IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Former Northwestern University professor sentenced to 53 years in jail in boyfriend’s stabbing death

Wyndham Lathem, 47, was found guilty of first-degree murder in October in the July 2017 death of Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau.
A judge sentenced a former Northwestern University professor Wyndham Lathem to 53 years in prison on Tuesday for the 2017 stabbing death of his boyfriend.
A judge sentenced a former Northwestern University professor Wyndham Lathem to 53 years in prison on Tuesday for the 2017 stabbing death of his boyfriend.Chicago Police Department

A former Northwestern University professor who was convicted in the 2017 stabbing death of his boyfriend has been sentenced to 53 years in prison. 

Wyndham Lathem, 47, a renowned microbiologist, was sentenced Tuesday.

Cook County Judge Charles Burns called the grisly killing of Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau, 26, “cold-blooded” and an “execution,” Associated Press reported. 

Cornell-Duranleau was stabbed more than 70 times on July 27, 2017, in an attack so brutal one of the blades found in the apartment was broken, prosecutors previously said.

Lathem fled Chicago after the attack. Both he and co-conspirator Andrew Warren, an Oxford University financial officer at the time of the slaying, were apprehended after an eight-day manhunt.

Prosecutors said the two met on the internet and made a plan to kill someone, then kill themselves. They said the plot was formed months before Lathem paid for Warren to travel to Chicago.

Warren accepted a plea deal in 2019 for a 45-year prison sentence, in which he testified against Lathem. 

Adam Sheppard, a defense attorney for Lathem, told NBC News Wednesday, “In our extensive post-trial motion requesting a new trial, we set out extensive constitutional issues which we believe clearly merit a new trial.”

“As for the sentence, we contend that it was unduly harsh given Dr. Lathem’s outstanding contributions to society and his lifetime battle against infectious disease,” he added.