Former Northwestern University professor Wyndham Lathem was slated to stand trial starting Sept. 27 for first-degree murder in a case that involves what prosecutors said was a sexual thrill-kill, The Chicago Tribune reported.
The victim, 26-year-old Trenton Cornell-Duranleau, was stabbed more than 70 times and was almost decapitated in the 2017 incident, according to authorities. Lathem's co-defendantBritish national Andrew Warren, who pled guilty in 2019is expected to testify against Lathem at length.
According to prosecutors, Lathem and Warren had chatted online for months about their shared fantasies of killing other people and themselves. In late July 2017, Lathem paid for Warren to fly to Chicago, and the two came up with a plan to kill victims of Lathem's choosing; both men planned to then off each other simultaneously.
Lathem then allegedly lured Cornell-Duranleau to his apartment in the 500 block of North State Street and texted Warren that they would kill him that night. The men then both reportedly kill Cornell-Duranleau.
Warren was arrested in San Francisco, while Lathem surrendered to U.S. marshals at the federal courthouse in nearby Oakland.
While they were on the run, the men made two charitable donations in Cornell-Duranleau's name, prosecutors saidincluding one to Chicago's Howard Brown Health in the amount of $5,610.