[CrimsonTide4]

Jury finds 'windshield death' defendant guilty
Thursday, June 26, 2003 Posted: 12:53 PM EDT (1653 GMT)



FORT WORTH, Texas (CNN) -- Jurors delivered two guilty verdicts against the Texas woman who hit a homeless man with her car and left him to die still embedded in the windshield.

With unanimous verdicts reached in less than a hour, the jury determined Chante Jawan Mallard guilty of murder and tampering with evidence. She faces up to life in prison.

Attorneys for Chante Jawan Mallard admit she hit Gregory Biggs but contend their client then became hysterical and panicked. They describe the event as an accident. Both the defense and prosecution agree Mallard had been drinking and taking drugs beforehand.

The prosecution contends Biggs was moaning and could have survived if he had received immediate medical aid, and accuses Mallard of indifference in the hours after he was hit.

Bexar County Medical Examiner Dr. Vincent Di Maio cast doubt on some aspects of the prosecution's case, saying the impact of the crash would have knocked Biggs unconscious, so he probably wasn't moaning.

Mallard did not testify in the trial but could possibly address the court in the sentencing phase.

Thursday's sentencing concluded a trial that began on Monday. On Wednesday, Biggs' son testified his father was a "very loving" man who fell on hard times after trying to help a girlfriend.

Brandon Briggs, 20, said his parents divorced when he was a child. His father was a bricklayer who started his own company, he said. Gregory Biggs began dating a woman who started having financial troubles, and then he lost his car, business and home, his son said.

Gregory Biggs, 37, had been homeless about two years when he died, Brandon Biggs said.

He said his father also suffered from mild schizophrenia and a bipolar psychiatric condition, which hampered his ability to work.

"I'd say he was very hardworking, he was very friendly, although he didn't have many friends," the son said.

Earlier, the Tarrant County medical examiner testified Gregory Biggs could have survived for hours before succumbing to his injuries after he was hit while walking along a highway on the morning of October 26, 2001.

After hitting Biggs, Mallard is accused of driving her car home and parking it in the garage, with Biggs still lodged in the windshield.


Medical examiner Nizam Peerwani
According to Dr. Nizam Peerwani, Biggs had no "instantaneously fatal injuries. He did not have any spinal cord trauma, no brain trauma, no major cardiac lacerations or lacerations to the aorta or major blood vessels."

He had "serious injuries" but could have stayed alive for many hours, the doctor said. When he was hit, Biggs' left leg was almost amputated, and his right arm, right upper thigh and right lower leg were broken.

The body was found the next day dumped in a nearby park.

On Tuesday, Mallard's former boyfriend, Clete Jackson, testified she called him about 20 times the day Biggs was struck and he helped her dispose of the body in the park.

Jackson pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. A cousin who helped received nine years.

Jackson said he tried to put the body in a place where it could be found so that the man's family could bury him. He also said that Mallard talked about killing herself when he spoke with her the next day.

The judge has imposed a gag order, preventing attorneys and family members from discussing the case publicly.

CNN Correspondent Ed Lavandera contributed to this report.