The British national who said he helped a Northwestern professor fatally stab the professor’s young boyfriend in 2017 was formally sentenced Wednesday to 45 years in prison.
Andrew Warren, 61, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and agreed to testify against co-defendant Wyndham Lathem as part of his 2019 plea deal. In exchange, Cook County prosecutors agreed to recommend a term of 45 years in prison, and said they would not object if Warren applied to serve his sentence in his native England, which could sharply reduce his time in custody.
While prosecutors described Lathem as the mastermind of the gruesome plot to kill his boyfriend, Trenton Cornell, Warren testified last year that he was also an active participant, testifying that he hit Cornell over the head with a lamp and stabbed him twice.
He also had ample opportunity to alert police about the plot but never did, Charlotte Cornell, one of Cornell’s mothers, said in court Wednesday.
“Once Andrew Warren knew of Lathem’s plan, he could have stopped this crime from happening,” she said. “Warren could have called and reported the plan to authorities, he could have stopped a police officer on the street … this was a most heinous and unbelievable crime that he committed with Wyndham Lathem.”
Lathem was convicted of first-degree murder in October and sentenced last month to 53 years in prison. Warren’s formal sentencing was put on hold until after Lathem’s case had concluded.
Warren, wearing a yellow Cook County Jail jumpsuit indicating that he is in protective custody, gave the family a brief apology toward the end of the sentencing hearing Wednesday.
“I just want to say that I’m really so sorry,” he said. “That’s all I can say.”
Prosecutors said Lathem and his co-defendant, Andrew Warren, had made a suicidal pact to kill each other, but instead killed Cornell, who was stabbed dozens of times and left for dead in Lathem’s high-rise apartment.
Warren testified at Lathem’s trial that he met Lathem online and they made plans for him to travel to Chicago as part of their elaborate suicidal plan. Instead they stabbed Cornell to death and fled town.
“I don’t know why. I’ll never know why,” he told jurors.
Cornell’s mothers, Mischelle Duranleau and Charlotte Cornell, told reporters after the sentencing that they were deeply relieved that court proceedings had finally concluded more than four years since their son’s death.
“It doesn’t bring Trenton back, but there’s a level of peace now that we’re done,” Duranleau said.
Warren’s sentence was appropriate, Cornell said, noting that his cooperation with police and prosecutors was likely crucial: “If it weren’t for Andrew Warren telling the prosecutors and the detectives everything that happened, this case might have been a lot harder for them to put together,” she said.
“We’re grateful that he had the moral sense to tell the truth eventually,” Duranleau added. “… He could have stopped it. So there is this really big mixed feeling between absolute anger and appreciation.”
A transfer to a British prison could allow Warren to serve only about half his prison term.
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According to the plea agreement, prosecutors won’t oppose Warren applying to the U.S. Department of Justice’s International Prisoner Transfer Program, which can allow inmates to move to prisons outside the United States.
Inmates repatriated to the United Kingdom are released on the equivalent of parole after serving about half of what remains of their sentences, according to the British charity Prisoners Abroad. That means his prison term could be significantly shortened, and allow him to serve his time closer to family and friends.
Illinois law does not allow for good-behavior credit on first-degree murder sentences, so Warren would have to serve out his full sentence if he stays in the U.S.
While prosecutors said they won’t stand in the way of Warren applying for the transfer, the Justice Department and British authorities would still need to approve the request.
Lathem’s defense attorneys argued that Warren acted alone in committing the murder and insinuated that Warren was motivated to testify against Lathem in exchange for a good plea deal — an implication that prosecutors strongly rebuked in closing arguments.
“He pled guilty with the expectation of being sentenced to 45 years in prison. In what world is that a sweetheart deal?” Assistant State’s Attorney Yolanda Lippert said at trial in October. “There’s a chance (of) maybe going back to England … do you think the Queen wants that guy back?”