[2] He was indicted in September 2017 on charges of first-degree murder;[3] prosecutors said Lathem and Andrew Warren, a former Oxford University employee, conspired to kill the victim as part of a premeditated murder-sex fantasy.
Goldman described Lathem as "very competitive in terms of getting NIH [National Institutes of Health] funding for his work ... and is respected for high quality research".
His research relates to how pathogenic bacteria, specifically Yersinia pestis, the Black Death plague, cause disease in human beings[11][12] and how the bacterium has evolved over time.
[13] In 2016 he spoke at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine on "Your Own Worst Enemy: How Yersinia pestis Turns the Body Against Itself.
[15] In early August 2017, he and Andrew Warren were detained in connection with the July 27, 2017 fatal stabbing of Trenton Cornell-Duranleau that occurred at Lathem's apartment in Chicago.