Jailed Northwestern University professor wants to help with coronavirus, but his dark past is against him
COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS: A former professor of Northwestern University filed plea to be let out from jail on bail to help in the research on coronavirus but was turned down. Wyndham Lathem, a detainee at Cook County jail, has been charged for killing his boyfriend, Trenton Cornell-Duranleau, in 2017.
The 45-year-old has been in prison since his arrest. He has also been fired from the university’s Feinberg School of Medicine, the Chicago Sun Times reported.
Lathem’s pleaded for his release on $1 million bail, arguing that his research skills could help save lives. He stated in his release plea that he has health conditions that will put him at greater risk if he gets infected.
However, Judge Charles Burns rejected his bail during an emergency hearing on Friday, April 10, despite an email from Dr William Goldman, chair of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of North Carolina, who thinks “Lathem is well-suited to advise and participate in studies.”
“With his background and experience, Dr. Lathem is well-suited to advise and participate in studies that are aimed at understanding SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. It would make sense to take advantage of as many experts as possible during this worldwide crisis that is rapidly expanding in scope,” Dr Goldman wrote in the email.
The ruling has left Lathem disappointed, according to his attorney, Adam Sheppard. Sheppard also said that Lathem reported feeling mild symptoms of COVID-19. “We are deeply concerned about his health. He had been hopeful that he might get out [on bond], but he was not overly optimistic,” the attorney mentioned.
Sheppard gave an example of his client’s expertise as he said nursing staff at the jail had informally asked Lathem for advice on containing the outbreak. He also claimed that one nurse had even said she wished Lathem was “not in a jumpsuit.”
A renowned scientist with a dark private life
Even before Lathem made headlines three years ago for killing 26-year-old hairstylist Cornell-Duranleau, the microbiologist was world-renowned for his research on the bubonic plague. He was a faculty member at Northwestern since 2007 and studied the virulent form of Yersinia pestis, the gram-negative bacterium that causes pneumonic and bubonic plague in humans.
Before the killing of Cornell-Duranleau, Lathem was well-respected among his colleagues. “He was the first person in my lab to work on pneumonic plague, which ended up being the focus of his independent career. He really took over as the lead scientist on this, developing an animal model because our lab had mostly worked with cell and organ cultures,” William Goldman, Lathem’s postdoctoral advisor at Washington University in St. Louis, said in a 2017 interview with The Scientist.
He added: “He was excited about the novelty from the first time I met him. He is a high-energy scientist who puts himself into his work and cares about it deeply.”
However, he mentioned that Lathem was not open about his personal life. “He was not unfriendly and would go to lab social activities, but I had never been to his house. In the lab, he was very engaged and helpful with everyone but he was very private.”
Not just well-respected among his colleagues, few years before his arrest, Lathem was even granted “select agent” clearance by the CDC, allowing him lab access to some of the world’s deadliest pathogens. Lathem had worked with researchers and helped Madagascar deal with an outbreak of the plague. He served as chair of the American Society for Microbiology Bio-Defense and Emerging Infectious Disease Research gathering, which drew more than 1,000 researchers, public health and military officials to Washington D.C.
Several reports have claimed that Lathem allegedly killed Cornell-Duranleau as part of a twisted sexual fantasy with Oxford University employee Andrew Warren. The duo had reportedly chatted online for months prior to the killing and ultimately plotted to murder Cornell-Duranleau before taking their own lives.
However, after killing Cornell-Duranleau in Lathem’s apartment in the 500 block of North State Street, Chicago on July 27, 2017, they did not kill themselves and rather went on a strange road trip to California. They made a $1,000 donation in Cornell-Duranleau’s name at a library in Wisconsin.
The then associate professor of microbiology also sent a video message to family and friends apologizing for "his involvement" in the slaying.
Prosecutors said the duo stabbed the young man at least 70 times and with such brutality that he was nearly decapitated. His throat was slit and pulmonary artery torn.
"It was not domestic in nature, like a husband-wife or boyfriend-boyfriend or a love triangle. That was not the motive. It was a little more dark and disturbing, as far as I’m concerned," Brendan Deenihan, a commander for the Chicago police, said at the time.
However, in early August 2017, Lathem and Warren both surrendered themselves to police in Oakland, California. The duo initially pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, but last year Warren agreed to plead guilty in a US court and testify against his American co-defendant in the killing. He said he will give evidence against Lathem in exchange for a 45-year prison sentence.