CHICAGO — A former Northwestern University professor was sentenced to 53 years in prison Tuesday for the violent slaying of his boyfriend.
Wyndham Lathem appeared at his sentencing hearing before Judge Charles Burns, more than four years after the fatal stabbing of Trenton Cornell, Lathem’s 26-year-old boyfriend. Lathem, 47, was convicted of first-degree murder in October after a nearly two-week trial.
Burns said his sentencing range for Lathem was 20 to 60 years and that he believed 53 years to be “most appropriate” considering all of the factors at play, including the facts pointing to the killing being premeditated and gruesome. The judge said he also weighed Lathem’s seemingly upstanding disposition in his professional and personal life prior to the crime.
“Obviously, he had a dark secret,” Burns said. “The Dr. Lathem that we saw walk through the doors to this courtroom obviously had a Mr. Hyde to him, and I’m not sure when or why that occurred.”
The sentence, which Burns said he knows is an “extreme sentence” but for an “extreme crime,” also requires Lathem to serve three years of supervised release after he leaves custody. The defense made a motion for Burns to reconsider the sentence and their earlier motion for a new trial, which Burns denied at the beginning of Tuesday’s hearing. Another court date has been scheduled for March 10.
“We believe there are issues that are so meritorious that they may merit a new trial,” said Adam Sheppard, one of Lathem’s defense attorneys. “We agree that this was an extreme sentence, and we will be asking for a review of the sentence along with the other issues that we raised at our post-trial motion.”
Charlotte Cornell, one of Trenton Cornell’s mothers, said in a statement after the hearing the family is “forever grateful” to the Cook County victim advocates, prosecutors and sheriff’s office for their work.
“This is nothing that we ever would wish on any family, and just know that we couldn’t be more grateful to all the people in Cook County here who have helped justice be served,” Charlotte Cornell said.
Trenton Cornell’s other mother, Mischelle Duranleau, took the stand during the sentencing hearing to give a victim-impact statement. Duranleau said their son was respectful, “fell madly in love quickly” and was “always looking for the next adventure.”
Duranleau said the family last saw Trenton Cornell in Chicago in November 2016 when they visited him to celebrate his birthday. Duranleau said he told them he was doing well having made it into transitional housing and finally taking medication for his HIV, as well as explaining to his family he had “fallen in love with the most intelligent man.”
“His belief in the kindness and honesty of others is the one characteristic we wish Trenton left with us,” Duranleau said.
Duranleau added that the family does not feel Lathem has shown any remorse for his actions.
Lathem gave a statement during the hearing, in which he said he has been “grief-stricken with remorse since the moment everything happened.”
“Every day I think about Trent,” Lathem said. “Every day I think about what happened. I’m just filled with sadness. I want Trent’s family to know that as bad as I feel, I can’t imagine how much worse it is for them, and I’m so sorry for their loss.”
Judge Burns said he does believe Lathem, whom he described as very intelligent and personable, is remorseful “at this point in time,” but Burns seemed unsure about Lathem feeling regretful immediately after Trenton Cornell was killed, because Lathem left the scene and went on the run.
“Going to a hotel washing off the blood, going to different locations, making donations in his name, like a couple thousand dollars is going to wash the blood off his hands,” Burns said. “If there is any moral compass of Dr. Lathem, it was broken off.”
Lathem is an accomplished microbiologist who was fired from Northwestern when he fled Chicago after the killing.
Prosecutors said Lathem and his co-defendant, Andrew Warren, had made a suicidal pact to kill each other, but instead killed Cornell. And whatever the motive, they said, the physical evidence pointed to Lathem having an active role in the slaying. He also sent a video to his parents in the days after the stabbing saying, “I killed him,” and that it was not an accident.
Lathem ditched his phone and fled town with Warren for more than a week after Cornell’s death.
Warren pleaded guilty to Cornell’s murder in 2019 and agreed to testify against Lathem at trial in exchange for prosecutors’ recommending a sentence of 45 years.
The defense, meanwhile, said the slaying was entirely Warren’s doing. Lathem escaped to another room while Warren, who had used meth, killed Cornell in what was supposed to be a kinky knife-play threesome gone terribly wrong, the defense argued.
Jurors in October took less than two hours to deliberate before convicting Lathem.
———
