Another Illegal Beaner makes good in the Sanctuary City of Chicago & Cook County! Martin Rodriguez beat his wife Erica Rodriguez to death and then fried her ass in a home blaze!

Martin "El' Flame" Rodriguez: Please don't think of this as me burning my wife to death... rather think of it as a "HEATED ARGUMENT"!

Martin Rodriguez, the Oak Forest man accused of murdering his wife and setting their home on fire last month, hobbled with the aid of a walker Tuesday for his first court appearance in Bridgeview.

He looked frail in his gray jumpsuit as he hunched near the podium, a bandage covering a neck wound that authorities say was self-inflicted. He softly replied "yes" when Cook County Associate Judge Carmen Aguilar called his name, but he stared at the ground for most of the appearance.

Police say 48-year-old Rodriguez strangled his wife, Erica Rodriguez, set the fire and slashed his own throat Dec. 18 while the couple's three children were in school. He had been hospitalized for several weeks for the cut to his throat and severe burns on his hands and feet. He is now being held without bail.

Prosecutor Cheryl Galvin on Tuesday said more than a dozen pieces of evidence would be submitted for DNA testing, including blood from the crime scene and samples from the handles of several knives.

Rodriguez was charged with first-degree murder and aggravated arson. Prosecutors have said the married couple of 17 years had been fighting, and 40-year-old Erica Rodriguez had recently stopped wearing her wedding ring and told her husband to move out. A few days before the fire, Martin Rodriguez allegedly had his son look through her text messages, and the son told him she was exchanging texts with another man and had discussed hiring an attorney, according to prosecutors.

The body of Erica Rodriguez, a hospice nurse, was found strangled and severely burned on a bed next to a Bible and a family photo, authorities say. She was buried Jan. 2 in Rantoul.