She admitted to smoking pot and taking Estacy before driving, and hitting Gregory Biggs. But she claims it was an accident. It might have been an accident had she called 911 right then… but she drove home with Mr. Biggs STUCK in her windshield and asked friends to help… her. By the time they figured out what to do, the man was dead. She and her friend dumped the body in a park and went on about their business.
I think Chante is guilty of murder. She had the opportunity to get help for the man before he died and did not. She didn’t leave him in a position for others to get help for him either.
Chante was concerned more about herself - as to whether her parents would find out what she did - the drugs and driving…
Horrible. My heart goes out to her for having to live with a mistake she made when she was high. Most of us get away with some social embarrassment when we make drug/alcohol-related errors in jugement (I once smacked my company commander at a private party–turned out he was cool with it, but it took a long time to recover face), she has to live with this memory. Suffering of the victim, his family as well as hers is of course real, but probably not relevant here.
I think it’s natural to want to make something bad go away. And it may even have been justifiable in her own mind to ditch the corpse (after all, it wasn’t Chante that killed him, it was a stoned/drunk driver).
I ain’t no lawyer, but I think to pin MURDER on her ya gotta prove she intended to kill the dude. She behaved irresponsibly before, during and after the incident, but she was freaked out and obviously lacks faith in the Texas justice system…er, I mean she lacks a degree of moral fiber. I can see her getting smacked with manslaughter, vehicular homicide, etc. But barring any witnesses stating that she intentionally hit the guy…
Of course, she is African-American, in Texas, accused of murder. Lucky for her GWB is otherwise occupied, then again he may put up a gallows on the White House lawn just for old times’ sake.
I DO lean hevily to the left, and while I do not find her actions excusable by any stretch (no pun intended, but readily enjoyed), I remain concerned about how to prevent this from happening again: She’s a 27 year old in the medical profession. Why is she getting high? taking ecstacy? drinking & driving? So irresponsible that she can’t pull her car over and take her lumps? She will, no doubt, be less of a threat to the pedestrians of TX after this, but who else out there simply failed to kill someone that night, and how can they be reached & treated & educated?
This doesn’t seem like murder to me. I grant that I have zero knowledge of Texas law (or the fine details of any state’s laws) but legal definitions of murder I have seen always include intent and premeditation (or malice aforethought) to apply a charge of murder.
That said she is certainly guilty of a crime but I would think it would be of something less than murder (vehicular manslaughter, negligent homicide…I don’t know). This may seem like semantics but the penalties you face for these crimes can be very different. Murder can be life in prison…maybe the death penalty. Manslaughter (or the like) will get you something less than that (although it could still be a significant jail term).
It is up to the courts to decide but her crime seems to me to be worthy of something less than a life sentence. Still, words like ‘depraved indifference’ are popping into my head on this one so seeing her in jail for 20+ years would seem justifiable to my mind.
In Texas murder does not necessarily carry a life sentence, so I’m not sure why you are saying that. Also, in Texas, murder does not necessarily equal intent. What y’all are speaking of is normally first degree murder in most (if not all) states. Most (if not all) states have varying degrees of murder.
She could get probation if the jury feels it’s warranted.
And, Matchka, this community was outraged long before we learned from the media that Ms. Mallard was black, or that Mr. Biggs was white, so that pretty much blows your little leftist theory all to smoke. And I’m not sure what you mean with the Bush/gallows joke. As for the rest of your post…! Are you serious? Good God, next you’ll be blaming Mr. Biggs for being in her way when she wanted to barrel down the street drunk and stoned!
Personally, I have utterly no sympathy for this woman, and I truly hope she has to live with her “mistake” for the rest of her life–behind bars. After watching part of the case on Court TV, I think this woman is just an utterly reprehensible human being. According to one witness, she actually had sex with her boyfriend while a man bled to death in her garage. (The defendent denies this.)
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We are responsible for our actions, and hers were not excusable because she was afraid of the consequences.
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She has the requisite charges under Texas law. (Here’s the warrant.) I can’t find the actual charges against her in court spelled out, but the woman was driving while intoxicated, caused an accident leading to a death, acted with gross indifference, and then tampered with evidence. IIRC, first degree murder must be a killing accompanied by another felony charge.
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Yes, her race does play a big part in this, as does the fact that the victim was a white man, which, according to studies, gets a harsher sentance on average.
Still, the woman did something horrible, and she deserves to pay.
I don’t really think she is redeemable. This woman apparently has a huge fundamental character flaw which renders her relatively indifferent to the sufferings of others as long as she’s not affected. She is a person willing to let a man die a horrible death rather than face charges of driving while intoxicated.
Had she rendered aid, or called for help, the man probably would have lived. Again, I’m not sure about Texas, but in my state, she probably would have gotten less than five years for hitting someone while intoxicated.
Now, killing someone while driving intoxicated is another story. In the case of Jimmie Foiles the allegation was that the defendent was high on pot when he caused the accident. The defendent claimed that he had last smoked it days ago. However, it boils down to this: any traces of THC renders you “legally” intoxicated. Since THC remains in the body for quite a while, habitual users are * always * technically impaired, even if they last smoked a day ago. I’d imagine that the laws surrounding Ecstacy are similar. She may have been relatively “sober” but still legally intoxicated when the crime was committed.
I lean toward the left myself, and am adamantly opposed to the death penalty, but cases like this one almost tempt me to change my position.
But, no matter what happens to her, it won’t stop the next intoxicated driver from getting behind the wheel. People don’t stop to think about such things. The defendant herself was probably thinking that she really wasn’t impaired and that it was only eight miles to her home-- she could make it all right. “Oh, I’ll be fine,” they’ll say. Only when a horrible accident occurs do they lament the folly of their ways. Of course, it’s too late, and their example probably won’t stop the next person who thinks they’ll make it home okay.
Are you serious? Good God, next you’ll be blaming Mr. Biggs for being in her way when she wanted to barrel down the street drunk and stoned!
Didn’t mean to imply that I thought she was right. I clearly stated that she was not. But it’s easy to judge her in this case because what she did was so incredibly irresponsible.
What flashed through my mind as I was reading the story was, “Who is this woman? Why did she do what she did?” It’s too easy to summarize her as irresponsible & selfish–the fact that she was appologizing to the guy (the visual just boggles the mind) indicates that she felt horribly about the whole mess. Does she deserve a hard punishement? Hell yes. Could this have been avoided if her “friends” and family had recognized her habits and grabbed her by the neck and convinced her to straighten up? Probably.
Mr. Biggs is dead. He died horribly, but he is boyond our aid.
Ms. Mallard is not dead, and so is potentially useful as an example/spokesperson in prevention.
My Texas comments were out of line. My posting of them was hypocritically judgemental.
I am a young person and if this women came and talked to me or any of my friends they would laugh at her and blow her off. She would be as much of a joke to them as those anti-drug commercials claiming that your drug money supports terror. Frankly, for the most part people don’t care until it happens to them.
People aren’t going to change their ways because some dumbass, yes I repeat dumbass, women let a man die. She didn’t want to be punished so she acted like a coward. She should be in jail for 20 years JUST for driving under the influence and that’s not even counting killing the man. How would you feel if you were bleeding to death and a women parks you in the garage and occasionally comes out to say she’s sorry and see if you are dead yet?
I think this is worse than shooting someone and killing them because after the fact she had the opportunity to somewhat redeem herself, and SHE CHOSE NOT TOO. The drugs shouldn’t be considered a factor to help her. If anything that’s even more reason to throw the book at her. Drugs are illegal so prior to taking them you realize the risk you are taking.
You are coorect. It is veryeasy to judge her in a case like this. In fact, I am judging her guilty of 1st degree idiocy, with malicious indifference. Lock her up.
Why should why have anything to do with it at all? She was a total idiot and acted with blatant disregard for anyone around her.
Its easy to summarize her as irresponsible and selfish because she patently IS irresponsible and selfish. She apparently felt just bad enough to claim she was sorry while this man died, but not sorry enough to do anything bt dump his corpse off.
No, she deserves no pity. Let her earn her mercy with hard time.
by Paco
Ironically, those commercials are pretty well correct.
I’m not up on the finer points of law. However I think it became murderous when she continued driving with him stuck there. After arriving home going in and out of the garage listening to him moan and apologizing. Eventually she stopped going out there and left him to die.
This person CHOSE to drive while drunk and high. She CHOSE to not call 911 when she hit the person. She CHOSE to drive home and still not call 911. She CHOSE to leave him imbedded in her windshield till he died. She CHOSE to call her friends and dump the body. She CHOSE to burn the car’s back seat. And then, after getting away with it, she CHOSE to go to another party and she CHOSE to brag about the deed.
She deserves death, and I hope she gets life in prison at least.
The fact she was on ecstasy doesn’t make a difference in my view.
First of she hit someone with a car, injuring them very badly. I’m not sure what (if any) offense this is, but it certainly isn’t murder.
Secondly, though her own inaction, she caused him to die from those injuries. I’m not sure, but i guess this would count as murder? Its not premeditated, and she didn’t do it deliberately, but she probably could have saved his life. If she hadn’t have caused those injuries then it wouldn’t be murder, but given she had, i think it does count as murder.
It is ironic that if she had killed him outright when she crashed into him it probably wouldn’t count as murder.
It’s abolutely murder. It wasn’t just somebody who accidentally ran over a person while high. She drove home with this guy hanging out of her windshield. She sat there and listened to him moaning in agony and begging her to call for help. She ignored his pleas and went back inside the house. She called a friend who also begged her to call the police. IIRC, this went on for a couple of days before the guy died. She then dumped the body and attempted to to dispose of further evidence by burning her bloody car seat. That was at least a couple of days later when the E would have worn off (the pot is a non-factor and irrelevant). She showed a depraved indifference to human life and to a man who was suffering in agony and begging her for help. I have no sympathy whatever for this woman. All she cared about was herself. The Ecstasy is just an excuse and it’s a bad excuse anyway.
She doesn’t meet the criteria for capital murder (murder of two or more people, or a policeman/fireman, or a young child, etc.) under Texas Law, so she’s being tried for first degree murder. You can only get death for capital murder; for 1st degree murder the maximum sentence is life in prison.
In her instance, to find her guilty of 1st degree murder the jury has to determine that she either intentionally or knowingly caused the man’s death. It’s pretty well certain that she didn’t kill him intentionally (she didn’t want him to die), so the prosecution will have to prove that she knowingly caused his death.
A person acts “knowingly”, in general, when they are aware that their conduct is of a particular nature or knows that their conduct will necessarily or very likely cause a particular result. For example, say A intends to burn down a building. He knows people are asleep inside and are likely to be killed, and while he doesn’t intend to kill them, he doesn’t much care if he does. That would satisfy “knowingly” for murder. The defense is apparently arguing that her original conduct (hitting the guy) was merely negligent and not “knowing”, and her conduct subsequent to that was merely failure to render aid and not murder because the original conduct wasn’t done “knowingly.”
Don’t get hung up on premeditation, people, for two reasons.
First, premeditation is not always required for a murder conviction. Reckless indifference, etc. can also bump it up to murder, depending on the jurisdiction.
Second, premeditation does not mean that the perpetrator had to think “I’ma gonna kill someone tonight.” Instead, it is defined as “Conscious consideration and planning that precedes some act (such as committing a crime).” Black’s Law Dictionary If you aim a gun at someone intending to harm them by hitting them in the arm, and your aim is bad and you kill them, you have committed premediated murder.
I’m not familiar with Texas law, but it may be all that is required here is that the woman, with premeditation, decided to get high and drive her car.
How about the fact that she coldly sat and ignored the man’s pleas for help as he lay mangled and bleeding halfway through her windshield. isn’t that “wreckless indifference?”
This woman deserves to die in prison. I can’t summon an ounce of sympathy for her.
That’s like me putting a bag over somebody’s head and tying them up and then saying that I am sorry while I watch him die. He couldn’t help himself and his death was a DIRECT result of her irresponsibility.
Not likely. That would be acting “recklessly” or “negligently,” which would only get you (respectively) manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide.
Murder is an appropriate charge in this case because of the provision that a person commits murder if she “intends to cause serious bodily injury and commits an act clearly dangerous to human life that causes the death of an individual.” The act in this instance is not hitting the victim with her car; it is the driver’s subsequent denial of assistance to a person over whom she has assumed control and responsibility. That’s what makes this different from an ordinary hit and run. Ms. Mallard affirmatively chose to drive the victim home and deny him any kind of care or assistance.
I would also note that Ms. Mallard could plausibly have been charged with capital murder, since that act of forcibly removing the victim from the scene fits the definition of kidnapping, which is one of the predicate acts for application of the Texas capital murder statute. And capital murder, of course, means the possibility of capital punishment.