Woman Found Guilty in 'Windshield' Case
By ANGELA K. BROWN, Associated Press Writer
FORT WORTH, Texas - A jury took less than an hour Thursday to convict a former nurse's aide of murder for hitting a homeless man with her car, driving home with his mangled body jammed in the windshield and leaving him to die in her garage.
Chante Jawan Mallard, 27, looked down and cried silently as the judge read the verdict. The jury was to return in the afternoon to begin hearing evidence in the sentencing phase. She could get up to life in prison.
Mallard ran into Gregory Biggs, 37, with her Chevrolet Cavalier in the early hours of Oct. 26, 2001, after a night of drinking, smoking pot and taking Ecstasy. He was hit with such force that his head and shoulders went through the windshield, leaving his legs bent up over the roof.
Prosecution witnesses said Biggs probably lived for two hours, may have been moaning and gasping, and could have survived with medical treatment.
"She stole his life," prosecutor Richard Alpert said in closing arguments. "She stole his hope of anyone else saving his life. That's murder."
The defense acknowledged that Biggs lived for an hour or two, but said calling for medical help would have not made a difference.
Defense attorney Jeff Kearney said that Mallard, high on drugs and alcohol, panicked at the sight of the twisted, bloody body in the windshield. He said she sat in the car and cried, repeatedly apologizing to Biggs.
Kearney argued she should be found guilty of failing to stop and render aid — not murder.
The jury took 50 minutes to reach the verdict. Biggs' son and other relatives showed no emotion. On the other side of the courtroom, Mallard's family members, including her mother, wept and were comforted by friends. Both families declined to comment.
Mallard pleaded guilty earlier this week to tampering with evidence by dumping the body. She faces two to 10 years in prison.
Biggs' body was found in a park the day after the crash. Authorities thought he had been hit by a car but had no leads until four months later, when one of Mallard's acquaintances called police and said Mallard talked about the incident at a party.
Officers went to Mallard's house and found the bloodstained, dented car. They also found the passenger seat burned in the back yard.
The defense said Mallard's friend Clete Deneal Jackson talked her into dumping the body and concealing the crime.
Jackson testified that Mallard took him to her garage about six hours after she hit Biggs. He said he removed Biggs' body that night and, with the help of his cousin, Herbert Tyrone Cleveland, dumped it in the park.
Jackson and Cleveland pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence and agreed to testify. Jackson received a 10-year sentence; Cleveland, nine years.
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