Chicago Professor Accused Of Murder Speaks To KPIX 5 In Exclusive Jailhouse Interview
DUBLIN (KPIX) -- It has been almost a week since two fugitives wanted in the brutal stabbing death of a young man were arrested in the Bay Area. Both men surrendered separately and peacefully last Friday evening.
Wyndham Lathem, a professor at Northwestern University, and Andrew Warren, a treasury assistant at one of Oxford's residential colleges in England, had been fugitives since the body of 26-year-old Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau was found in Lathem's Chicago apartment on July 27.
On Thursday KPIX 5's Juliette Goodrich spoke face-to-face with Lathem, who appeared calm. Cameras were not allowed.
KPIX 5: Did you have anything to do with the killing of Trenton Cornell Duranleau ?
LATHEM: I know you have come all this way to talk to me and I am sorry. I have been advised by my attorney not to say anything without him.
KPIX: Why did you send a video to family and friends apologizing for your involvement in the crime, saying "it was the biggest mistake of my life" ?
LATHEM: I'm sorry I can't talk unless my attorney says I can.
Lathem had worked at Northwestern University in Chicago since 2007. His attorney says friends and family are lining up to defend him.
"He has people who adore him, they refer to him as an intelligent, kind, gentle soul," defense attorney Kenneth Wine said.
We asked Lathem about the mysterious stop he and Warren reportedly made in Wisconsin before driving to California --
where one of them made a $1,000 cash donation to a public library in the name of the victim -- but Lathem didn't want to speak without his attorney.
