Pubdate: Tue, 24 Jun 2003
Source: Times-Journal, The (Fort Payne, AL)
Copyright: 2003 Times-Journal
Contact:  http://www.times-journal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1883
Author: Steven Stiefel

DRUGS ARE NO EXCUSE FOR EVIL BEHAVIOR

Of all the ways to die, I have a hard time imaging a worse fate than what 
happened to Gregory Biggs.

The 37-year-old homeless bricklayer was walking on the shoulder of the road 
in Fort Worth, Texas when Chante Jawan Mallard, 27, came driving along that 
same road in the wee hours of Oct. 26, 2001.

Her car hit him so hard his head and shoulders jammed into the windshield 
and his legs were bent over the roof.

Mallard stopped briefly to try to get Biggs off her car, but when she 
couldn't she drove about a mile to her home. She then called a friend to 
pick her up.

Mallard and her friend went looking for her ex-boyfriend for help, but 
couldn't find him and returned to her house. Mallard showed the friend into 
the garage, where, by then, Biggs had died.

According to a police report, Mallard smoked marijuana, took Ecstasy and 
drank heavily with a friend shortly before she drove home.

Defense attorney Jeff Kearney said Mallard was not thinking clearly because 
she was in a drug-induced haze. He said it was an accident, not murder.

The former nurse's aide, now on trial, faces life in prison if convicted.

Should Mallard get any lienency from the court or society because she was 
drunk and using illegal drugs?

No. This would have been a tragic accident if she had been sober. But he is 
dead because she put chemicals into her body to distort her reality, and 
then got behind the wheel of a motor-powered sledgehammer.

The horror of this is further compounded by Mallard's apparent selfishness, 
more motivated to keep out of trouble than to aid a man she mangled and 
then left to slowly die in her windshield.

An expert testified Biggs could have lived if he had received prompt 
medical attention. Instead, two of her friends allegedly helped Mallard 
dump the body in a park, where it was found the next day.

This is a frequent theme in these teen horror flicks, adolescents 
accidentally killing someone and attempting to get out of the consequences. 
But Mallard is a grown woman.

Police only found out about the incident four months later after a tipster 
called to say Mallard had talked about it at a party.

Somebody needs to put an end to her party days.
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