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Not-guilty plea in Elk Grove Village hospital stabbing death

The McHenry man who authorities say stabbed his estranged wife to death last month in an Elk Grove Village hospital while her family helplessly stood by pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Rolling Meadows.

Javier Bahena-Arellano, 43, is being held without bail at Cook County jail on charges of first-degree murder in the March stabbing death of Francisca Quintero-Montoya, 42, of Burlington, Wis.

Bahena-Arellano appeared before Cook County Judge Joel Greenblatt during a hearing Wednesday in Rolling Meadows.

During Bahena-Arellano's bond hearing last month, prosecutors outlined a history of violence in the couple's marriage, including domestic battery convictions in Kane County from 1998 and 1999. Bahena-Arellano was deported after the 1999 conviction but returned to the U.S. in 2010, prosecutors said.

Bahena-Arellano, Quintero-Montoya and other family members were at Alexian Brothers Medical Center on March 22, visiting Quintero-Montoya's brother, a patient in the cardiac care unit who died that morning at the hospital, prosecutors said. Not long after that, Bahena-Arellano confronted his wife, who he believed was cheating on him, and forced her into a unisex restroom which he then locked from the inside, prosecutors said.

Family members heard Quintero-Montoya screaming and crying for help and attempted to open the door but were initially unsuccessful. Eventually, they forced the door open and saw Bahena-Arellano holding a screwdriver and standing over his wife, who was covered in blood, prosecutors said.

Hospital security guards detained Bahena-Arellano while emergency personnel attempted unsuccessfully to save Quintero-Montoya, who suffered fatal stab wounds to her chest and back, prosecutors said.

About a half dozen family members attended the hearing, including one man who identified himself as Quintero-Montoya and Bahena-Arellano's son. He declined to comment.

If convicted, Bahena-Arellano faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Prosecutor: Family heard murder victim's screams, helpless to save her

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