Details Disputed in Death of Man Lodged in Windshield

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/09/national/09DRIV.html ^ | 3/09/02 | JIM YARDLEY

[kattracks]

ORT WORTH, March 8 — Sobbing and seemingly dazed as television cameras circled around her, a young nurse's aide charged with murder in the gruesome death of a homeless man appeared in court today as her lawyer disputed some of the most graphic accusations against her.

The defendant, Chante J. Mallard, 25, has confessed that early on Oct. 26, her Chevrolet Cavalier slammed into Gregory Biggs as he walked on a Fort Worth highway. The impact impaled Mr. Biggs's head and torso through the windshield, and rather than seek help, Ms. Biggs drove home and left her car in the garage with Mr. Biggs's body still wedged in the glass.

But the details of what happened after Ms. Mallard arrived at her home are now in dispute.

Initial accounts by the Fort Worth police suggested that Mr. Biggs may have been alive in the garage for as long as three days, and that Ms. Mallard sporadically checked on him, profusely apologizing but never calling for aid. Eventually, he bled to death.

The account was based on an affidavit from an informant who led the police to Ms. Mallard and had also claimed that Ms. Mallard had sex with her boyfriend in her house while Mr. Biggs remained alive in the garage.

Mike Heiskell, a defense lawyer hired by Ms. Mallard's family, flatly denied the allegation of sex and said Mr. Biggs did not remain alive in the garage for three days. He said that his client panicked, called two friends — one of whom the police have identified as a boyfriend — and that they soon arrived. He said Ms. Mallard stayed at the house for only a few hours before her boyfriend took her to another friend's home.

The boyfriend, who has not been charged, later removed the body from the garage and dumped it in a wooded city park, Mr. Heiskell and the authorities said, where it was later discovered by two men. The arrest warrant affidavit released by the Fort Worth police notes that Ms. Mallard said the accident occurred on Oct. 26 while the body was discovered on Oct. 27.

Mr. Heiskell, who is arguing that his client should face a lesser charge than murder, acknowledged that she had made a horrific mistake in failing to call for help in the hours immediately after the accident. The Tarrant County medical examiner's office, which initially blamed Mr. Biggs's death on being struck by a vehicle, this week revised its findings, saying he could have survived, if treated, but then bled to death.

"It was a stupid decision," Mr. Heiskell said of Ms. Mallard's failure to seek help. "She was evidently distraught and made a stupid decision. That decision was compounded by the actions of others who came to her home."

In a hearing today, Judge James R. Wilson of District Court increased Ms. Mallard's bail to $250,000 and placed her on house arrest. Police got a search warrant on Feb. 26 and discovered Ms. Mallard's damaged car in her garage, as well as blood and hairs that matched Mr. Biggs's. She was initially charged with failure to stop and render aid, but the police upgraded the charge to murder this week after the medical examiner changed his finding.

Lt. Duane Paul of the Fort Worth Police Department said investigators were led to Ms. Mallard by an informer identified in the affidavit as Maranda Daniel. Ms. Daniel told investigators that Ms. Mallard talked about the crime at a party and "giggled" when she described what happened. She also told the police that Ms. Mallard planned to destroy the car and make an insurance claim.

"I've never seen anything like this before," said Lieutenant Paul, a former homicide detective. "If the details are as they have been told to us, it just doesn't get any worse than this."

Lieutenant Paul acknowledged that Ms. Mallard, while confessing to hitting Mr. Biggs, did not confirm many of the accusations made by Ms. Daniel. Mr. Heiskell said Mr. Biggs was unconscious by the time Ms. Mallard arrived at her home and described Ms. Daniel as unreliable.

Ms. Mallard, born and raised in Fort Worth, was state certified as a nurse's aide. She had bounced between jobs at nursing homes in recent years. One of her classmates at Oscar Dean Wyatt High School said she was an A student who worked as a teacher's aide.

"She wasn't the type who would do something like that," said Derrick Keaton, 25. But he added, "If it was an accident, why didn't she turn herself in?"

Ms. Mallard's mother, Dorothy, testified in the hearing today that her daughter had been a Girl Scout who volunteered to help retarded children. But pressed by prosecutors, she conceded that her daughter's Girl Scout days ended a decade ago.

On the morning of the accident, Ms. Mallard had been to a nightclub. She told the police she had two drinks, while Ms. Daniel said she was drunk and had taken the drug Ecstasy.

The violent death of Mr. Biggs ended a troubled life. Twice divorced, he had worked as a school bus driver and a bricklayer before falling on hard times. Recently, he had bounced between homeless shelters in Fort Worth.

Denver Moore, who bunked with Mr. Biggs at the Union Gospel Mission for homeless men, said: "Within the homeless circle, he was a friendly person trying to do something to get established. He deserved a chance to live, too."

Mr. Heiskell, the defense lawyer, said he believed Mr. Biggs was intoxicated and had wandered into the highway. But regardless, police officials say Ms. Mallard should have called for help.

"She didn't do anything to aid him," Lieutenant Paul said. "Originally, this was an accident. There was no crime. The crime occurred when she didn't do anything to come to his aid."

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Mike Heiskell, a defense lawyer hired by Ms. Mallard's family, flatly denied the allegation of sex and said Mr. Biggs did not remain alive in the garage for three days.

Just another lying defense attorney. Attorneys are not alloyed to suborn perjury, but they have taken this to mean that they can say anything in defense of their clients that they are not positive is false. And many of them fail to meet even this standard.

[gbunch]

Money-saving suggestion: Burn the b*tch at the same stake as Andrea Yates!
I'll even supply the gasoline.
And the match.
And the stake.

[willy WOXOF]

Details Disputed in Death ?

That was he in the windshield of her car?

He did die in her garage?

[LarryLied]

You have to "put this in context." This is a "complex issue" with no "simple answers."

So the lawyers will say.

[Illbay]

Okay, the autopsy revealed that Biggs suffered no internal injuries that would cause death. They ruled that he had bled to death.

It takes a LONG TIME to bleed to death from cuts and contusions like he had. The guy very likely COULD have lived 24 hours or more after the accident. Therefore, what was going on during that time? It sure wasn't this Mallard b**tch trying to get help for him.

Second, who cares if she had sex afterward or played pinochle? That's irrelevant. What we know she DIDN'T do was help the guy. What she DID was leave him there to die. All this other merde is just her attorney playing the cynical PR game with the news media hoping to influence potential jurors that "it wasn't as bad as you read," trying to impeach the "buzz" surrounding this thing.

The FACT is the guy died IN HER GARAGE. He probably died slowly. Her "friends" dumped the body. Months later she "giggled" as she mentioned to someone that "I hit this white guy."

The woman will be up for capital murder, never you fear.

[X-FID]

"She didn't do anything to aid him," Lieutenant Paul said. "Originally, this was an accident. There was no crime. The crime occurred when she didn't do anything to come to his aid."

No Lieutenant Paul, the crime occurred the second she left the scene of the accident, and she left the accident scene with the victim attached to her windshield. Throw in leaving him in the garage to die and then trying to cover it up.

This is starting to smell bad.

[Taft in '52]

Why isn't this being prosecuted as a racist hate crime?

[Eternal_Bear]

the victim was only a white guy. Don't you get it?

[07055]

One of her classmates at Oscar Dean Wyatt High School said she was an A student who worked as a teacher's aide.

.........

Ms. Mallard's mother, Dorothy, testified in the hearing today that her daughter had been a Girl Scout who volunteered to help retarded children.

Girl Scout and "A student" wrongly attacked by the establishment and betrayed by a faithless friend....

She is the true victim here....

[wimpycat]

She told the police she had two drinks, while Ms. Daniel said she was drunk and had taken the drug Ecstasy.

Isn't that how it always is? It's always "two drinks". I have a feeling, though, that the informant isn't as reliable as we think she is. I don't mean to say she's lying, but I believe the defense will shred her credibility on the witness stand. Just being in the same group of friends as the killer puts her into the "pathetic loser" category.

[aristeides]

She also told the police that Ms. Mallard planned to destroy the car and make an insurance claim.

Somehow this claim of the informant sounds all too believable.

I wonder why the NY Times sees fit to inform us of the informant's name, but does not see fit to tell us that, according to that informant, Ms. Mallard said, "I hit this white guy," and giggled. Isn't that fit to print?

[aristeides]

Ms. Mallard, born and raised in Fort Worth, was state certified as a nurse's aide. She had bounced between jobs at nursing homes in recent years.

At least the article tells us where this alleged human being was working. I had been wondering. Those poor old people at those nursing homes!

[mrustow]

Thanks for the heads-up, ari. The Times is apparently seeking to discredit the informant, Ms. Daniel, in oreder to soften the image of the defendant, Ms. Mallard. Note that the Times now says that the informant claimed that the defendant had ingested Ecstasy, in addition to two drinks, before driving home, and quotes the defense attorney, Heiskell, as claiming that the informant is unreliable. But look at what the previous day's AP story in the Times said about the same issue:

Ms. Mallard admitted drinking and using the drug Ecstasy the night of the accident, and said she panicked after hitting Mr. Biggs, the police said.

[mrustow]

There's a silver lining, I think, in the Times' cloud of disinformation: A few years ago, they would have killed this story altogether. But now, thanks to the 'Net (read: FR and frontpagemag), the Times' editors can't kill it, so they try to get out in front of it, and spin it to suit their house race politics.

[Mercat]

Sounds like she has found friends to lie on her behalf.

[mrustow]

Windshield Death Suspect Back in Jail/FR

[scholar]

Mike Heiskell, a defense lawyer hired by Ms. Mallard's family, flatly denied the allegation of sex and said Mr. Biggs did not remain alive in the garage for three days.

OH, so the poor suffering soul only was alive for one day--that makes it soooo much better!

[GeronL]

apparently this lawyer has a history of using race and idiotic tactics to get his way in court