Booking photos of Jose F. Martinez-Hernandez and Robert Danno (from left) (Photos from Cook County Sheriff's Police)
Robert Danno and Jose Fernardo Martinez-Hernandez barely looked at each other as a prosecutor described how Danno allegedly strangled his wife and his 79-year-old mother-in-law in their Southwest Side home, then drove the bodies to a suburban forest preserve and set them on fire.
Martinez-Hernandez fought back tears as Judge Kerry Kennedy ordered the two men held without bond on charges of first-degree murder and concealing a homicide in the killing Saturday of Mary Ann Urban-Danno and her mother, Theresa Urban. Standing just a few feet away, Danno, dressed in a baggy blue T-shirt, was impassive.
Detectives said Danno and Martinez-Hernandez lived together in the basement of a house in the 5600 block of South Neenah Avenue on the Southwest Side, a home they shared with Urban-Danno and her mother, who had dementia. On Saturday, Urban-Danno went to the basement and argued with her husband, who wrestled her to the floor with Martinez-Hernandez, authorities said.
Martinez-Hernandez allegedly helped hold Urban-Danno down as Danno strangled her to death, Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Michael Deno said. Danno then went upstairs and strangled Urban, Deno said.
Danno, 50, and his 51-year-old wife had been married for 10 years, but the couple fought frequently, Cook County sheriff's Detective Eric Burnson said Tuesday. Martinez-Hernandez, 24, had been unemployed and homeless until Danno took him in about six months ago.
Authorities said the two men waited inside the house until nightfall, then loaded the women one at a time into a trash can and put them in Urban-Danno's Chrysler PT Cruiser. Danno allegedly drove about 15 miles to a remote section of the Cap Sauers Holdings Forest Preserve in Palos Park, with Martinez-Hernandez following in a second car.
At the forest preserve, Danno poured gasoline over the front seat of the car and the bodies, then dropped a burning piece of paper on the fuel, Deno said.
Firefighters discovered the bodies after extinguishing the burning vehicle late Saturday. The Cook County medical examiner determined that the two women died of strangulation, Deno said.
Detectives tracked Danno and Martinez-Hernandez through license plates that were still on the PT Cruiser, authorities said. Danno was taken into custody around 3 a.m. Sunday and Martinez-Hernandez around noon, sheriff's spokesman Ben Breit said. After several hours of questioning, both men gave videotaped confessions, Burnson said.
Authorities think money might have motivated the killings. Breit said Theresa Urban had about $500,000 in a bank account.
When asked about the relationship of the two charged men, Burnson said Tuesday they were "just friends."