Posted on 06/18/2003 4:35:49 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Windshield case attracts spotlight
Mallard trial will focus national media, legal eye on FW courts again
06/18/2003
FORT WORTH – When it comes to trying highly publicized court cases, Tarrant County jurors get plenty of practice.
Sensational murder defendants such as Cullen Davis, Diane Zamora and Robert Neville have stood trial in Fort Worth, greeted by a crush of TV cameras and curious courtroom spectators.
Legal observers expect the glare of national media – and the challenges that come with it – to return this week as the "windshield case" begins in state district court.
Known more for the circumstances of the crime rather than the defendant herself, the trial of former nurse's aide Chante Mallard has kept those involved keenly aware of its visibility.
Ms. Mallard, 26, is accused of striking a homeless man with her car in October 2001. She allegedly drove home with Gregory Biggs entangled in her windshield, leaving him to die on the car in her garage. Police arrested Ms. Mallard and charged her with murder and tampering with evidence four months after they found Mr. Biggs' body in a south Fort Worth park.
"I've been in criminal law for 30 years and I've never seen any case like this," said George Dix, law professor at the University of Texas at Austin. "It's so difficult to believe how a person could fail to help, to take action at any time after hitting the man."
Jury selection begins Wednesday in state District Judge James Wilson's court.
No stranger to dramatic cases, Judge Wilson will agree to allow the Courtroom Television Network to televise the trial. He has, however, limited other coverage and ordered the attorneys and others involved in the case not to talk to the media.
Court TV officials are debating whether to televise the trial live or on a tape delay, said Tim Sullivan, vice president of daytime programming.
"It's a case that's not that well known nationally, but it's a very interesting story with a very interesting, curious set of facts," Mr. Sullivan said.
A murder case in North Carolina involving a novelist who allegedly killed his wife, and proceedings in the California-based Laci Peterson murder trial, may pre-empt Court TV's live coverage of the Mallard trial, Mr. Sullivan said. If so, Court TV will broadcast taped footage of the Mallard trial, he said.
Nationally syndicated show Inside Edition is planning to cover the case closely, staff member Alana Stack said.
Sitting this one out
But officials from Fox News, the National Enquirer and Star , each of which helped propel the Peterson case to national prominence through omnipresent coverage, say they have no plans to send reporters to the Mallard trial. The outlets declined to explain their decisions.
Mallard case attorneys will nonetheless question potential jurors about the effects of media coverage preceding the trial.
Confronting the glare of publicity early on seems just a part of doing business, those involved with the case said.
The 1998 capital murder trial of Ms. Zamora, a military cadet, was conducted in Tarrant County and covered daily by Court TV as well as Dallas-Fort Worth network affiliates and major newspapers. Ms. Zamora and her lover, David Graham, were convicted for the 1995 kidnap-slaying of Mansfield teenager Adrianne Jones.
Later that year, Mr. Neville was convicted of the kidnapping and slaying of a mentally challenged woman. He gave a televised confession.
Judge Wilson, who presided over that trial, called 60 more prospective jurors in addition to the 250 initially summoned. He said prosecutors and defense attorneys went through 282 of those residents before they selected a panel.
The start of testimony in that trial was delayed three weeks, in large part because of intense media coverage, he said.
Judge Wilson ruled last week that the Mallard trial would remain in Fort Worth, despite objections from defense attorneys.
But the judge emphasized in a written order that Ms. Mallard would have a "fair trial, free from any media interference or influence."Prosecutors maintain that the bulk of publicity in the case occurred more than a year ago when Ms. Mallard was arrested and that many people have forgotten about the case.
Defense attorneys, meanwhile, charge that many of the more salacious details initially reported – that the victim was imbedded in the car for days, for example – are false. Tarrant County has ruled that Mr. Biggs died hours after being struck by the car.
Police said Ms. Mallard struck Mr. Biggs in October 2001 as he walked along U.S. Highway 287 near the Loop 820 split. Mr. Biggs, a former school bus driver and bricklayer who was homeless at the time, was not killed immediately, police said.
2 others pleaded guilty
Co-defendants Clete Jackson and Herbert Cleveland have pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence after admitting to dumping Mr. Biggs' body. Each received a prison sentence in exchange for testimony against Ms. Mallard.
Even potential jurors who say they have not been affected by pre-trial publicity could not remain truly unaffected once they're immersed in the bizarre circumstances of the case, Fort Worth attorney Mark Daniel said.
"You can scour the nation over and not find an offense like this," he said.
Mr. Daniel, who in 1994 defended teenager Kristi Anne Koslow in her stepmother's brutal slaying, testified last week that Ms. Mallard couldn't receive a fair trial in Tarrant County because of the impression the case could have left on many potential jurors.
Fort Worth attorney and legal commentator Bill Lane disagreed. "These are sophisticated jurors," he testified. "We've found we've been able to pick a jury and try our own cases in Tarrant County."
E-mail lfox@dallasnews.com and dlevinthal@dallasnews.com
I searched all the previous threads I could find and all the pictures of the victim (Gregory Biggs) are DOA. If you have a pic of him, can you post it on this thread (or send me the URL and I'll post it).
Here is the defendant on trial, Chante Mallard:
ONE TIME PING ONLY to this story. If you want ON this ping list, let me know.
Otherwise you won't be pinged again. Thanks, folks.
Please let me know if you want ON my Chante Mallard Murder Trial ping list!. . .don't be shy.
Full Texas Ping List
But officials from Fox News, the National Enquirer and Star , each of which helped propel the Peterson case to national prominence through omnipresent coverage, say they have no plans to send reporters to the Mallard trial. The outlets declined to explain their decisions.
Tarrant County prosecutor Richard Alpert is quoted as saying, "We have information that shows that the person was on there long enough that they lived, suffered and they were not given medical attention and that it would have made a difference if they were."
According to the police, Mallard, assisted by friend, dumped Biggs's dead body in a park after he finally died, three days after the crash in the windshield of the vehicle parked in Mallard's garage. The body was found October 27th.
A tip last month (April 2002) lead police to Mallard, and upon investigating her home they found the car parked in the garage with the blood and hair of Biggs in the hole in the windshield. In the back yard, police found the car seats removed and burned.http://www.zone81.com/arch_news/1025662141487
Police recently arrested one suspect who apparently helped Mallard dump the corpse. Mallard has told police that for the three days Biggs was in her windshield in her garage and still alive, she "visited" him from time to time to say "Hi." On those occasions, Biggs allegedly pleaded frantically to Mallard, but she ignored his pleas and simply told him "sorry."
Mike Heiskell, Mallard's lawyer, says Mallard is "not the animal or monster the police are portraying her to be. Not this cold inhumane person that we've heard about."
I think this statement is a display of prudence.
Don't want her death sentence being overturned on appeal.
Thanks for that report and link.
Police recently arrested one suspect who apparently helped Mallard dump the corpse. Mallard has told police that for the three days Biggs was in her windshield in her garage and still alive, she "visited" him from time to time to say "Hi." On those occasions, Biggs allegedly pleaded frantically to Mallard, but she ignored his pleas and simply told him "sorry."Oh, no. Not cold at all. I hope if someone accidentally runs over me they are just like Chante. < /sarcasm >Mike Heiskell, Mallard's lawyer, says Mallard is "not the animal or monster the police are portraying her to be. Not this cold inhumane person that we've heard about."
Isn't this a Hate Crime case?
Gregory Biggs
In this case, the NAACP and the Human Rights Campaign have not said a word about a white man being "dragged to his death, all because he was white." In fact, it took longer for Mallard to kill Biggs, who was alive and begging for help for two days, than it took Bill King and Russell Brewer, Jr. to kill Byrd (three white men were tried and convicted of murder for the dragging death of a black man, James Byrd, Jr. in June of 1998. Two of the men, Bill King, 25, and Russell Brewer Jr., 32, who were the ones who actually killed Byrd, were sentenced to death.) . According to Mallard´s testimony in a March 7, 2002 affidavit after one of her friends alerted the police, the injured man was "sticking halfway into the passenger compartment through the windshield." She "went inside, had sex with her boyfriend, Terrance, went out to the garage and the man wasn´t dead yet, but he was dying. Shantae stated that the man was asking them to help him, but that they just walked back inside. Shantae advised that they waited until he died, which was a couple of days."
After he died, the affidavit says, "Terrance and his brother took the body and dumped it in Cobb Park" where it was found on October 27.."
In the Presidential election campaign of 2000, the Byrd murder became an issue used against Republican candidate George W. Bush. The National Voter Fund, (a project of the NAACP) and the Human Rights Campaign launched ad campaigns that inferred Bush was somehow responsible for the Byrd murder[George W. Bush's refusal to support hate crimes legislation.."arguing that all crimes are hate crimes and that no special protections are necessary for violence motivated by bias and discrimination." ].
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