With trial date, Wright’s mother can ‘breathe’
Ex-wife will finally stand trial in NBA star’s death
Nearly a decade after NBA star Lorenzen Wright was found shot to death in Southeast Shelby County, his ex-wife, Sherra Wright and co-defendant Billy Ray Turner, will stand trial for his murder.
A trial date of Sept. 16, 2019, was set Thursday before Criminal Court Judge Lee Coffee. Their next report date is Jan. 24.
Both Sherra Wright and Turner are charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. Turner’s bond was set at $15 million and Sherra Wright’s bond is $20 million. Both remain in custody.
For Lorenzen Wright’s mother, Deborah Marion and grandmother, Louise Vassar, the trial date is a relief and moves them one more step toward closure in the violent death of Marion’s oldest child and Vassar’s oldest grandchild.
“It makes me breathe again. It makes me really feel good. My mom is crying, she’s so happy to get this over with because she’s getting older. We haven’t got years and years and years to wait any longer. She’s 86. So we need to get this over with,” Marion said, as her mother softly thanked Jesus for this significant piece of progress.
“I can’t hardly wait until September, but God is on our side,” Vassar said.
And September doesn’t feel far away, said Marion, who expected a December trial date, which would have been a full
two years after Sherra Wright and Turner were arrested.
Also attending the hearing was Loren Wright, the couple’s daughter, who sat on the defense side of the courtroom. Sherra Wright was obviously pleased to see her daughter there in support.
Marion said she hasn’t seen her granddaughter, who she calls a “momma’s girl” in eight years.
“I’m glad she’s here so she can hear what her momma wants to tell her,” Marion said.
The older Wright children have said publicly they believe in their mother’s innocence. Their grandmother has asked them to look at the evidence.
“Don’t listen to me, don’t listen to anybody. Just follow the evidence and tell me what you find,” she said.
In addition to the murder charge, Turner is also charged with being a convicted felon in possession of firearms. Prosecutors asked Coffee to set a trial date on that charge ahead of the murder trial.
Turner’s lawyer, John Keith Perry, objected to the possibility that a trial on the weapons charge could taint the jury pool in a case that is unrelated to the murder charge.
The weapons were found during a police search of Turner’s home.
“None of the weapons had anything to do with any other criminal activity other than my client’s status as a prior convicted felon, the prior felony conviction being 25 years earlier than the date that they were found,” he said.
Before this arrest, Turner was a small business owner who was paid in cash. Also, he’s had a clean record since his felonies in the 1990s, his lawyer said.
Turner was a deacon at Mt. Olivet No. 1 Missionary Baptist Church in Collierville. (Sherra Wright attended there as well.)
“When you’re dealing with something where you have weapons that are alleged to not have been involved in probably one of the most followed criminal cases in the history of Memphis, I think it’s important to say hey, these are separate issues, they have nothing to do with each other and allow my client to have a fair jury pool,” Perry said.
Having a trial date gives all of the attorneys a finish line, said prosecutor Paul Hagerman.
It’s a case with more than 20,000 pages of discovery and audio evidence.
“Preparing is difficult for both sides,” he said.
The trial will likely last at least a week, Hagerman said.
There’s a lot to get done before September, said Juni Ganguli, Sherra Wright’s attorney.
“There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, so in that respect, she’s relieved,” Ganguli said.
He also represents Tremaine Wilbourn, who last month was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Memphis Police officer Sean Bolton.
The prosecution sought the death penalty, but Ganguli and his defense team successfully saw Wilbourn sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
“I lead a charmed life. I’ve got a great life. So I’m happy. We’ve got a good case for Sherra. I think we have a good defense. I’m excited,” he said.
Ganguli did not say if he and Perry would work together in the defense of their clients.
“When there’s co-defendants things change. A lot of times co-defendants’ interests are antagonistic. So what’s good for us might not be good for Mr. Turner and vice versa,” he said.
During Sherra Wright’s last appearance in October, a mental evaluation deemed her competent to stand trial, despite antics earlier this year at Jail East, where she stripped naked and used her clothes to stuff the toilet in an attempt to flood her cell, saying she was “going swimming, y’all.”
In a report submitted into evidence by Hagerman, Wright caused a “verbal riot,” cursed guards, refused to comply with orders and was slow to comply when she did.
That behavior, said then-attorney Blake Ballin, could be attributed to her “deteriorating mental health.”
However, in July, Sherra Wright parted company with attorneys Ballin and Steve Farese Jr., who cited for Coffee in court a deteriorating relationship between them and their client.
After appointing Ganguli and Laurie Hall, Coffee told Wright they would be the last lawyers he would appoint her.
Lorenzen Wright graduated from Booker T. Washington High School, played basketball at the University of Memphis and was in the NBA for 13 years. Lorenzen and Sherra met while her father was a coach at BTW. The couple had seven children and buried an 11month-old daughter.
But, the Wrights were divorced when in July 2010, Lorenzen Wright left his home in Atlanta to visit his children. He left Sherra Wright’s home in Collierville on the evening of July 18. His mother reported him missing on July 22.
During the search for him, Sherra Wright told police he left with people she didn’t know.
She would later tell investigators that her ex-husband was involved in criminal activity.
Nine days after he went missing, a 911 call that had been routed to Germantown surfaced, leading investigators to a grassy field in Southeast Shelby County, where Lorenzen Wright’s badly decomposed body was found.
For years, the case lay cold until Sherra Wright’s cousin, Jimmie Martin lead investigators to a lake in Walnut, Mississippi, where the murder weapon was found.
Martin, now serving 20 years for murdering his girlfriend, is called an “unindicted co-conspirator,” who told investigators about the failed murder attempt against Lorenzen Wright in Atlanta and how he helped Sherra Wright and Turner clean up the crime scene and destroy evidence.
Sherra Wright was arrested in December 2017 in Riverside, California, days after Turner was picked up at a Collierville convenience store.