Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - This Executive is in BIG Trouble // The Chris Latham Murder Plot

Episode Date: May 20, 2026

Chris Latham, a former wealthy bank executive from Charleston, South Carolina, was convicted in 2014 for his involvement in a failed 2013 murder-for-hire plot against his estranged wife, Nancy Cannon. Motivated by a bitter divorce and a desire to avoid substantial alimony payments, Latham collaborated with his mistress and assistant, Wendy Moore, who orchestrated the scheme by hiring her ex-husband, Samuel Yenawine, and another accomplice, Aaron Wilkinson, to execute the hit.

So one night, this guy really, really wants some drugs. And that is going to get a bunch of people put in prison for attempted murder. Now, the story starts with this guy, Chris. And Chris, he's about 50 years old, living in South Carolina. And Chris, he's got a problem. He can't stop cheating on his wife. He's been involved in multiple affairs. Now, his wife is this woman, Nancy.

And Nancy, she knows he's been sleeping around. But for whatever reason, she keeps forgiving him and taking him back. hoping he'll change. Then one day in 2012, all that changes. Because Nancy finds out he's been cheating yet again. So she goes and she confronts him and they fight about it. But this time, Chris says he's ready to leave and move in with his side chick. And this pisses Nancy off. And she's finally decided that she's had enough and she goes and she files for divorce. And in this divorce, she's asking for alimony payments, she's asking for child support, she's asking for a cut of all of his assets, including his stock options. And Chris, he's a highly successful executive at Bank of America,

making about $600,000 a year. So he makes good money. And about a year goes by, and it's 2013. And by this point, the divorce is about to be finalized. They're approaching the final hearing. And because of all the adultery he was doing during the marriage, it's looking like the court is going to award Nancy all the money she's been asking for. And this stresses Chris out. He doesn't want to have to pay his ex all that money. So he goes to his side chick, this woman, who we'll just call side chick. And side chick, she is the woman Chris has been cheating with. She's also his secretary and a former adult dancer. And so side chick and Chris, they get together and they come up with an evil plan to kill Nancy. And Chris instructs Sidechick to find a hitman to do it.

And he'll pay them $5,000 up front and an additional $20,000 once they actually assassinate her. So Sidechick hits up her ex-husband who lives in Kentucky. This guy, Sammy. And Sammy is apparently kind of a shady dude. He has a criminal record. Might be willing to kill someone for money. So Sychick hits him up and she's like, would you be willing to kill someone for money? And Sammy's like,

All right. So Sammy starts thinking about this and planning it all out. And he figures that he can't do this hit job on his own. So he decides to recruit an old cellmate as backup. This guy, Aaron. So Sammy hits up Aaron. Now Sammy, he's worried that Aaron will turn the job down. So he doesn't tell him about the murder plot.

Instead, he asks Aaron to drive with him from Kentucky to Nashville, Tennessee to buy some drugs. and Aaron agrees because he likes drugs. So these two goons get on the road and they're driving along and suddenly Sammy says to Aaron, okay, we're not really going to Tennessee. We're actually going to South Carolina to murder someone. And Aaron's like, well, I don't want to murder someone. But Sammy insists.

He even says there'll be drugs in it for him. So Aaron agrees to go along because, you know, he likes drugs, even though he doesn't want to murder anyone. Meanwhile, side chick tells Chris that she got a couple of guys on the way to South Carolina, and now their assassination plot is in motion. And Chris, he starts working on putting together a bunch of information for the hitman so that they can find and identify Nancy. Like a picture of Nancy, a diagram of her house, her schedule, and all this stuff,

and he puts it all together into one sort of hit package. And Sidechick even hand writes some instructions and she throws them in there. Then, Sammy and Aaron arrive in Charleston, South Carolina, and they go to this seedy motel, and Sychik goes to meet them, and she delivers the hit package with all the information they need, and she gives them $5,000 as the upfront payment. So a few days pass, and Sammy and Aaron, they're still at the motel, and they've been tracking Nancy's movements, waiting on the perfect moment to strike. But then, Sammy leaves Charleston and he flies back to Kentucky.

I guess he was never going to stick around. His whole plan was to have Aaron do the killing. He doesn't even want to be in the state while it happens. But the problem is, Aaron, he's kind of a crackhead. And one night, Aaron, who's still in Charleston, he starts feigning for some drugs. Apparently, he's actually a big heroin addict. And he doesn't live in this city, so he doesn't know where to get any. So he uses his phone and he Googles where to buy heroin in Charleston.

And Google gives him a street where drug activity is known to take place. So he takes the car and he drives over to this drug street and he cruises around and I guess he's just looking for anyone there who might be a drug dealer. And while he's doing this, he gets pulled over by police. So police try talking to him. And Aaron, he's all sweating and he's acting all nervous. and immediately he admits that he's got an expired driver's license and that he's a convicted felon. So then police search his car real quick and they find a loaded revolver along with some ammunition. And a convicted felon is not allowed to have a gun in their possession.

So bam, they arrest him. Here's his mugshot. Okay, so what? Aaron got arrested for possession of a firearm. It's not that big of a deal. It's not like he's going to like tell police that he's in town to kill. someone, until. Until he tells police he's in town to kill someone. Literally, while he's in the back of the police car, he decides to say out loud, uh, I'm actually in town because I've

been hired to murder a woman. And so Aaron starts telling them the whole story about Sammy and side chick and the $5,000 he and Sammy were paid for the hit. He also gives them that hit package with all that evidence in it. Honestly, the guy seems to be panicking and all cracked out and he's hoping to get a lighter sentence. So that same day, police get the FBI involved. In the FBI, they have Aaron call up Sammy, who is still back in Kentucky while they listen in on the call. So he calls up Sammy and he's like, well, I was wondering what to do if while I'm killing Nancy, one of the daughters shows up. And Sammy's like, well, just go ahead

and kill them too. And so the feds are like, holy shit, Aaron wasn't kidding. And they rush over to Nancy's home and they tell her that someone had been hired to kill her and that they want to take her to a safe house. And there they ask her if she can think of anyone who would want to harm her. And remember, she's a few days away from finalizing her divorce with Chris. So immediately she's like, Chris! And so, bam, feds go and they arrest side chick. Here's her mugshot.

Also, bam, they arrest Sammy. Here's his mugshot. But Chris, he's harder to get. Because while Aaron can snitch on Sammy and side chick, he never actually met Chris or saw him. So it's harder for him to rat him out. But Chris, by this point, he knows he's screwed. I mean, he knows the feds are slowly building a case against him, so he goes into hiding in Salem, South Carolina, in a spot that he and his family used to vacation at.

But the feds, they know where he's at. I mean, they've been tracking his movements for months, as they've been building this case against him. against him. And so eventually, bam, he gets arrested. Here's his mugshot. So Aaron, he ends up taking a plea deal and he gets four years in prison. Side chick, she goes to trial. She gets found guilty and she gets 15 years in prison. While Chris goes to trial, he gets found guilty and he gets 10 years in prison. And Sammy, he actually unalives himself in jail before his trial even starts.