Man Sentenced Stabbing Wife to Death With Screwdriver in Hospital Bathroom

COOK COUNTY, IL - A McHenry man will spend 30 years in prison for fatally stabbing his estranged wife inside a bathroom at Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village two years ago. Javier Bahena-Arellano pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for stabbing Francisca Quintero-Montoya, the mother of three children, to death with a screwdriver on March 22, 2015. The woman, who had been living Burlington, Wis., at the time of her death, was at the hospital with family grieving the loss of her brother who died of a heart attack that same day, the Daily Herald reports.

Bahena-Arellano, 46, became enraged with Quintero-Montoya, who was 42, when he went through her cellphone and found messages he did not like, according to the Chicago Tribune.He then went out to his truck and got a screwdriver, prosecutors said, before confronting Quintero-Montoya. She fled into a bathroom, he followed, locked the door and stabbed her three times, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Family members heard the woman screaming and tried to come to her rescue. Security officers were able to finally open the door and Quintero-Montoya died at the scene, the Chicago Tribune reports.

During the sentencing hearing on Monday, Cook County Judge Joel Greenblatt called Bahena-Arellano's actions "cowardly, heartless, careless," the Daily Herald reports.

"I find it almost impossible to believe that as your wife and her family were grieving the loss of her brother, you did this cowardly act," the judge said. "Three children were left without their mother."

More via the Chicago Tribune and Daily Herald