Stepmother Sentenced to House Arrest in Slaying : Manslaughter: Judge says Betty Davies could not control her ‘bizarre’ behavior when she drove into her stepdaughter’s husband with a Mercedes-Benz, fatally injuring him.

A Newport Beach woman, whose harassment of family members culminated when she drove into and fatally injured her stepdaughter’s husband, was sentenced on Friday to house arrest and three years of probation by a judge who said the woman had been unable to control her “bizarre” behavior.

Betty Young Davies, 61, had faced up to seven years in prison and $10,000 in fines in her October, 1991, conviction for vehicular manslaughter and hit and run in the 1989 death of James Ward, 31, of Costa Mesa. He was fatally injured when struck by Davies’ 500 SEL Mercedes-Benz.

In addition to the year of electronically monitored house arrest--under which Davies will be required to wear a bracelet that triggers an alarm whenever she is more than 150 feet from her Lido Isle home telephone--Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan ordered her to pay $7,500 in fines and restitution.

The judge also ordered Davies, as a condition of her probation, to continue psychiatric treatment and to avoid contact with members of the Ward family or anyone else she has harassed in the past.

After Davies’ first trial ended in a hung jury in March, 1991, both sides agreed to a non-jury trial before Ryan.

During the first trial, which lasted six weeks, Davies’ stepdaughter, Wendy Ward, 32, testified that her stepmother had repeatedly harassed her and her husband before the day she drove to the Ward home and struck James Ward with her car, throwing him onto the hood. Ward was then thrown off the car as it raced away, and he died of head injuries three days later.

During her jury trial, Davies acknowledged that she had harassed the Wards for several years without provocation. But she testified that Ward brought about his own death by first climbing onto the hood of her car and smashing her windshield with a portable telephone. The jury split for conviction, 10 to 2.

In appealing for probation, Davies’ attorney, Marshall M. Schulman, said she is a “troubled person,” someone who had been undergoing treatment since 1986 for “severe psychiatric trauma.”

That treatment, Schulman said, is continuing, and Davies no longer takes medication “that apparently contributes to her aberrant behavior.”

Davies’ actions, Schulman said, were the result of “aberrant behavior, not normal behavior. I think you have a person here who is ill . . . (but) no apparent danger, as far as anyone is concerned.”

Before the sentence was pronounced, Davies told the judge: “I’m so very sorry for the loss of James Ward. I respect the bereavement of those who loved him. I am sorry Wendy will be a widow and his children will not know him. I personally know how difficult it is to be a single parent, but also now I must live with this black cloud that will hang over me the rest of my life.”

Ryan said it is clear to him, based on the transcript and the probation report, that Davies was “unable to control her behavior, which was bizarre.”

The judge said he agreed with the probation report that Davies’ “behavior was consistent with her mental illness. Her illness, however, was not severe enough to excuse her conduct. She knows that, and she knew better.”

The judge said Davies is remorseful and likely to respond to psychiatric treatment if granted probation. He noted that she had been seeking help at the time of the death and had recognized that she had a problem.

Ryan then sentenced Davies to three years of supervised probation and cautioned her about the conditions under which she could avoid prison.

“You are to stay away from those people, but especially your stepdaughter’s family,” Ryan warned.

For the first year of probation, Davies will be under house arrest.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lewis Robert Rosenblum said after the sentencing that he is not disappointed by Ryan’s decision.

“I can’t criticize him,” Rosenblum said. “The judge did what, in his heart and mind, was right. . . . He seems to feel (Davies) is not a danger. . . . At least for another year, she won’t be. It’s a very sad case.”

Ward did not speak at the sentencing. But during a recess, she said that “there’ll never be any justice” for her and her two small children.

Davies’ sentence, she said, was “better than nothing, I suppose. . . . I don’t know what’s best. I don’t know if jail would be best. I don’t know if probation would be best. As long as she stays away from us, that’s all that counts. I pray that she leaves us alone. I pray that every night.”

Ward said she still has no idea why Davies began harassing her family.

James Ward’s grandmother, Florence Johnson of Costa Mesa, read a statement in court on behalf of the family.

“Our court days are over,” she told Ryan, “but what I’m searching for is (that) justice be done. It seems the victims, such as myself and our family, have no rights. What right does a person have to harass an individual until the final blow, in this case a car, killed Jim?

“Jim has paid a very high price for wanting to protect and take care of his family. All he was asking Betty Young Davies (was), ‘Why are you continuing to harass us? What do you want?’ The trial is over, and I still don’t know the reasoning behind the harassment.”

Ryan agreed to allow Davies to postpone paying her fine until her appeals have run their course. Davies declined comment on the sentence, and Schulman said he had no comment.