By SAM CHARLES
Chicago Sun-Times
and ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wyndham Lathem (left) and Andrew Warren | Chicago Police
Wyndham Lathem, the Northwestern professor suspected of murder, dropped off his alleged accomplice, Andrew Warren, at a San Francisco police station before Lathem turned himself in to federal authorities in Oakland on Friday, police told the Chicago Sun-Times.
They were the subjects of a nationwide manhunt after being charted with the murder of Trenton H. James Cornell-Duranleau last month in River North.
San Francisco Police Lt. Randy Caturay confirmed that Warren surrendered to police by himself Friday, though Lathem drove him to the station in Golden Gate Park.
Caturay added that, after Warren was in custody, he was questioned by San Francisco Police homicide detectives. He said that the British consulate was also made aware of Warren’s arrest.
The two were wanted for allegedly murdering the 26-year-old Cornell-Duranleau on July 27 inside an apartment in the Grand Plaza Apartments in the 500 block of North State Street in River North.
A Chicago Police spokesman said both men will face a judge in California before being extradited to Chicago.
Trenton H. James Cornell-Duranleau | Facebook
Lathem, 42, will have a hearing at 9 a.m. Monday at the the Alameda County Courthouse in Pleasanton, California, according to the Alameda County sheriff’s office. Pleasanton is about 35 miles east of San Francisco.
Chicago attorney Barry Sheppard said his law firm has been retained to represent Lathem.
Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Frank Conroy said Saturday that fast-paced surrender negotiations through an attorney began late Friday afternoon and that by evening, Lathem arrived by car at the California courthouse.
There were no guns drawn, but Lathem was ordered to carefully step out of the car and taken into custody in a public courtyard area between the federal complex’s two buildings, Conroy said.
Lathem stated he would not answer any questions on advice of a lawyer, and no questions were asked, Conroy said.
“He wasn’t in good spirits, but physically he didn’t appear to have anything wrong,” Conroy said.
Investigators talked with Lathem’s friends during the week, including people from his graduate and undergraduate days, along with his colleagues.
“They knew the seriousness of the charges, the seriousness of the case and how important it was that he be brought into custody, not have to live a life on the run,” Conroy said. “He knew that.”
Conroy said he believed some of the friends were in contact with Lathem while he was a fugitive, and that the attorney probably became involved through a recommendation.
Conroy didn’t have any details on Warren’s surrender because “he wasn’t our primary target, Mr. Lathem was.”
The deputy marshal said Lathem had never been arrested before, and that people in that situation usually panic and make decisions they normally wouldn’t make.
“For him to come in in a safe way, an organized way, was the best outcome that we could have hoped for,” Conroy said.
Lathem and Warren probably took two or three days to travel from Chicago to California, with the manhunt not far behind.
“He (Lathem) probably realized it’s never going to end until he’s in custody, so let me do it on my on terms.” Conroy said.
Their apprehension came eight days after Cornell-Duranleau was found inside the Chicago apartment authorities said he shared with Lathem.
Police said the microbiologist had a personal relationship with Cornell-Duranleau, who moved to Chicago from the Grand Rapids, Michigan, area after receiving his cosmetology license. They are not sure how Cornell-Duranleau or Lathem knew Warren, or if Warren knew them before he arrived in the United States last month.
Authorities had issued arrest warrants for Lathem, an associate professor in microbiology at NU since 2007, and Warren, who had arrived in Chicago three days before Cornell-Duranleau was found dead. The men were seen on surveillance video leaving the building together the day of the stabbing.
“We hope today’s arrest brings some small level of closure and justice for the victim’s family,” Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Friday.
Earlier Friday, police revealed that Lathem had sent an apologetic video message to his friends, family and relatives of Cornell-Duranleau. Guglielmi declined to comment on what Lathem said in the video, though CNN reported Lathem confessed to committing “the biggest mistake of my life” and said the message had been encrypted.
Lathem had been a suspect since police first were tipped to the murder by a cryptic phone call to the front desk of the building on July 27.
Guglielmi said the night Cornell-Duranleau was killed, an attendant working the front desk received the call in which a male caller said, “There may have been a crime committed in Room 1004. You need to check it out.”
The attendant called the room, and when he got no response, called police. Officers entered the apartment with the building manager and discovered a “gruesome scene,” Guglielmi said.
Cornell-Duranleau had been stabbed multiple times, and Guglielmi said the blows landed with such force that the knife believed to be the murder weapon snapped.
Lathem and Warren drove to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, shortly after the killing and donated $1,000 to the public library in Cornell-Duranleau’s name.
Cornell-Duranleau’s mother Charlotte Cornell said the family doesn’t know the suspects.
“Our family is deeply saddened by the death of our son. It is our hope that the person or persons responsible for his death are brought to justice,” Cornell said in a statement given to the AP. Cornell-Duranleau’s funeral is set for next week in his hometown of Lennon, Michigan.
Timber Baun-Crooks, the mayor pro-tem of Trenton, Michigan, once gave Cornell-Duranleau a job at a hair salon. She described him as a “great kid.”
“He wanted to be something so bad,” she said. “Though I don’t know what that was or if he ever found his niche in life.”