Dallas Morning News report on #4.
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Chante Mallard Murder Trial ping list!. . .don't be shy.
Posted on 06/27/2003 3:55:41 PM PDT by dennis1x
not eligible for parole for 30.
Mallard sentenced to 60 years06/27/2003
Jurors have unanimously sentenced Chante Mallard to 50 years for murdering Gregory Biggs, and 10 years for tampering with evidence.
Prosecutors portrayed convicted murderer Chante Mallard on Friday as a cold and remorseless person for whom the death of Gregory Biggs was “simply a bump in the road of her life.”
Addressing the jury in the punishment phase of Ms. Mallard’s murder trial, prosecutors urged jurors to sentence Ms. Mallard to life in prison for striking Mr. Biggs with her car and leaving him to bleed to death in her windshield.
“Some people lack the moral fiber to do the right thing,” lead prosecutor Richard Alpert said. “You know what any decent person with a shred of dignity would do. They would have called for help.”
But defense attorneys asked the jury for “justice tempered with mercy” in deciding Ms. Mallard’s fate.
Defense attorney Jeffrey Kearney said Ms. Mallard felt “true and honest and heart-felt remorse.” He reminded jurors that she did not ask to be put on probation for her actions on the night Mr. Biggs died, but to be sent to prison.
“She said, ‘I deserve it,’” he said.
The seven-man, five-woman jury began deliberating punishment at 3 p.m. Friday. It has a wide range of options in sentencing Ms. Mallard, from probation to life in prison.
Mr. Kearney said jurors should show mercy because Ms. Mallard had never been charged with a crime before she hit Mr. Biggs, and now only wishes to have a chance at a future.
“It didn’t happen because she’s an evil, horrible person,” Mr. Kearney said. “What she did is horrible, but she is not a horrible person. There is a lot of good here.”
But prosecutors said Ms. Mallard’s actions that night speak for themselves. After striking Mr. Biggs on her way home from an alcohol- and drug-fueled night with friends, she fled the scene with his body still lodged in her car. Upon arriving home, she left Mr. Biggs locked in her garage, where authorities say he bled to death.
“Why did Greg Biggs have to die alone, in the dark?” prosecutor Christy Jack said. “God knows we’d like to know.”
She discounted Ms. Mallard’s show of remorse on the witness stand Thursday.
“The sincere expression of remorse is when you believe no one is watching,” Ms. Jack said. “Killing Gregory Biggs was simply a bump in the road of her life.”
Mr. Kearney asked the jury not to “throw this life away.”
“Our society is not built on throwing another life away after one has already been lost,” he said.
Earlier Friday, Mr. Biggs’ 20-year-old son took the witness stand for the second time this week, telling jurors that his father’s death has left a void in his life.
“With Father’s Day or what not, there’s no father to send a card to,” said Brandon Biggs.
“He was not a part of my high school graduation, because he was dead,” he said of his father. “He will not be here to see me get married. He will not be here to see me grow old.”
Defense attorneys called one witness Friday morning. Toxicology expert Gary Wimbish told the jury that the combination of alcohol and drugs consumed by Ms. Mallard on the night she hit Mr. Biggs would likely have prevented her from understanding her surroundings.
“Creating a sequence of appropriate responses would be difficult to perform,” Mr. Wimbish said of the effect of the alcohol and drugs.
Specifically, the drug “ecstasy,” which Ms. Mallard testified she took, blocks a person’s ability to access long-term memories, such as who to call or what to do in an emergency, Mr. Wimbish said.
Under questioning by prosecutor Richard Alpert, Mr. Wimbish said he had no evidence of the concentration of alcohol and drugs in Ms. Mallard’s bloodstream and was unable to determine the actual effect they may have had on her judgment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/062703dnmetmallard2.32f7b8fd.html
Still, she deserves every day of it. We'll see how she is in 30 years...I'll be 78 and probably a great-granddad a few times over by then.
Dallas Morning News report on #4.
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Chante Mallard Murder Trial ping list!. . .don't be shy.
SO9
See post #4
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