Driver gets 50 years for man's death in windshield

FORT WORTH, Texas - A jury sentenced Chante Mallard to 50 years in prison Friday for leaving a man to die a slow death while jammed in the broken windshield of her car.

Mallard, 27, could have received anywhere from five years probation to life in prison for murdering Gregory Biggs. She and her family cried after the sentence was read.

"There's no winners in a case like this. Just as we all lost Greg, you all will be losing your daughter," Biggs' son, Brandon, told Mallard's family in a statement he read in court after the sentence was announced.

Both families declined to comment afterward. "My heart is heavy, truly heavy," said Norma Caruthers, a friend who counseled Mallard in jail.

Defense attorney Jeff Kearney said he was upset with the length of the sentence, which was announced after jurors deliberated about 21/2 hours.

"We certainly knew it would be a significant prison sentence based on all the evidence, but we were hoping it would be somewhat lighter," he said.

It took the jury less than an hour Thursday to convict Mallard, who after a night of drinking and using drugs struck Biggs, 37, with her car about 3 a.m. on Oct. 26, 2001. She drove home with the man crumpled in the windshield and left him in her garage to die.

Medical experts testified that Biggs was alive for one or two hours after being hit and probably would have survived had he received medical help.

Mallard tearfully told the jury Thursday that she was sorry, adding that she didn't call for help because she was scared. But prosecutor Richard Alpert said Friday that the case "is all about selfishness."

"Some people lack the moral fiber to do the right thing," he said. "A man is lying in her car moaning and bleeding and she needs someone to tell her what to do? Any decent person would call for help."

Defense attorney Jeff Kearney told jurors that Mallard would not have left the man to die if she hadn't been under the influence of drugs.

While Kearney pleaded for leniency, Alpert said Mallard deserved to spend the rest of her life behind bars.

"If your sentence gives her a chance to see the light of day again she will have gotten away with (murder)," the prosecutor said.

Biggs' battered body was found in a park the day after he was hit. Authorities had no leads in the death until four months later, when one of Mallard's acquaintances called police.

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