Chicago professor to appear in California court on murder charge

[August 07, 2017]  (Reuters) - A university professor charged with stabbing a Chicago man to death in July will be arraigned in a California court on Monday, three days after he surrendered to authorities, ending a weeklong manhunt.

The murder, whose motive has not been disclosed, attracted international attention as police searched for the main suspect, who they said apologized in a video and may have made a mysterious donation to a library in the victim's name.

Wyndham Lathem, an associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Chicago's Northwestern University, will appear in Alameda County Superior Court in Dublin, California, on Monday morning, according to jail records.

He and Andrew Warren, an employee of Oxford University in Britain, were arrested on Friday for the July 27 fatal stabbing of Trenton Cornell Duranleau. Chicago authorities have described the crime as domestic in nature but have not offered a motive.

Warren, a senior treasury assistant at Oxford's Somerville College, is being held in a San Francisco jail.

Records there did not list an upcoming court date, but a San Francisco Sheriff's Department official said Warren would probably be arraigned on Monday in the city's Superior Court. It was not clear if he had a lawyer.

Adam Sheppard, one of Lathem's lawyers, said his client would waive extradition and agree to return to Chicago to face charges there.

"We're encouraging everybody not to have a rush to judgment on this case," he said, although he declined to comment on the specific allegations. He said Lathem had received a flood of letters of support from colleagues, friends and family.

A wanted poster distributed by the Chicago Police Department shows suspects Wyndham Lathem, 42, an associate professor of microbiology and immunology, and Andrew Warren, 56, a financial employee at Britain's Oxford University, in this image released in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. on August 3, 2017. Courtesy Chicago Police Department/Handout via REUTERS

Lathem, 42, sent family and friends a video apologizing for the crime, according to police. He surrendered in Oakland on Friday after his family and a lawyer helped negotiate with authorities, while Warren was taken into custody in San Francisco.

Duranleau, 26, was found dead in Lathem's Chicago apartment with stab wounds to his back, and investigators discovered one knife with a broken blade in the kitchen trash can and another near the sink, the Tribune reported, citing unnamed law enforcement sources.

The case had previously taken investigators to the Wisconsin resort community of Lake Geneva, where a man who police believe may have been Lathem made a $1,000 donation to a local library in Duranleau's name.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.