FORT WORTH, Texas (June 23) - A former nurse's aide pleaded guilty to a lesser count Monday before she went on trial on a murder charge, accused of hitting a man with her car and leaving him stuck in the windshield and dying.
Chante Jawan Mallard, 27, faces life in prison if convicted of murder.
She pleaded guilty to a charge of evidence tampering before attorneys started their opening statements on the murder charge.
Prosecutor Christy Jack portrayed Mallard as a selfish woman who allowed Gregory Biggs to die an inhumane death because she was more interested in helping herself than her victim.
Reading from a police report, Jack said Mallard smoked marijuana, took Ecstasy and drank heavily with a friend shortly before she drove home in the early hours of Oct. 26, 2001.
Defense attorney Jeff Kearney said Mallard was not thinking clearly because she was in a drug-induced haze. He said she doesn't dispute what happened, but it was an accident, not murder.
''She was hysterical, terrorized and confused,'' he said.
Biggs, 37, was apparently walking on the shoulder of the road. Mallard told police her car hit Biggs so hard that his head and shoulders jammed into the windshield and his legs were bent over the roof, his pants tearing almost completely off his body.
Mallard stopped briefly to try to get Biggs off her car, but when she couldn't she drove about a mile to her home, the prosecutor said.
After she got her house, Mallard called a friend to pick her up, Jack said.
''She finally did make a call but the help wasn't for him, the help was for her,'' Jack said.
A police report said Mallard repeatedly apologized to the moaning man. ''Chante kept going in and out of the garage telling the man she was sorry,'' the report said.
Jack said Mallard and her friend went looking for her ex-boyfriend for help, but couldn't find him and returned to her house. Jack said Mallard showed the friend into the garage, where by then Biggs had died.
The friend told Mallard to call 911, the prosecutor said.
''Chante refused because she didn't want her parents to know what she'd done and didn't want to go to jail,'' she said.
The body of Biggs, a former bricklayer who had been living in a homeless shelter, was found the next day, dumped in a park.
Two of Mallard's friends, Clete Deneal Jackson and Herbert Tyrone Cleveland, have pleaded guilty to dumping the body to help Mallard.
Jackson received a 10-year sentence for tampering with evidence; Cleveland, nine years. As part of plea agreements, they were to testify at her trial.
Tarrant County Medical Examiner Nizam Peerwani later said Biggs, whose left leg was nearly severed, could have survived if he had received medical attention.
Authorities had no leads in Biggs' death until four months later, when a tipster said Mallard talked about the incident at a party.
Police found her car in the garage, the seats missing and the windshield and rear glass broken. Officers said they found dark stains on the passenger-side floorboard and burned car seats in her back yard.
She was a former nurse aide and she didn't do anything to save him at all !!!! EVEN report to the police.... she knows better than that but I can't believe she let him bleed to death *sighs*
Chante Jawan Mallard, 27, faces life in prison if convicted of murder.
She pleaded guilty to a charge of evidence tampering before attorneys started their opening statements on the murder charge.
Prosecutor Christy Jack portrayed Mallard as a selfish woman who allowed Gregory Biggs to die an inhumane death because she was more interested in helping herself than her victim.
Reading from a police report, Jack said Mallard smoked marijuana, took Ecstasy and drank heavily with a friend shortly before she drove home in the early hours of Oct. 26, 2001.
Defense attorney Jeff Kearney said Mallard was not thinking clearly because she was in a drug-induced haze. He said she doesn't dispute what happened, but it was an accident, not murder.
''She was hysterical, terrorized and confused,'' he said.
Biggs, 37, was apparently walking on the shoulder of the road. Mallard told police her car hit Biggs so hard that his head and shoulders jammed into the windshield and his legs were bent over the roof, his pants tearing almost completely off his body.
Mallard stopped briefly to try to get Biggs off her car, but when she couldn't she drove about a mile to her home, the prosecutor said.
After she got her house, Mallard called a friend to pick her up, Jack said.
''She finally did make a call but the help wasn't for him, the help was for her,'' Jack said.
A police report said Mallard repeatedly apologized to the moaning man. ''Chante kept going in and out of the garage telling the man she was sorry,'' the report said.
Jack said Mallard and her friend went looking for her ex-boyfriend for help, but couldn't find him and returned to her house. Jack said Mallard showed the friend into the garage, where by then Biggs had died.
The friend told Mallard to call 911, the prosecutor said.
''Chante refused because she didn't want her parents to know what she'd done and didn't want to go to jail,'' she said.
The body of Biggs, a former bricklayer who had been living in a homeless shelter, was found the next day, dumped in a park.
Two of Mallard's friends, Clete Deneal Jackson and Herbert Tyrone Cleveland, have pleaded guilty to dumping the body to help Mallard.
Jackson received a 10-year sentence for tampering with evidence; Cleveland, nine years. As part of plea agreements, they were to testify at her trial.
Tarrant County Medical Examiner Nizam Peerwani later said Biggs, whose left leg was nearly severed, could have survived if he had received medical attention.
Authorities had no leads in Biggs' death until four months later, when a tipster said Mallard talked about the incident at a party.
Police found her car in the garage, the seats missing and the windshield and rear glass broken. Officers said they found dark stains on the passenger-side floorboard and burned car seats in her back yard.
She was a former nurse aide and she didn't do anything to save him at all !!!! EVEN report to the police.... she knows better than that but I can't believe she let him bleed to death *sighs*
and some ppl would just let someone die a slow death like that -- fucking sickening if anyone asks me and 
!
I just can't belive it !
