboard, legs going in directions that no one thought humanely possible. You can't imagine," Kearney said.

He said after Mallard pulled into her garage and lowered the door, she sat in the car and cried, repeatedly apologizing to Biggs, who was moaning.

When the friend arrived at the house, Mallard was hysterical and "was blabbing, 'Lord, I'm sorry. What do I do? Lord, I'm sorry. It was an accident. What do it do?"' Kearney said.

Biggs, 37, a former bricklayer who had been living in a homeless shelter, was found dead the next day, his body dumped in a park.

When pictures of Biggs' twisted, bruised and bloody body were shown Monday on a large screen in the courtroom, Mallard looked down, and some jurors grimaced or looked away. Biggs' relatives were not in the room when the photos were displayed.

Mallard's attorney said Clete Jackson, one of two men who pleaded guilty to helping dump Biggs' body, orchestrated moving Biggs to Cobb Park.

Jackson received a 10-year sentence for tampering with evidence. His cousin, Herbert Tyrone Cleveland, received nine years. As part of plea agreements, they were to testify at Mallard's trial.

Police initially said Biggs lived for several days in Mallard's garage, slowly bleeding to death from his multiple fractures and cuts.

But Tarrant County Medical Examiner Nizam Peerwani later said Biggs, whose left leg was nearly amputated, probably lived only a few hours after he was hit. He could have survived if he had received medical attention, Peerwani said.

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 day after interviewing the tipster in February 2002, police went to Mallard's house with a search warrant.

Detective Don Owings told jurors Monday that after serving the search warrant, he saw the car in the garage with the seats missing and the windshield and rear glass broken. Officers have said they found dark stains on the passenger-side floorboard and burned car seats in her back yard.

Owings testified that 14 officers accompanied him to Mallard’s home. She was not ill-treated, he said, and she understood her rights as she was interrogated.

“She was upset. She had cried some,” he said. “But she allowed me to take the statement.”


Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/062303dnmettrial.1fa12.html


TOPICS: Heated Discussion
KEYWORDS: addiction; chantemallard; fortworth; gregorybiggs; hitandrun; murder; texas; wodlist
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Gregory Biggs


Chante Mallard

Chante Mallard (left) is accused of striking
Gregory Biggs with her car and leaving him
to die in the windshield.

1 posted on 06/23/2003 2:51:14 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP
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To: MeeknMing
Sometimes the messes that we get ourselves into are so large, that there is no escaping the consequences. I wonder how she could have thought hiding this from her family and the police was possible... she had told her friend about it, after all. Unbelieveable. Where is reality, for some people?
2 posted on 06/23/2003 2:54:43 PM PDT by Pan_Yans Wife (Lurking since 2000.)
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To: nicmarlo; Pippin; JustAmy; I_be_tc; chance33_98; maxwell; Howlin; Zavien Doombringer; Tall_Texan; ..
Mallard pleads not guilty to murder - smoked pot,
took ecstasy and drank heavily before hit and run

Excerpt:

FORT WORTH, Texas - A former nurse's aide smoked pot, took ecstasy and drank heavily in the hours before she hit a homeless man and drove home while he was lodged in her windshield, prosecutors and defense attorneys told jurors as her murder trial began Monday.

Chante Jawan Mallard, 27, faces life in prison if convicted. She pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, tampering with evidence, before attorneys began their opening statements on the murder charge.

Although she had taken drugs, Mallard could have stopped at a nearby fire or police station or called an ambulance after she hit Gregory Biggs on a highway in the early hours of Oct. 26, 2001, prosecutor Christy Jack said.

Chante Mallard in court
Michael Ainsworth / DMN
A sheriff's deputy escorts Chante Mallard into the courtroom on the first day of her murder trial at the 371st District Court at the Tarrant County Justice Center.

"All of a sudden -- bam -- he was just there," Mallard said in a statement to police, which Jack read to jurors.

Mallard did stop briefly to try and get Biggs off her car, but when she couldn't, she drove about a mile to her home, Jack said. Mallard then called one of her friends to pick her up, Jack said.

She and her friend then went to find Mallard's ex-boyfriend to figure out what to do next. When they couldn't find him, they went back to the house, where Mallard took the friend into the garage, Jack said. By that time, Biggs was dead, still lodged and bleeding in the jagged windshield.

The friend told Mallard to call 911, Jack said.

"Chante refused because she didn't want her parents to know what she'd done and didn't want to go to jail," Jack said.

Defense attorney Jeff Kearney said Mallard was in a drug-induced haze and had been hit in the face with flying glass when the car hit Biggs. He said she doesn't dispute what happened, but it was an accident, not murder.

She was just one exit from her home, so she kept driving with "a body entirely in her car, the head in the floorboard, legs going in directions that no one thought humanely possible. You can't imagine," Kearney said.



Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Chante Mallard Murder Trial ping list!. . .don't be shy.

3 posted on 06/23/2003 2:55:10 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP (Bu-bye Dixie Chimps! / Check out my Freeper site !: http://home.attbi.com/~freeper/wsb/index.html)
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To: MeeknMing
As soon as she hit him she had a duty to stop. Being intoxicated while committing a crime should be an aggravating circumstance not any kind of excuse the sole exception to that rule is when someone is forcibly goven intoxixcants or given them without their knowledge.
4 posted on 06/23/2003 2:56:04 PM PDT by harpseal (Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown)
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To: Pan_Yans Wife
Totally crazy, isn't it ??
5 posted on 06/23/2003 2:57:42 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP (Bu-bye Dixie Chimps! / Check out my Freeper site !: http://home.attbi.com/~freeper/wsb/index.html)
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To: MeeknMing
The War On Drugs killed Mr. Biggs. After all, if Mallard's drugs weren't illegal, she would've driven straight to the police station to help the victim get the care he needed to save his life. Instead, she was justifiably scared of being slapped with a bunch of drug charges.</sarcasm></doper_BS>
6 posted on 06/23/2003 2:58:12 PM PDT by newgeezer (Where there is demand, there will ALWAYS be supply to meet it. Thus, the supply-side WOD fails.)
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To: Pan_Yans Wife
Sometimes the messes that we get ourselves into are so large, that there is no escaping the consequences. I wonder how she could have thought hiding this from her family and the police was possible... she had told her friend about it, after all. Unbelieveable. Where is reality, for some people?

She was well in reality. She knew that she was drugged up, that she was driving, that she killed a guy. Not a good combination in court. So she threw the dice, all or nothing, and lost.

A good reason not to drink or do drugs and drive. Because what normally would be an accident becomes manslaughter. Even if it is completely not your fault, had nothing to do with your intoxication, and was just a freak accident....the fact that you are intoxicated is going to equal manslaughter.
7 posted on 06/23/2003 3:00:14 PM PDT by Arkinsaw
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To: MeeknMing
Please add me to the ping list.
8 posted on 06/23/2003 3:00:53 PM PDT by EllaMinnow (I will NEVER take my DSL for granted again, I will NEVER take my DSL for granted again...)
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To: MeeknMing
They are trying to discount her confession as being under duress because she was a scared kid(25 yrs old) and intimidated by the police officer.A female should have been in the room.Sob
9 posted on 06/23/2003 3:01:15 PM PDT by MEG33
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Comment #10 Removed by Moderator

To: MeeknMing
What this report leaves out but was reported after the incident happened was that when she "talked about it" at a party, she giggled and said, "I killed a white man." Where is the outrage that should accompany this story and why has it been brushed under the table and cleaned up for the national news. If this had been a white person who killed a black man and giggled that she "killed a black man" it would have been all over the news.
11 posted on 06/23/2003 3:02:14 PM PDT by onevoter
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To: harpseal
smoked pot, took ecstasy and drank heavily

What are the symptoms of someone under the influence of ecstasy?

12 posted on 06/23/2003 3:02:18 PM PDT by csvset
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To: MeeknMing
I have a question: Did Mallard have a cell phone? My money says she DID, everybody's got them these days. The prosecutor was talking about all the different ways Mallard could have gone for help, but no mention of a cell phone.



Inquiring minds.....blah blah blah
13 posted on 06/23/2003 3:03:13 PM PDT by EggsAckley ( "Aspire to Mediocracy"..........new motto for publik skools....)
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To: newgeezer
Sarcasm noted. But the (user-, not dealer-level) drug charges are miniscule compared to the charges for killing this guy. The drug use may well have led to this problem, or it may not (I have almost hit kids wearing dark clothing on ill-lit streets at night while completely sober), but what she'll be punished for is hitting someone and then not taking what steps she could to save his life.

The drugs were very likely a contributing factor to her giving in to "It's all about me" instead of sacrificing her reputation in order to see that this man survived.

14 posted on 06/23/2003 3:04:51 PM PDT by RonF
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To: csvset
Erowid has all that info.
15 posted on 06/23/2003 3:04:55 PM PDT by Sir Gawain (Mongo only pawn in game of life)
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To: csvset
What are the symptoms of someone under the influence of ecstasy?

At first, they question all drug laws. After continued use, they proclaim oneness with the Libertarian Party. ;O)

16 posted on 06/23/2003 3:05:07 PM PDT by newgeezer (Where there is demand, there will ALWAYS be supply to meet it. Thus, the supply-side WOD fails.)
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To: MeeknMing
Just an accident huh?

Seems to me she was aware enough to know she was in trouble.

Hope she likes orange jump suits.
17 posted on 06/23/2003 3:05:36 PM PDT by Grammy
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To: MeeknMing
"...smoked pot, took ecstasy and drank heavily before hit and run".

Correction:

Smoked pot, took ecstasy and drank heavily before MURDER.

18 posted on 06/23/2003 3:07:01 PM PDT by South40 (Get Right Or Get Left)
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To: newgeezer
Nice gungrabber logic you have there.
19 posted on 06/23/2003 3:07:07 PM PDT by Sir Gawain (Mongo only pawn in game of life)
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To: Pan_Yans Wife
I wonder how she could have thought hiding this from her family and the police was possible

If she hadn't started talking about it at parties she probably would have gotten away with it.

I guess claiming that she was too stoned to know what she was doing is a better defense than the truth, that she is just too damned stupid to live.

20 posted on 06/23/2003 3:08:03 PM PDT by Bubba_Leroy
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