A Queens woman arguing with her much-younger hubby zoomed off in her SUV yesterday — with her spouse clinging to the hood — and went on a wild, 11-block high-speed ride before crashing and killing him, cops and witnesses said.
“He was screaming, ‘Stop the car!’ ” a law-enforcement source said — but that only made suspect Maria Espinosa, 51, allegedly floor it, hitting speeds up to 80 mph.
Espinosa was later charged with murder in the death of her husband, Matthew Soria, 34, law-enforcement sources told The Post.
Cops said the troubled couple had been arguing over money.
Authorities said Soria had first pedaled up to Espinosa on his bike as she tried to get into her blue Ford Explorer on Jamaica Avenue near Dexter Court at about 8 a.m., officials said.
“The couple was married. There was a dispute over money. The male wanted keys to the car and money,” said NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, who added that there are “past domestic-violence incidents between them.”
Soria tried to keep Espinosa from getting into the vehicle, but she pushed him away, prompting the angry husband to jump on the car’s hood, cops said.
“The woman wouldn’t give [the keys],” Kelly said.
And Soria wouldn’t get off her vehicle, so Espinosa backed up, hitting a parked car, in the hope that Soria would fall or jump off, sources said.
But he stayed on. So Espinosa floored it on Jamaica Avenue, racing west and hitting speeds of up to 80 mph — with Soria clinging for life on the hood, law-enforcement sources said.
Espinosa drove nine blocks on Jamaica before flipping a U-turn at Euclid Avenue and then driving east down Jamaica again, witnesses and sources said.
She made it about two more blocks before she struck a car, pinning Soria and killing him near the intersection of Jamaica and Crescent Street, sources said.
Witnesses along Jamaica Avenue couldn’t believe their eyes as they spotted Soria screaming in fear, holding on tight to the car’s hood, before the crash.
Guille Areola, 35, who sells flowers at Euclid and Jamaica, wanted to believe the incident was some kind of weird joke or stunt.
“I thought it was for fun,” she said. But as soon as Espinosa pulled the U-turn, “I could see desperation on the man’s face.”
After the crash, “the woman was crying. She looked confused,” the witness said.
Soria was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Two people in the other car were taken to Brookdale Hospital with minor injuries, officials said.
Sources said the warring couple had been together 11 years and that Espinosa had filed a domestic-violence complaint against Soria in 2005. He’d been busted for larceny in 1999 and just gotten off probation for forcing a 15-year-old to perform oral sex on him in his car in June 2004.
Trail of tragedy
1. Maria Espinosa approaches her SUV on Jamaica Avenue near Dexter Court in Queens as boyfriend Matthew Soria rides up on a bicycle.
* Soria tries to prevent Espinosa from getting into her vehicle, but she manages to anyway.
* He jumps on the hood. She backs up, bumps the car behind her to try to get him off.
2. Espinosa then allegedly drives — with Soria still on the hood — west on Jamaica, reaching speeds up to 80 mph.
3. She drives more than eight blocks on Jamaica to Euclid Avenue, where she does a U-turn.
4. She then allegedly speeds back east on Jamaica and finally crashes into a car at Crescent Street, killing the thrown Soria.
Additional reporting by David K. Li and Kevin Sheehan