By Angela K. Brown The Associated Press

FORT WORTH, TexasA nurse's aide has been charged with murder for allegedly hitting a homeless man with her car, driving home with him stuck in her broken windshield and ignoring his cries for help as he bled to death in her garage over the next two days.

Chante J. Mallard, 25, went into the garage a few times and apologized but never got him help, authorities said. Police say she waited for him to die, then dumped the stranger's body in a park with help from her friends.

"There's a pretty good possibility he'd be alive if he'd gotten help, Lt. David Burgess said Thursday. Mallard was arrested on murder charges Wednesday and released on bond. If convicted, she faces from five years to life in prison and a flne up to $10,000.

According to police, Mallard had been drinking and using the drug Ecstasy the night Gregory Biggs 37. was hit. The impact broke his legs and hurled him headfirst through the windshield.

When Biggs' body was found Oct.27, authorities thought he had been hit by a car but had no leads. Burgess said police were contacted a few weeks ago by someone who said Mallard told her about the incident.

The tipster told police Mallard drove home, went inside and had sex with her boyfriend, then went to the garage to find Biggs still alive, according to the arrest warrant affidavit, Mallard later told investigators she went in the garage a few times ever the next two days and apologized to the victim, but never called for help as he pleaded with her, according to the affidavit. "I'm going to have to come up with a new word. Indifferent isn't enough. Cruel isn't enough to say," Tarrant County prosecutor Richard Alpert told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "Heartless? Inhumane? Maybe we've just redefined inhumanity here."

A search of Mallard's house turned up the damaged car with blood, hair and other evidence, authorities said the cars seats were found m the back yard, and one had been burned.

Mallard's attorney, Mike Heiskell, said Thursday that his client is guilty only of failing to stop and render aidnot murder.

He said the victim died a few hours after Mallard drove home and was in her garage no more than 24 hours. He said her friends advised her not to call for help and suggested dumping Biggs' body.

The medical examiner's office said Biggs suffered no internal injuries and apparently died from loss of blood and shock.

Charges may he flied against some of Mallard's friends who helped her take Biggs' body to the park, Burgess said.