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DinoDoc
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AECCP loves Democracy
Sep 1999
time: 23:29
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quote:
Texas Jury Sees Bloody Car Parts in Windshield Case
Tue June 24, 2003 05:34 PM ET
By Jon Herskovitz
FORT WORTH, Texas (Reuters) - Texas jurors on Tuesday saw bloodied parts of a car belonging to a nurse's aide accused of hitting a homeless man with her automobile and leaving him wedged in the windshield until he bled to death.
Chante Mallard, 27, is accused of murdering Greg Biggs, a homeless man, by striking him with her car in 2001 after a night of drinking and drug use. Prosecutors say she left Biggs, 37, to bleed to death in her garage while she plotted with friends for two days about how to dispose of the body.
A forensics expert called by prosecutors in the case before State District Judge James Wilson's court speculated the head of the victim struck part of the car just inches from the driver, while the victim's cut left hand dripped blood into a pocket of the passenger's side door.
Max Courtney, the forensics expert, showed jurors a center console cut from the interior of Mallard's car and pointed out blood stains on the piece, which he said may have come from the victim wheezing or coughing up blood.
After pointing at one, Courtney said: "The only explanation I could come up with is expirated blood from a person's mouth."
Dressed in a light green jacket and white blouse, Mallard, who has pleaded not guilty to murder, stared down expressionlessly at a table while pieces of her blood-stained car were brought into court.
James Sowder, a paramedic and captain in the Ft. Worth Fire Department, later testified that the injuries Biggs suffered would not have been life-threatening had they been treated.
"My opinion is there is not a member of the Fort Worth Fire Department that could not have saved Mr. Biggs' life with basic life support care," Sowder said under questioning from prosecutors, who argue Mallard had several chances to seek medical aid but refused to do so.
Sowder said a person who suffered injuries similar to Biggs' had a "zero-percent" chance of survival without medical assistance.
If convicted of murder, Mallard could get five to 99 years in prison, or a life sentence, which in Texas is at least 40 years without parole. At the start of the trial on Monday, Mallard pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of altering evidence, which brings a sentence of two to 10 years.
Defense attorneys on Monday said the incident left Mallard hysterical and confused. They said she cried and continually apologized to Biggs who was groaning while lodged in her car, and she left it to friends to dispose of the body, which was dumped in a city park.
Mallard was accused of striking Biggs as she drove home in October 2001 after a night out during which she drank 69-cent bar drinks, took ecstasy and smoked marijuana.
Police have said Biggs was hurled head-first through the windshield of Mallard's car, with his broken legs lying across the car's hood.
Mallard told investigators she panicked as she drove less than 2 miles with Biggs stuck in her windshield and parked the car in her garage. |
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My Wife Hates CIV
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Michigan
Jan 1970
time: 05:29
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Murder. She let him die in the car. Refused to get him medical attention only to protect herself.
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Cruddy
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I'd say 2nd degree murder - not premeditated, more of a panic reaction to a situation.
Had she been driving around looking for a homeless person, that would be different - but she had an accident and panicked - then when sober tried to get away with it.
She made no attempt to take her licks the first time around and is STILL DENYING RESPONSIBILITY.
Still worth 30+ years in my book - nurses just aren't supposed to behave like that with injured people.
(Bear in mind, UK sentences are generally third short for time off for good behaviour - so a 30 year sentence means you get out in maybe 20).
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oedo
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and the revolution
Feb 2000
time: 05:29
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Let me see, if I get the facts right:
Chante Mallard caused the death of Greg Biggs by acting first (hitting him with her car) and being passive later (doing nothing that would have saved his life). so she set the cause of Greg Biggs´ death.
but did she act with an intend?
when she hit the man with her car, being influenced by drugs, she acted unintentionally but negligently. if Biggs would have died immediately through the accident, it wouldn´t have been murder but manslaughter (through culpable negligence) only.
but Greg Biggs did survive. nevertheless she neither decided to help him herself nor to call an ambulance. she took him to her instead and let him bleed to death in her garage. by doing this she intentionally killed him.
but maybe she believed, there wouldn´t have been any way to save Biggs´ life right after the accident. if so, then in her imagination she would have acted with no killing intend, since she would have thought that Biggs would have died anyway - no matter how she´d have acted.
I doubt this was the case here. Chante Mallard is a nurse´s aid. she probably knew better. even if she didn´t, she appearantly did nothing to find out, how bad Biggs was actually injured. That´s the least thing one could have expected from her. but she simply didn´t care.
Miss Mallard did everything wrong, what one can do wrong in a situation like this. she finally killed Greg Biggs with an intend - not by the accident, but by her acting after that. and that´s why she murdered him.
I guess she will get a life sentence.
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C0ckney
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Big Up The Macedonian Massive
Apr 2000
time: 05:29
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i read about this a while ago, what sick kind of person can leave someone to die trapped in their windscreen, and she's a nurse as well for ****s sake. lock her up and throw away the key.
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chegitz guevara
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Ft. Lauderdale, FL Communist Party of Apolyton
Jun 2000
time: 00:29
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Actually, I'm not sure the actions sustain a murder charge. Murder requires intent. Waiting for someone to die and wondering how to dispose of the body does not show intent to kill, but intent to let someone die. As far as I know, it's not against the law to let someone die, unless you deliberately set up a situation which makes death likely.
Manslaughter, yes.
Leaving the scene of an accident, yes.
Tampering with evidence, yes.
You might be able to sustain 2nd degree murder by saying that by driving to her garage, she intended to create a situation in which she knew someone had a strong likelyhood of dyng, except she was under the influence of drugs, and so her reasoning can easily be called into question. I don't know if a charge of depraved indifference can legally be sustained.
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25-06-2003 21:07
she kept driving, even after the guy was wedged in her winshield?
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