Murder cover-up committed by heartless
It was much easier to think that Chante Jawan Mallard was an aberration, that she deviated so far off the humanity scale that perhaps she didn’t even belong to our species. It was easy to think that way when Mallard was arrested in February 2002. Police in Texas claimed that in the predawn hours of Oct. 26, 2001, Mallard hit a homeless man with her car. His body became lodged in her windshield.
Rather than help him, Mallard, a certified nurse’s aide, drove home, parked her car in the garage and left Gregory Briggs to bleed to death.
His body was found in a park the following day. Police thought he was the victim of a hit-and-run, but had no leads until a tipster called in February to report Mallard had bragged about it at a party. The tip led police to search Mallard’s garage and car.
All those months later it was still battered and bloodstained.
What kind of person could do something so horrible? It’s bad enough to get behind the wheel, drugged after a night of partying on pot, alcohol and Ecstasy. It’s worse yet to hit someone. Unthinkable to do nothing other than watch him die.
During Mallard’s trial this week, testimony came out that once she pulled into the garage she sat in the car and cried, repeatedly telling Briggs she was sorry while he was still alive, moaning and attempting to help himself.
It was easy to think Mallard was a lone monster. But she was not.
There were others whose actions are just as difficult to comprehend.
She called a girlfriend, Titilisee Fry, who came rushing over. According to an Associated Press report, when Fry arrived Mallard was hysterical and “was blabbing, ‘Lord, I’m sorry. What do I do? Lord, I’m sorry. It was an accident. What do I do?”‘
Fry said she argued with Mallard when her friend refused to call for help. “I told her, ‘I’m leaving. I don’t want anything to do with this at all.”‘
What kind of person doesn’t pick up the phone and call 9-1-1? Did Fry go home, go back to bed and forget that this ever happened? When police first questioned her, she lied to them and to a grand jury. Now, she said, she is willing to tell the truth after she was granted immunity from prosecution on perjury charges.
Was Briggs still alive when Fry turned her back?
And then there are Mallard’s ex-boyfriend Clete Jackson and his cousin Herbert Tyrone Cleveland.
Mallard turned to Jackson for help. Since he was convinced it was all just an accident, he didn’t want to, but he and his cousin helped dispose of the body. As if to show the jury that he possesses some level of decency, Jackson testified that during the planning stage, he said, “We ain’t going to burn nobody.’ We’re going to put him somewhere so his family can find him so they can bury him, because it was an accident.”
As if that will ever provide any comfort to Briggs’ family.
Jackson and Cleveland pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence. Jackson is serving a 10-year sentence. The jury on Thursday, deliberating for less than an hour, convicted Mallard of murder – the only possible conclusion.
The case is chilling in that it provides a glimpse at human behavior at its worse. But it is equally disturbing in that Mallard isn’t an aberration. Her behavior was common in her circle of friends. How many other such circles exist?
E-mail: http://ltraud@heraldstandard.com.