Wife Says Stepmother Revved Car, ‘Then She Hit Him’ : Hearing: A Newport Beach woman is suspected of felony hit-and-run driving in fatally striking her stepdaughter’s husband with her Mercedes-Benz.

Fighting back the tears, Wendy Ward recalled in court Friday the horror of seeing her husband struck without warning and carried on the hood of her stepmother’s Mercedes-Benz before he tumbled into the street, fatally injured.

Ward, 31, of Costa Mesa testified on the first day of a hearing that will determine whether to try Betty Young Davies on charges of involuntary manslaughter and felony hit-and-run driving.

Davies, 58, of Newport Beach is accused of running down James R. Ward about 8 p.m. Dec. 19 during a confrontation in front of the Wards’ home at 840 Congress St. in Costa Mesa. A 31-year-old father of two children, he sustained severe head injuries and died four days later at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach.

“I was yelling at Jim to move,” Wendy Ward testified before a courtroom filled with friends and relatives. “She started the car. I heard the motor racing. Then she hit him.”

Under questioning by Deputy Dist. Atty. Lewis R. Rosenblum, Ward said her stepmother did not honk, give a warning or try to avoid hitting her husband, who was standing about two feet in front of the maroon Mercedes-Benz 500 SEL.

After her husband was struck, she recalled, Davies sped away and did not stop.

“He had no chance to move,” she said as she broke into tears.

Friday’s testimony in Harbor Municipal Court indicated that the fatal encounter with Davies began about 7:45 p.m. when a neighbor, Wendy Bidner, spotted Davies spying on the Ward home from behind a tree across the street.

Bidner said she called the Wards to warn them and later overheard what she considered threatening remarks that Davies made to James Ward. She recalled that Wendy Ward soon came out and yelled at her stepmother: “Get out of here! Leave us alone!”

Ward said she and her husband confronted Davies in the street in front of their home and persistently demanded to know why she was there, but Davies did not answer questions.

“I was upset by her presence,” she testified. “We were not friendly with her. She was not an invited guest. She didn’t acknowledge anything.”

Police said the Wards’ relationship with Davies had been difficult for several years. Records show that the couple complained at least four times that the stepmother had vandalized their car, made annoying phone calls and had spied on them.

In one incident, the paint on the Wards’ Honda Civic was scratched with a sharp object from bumper to bumper, according to police reports.

Wendy Ward testified that on the day of her husband’s death, the two of them finally escorted Davies to her car, which was parked down the block from their home. She recalled that her husband never struck Davies or her car before he was run down.

Defense Attorney Marshall M. Schulman declined to comment on the testimony. Schulman is scheduled to question Wendy Ward on Monday when the preliminary hearing resumes.

“It’s a sad situation all around,” Schulman said. “It will all come out in the wash, but I don’t want to put any fuel on the fire right now.”

Friday’s hearing was repeatedly disrupted and delayed by legal sparring between Rosenblum and Schulman, prompting warnings by Judge Susanne S. Shaw. At one point, Shaw threatened both attorneys with contempt if they could not control themselves.

“We’re not sixth-graders,” Shaw said. “Let’s get on with it. You are so busy bantering around that we can’t get the facts out.”