Medical Examiner: Windshield Victim Died 2 Hours Later
Defense Rests In Murder Trial Of Chante Mallard After Calling 1 Witness
Updated: 7:06 p.m. EDT June 25, 2003
FORT WORTH, Texas -- A medical examiner in Texas says a homeless man who got lodged in a car windshield died about two hours later.
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Mallard's attorneys don't dispute the October 2001 incident but say it was an accident -- not murder. She faces life in prison if convicted.
The medical examiner also says Biggs may have survived if he had received treatment.
The defense's sole witness was a medical examiner who testified that Biggs likely was unconscious after his head hit the windshield. The testimony conflicted with that of the prosecution's medical examiner, who said that Biggs would have been able to talk after the incident and would have been in excruciating pain.
Mallard did not testify.
Tuesday's testimony was particularly gruesome. A forensic expert went over blood-spattered parts of Mallard's car, explaining how the spatters indicated Biggs was alive after Mallard pulled her car into her garage.
Mallard's former boyfriend, Clete Jackson, also testified, explaining his role in removing Biggs' body and leaving it in a park.
Jackson testified that he believed the entire incident was an accident and that he and his cousin Herbert Tyrone Cleveland removed Biggs' body and dumped it in a public park hoping someone would find the body soon. The two have already pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence.
From the witness stand, Jackson recalled the moment he realized a human being was lodged in Mallard's Chevrolet Cavalier.
"So I went and looked and opened the car door. She was like, 'I hit somebody and he's still in the car.' [I saw] the dude ... just about his whole body on the floorboard, just about all of it," Jackson testified Tuesday.
Mallard has been described by friends as being under the influence of drugs and alcohol when the accident happened. She told investigators she was returning home from a party and panicked after the accident.
According to media reports, Mallard returned to the garage several times to apologize to Biggs as he lay impaled on the windshield. He eventually bled to death.
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