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

[MeekOneGOP]

Gregory Biggs

Chante Mallard

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

[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?

[MeekOneGOP]

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.

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.

[harpseal]

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.

[MeekOneGOP]

Totally crazy, isn't it ??

[newgeezer]

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>

[Arkinsaw]

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.

[EllaMinnow]

Please add me to the ping list.

[MEG33]

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

[onevoter]

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.

[csvset]

smoked pot, took ecstasy and drank heavily

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

[EggsAckley]

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

[RonF]

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.

[Sir Gawain]

Erowid has all that info.

[newgeezer]

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)

[Grammy]

Just an accident huh?

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

Hope she likes orange jump suits.

[South40]

"...smoked pot, took ecstasy and drank heavily before hit and run".

Correction:

Smoked pot, took ecstasy and drank heavily before MURDER.

[Sir Gawain]

Nice gungrabber logic you have there.

[Bubba_Leroy]

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.