New Zealand student Blazej Kot, 24, faces being jailed for at least 25 years if convicted in the United States of cutting his wife's throat, according to the prosecutor in his case.
"He faces 25 years to life," Tompkins County District Attorney Gwen Wilkinson told a press conference in Ithaca.
"He is not a citizen of the United States. He is no longer a registered student at Cornell. His wife is no longer with us. He has no ties to this community. I will argue that he's the ultimate flight risk."
Kot was born in Zaire, but grew up in New Zealand, and holds dual citizenship from Poland and New Zealand, according to his lawyer, Joseph Joch.
Mr Joch said Kot's parents, Leszek and Barbara Kot, and his sister had flown from their home in Auckland to be with him.
In addition to allegedly murdering his wife, Dr Caroline Coffey, 28, Kot stands accused of setting their apartment on fire to destroy evidence of her murder, the Elmira Star-Gazette reported.
In an indictment handed up just before the New Zealander's arraignment, the Tompkins County grand jury charged Kot with second-degree murder, third-degree arson and tampering with physical evidence, all felonies.
State police and court papers filed at his arraignment said Kot asked police officers if his wife was all right and talked about his wedding photos on the night he allegedly murdered her.
Kot, an Auckland University graduate completing a PhD at Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York, and Dr Coffey, a post-doctoral researcher at Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine, were married last year but celebrated a marriage ceremony in Costa Rica on May 2.
A biker and a jogger found Dr Coffey's body on a walking track near the couple's flat, early on June 3, and an autopsy showed she bled to death.
State police investigators allege that on the evening of June 2, Kot killed Dr Coffey by cutting her throat with a sharp-edged weapon, according to the court papers.
Around 9.47pm that day, a police patrol saw Kot in his car in a parking lot, with dried blood on his arms.
Kot fled in a high-speed car chase, and after 8km he was found clad only in a bathrobe and slumped over the steering wheel with a small utility knife in his hand and a deep laceration across his neck.
There were blood stains throughout the vehicle and officers found a blood-stained knife in the pocket of Kot's robe, the papers said.
"He asked where his wife was, if his wife was OK and talked about his wedding photos," the papers said.
Officers went to the couple's apartment while Kot was airlifted to hospital, and found the apartment on fire.
Firefighters said the fire had been deliberately set.
State police took Kot to Tompkins County Court manacled hand and foot and escorted by five officers.
He did not enter a plea, and Mr Joch waived the reading of the indictment.
Judge John Rowley remanded Kot to the county jail without bail, and scheduled a bail hearing for Wednesday.
Ms Wilkinson said her office planned to argue for Kot to be held without bail.
She said he had no criminal record in the United States, and the prosecutor's office was seeking information from New Zealand police about whether he had a record there.
