Deal or No Deal?

Summary

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Murder & Magnolias – Episode 5: "Deal or No Deal?"

Podcast: Murder & Magnolias
Host: NBC News | Keith Morrison
Episode Release Date: December 6, 2022
Main Theme:
This episode explores the dramatic buildup to the murder-for-hire trial that shocks Charleston’s high society. With gripping interviews, legal maneuvers, and emotional testimony, the episode goes behind bars and into the courtroom, peeling back the twisted story of betrayal, desperation, and murderous intent in the Low Country.

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Episode Overview

Keith Morrison guides listeners through the labyrinthine lead-up to the murder-for-hire trial of banker Chris Latham and his former executive assistant/lover Wendy Moore. The episode focuses on plea decisions, witness narratives, and inside looks at both prosecution and defense strategies, drawing out the complexities of love, betrayal, and the search for justice.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Mood and Setting: The Countdown to Trial

• The episode opens on New Year's Eve 2013. While Charleston celebrates, three key figures—Aaron Wilkinson, Chris Latham, and Wendy Moore—face a grim future in jail as they await trial for conspiring to murder Nancy Latham.
  (00:51) Keith Morrison: “Of course, seasonal cheer was in short supply over at the Elcanan Detention Center... Aaron Wilkinson stared into the darkness above him.”

2. Aaron Wilkinson’s Dilemma

• Aaron, initially the whistleblower of the murder plot, is denied immunity and considers recanting. Both prosecution and defense weigh his credibility, given his criminal history and the fact he only talked to police when caught with a gun.
  (01:43) Nathan Williams: “He was going to go to trial like everybody else. If he wasn't looking at a gun found in his car, he wouldn't have said anything.”
• Aaron threatens not to testify, destabilizing the prosecution’s strategy.

3. Wendy Moore: The Accused Mastermind

• Keith interviews Wendy in jail, presenting her not just as the ‘other woman’ but as a person whose life story is fraught with hardship—childhood abuse, a turbulent marriage to Sammy Yenawine, and a struggle to provide for her children.
  (06:08) Wendy Moore: “I've had a long, hard life, I say. I lived 80 years in my 38.”
• She discusses her devout faith, abusive relationships, reluctance to enter exotic dancing under pressure, and efforts to rebuild her life with education and work.
  (09:11) Wendy Moore: (On stripping) “I was crushed. I was like, how could you love me and want me to do something like that?... After weeks... you look at your kids and you say, okay, I'll swallow my pride.”
• Wendy denies key prosecution allegations, including filming clients and involvement in murder plotting.
  (15:58) Wendy Moore: “I would never do anyone harm. I would not want any harm to come to her at all.”

4. The Plot’s Forensic Trail & Prosecution’s Case

• The prosecution presents physical evidence: a hit packet with photos and maps of Nancy Latham, burner phone records, hotel receipts, print logs from Wendy’s computer, and Chris’s surreptitious photos of Nancy.
  (26:20) Nathan Williams: “When you look at those papers, they're clearly designed for finding someone.” (29:10) Rhett DeHart: “Once we found those photos on his iPhone of Nancy Latham... that removed any doubt that he was guilty.”

5. The Emotional Pivot: Nancy’s Forgiveness

• Nancy Latham (now Cannon) recounts the moment she forgave Aaron Wilkinson and, believing in divine intervention, persuaded him (via her message) to accept a plea deal and testify against Chris and Wendy.
  (21:04) Nancy Cannon: "It hit me like a ton of bricks that the presence of God was in the car with me..." (23:16) Nancy Cannon: "She said, Aaron's going to take the plea deal. He just wanted to know that you would forgive him." (23:22) Nancy Cannon: “I picked him up on the bridge and I brought him here. He's been with us the whole time.”

6. Courtroom Drama: Testimony & Defense

• Trial begins: prosecution line-up (cops, Aaron, Nancy), details on the hit packet, phone evidence, financial trails, and jailhouse calls between Chris and Wendy.
• Wendy’s lawyer tries to create doubts about direct connections; Chris’s lawyer disputes any plausible motives for Chris.
  (34:23) Willie Geist (Stephen Schmutz): “Chris Latham had every idea that not only was he not going to be damaged in the divorce, that he was going to vindicate himself in the divorce.”
• Defense frames the "real" plotters as Sammy and Aaron, not Chris and Wendy.

7. Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On being underestimated:
  (03:35) Wendy Moore: “It hurts my feelings sometimes, but if you know me, then you usually love me.”
• On prosecutor's assessment of Chris Latham:
  (03:46) Nathan Williams: “He felt like the laws that apply to people like Sam Yenawine and Aaron Wilkinson don't apply to, you know, rich bankers.”
• On trial anxiety:
  (36:54) Nancy Cannon: "When it went to the jury, I felt quite confident... I just started sobbing profusely. I couldn't stop. I could not stop."

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Important Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment | Key Content | |-----------|----------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------| | 00:51 | Setting the Scene | Charleston NYE, inmates await trial | | 03:35 | Wendy’s Jailhouse Interview | Wendy Moore defends herself, childhood trauma | | 12:09 | Wendy’s Account – Murder & Arson | Recounts ex-husband’s crime and aftermath | | 14:44 | Wendy & Chris’s Relationship | How their relationship started | | 18:39 | Nancy Forgives Aaron | Powerful moment: forgiveness leads to plea | | 26:20 | Hit Packet Evidence | Prosecution discusses incriminating documents | | 29:10 | Chris’s Secret Photos | Critical photo evidence from Chris’s phone | | 31:58 | Nancy & Emily Testify | Victim and daughter on the stand | | 36:54 | Verdict Wait Begins | Jury retires; emotional responses |

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Tone & Style

Keith Morrison’s narration is both intimate and investigative, combining empathy with journalistic curiosity. The interviews are raw, often emotional, allowing the accused and the survivors to share their humanity amid a true crime spectacle.

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Conclusion

Episode 5 of "Murder & Magnolias" is a compelling buildup to a verdict, immersing the listener in the tangled relationships, desperate choices, and legal maneuvers of a Low Country saga. It spotlights the vulnerabilities and motivations of key players, the steady hand of law enforcement, and the devastating consequences of betrayal.

Memorable Closing Moment:
(36:54) Nancy Cannon: “I felt quite confident... then the jury came back early and asked the judge, does the conspiracy have to meet every single criteria to be found guilty? I watched as Wendy turned to her family and smirked... Oh my gosh, this is not good.”

Next Episode Teaser:
"Next on Murder and Magnolias. The jury decides."

Transcript

[Babs]

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[Keith Morrison]

it was midnight when the bells of St. Michael's Church began pealing long and loud, ringing in 2014. And all across the city of Charleston, glasses clinked and revelers smooched, everybody wishing one another a grand and glorious new year, full of hope and promise. Of course, seasonal cheer was in short supply over at the Elcanan Detention Center. It was lights out at the county jail where Aaron Wilkinson stared into the darkness above him and listened to the guttural sounds of the sleeping men and thought about the trial to come that might keep him behind bars for a long, long time. I guess I was kind of. I was kind of angry at God for.

[Rhett DeHart]

I mean, just feeling sorry for myself.

[Keith Morrison]

In the weeks after his arrest, Aaron had clammed up. Instead of being rewarded for exposing a murder plot, federal prosecutors made it clear they wanted Aaron to get serious, probably prison time for his role in the plot.

[Nathan Williams]

He was going to go to trial like everybody else. If he wasn't looking at a gun found in his car, he wouldn't have said anything.

[Keith Morrison]

Comments like that upset Aaron no end. So now, the way Aaron saw it, no immunity, no testimony. He'd recant, he told them. He'd say his earlier statements to detectives had been made while he was under the influence of heroin. If you revealed everything and still got a long sentence on the gun charge, just no, thought Garrett. He'd take his chances in front of a jury, thank you very much. What must Chris Latham and Wendy Moore have been thinking, lying in their separate wings of the big county jail, sloughing around on thin strips of foam over cold concrete benches? If not for Aaron Wilkinson, they'd be snug in their big beach house Comfy on a fine thick mattress beneath 500 count linen sheets, drifting off to the rhythmic pounding of the distant surf. But no, here they were, a banker and his executive assistant jailed like common criminals, their reputations ruined, their future in doubt. In six weeks, they go on trial for plotting murder. Happy New Year. Oh, no. Hardly. In this episode, you'll hear from the former executive assistant accused of being the plot's mastermind.

[Wendy Moore]

It hurts my feelings sometimes, but if you know me, then you usually love me.

[Keith Morrison]

You'll hear from prosecutors convinced the banker was behind it.

[Nathan Williams]

I think he felt like the laws that apply to people like Sam Yenawine and Aaron Wilkinson don't apply to, you know, rich bankers.

[Keith Morrison]

You'll hear some argue that blame belonged to a dead man.

[David Aylor]

If there was some sort of criminal plot against Nancy Latham, it had to start and stop with Sam Yenowan.

[Keith Morrison]

And you'll hear about the heart stopping moment, because what happens in court isn't always what you might expect.

[Nancy Cannon]

I remember Chris kind of got this look on his face like, yeah, we're getting off.

[Keith Morrison]

What was going on here in your head?

[Nancy Cannon]

In my head, I thought, oh, my gosh, this is not good. This is not good.

[Keith Morrison]

I'm Keith Morrison and this is episode five of Murder and Magnolias, a podcast from Dateline. The Elkana Detention center is not much to look at. It's a big, boxy, modern looking thing with concrete slab walls and all the utilitarian grace of a Soviet era apartment block. But then, people don't go there for the architecture. I went there to see Wendy Moore, the woman investigators claimed was at the center of a plot to kill the wife of her former lover, Chris Latham. While waiting for the guards to check us in and inspect our equipment, I reviewed what I knew about Wendy Moore, which, in a nutshell, was this. Wendy, former wife of a killer, had gone on to capture the heart of a banker. She was a mother, just like the woman she was accused of plotting to kill. So many contradictions. And yet, there was one thing about the woman guards brought to meet us that was consistent with everything I'd heard. At 38, Wendy Moore looked like a cover girl. Long blonde hair, big blue eyes, a toothpaste commercial smile. Wearing a worn denim shirt and a sweater over her jail scrubs. She looked just like a soccer mom who popped into a Starbucks. But no, there was more to Wendy Moore than that. She was only happy to tell me.

[Wendy Moore]

I've had a long, hard life, I say. I lived 80 years in my 38. So it's been a Long, long road.

[Keith Morrison]

The road for Wendy Moore began in the Midwest, its tortured backstory familiar to all too many in this country. Teenage pregnancy, early marriage, early divorce, sexual abuse. As a kid, said Wendy, she was constantly being shuffled from one relative to the next, back and forth across state lines. Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky. You're hopping around from town to town, school to school. Yeah, different people all the time. There's no stability whatsoever.

[Wendy Moore]

Well, the only constant is God. He's the only one that never leaves.

[Keith Morrison]

You tend to hear a lot of that sort of talk during jailhouse interviews, but Wendy was said she was rather a special case. Her relationship with the Almighty, she told me, was long standing.

[Wendy Moore]

I always joke and say a lot of kids had imaginary friends and I had Jesus. You know, like, they'd play with their imaginary friends and I would talk to Jesus or play, you know, cash.

[Keith Morrison]

A lot of people get born again once they get inside a place like this.

[Wendy Moore]

Yeah, no, I was in church my whole life. I was baptized when I was little, but then I redid it when I was 16 because I felt like I really knew what it meant then.

[Keith Morrison]

Unlike her parents, said Wendy, she finished high school, was on her way to college, too, but then she got sidetracked.

[Wendy Moore]

Oops, I got pregnant.

[Keith Morrison]

And your own beliefs would prevent you from ending that pregnancy?

[Wendy Moore]

Yeah, I would not do that. That's not something I was willing to do. But I also wasn't willing to fight with someone for 18 years. So when my boyfriend said he didn't want to be strapped with that, I said I'd do it on my own.

[Keith Morrison]

She said she was living in a rented trailer when she met Sammy Yenawine. He was one of the local toughs in the trailer park, and he seemed to want to protect her.

[Wendy Moore]

It's funny, because in our first couple dates, like, one of the things he said to me was, well, you're such a good girl. And I was like, well, yeah. And he says, I know I do something you don't like. And I was like, what? And he said, I smoke. And I said, yeah, I don't like that. I had no idea he was talking about marijuana. And he didn't tell me after that either.

[Keith Morrison]

Wendy said she didn't do drugs. Didn't approve of Sammy doing drugs either. But soon she was pregnant with her second child. They got married. They moved to a slightly bigger trailer, this one mouse infested. And then Wendy got pregnant again. Number three.

[Wendy Moore]

I said, sam, we gotta move. We gotta get out of here. He said, you gotta get a job. I said, we have three little kids. I have a high school education and nothing else. What am I supposed to do? I said, I will barely make enough to pay for daycare. I'll probably owe the daycare money before I get my paycheck.

[Keith Morrison]

A lot of young couples face that problem, but Sammy. Sammy had a solution that most husbands wouldn't consider.

[Wendy Moore]

He said, well, you could. You could be a stripper. You could be an exotic dancer, and you'd make a lot of money. And I was like. I was crushed. I was like, how could you love me and want me to do something like that? And he. He was like, well, I mean, it'll get us out of here. And I said, sam, that's a sin. You know that's a sin. And he said, so is pride.

[Keith Morrison]

And I said, so is pride. Well, he's got you there.

[Wendy Moore]

Mm. He said, it's your selfish pride that's keeping us here. And so after weeks, you know, dealing with this and hearing over and over that I was sitting on a gold mine and I refused to use it, and it was my selfish pride that was keeping my family there, you look at your kids and you say, okay, I'll swallow my pride.

[Keith Morrison]

How'd it feel to do that stuff?

[Wendy Moore]

Horrible. You come from an abused background anyway. All you're doing every single time is reabusing yourself.

[Keith Morrison]

Mm.

[Wendy Moore]

That's awful.

[Keith Morrison]

Mind you seemed to work for them. The Etowines set up their new enterprise in an old two story house in Louisville. The family lived upstairs. The downstairs was all business.

[Wendy Moore]

There was me and a couple other girls, and we just had high end clientele that would pay to come in for a private showing, you know, a

[Keith Morrison]

private strip show and wherever else.

[Wendy Moore]

No, there was no sex. There was never any sex.

[Keith Morrison]

Well, that's not what Aaron Wilkinson heard from Sammy himself. And it's not what Wendy's second husband, the one after Sammy, told Nancy Latham a story about filming unsuspecting clients in the act. So I asked Wendy, and she said, never happened. No, no, no.

[Wendy Moore]

There's no videos. I wasn't a porn star. I didn't do videos. I.

[Keith Morrison]

That's all made up stuff.

[Wendy Moore]

Yeah. Cause you know what? The Internet was brand new. I mean, there was no online anything. It was like a. The only Internet part was it was like an advertisement page. And that's it. Here. Here's where to call. Here's a couple pictures.

[Keith Morrison]

What isn't disputed is the fact that by the time Sammy and Wendy started their little business, he was using and dealing drugs. Hard drugs, according to Aaron Wilkinson. Sammy was high one night and killed a man in his house. Then set the man's body on fire, burned the house down with Wendy and the kids inside. The dead man, he'd been a live in bodyguard that Sammy had hired to keep Wendy's high end clientele in line. Here's Wendy's version of what happened.

[Wendy Moore]

While we were sleeping, Sam heard a noise coming from the kids room and so he got up to investigate. And when he did, he saw the man from the downstairs apartment we had shared a kitchen with coming out of the room. And the guy pulled a knife out of the block and was fighting with the knife with Sam. And Sam grabbed the knife by the blade and wrestled the knife from the man and ended up killing the man. And then he took off all of his clothes, put them in a pile and burned them and got back in bed with me and went to sleep.

[Keith Morrison]

Short sighted.

[Wendy Moore]

The doctor said it was post traumatic stress.

[Keith Morrison]

So he wasn't convicted of murder or manslaughter, but he was convicted of arson.

[Wendy Moore]

Right. He was found. It was found to be, you know, self defense.

[Keith Morrison]

So Sammy went to jail where he met Aaron Wilkinson. Left his three kids to raise on her own. Wendy divorced Sammy.

[Wendy Moore]

I sold the car. I had sold that trailer, used it as a down payment to buy my house by myself. Bought the house, continued to work from home so that I could be there with my kids. And I went to Liberty University with their. They have an incredible online program. Got a bachelor's of science in psychology and started in the master's program for management and leadership and actually got that degree too. So all of that from home.

[Keith Morrison]

Wow.

[Wendy Moore]

While I was getting my kids raised

[Keith Morrison]

along the way, Wendy married again and moved to Charleston. That was when she landed the job at U.S. trust, a branch of bank of America that caters to the bank's high rollers. Executive assistant to one of the wealthiest bankers in town. Was what you had studied the background for that or other work experience or what?

[Wendy Moore]

Yeah, well, no, I had worked as an assistant for a long time when I worked from home. So I had the experience plus I had, you know, and gosh, when you work in an office, psychology sure does tie in.

[Keith Morrison]

Oh, yes. It's easy to see how psychology might come in handy when dealing with her new boss, particularly one who happened to be going through a nasty divorce. In 2012, Wendy divorced her second husband and started keeping steady company with Chris Latham.

[Wendy Moore]

Well, you know, we started hanging out and I really got to know him as a person and how. I don't know how sweet he was. So it was just a natural progression of, you know, two people who, you know, I was divorced. He was. We thought he would be divorced any minute.

[Keith Morrison]

And, you know, it got pretty ugly though, right? His divorce.

[Wendy Moore]

His divorce did get very ugly.

[Keith Morrison]

So it ramped up.

[Wendy Moore]

It did.

[Keith Morrison]

Oh, yes, ramped up to the point where somebody hired a team of hitmen. But in Wendy's telling, Nancy was the dangerous one. Cars belonging to her, to Wendy and Chris were sabotaged. Tires were slashed, lug bolts loosened, brake lines tampered with.

[Wendy Moore]

We were worried. We were scared. We wanted the divorce to hurry up and get over with.

[Keith Morrison]

And then this other thing pops up. Suddenly Aaron is talking to the police

[Wendy Moore]

out of the blue.

[Keith Morrison]

But not only is he talking to the police, he showed them that hit pack. Where would that material come from?

[Wendy Moore]

I'm not gonna discuss any of that. I'm not willing to discuss the case.

[Keith Morrison]

What can you say about any of that stuff that would help us understand it?

[Wendy Moore]

I can say that I would never do anyone harm. I would not want any harm to come to her at all.

[Keith Morrison]

Nancy, of course, denies all those allegations of sabotage. So she said. She said. Well, none of that really mattered now. The Latham divorce was history. Far more serious for Wendy Moore and her lover, Chris Latham was the murder for hire case that would be going to trial soon.

[Babs]

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[Kate Snow]

hey, it's Kate Snow, NBC News anchor, host of the podcast the Drink with Kate Snow. I sit down with all kinds of celebrities, musicians, athletes, over a drink of their choice for candid conversations about how they made it there with actor, comedian, host Joel McHale. I could barely stop laughing. You know Joel from Community or the Soup, his new show, Animal Control. He asked for food, four bottles of Washington state wine for our interview. He has news about whether there's a community movie coming. He tells the story of how he got one of his first big acting gigs by lying about his height. And you have to stay through the credits. He's so funny. We have behind the scenes bloopers and outtakes from our conversation. Hope you'll listen and follow the drink wherever you get your podcasts.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Hello, Dateline listeners, it's Josh Mankiewicz. We know how much you love to watch Dateline. And when you're hanging on Twist and turn, the last thing you want is to be interrupted with an NBC News subscription. You can now watch full Dateline episodes on demand and stream the entire Dateline 247 channel, all ad free. And it doesn't stop there. When you subscribe, you'll also get the best of NBC News, including ad free articles, podcasts, and full NBC News programs. It's your Dateline fix plus exclusive NBC News content. Just download the NBC News app and subscribe now.

[Keith Morrison]

Nancy had been waiting all morning for the phone to ring. As she glanced out her kitchen window at the bare trees swaying in the January breeze, her thoughts were on Aaron Wilkinson, the man she credited with saving her life.

[Nancy Cannon]

I was at home and I was expecting him to take a plea deal. That's what I'd been told by the U.S. attorneys. And they said, so you, you'll probably want to come down for that.

[Keith Morrison]

It had been almost nine months to the day since Nancy first laid eyes on Aaron. That was at his bond hearing, shortly after Aaron had exposed the plot to have her killed. When she closed her eyes, she could still picture him standing before the judge, shaved head and shackled, so tall he seemed to tower over his court appointed lawyer.

[Nancy Cannon]

And as he was turning to leave, I could see him searching the faces of everyone in the audience and landed on mine. And he mouthed the words, I'm sorry. And when he mouthed the words I'm sorry, it was so palpable coming from him. I mean, I felt it. I felt that he was genuinely remorseful.

[Keith Morrison]

Now Nancy got dressed for court again. This time, she hoped to watch a legal formality. Aaron taking a plea deal. He'd spend time in prison, though somewhat less than he might have, and in exchange, he would agree to testify against Chris and Wendy. Their trial was less than a month away. But as Nancy prepared for the trip to the downtown courthouse, her phone rang. It was the prosecutor with bad news.

[Nancy Cannon]

They said, don't come down. He's not going to take a deal. They said, we're sorry. We tried everything we could. He's just not going to take a plea deal. And okay, I got off the phone and I was a little bit disheartened, but I kind of continued, you know, getting, getting ready for my day. And I felt a push. Something was telling me to go downtown, to just go downtown anyway, go downtown. It doesn't matter what they said, get in the car and go downtown. And I did she was crossing the

[Keith Morrison]

bridge into Charleston, she said, when a strange feeling came over her, a feeling so overwhelming, she started to cry.

[Nancy Cannon]

I was just sobbing. I just started sobbing. And I thought, oh, my God. Why. Why am I sobbing? And it wasn't a. It was just water pouring out of my eyes. And it hit me like a ton of bricks that the presence of God was in the car with me. And I know to some people, that's going to sound like lunacy, but I felt the presence of God with me.

[Keith Morrison]

Nancy Cannon had spent a lot of time at the federal courthouse over the past few months. So when she opened the front door, the guards at the metal detectors instantly knew who she was, and they urged her to go home. But Nancy insisted on going to the courtroom anyway. It's where Aaron would have entered his plea. Would have, but wasn't going to. Now, the judge's clerk told Nancy she wouldn't be allowed in the courtroom. So she was led to a small anteroom across the hall, where. And there she waited.

[Nancy Cannon]

I had been there well over an hour, perhaps, too, when there was a knock at the door. And the two U.S. attorneys on my case opened the door, and they said, ann, Erin's attorney would like to meet with you. And I said, yeah, okay. Yes, I'll do it. And they brought her in, and she said, Ms. Cannon, I would like to tell you what Erin. And I said, no, no. Before you say anything to me, anything, I need you to know this. The very first time I saw Aaron in the courtroom, I saw him turn around and search the courtroom until he found me. And when he did, he mouthed the words, I'm sorry. And I said, in that moment, I felt that he truly was asking for my forgiveness. And I gave it to him. And I said, I don't care what the U.S. attorneys say. the end of the day, Aaron saved my life. So if I can speak on behalf of him to the judge when it's time for his hearing or sentencing, even if he doesn't take the plea deal, I said, I'll do it.

[Keith Morrison]

With that, the public defender left the room, and five minutes later, she returned with a message from Aaron.

[Nancy Cannon]

She said, aaron's going to take the plea deal. He just wanted to know that you would forgive him.

[Keith Morrison]

Isn't that something?

[Nancy Cannon]

It was awesome. And so Ann, myself, And the two U.S. attorneys, we were walking out into the hallway, and Ann looked at me and said, I know this is going to sound crazy, but I've never felt the presence of God in anything like I have in this moment and I said, I know. I picked him up on the bridge and I brought him here. He's been with us the whole time.

[Nathan Williams]

Foreign.

[Babs]

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[Nathan Williams]

if you ever

[Keith Morrison]

needed to be persuaded that bad things can happen anywhere, then take a journey with us.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

From compelling mysteries to in depth investigations, our Dateline episodes are available as podcasts.

[Babs]

You can hear the latest stories every Tuesday.

[Keith Morrison]

For more, follow Dateline NBC on Amazon

[Kate Snow]

Music or just ask Alexa. Play the podcast Dateline NBC on Amazon Music.

[Keith Morrison]

Great story time storytelling with a twist from the true crime original.

[Nathan Williams]

Hey guys, Willie Geist here reminding you to check out the Sunday Sit down podcast. On this week's episode, I get together with one of the biggest stars in all of music, Nick Jonas, to talk about his new album, Sunday Best and his rise to fame with the Jonas Brothers. You can get our conversation for free wherever you download your podcasts.

[Keith Morrison]

It was about 9:30 on a chilly morning in February that U.S. district Judge Richard Gergle took his seat and gaveled the full courtroom to order. As he surveyed the ornate courtroom, he would have seen the jury to his left, beyond that, the prosecutor's table in the first row. He would have seen Nancy surrounded by her family and friends, and behind them the assembled faces of reporters and spectators. To the judge's right sat the defendants, Chris Latham and Wendy Moore and their attorneys. After both sides made their opening arguments, the prosecutors called a procession of witnesses, beginning with the cops and investigators who'd first heard Aaron Wilkinson's astounding revelation that a plot to kill Nancy was in the works. For corroboration, they offered up the hit packet, chock full of photos of Nancy and her car and her house, and maps and lists of places where she might be picked up and followed, or even ambushed.

[Nathan Williams]

When you look at those papers, they're clearly designed for finding someone.

[Keith Morrison]

That's the Voice of Assistant U.S. attorney Nathan Williams.

[Nathan Williams]

The maps aren't just maps. They're maps of wooded areas where you can park, pictures of back porches, descriptions of people's path of travels.

[Keith Morrison]

Then they played that recorded phone call. You won't make it work right Sammy asks if Aaron is going to be able to finish the job as planned. Aaron says he will. I'm gonna make it work.

[Nathan Williams]

I mean, they're talking about getting rid of guns, how to kill someone, where it should happen. We had this hit packet. So if you look at those documents and listen to that phone call, it's clear there was a murder for hire going on.

[Keith Morrison]

Not only was there a murder for hire going on, but investigators testified they had clear evidence of who had paid the would be assassins and who handed them the hit packet. And that was none other than Wendy Moore, the religiously devout mother of three.

[Nathan Williams]

She'd rented a hotel room for Sam Yenawine.

[Keith Morrison]

What was the best supporting evidence to show that Wendy was actually deeply involved in the pot?

[Nathan Williams]

So she rents a hotel room, she purchases a drop phone, meaning a phone that has no subscriber information to it, and then she uses that phone exclusively to talk with Sam Yenawine. So there's constant communication with Sam Yenawine. She clearly had met with him several times. The phone tower information we had showed them meeting up in Sullivan's Island.

[Keith Morrison]

Most damning of all, perhaps, was that printer logs at bank of America showed much of the information in the hit packet had been searched for and printed from Wendy's computer.

[Nathan Williams]

That hit packet is clearly on its face designed for this murder for hire. There's no way she prints that up for some other reasons.

[Keith Morrison]

The case against Chris Latham rested in large part on his close relationship to Wendy. But in truth, the information on Nancy's movements and shopping habits, all that insider knowledge in the hit packet could only have come from Chris. The photos have been taken with his

[Rhett DeHart]

phone we found on Latham's iPhone. Five pictures that he took secretly of his estranged wife Nancy at a trespass hearing.

[Keith Morrison]

That is federal prosecutor Rhett DeHart.

[Rhett DeHart]

She was sitting a couple of rows behind him, and he had pulled out his iPhone and over his shoulder, unbeknownst to her, he was taking secret pictures of her.

[Keith Morrison]

The prosecutors argued that Chris took those photos because he wanted Wendy to have a fresh picture of Nancy to send to the hit team, which he thought was in town that day.

[Rhett DeHart]

For me, that was sort of an epiphany. Once we found those photos on his iPhone of Nancy Latham, where it's clear she doesn't know she's being photographed, he's doing it secretly for me. That removed any doubt that he was guilty.

[Keith Morrison]

There was one other thing prosecutors wanted the jury to know. They had hours and hours of Chris and Wendy's phone calls recorded in the Months after she was arrested.

[Rhett DeHart]

Can't wait to ravish you when I get here.

[Wendy Moore]

I can't wait either.

[Keith Morrison]

It was through those calls that prosecutors learned Chris had arranged to pay the attorneys for both Wendy and her ex husband, Sammy. And bank records confirmed it.

[Nathan Williams]

We had evidence that he had been not only paying for Wendy Moore's lawyer and coordinating payment for Yennawine's lawyer, but he was disguising the source of those funds.

[Keith Morrison]

But the trial's star witness was, of course, Aaron Wilkinson, the man who'd revealed all to the police. We were going to Charleston to kill a woman. Weeks earlier, Wilkinson had also been a defendant in the case. In the eyes of the prosecutors, just as guilty of conspiracy as Sammy and Wendy and Chris.

[Nathan Williams]

He certainly was conspiring.

[Keith Morrison]

Involved in a murder for hire, Nathan Williams.

[Nathan Williams]

Again, he talks about not wanting to do anything. You know, if that's true, he doesn't need to bring a gun to South Carolina. That hit packet should have been in the first dumpster he passed on his way out of Louisville.

[Keith Morrison]

Aaron was a flawed witness, to be sure. He was an ex con, a drug addict, and a liar. But time and again, he insisted the core facts of his story were true. There had been a plot to kill Nancy. Wendy Moore had given Sammy Yenawine cash and a hit packet with detailed instructions. All of that had been independently corroborated by the feds.

[Nathan Williams]

The evidence against Chris Latham and Wendy Moore and Aaron Wilkinson and Sam Yenowine is all physical evidence. I don't think we ever asked the jury to convict anyone based on Aaron Wilkinson, but he was very good for furthering our investigation. Certainly when he gave us that hit packet, that led us to the computer searches.

[Keith Morrison]

Once Aaron Wilkinson finished his testimony, prosecutors called Nancy Cannon the target of the murder plot and her daughter Emily to the stand. Nancy was tearful as she described her disintegrating marriage and the months and months of terror after learning she'd been marked for death. Emily was stoic when she talked about her relationship with her father, both in the courtroom and later when she spoke with me.

[Wendy Moore]

I think people are really capable of anything.

[Keith Morrison]

That's the voice of Emily Latham.

[Nancy Cannon]

And anyone who wants something genuinely wants something. A lot of times they're willing to do anything to get it.

[Wendy Moore]

And I think he really didn't want

[Nancy Cannon]

my mom around anymore, and he was willing to do anything to get that done.

[Keith Morrison]

The defense did little to refute the physical evidence. The recorded phone call that Aaron made to Sammy clearly showed they were up to no good. The dropped phones, the Hit Packet. The cyber footprints that implicated Chris and Wendy. They were what they were. Note the defense would argue there was still room for doubt if you squinted and looked at the evidence in just the right light. Take the hit packet, for instance.

[David Aylor]

They were able to connect it to a printer and a computer that she used. I don't think there was ever a way that they could technically directly connect it to her.

[Keith Morrison]

That's the voice of David Aylor, Wendy's lawyer.

[David Aylor]

I mean, is there another meaning, or is there another way that they're connected to something else? Because you never did see anything that came out through any of the testimony, beyond, of course, Aaron Wilkinson's testimony that there was ever an actual murder plan.

[Keith Morrison]

Possible, perhaps, but about as probable as having both Chris and Wendy's printers somehow Vanish days after ATF agents knocked on her door. As for the $5,000 Wendy gave to Sammy Yenawine before. Before the plot was exposed, well, according to Aylor, that was just another one of those things open to interpretation. Perhaps he suggested that Sammy was going to buy a car for one of the Yellow Wine Kids with that money.

[David Aylor]

They had children together. They, of course, had exchanged monies several times over the years.

[Keith Morrison]

And that hotel room Wendy rented for Sammy.

[David Aylor]

Well, renting a room for a family member in a lot of situations is fairly normal, particularly if it's an ex family member that you don't want at your home.

[Keith Morrison]

When it came to Chris Latham's defense, his attorney argued Chris had no motive to harm his ex wife and had no connection with anyone who did. There was zero evidence that he even knew Sammy Yenawine or ever communicated with him.

[Willie Geist]

In my opinion, the evidence that they had against Chris was weak.

[Keith Morrison]

That's the voice of Stephen Schmutz, Chris Latham's attorney.

[Willie Geist]

Chris Latham had every idea that not only was he not going to be damaged in the divorce, that he was going to vindicate himself in the divorce.

[Keith Morrison]

Might the prospect of losing half his assets and paying his ex wife nearly 8,000amonth for life be motive for murder? No, said Schmutz. No, no, no.

[Willie Geist]

What does that add up to? Out of his $650,000? And also, it's not really 8,000. When you do the taxes, it comes to about 4,000. The property settlement, splitting it 50. 50. That was already gone. He had absolutely no motive.

[Keith Morrison]

And according to Schmutz, Chris Latham had no need to fear damage to his professional reputation. So what if the divorce trial exposed his affair with his executive assistant? Remember, this was well before the MeToo reckoning that brought down so many rich and powerful men.

[Willie Geist]

We put witnesses on the stand. Bank of America witnesses. They just said that Chris Latham being fired because of an affair with Wendy Moore was absurd. There was even an employee that stated there'd be a lot of people fired here if that were the case. That was just not going to be the case. Chris Latham was not going to be fired because of his relationship with Wendy Moore.

[Keith Morrison]

The defense argued that the only true criminals in this case were Sam Yenawine and Aaron Wilkinson. They were the ex cons who plotted the murder. And why would they do that now? Who knew the workings of the criminal mind? Sammy was dead. Couldn't ask him. And Aaron Wilkinson, well, he was a liar. He was a man who lied to the police from the get go. But the gun. But why he was even at Charleston.

[Willie Geist]

It somewhat surprises me that Aaron Wilkinson got on that stand after telling the government four or five different stories. That somewhat surprised me.

[Keith Morrison]

It took the better part of three weeks to hear all the witnesses and present all the evidence. And then the attorney summed up their cases and told the jurors what they thought a just verdict would be. And everyone in the courtroom, including Nancy Cannon, settled in for a long wait.

[Nancy Cannon]

Well, when it went to the jury, I felt quite confident. And the jury came back early on and asked the question, does the conspiracy have to meet every single criteria? And when they asked the judge, does the conspiracy have to meet every single criteria to be found guilty? I watched as Wendy turned around and smirked to her family, like, yeah, we're going to get off. They're not meeting all the criteria. And I remember Chris kind of got this look on his face like, you know, it was kind of a little nod of his head and a little, yeah, we're getting off.

[Keith Morrison]

What was going on in here in your head?

[Nancy Cannon]

I thought, oh, my gosh, this is not good. This is not good. And we went back to the room, which was one floor below where we were huddling, and I just started sobbing profusely. I couldn't stop. I could not stop.

[Keith Morrison]

Next on Murder and Magnolias. The jury decides.

[Rhett DeHart]

I think I would just worry, gosh, is there a chance that there could just be one hole out and we have to try this case over again?

[Keith Morrison]

We couldn't understand why some of the didn't feel the same way as the others felt. Murder and Magnolias is a production of Dateline and NBC News. Tim Beacham is the producer. Brian Drew is the audio editor. Thomas Kemen is assistant audio editor. Keani Reed and Reese Washington are associate producers Susan Nall is senior producer, Adam Gorfayn is co executive producer, Liz Cole is executive producer and David Corvo is senior executive producer. From NBC News. Audio Bryson Barnes is technical director. Sound mixing by Bob Mallory Nina Bisbano is associate producer. Foreign. Mo Stash A tag on one hand and ordering a ride in the other means you're stacking cash back with Venmo Stash. Get up to 5% cash back when you pick a bundle of your favorite brands. Earn more cash when you do Mobile Stash Venmo Stash Terms exclusions apply. Match $100 cash back per month. See terms of Venmo Me Stash Terms.