Appeals court tosses ex-Northwestern professor's guilty verdict in boyfriend's grisly slaying

One of Chicago’s most bizarre murder cases may return to a Cook County courtroom after an appeals court ruling overturned a former Northwestern University professor's conviction for the murder of his 26-year-old boyfriend.

Prosecutors have alleged Wyndham Lathem, one of the world’s leading experts on the bubonic plague, plotted in 2017 to kill Trenton Cornell Duranleau in Lathem’s River North high-rise with the help of another man.

But the appeals court ruled that Judge Charles Burns erred by barring Lathem from talking to his lawyers during an overnight recess before he faced a brutal cross-examination by prosecutors.

“Due to the trial court’s order forbidding a testifying defendant from consulting with his attorney during an overnight recess in violation of his right to counsel, and our crystal-clear and consistent precedent on this issue, we have no choice but to reverse and remand for a retrial,” Justice Oden Johnson wrote in a unanimous decision.

“As heinous as murder is, these rights are crucial to the effective administration of justice," Johnson added.

Lathem’s attorney said Friday that the microbiologist looks forward to a second trial.

“Our client was kept in the dark about a key evidentiary ruling in the case. We stand prepared to try the case again," said attorney Adam Sheppard, who acknowledged that it's possible Lathem may take the stand again.

The Cook County State’s Attorney's Office said prosecutors are reviewing the ruling and "will determine the appropriate next steps."

Lathem faced a veritable mountain of evidence in his first trial, including gruesome crime scene photos of Duranleau’s body as it was discovered in 2017 after an anonymous caller rang the front desk at Lathem’s State Street condo building.

“There may have been a crime committed in Room 1004," the caller said. "You need to check it out.”

Lathem's alleged accomplice, Oxford University clerk Andrew Warren, had arrived in Chicago a day earlier to rendezvous with Lathem after months of online conversations.

The pair spent roughly two weeks on the lam, making stops at the Howard Brown Health Clinic in Chicago and the public library in Lake Geneva, where they made donations in Duranleau’s memory.

Lathem ultimately dropped Warren off at a police station in Oakland, California, then turned himself in to police in nearby San Francisco.

Two years after his arrest, Warren pleaded guilty in a deal with prosecutors that capped his sentence at 45 years, with an opportunity to be transferred to a prison in the United Kingdom in exchange for testifying against Lathem.

On the stand during Lathem’s 2021 trial, Warren expressed shock as he watched Lathem stab a sleeping Duranleau. In turn, Lathem testified that Warren had stabbed Duranleau during a methamphetamine-fueled sex romp.

A hair stylist from Michigan, Duranleau was stabbed more than 70 times.

The trial went into recess just before Lathem was set to be grilled by prosecutors — after Judge Burns ruled that his prior testimony had opened the door to questions about text messages in which Lathem had discussed killing someone.

Burns also ruled that Lathem’s lawyers could not discuss the case with him when the trial went on break overnight — a move the appeals court said violated Lathem’s right to counsel.

During the trial, the jury also saw video messages Lathem sent to relatives while he was on the run in which he appeared to confess to the killing.

Jurors needed just two hours of deliberations to return a guilty verdict.