Suspects indicted in hairstylist’s death

CHICAGO — A grand jury has indicted a former Northwestern University professor and an Oxford University employee on first-degree murder charges in the July stabbing death of a hairstylist in the professor’s Chicago apartment, a judge announced Friday.

The announcement made on the scheduled date of a hearing was not a surprise, as prosecutors routinely present their cases to a grand jury rather than let a judge, after a public preliminary hearing, decide whether there is enough evidence to charge a suspect.

The indictment of Oxford financial official Andrew Warren, 56, was announced first. Warren did not speak when he was informed of the indictment, before he was led back to the holding area for detainees. Wyndham Lathem, 43, was led into the courtroom a short time later, informed of the indictment and then led back to the same area. Both men are being held in Cook County jail without bail.

The judge said both men had demanded a trial and ordered them to return to court Sept. 28 for an arraignment. Warren’s attorney did not speak to reporters after the brief hearing, but one of Lathem’s attorneys, Adam Sheppard, said Lathem will plead innocent.

Prosecutors contend that Lathem and Warren stabbed Lathem’s boyfriend, 26-year-old Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau, dozens of times as part of an apparent sexual fantasy that included killing others, then themselves.