Traffic, Theft Cases Dog Slaying Suspect : Crime: A woman accused of killing her husband and dismembering his body has been involved in unresolved traffic violations and a car-theft case.

The woman accused of killing her husband and mutilating his body in their Costa Mesa apartment has left a trail of unresolved traffic violations and criminal cases in at least two Southern California counties, according to court records.

The most serious case is pending in San Bernardino County, where Omayma Aref Nelson, 23, is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 12 for felony auto theft. Nelson was convicted earlier this year of stealing a rental car, leased to Jack Huston, 38, of Chino, with whom she was having a sporadic romance at the time.

“She likes to do bad things to people she shacks up with,” said San Bernardino County Deputy Dist. Atty. James Weintre, who helped to prosecute the case.

Since 1988, Nelson has been repeatedly arrested and charged with hit-and-run driving, auto theft, drunk driving, petty theft and other traffic violations, court records show. Bench warrants have been issued for her arrest, and she has failed to pay fines and make restitution.

Nelson is being held without bail in Orange County Jail in the murder Sunday of her husband of a month, William E. Nelson, 56. She was arrested Monday after a friend of hers told Costa Mesa police that Omayma Nelson had dismembered her husband and asked the friend to help dispose of the body.

Officers discovered several trash bags containing the remains of William Nelson in the couple’s Costa Mesa home and his 1975 Corvette. According to the friend, Nelson admitted the slaying to him, saying that she had killed her husband after he tied her to their bed, cut her repeatedly and tried to rape her early Sunday.

“ ‘I killed him, I killed him and put his head in the refrigerator,’ ” Al Esquivel quoted Nelson as telling him shortly after she went to his apartment Sunday afternoon seeking his help.

The murder charge is not the only Orange County case pending against Omayma Nelson, a diminutive woman with Afro-style hair who immigrated to the United States from Egypt in 1986.

Early Wednesday, she made a brief appearance in West Orange County Municipal Court in Westminster to be arraigned on five misdemeanors for which she has repeatedly failed to appear in court. The charges involve hit-and-run driving, drunk driving, driving without a license and petty theft.

Judge Sara Sheffield Jones entered not-guilty pleas on Nelson’s behalf and appointed a deputy public defender to represent her. While she was arraigned, Nelson stood expressionless in the courtroom holding cage. She was dressed in gray jail attire. The file in the misdemeanor cases listed her occupations as nanny and model.

According to the Department of Motor Vehicles, Nelson has an extensive record of misdemeanor convictions and traffic violations going back several years. Her driver’s license has been suspended at least six times, and she has been found guilty of hit-and-run driving, drunk driving and a host of other moving violations.

Meanwhile, Costa Mesa police said there were no developments in the murder case Friday and reiterated their position that she committed the slaying. Capt. Tom Lazar said no murder weapon has been found and no motive established.