A woman in Fort Worth, Texas was accused of fatally striking an unhoused man with her vehicle, a charge that could have resulted in a lenient conviction if not for her following actions.

Season 2, Episode 5 of Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler examined the case of healthcare worker Chante Mallard, then 25, who stood trial for the 2001 hit-and-run death of 37-year-old Gregory Biggs. While jurors and law enforcement had no question over Mallard’s role as the driver, it became a question of whether Biggs’ death was an accident or murder.

A body in the park

On October 27, 2001, close to 9:30 a.m., an off-duty firefighter called 911 to report a dead body in the city’s Cobb Park. Members of the Fort Worth Police Department (F.W.P.D.), including Detective Mike Carroll, responded to the scene in what initially appeared to be an F.S.R.A. (Failure to Stop and Render Aid), commonly known as a hit-and-run.

Carroll found the body “covered in shards of glass.”

“The leg was very badly contorted,” Carroll recalled. “His left foot was lying across his stomach.”

“Entrenched tire marks” near the body suggested a hit-and-run, and a traffic unit was called to assess. But, according to Carroll, the phase of rigor mortis indicated the victim had been deceased “a few hours.”

Identification with the body proved the victim was Gregory Biggs of Duncanville, Texas. Biggs was a divorced, self-employed bricklayer who’d struggled with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. At the time of his death, he reportedly lived in a shelter for unhoused people but remained a doting figure to his 17-year-old son, Brandon.

During the trial, Brandon Biggs told the court his father fell on hard times after sacrificing his own financial well-being to selflessly help a female friend who needed money for a car.

“He would make friends with everybody and anybody, anywhere, anytime,” longtime friend Steven Phipps said of their high school friendship. “It may sound cliché or cheesy, but he would give you the shirt off his back.”

A 911 call leads to suspect Chante Mallard

Investigators were on the lookout for the damaged vehicle that killed Biggs, possibly serviced by mechanics or tow truck drivers. Unfortunately, months went by without any new leads.

That changed on February 25, 2002 — four months after Biggs’ death — when an anonymous woman called Tarrant County dispatchers, reporting that her “best friend’s homegirl” had confessed to the collision, as heard in a recording published by Prosecuting Evil.

The caller identified the suspect as Chante Mallard, a C.N.A. (certified nursing assistant) who worked at several local medical care facilities.

“This woman who called into the police, she’d been at a party and heard [Mallard] tell this story about being at the club,” said lead prosecutor Richard Alpert. “She was drinking some at the bar; she had half of an ecstasy pill, and when she drove, she hit ‘some white guy’ with her car.”

The caller said Mallard drove with the man still in her windshield before returning home and parking inside her garage.

“The man was, like, dying, but he was still alive,” the caller told the 911 operator.

Authorities obtained a search warrant for Mallard’s home, stunned to discover the damaged Chevrolet Cavalier still parked inside the garage, according to prosecutor Christy Jack.

“Here we are, four months later, and the car’s still there, and hair and blood is still in the headliner,” Jack told Prosecuting Evil.

Mallard quickly confessed to being behind the wheel when fatally striking Biggs.

Chante Mallard’s version of events

During questioning, Mallard admitted to going to Joe’s Bamboo Club in Arlington, Texas — about 15 miles east of Fort Worth — where she consumed two alcoholic beverages and left when the bar closed at around 2:00 a.m. She denied using drugs but stated her belief that, because she left the nightclub feeling “wobbly” and “loose,” someone possibly slipped something into her drink.

While driving down Freeway 287, she struck Biggs, who became stuck in the passenger’s side of the windshield with his back facing outward. 

Mallard said she profusely apologized to the man, and his responses — which came in groans — proved he was still alive after she closed the garage door behind them. Furthermore, bloody fingerprints later discovered inside the vehicle indicated Biggs tried to move himself.

“He’s struggling to live, and every breath he took had to be so painful,” Jack told Prosecuting Evil.

It was unclear when Biggs eventually passed away.

Prosecutors believed, given Mallard’s experience as a C.N.A., that she could have tried to help the dying man. Furthermore, according to Jack, Mallard “in essence hid him” from anyone else who could have rendered aid.

Authorities speak to Mallard’s friend

Mallard told authorities she enlisted the help of an on-again, off-again love interest named “Vaughn” to help her get rid of the body. But, initially, officials had trouble tracking Vaughn down and wondered if he was a real person.

Authorities then questioned Mallard’s friend, Titilisee “T” Fry, who initially said that she was not with Mallard in the hours surrounding Biggs’ death and that Mallard showed up on her doorstep later that morning. Phone records indicated otherwise, however, and in exchange for immunity, Fry told a grand jury that she and Mallard smoked marijuana and split an ecstasy pill before heading to the club together.

They had a few drinks and stayed at the bar until closing, with Mallard insisting she drive home alone. After returning to her residence at around 3:00 a.m., Mallard called Fry and said, “Come pick me up” in a whisper, according to Jack, which indicated to prosecutors that she was trying to conceal her voice from the still-living hit-and-run victim.

Fry picked Mallard up and drove around for several hours, Fry told authorities. When they returned, Biggs was dead.

“I saw the backside of the body lodged out of the window,” Fry later told jurors.

Fry claimed she tried convincing Mallard to call 911, but Mallard reportedly refused.

On April 25, 2002, Mallard was officially indicted on charges of felony murder and tampering with evidence, and authorities doubled their efforts to find those who could have helped move Biggs’ body.

“We eventually find ‘Vaughn’ when a woman contacts the police department and gives them an anonymous tip,” Jack told Prosecuting Evil.

Soon, investigators identified and located Clete “Vaughn” Jackson, who confessed to helping bring Biggs’ body to Cobb Park with the help of his cousin, Herbert Tyrone Cleveland. Both had “criminal histories,” according to Alpert, which encouraged the men to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for a lighter charge of tampering with physical evidence.

Jackson and Cleveland ultimately pleaded guilty and are serving ten and nine years, respectively.

The murder trial of Chante Mallard begins

The murder trial began June 23, 2003, when Chante Mallard pleaded guilty to F.S.R.A.-related charges and not guilty to the more serious charge of murder. Prosecutors stressed that the defendant failed to get help for the victim, despite passing numerous places where she could have stopped.

“When she gets home, she does call for help, but the help isn’t for Greg Biggs; the help is for her,” Jack told Prosecuting Evil.

The defense painted Mallard as a woman “panicked” and challenged the murder charge as overreach.

“The main thing we’re trying to demonstrate is that the injuries that were sustained were not going to be fatal,” Alpert said. “They could have been treated … He [the medical examiner] very firmly believed the cause of death was directly related to leaving Gregory Biggs in her garage.”

To drive the point home, prosecutors brought in Mallard’s Chevy Cavalier, piece by piece, so jurors could see the impact of Mallard’s crimes.

Jackson and Cleveland testify in Mallard’s trial

As part of their plea deals, cousins Jackson and Cleveland took the stand. Clete said he reluctantly accepted Mallard’s invitation to her residence after Fry returned home.

“I think Chante was trying to divest herself of all of her decisions after hitting Greg Biggs, but Chante was the one who decided they needed to get rid of the body,” said Jack. “In fact, there was discussion about burning Greg Biggs’ body in the car, and Clete Jackson was the one who had the decency to say no.”

Jackson, Cleveland, and Mallard helped wrap Biggs’ body in a blanket before taking it to Cobb Park, and Jackson — who was trying to reform his life after a recent prison release — said he quietly apologized to Biggs. Prosecutors highlighted this to demonstrate Mallard’s direct involvement in seeing the event through.

“Her friends didn’t want to be there, they didn’t want to testify, they weren’t on the prosecutor’s side, but they still told the truth,” said Siegler. “That’s just so beautifully credible. It was a great help to the case.”

Defense attorneys presented their client as a woman who was inexperienced when it came to alcohol and drugs, which would have weakened Mallard’s judgment. But ultimately, the jury found her guilty of murder.

“I get the initial accident,” Biggs’ friend, Steven Phipps, told Prosecuting Evil. “You’re scared, you’re drunk, you’re stoned, whatever, I get that. But hours later, when you sober up, or you’re coming down or whatever, and you still do nothing, and you are a healthcare professional … You intentionally waited ’til the person was dead, you murdered him. It’s just evil.”

Chante Mallard was sentenced to 50 years behind bars and will be eligible for parole in March 2027.

Don’t miss all-new episodes of Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler, airing Saturdays at 8/7c on Oxygen.