Wright adds to rising total of murdering spouse cases
The Lorenzen Wright murder case recently took an unexpected sharp turn when Sherra Wright, his former wife and mother of his six children, pleaded guilty to “facilitating murder in the first degree” for the 2010 death of the NBA star.
She also pleaded guilty to facilitating attempted murder of Lorenzen Wright in Atlanta just weeks before he was shot to death in Memphis. His body was found in an isolated field; he had been shot 11 times, including twice in the head and twice in the chest.
For the past nine years, the July 2010 killing has stayed in the headlines and on the minds of many of the well-loved basketball player’s family, friends and admirers. But it remained a cold case for many years. Then in November 2017, Memphis police announced that a firearm thought to have been used in the slaying was found in a lake in Walnut, Mississippi. Sherra Wright, 48, and an accomplice were arrested soon after. She had remarried and was living in Riverside, California.
Some Lorenzen Wright family members and close friends felt that his former wife in some way was responsible for his death. In 2017 the mounting evidence proved they were correct. As is the usual procedure with homicides, spouses and other romantic partners often are the first suspects.
While this case is intriguing, disturbing and sad, it is not usual. Rather, it is yet another in an increasing number of homicides involving romantic partners or former partners — though in most cases it is the man who kills the female partner.
A woman killing her husband, lover or former partner occurs less often. But, as evident with this case, it happens. And sometimes brutally. According to Bureau of Justice Statistics, women who kill men are most likely acquaintances, spouses or boyfriends while men are more likely to kill strangers.
Yet women usually are the victims of domestic abuse and homicide. For that and other reasons, Sherra Wright’s murder case is a standout. In 2017, a longrange study from the Centers for Disease Control showed that from 2003 to 2014, more than 10,000 women were murdered in 18 states, half of those by a current or former romantic partner. Men were 98% of these partners.
According to information submitted to the FBI in 2016, more than 1,800 women were murdered by men in single-victim or single-offender incidents. A disturbing 85% were murdered by a man they knew; more than half were romantically linked to their killer. The number was up 11% from 2014. According to other data, women murder their husbands and other intimate partners at 25% of that rate.
Many violent deaths between intimate partners occur right after breakups or during separations, as was the case with Lorenzen Wright. The Wrights’ divorce was finalized a few months before he was killed.
A 2018 study shows that money is a motivating factor when women kill intimate partners or former partners. “Although homicide is predominantly male perpetrated, of the cases investigated women most often killed for gain or what they perceived as ‘love,’” according to the study. “Gain homicides are those committed for personal benefit, such as money or business and personal advantage. The homicides committed by women for gain ... were mostly carried out for insurance payments, assets or due to being removed from a will following a divorce.”
It should be noted that soon after Lorenzen Wright was murdered in 2010, Sherra Wright received and, as reported, “rapidly spent” $1 million from a life insurance policy. In 2014 Sherra Wright agreed to a settlement with Lorenzen Wright’s father in his petition to have her removed as trustee of the insurance money his son had left for his children.
In many cases where women have killed their romantic partners, the women have claimed they were retaliating for ongoing abusive behavior. Sherra Wright and her attorneys have said that domestic abuse would have been her defense had she gone to trial (and faced life in prison). Some of Lorenzen’s family and friends say it was the first time they’ve heard of such abuse. At the time of the murder, he was living in Atlanta and had returned to Memphis to see his children.
A survey at a maximum-security prison found that nearly half of the women incarcerated there had committed assaults of self-defense or retaliation against abuse.
For example, there is the Philadelphia mother who killed her daughter’s father and first love. She is among thousands of victims of domestic violence who face criminal charges. And that despite having had a protectionfrom-abuse order against her former partner, having received death threats from him, and the fact that the man was “coming at her” when she took his gun and shot him instead. She was charged with third-degree murder.
But, again, not all women who kill their partners do so in self-defense or because they have been abused. Many kill for greed or jealousy.
One of the most notorious cases is that of Jean Harris, the exclusive girls’ school mistress who served 12 years in the Bedford Hills (New York) Correctional Facility for the 1980 fatal shooting of Dr. Herman Tarnower, famous for “The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet.” They had been lovers for 14 years, and Harris, then 57, became depressed because of his cheating. In fact, the night of the murder, she found personal items of the other woman in the victim’s bathroom. Seems she had planned to kill herself, but ended up using all the bullets on him.
And then there is Narcy Novack, a former stripper who was convicted of hiring two hitmen to brutally kill her husband, Bill Novack Jr., heir to the Fontainebleau Hotel fortune. He had found another love, and she wanted his $10 million fortune rather than the money allocated in the prenup agreement. To ensure she’d get the money, she and her brother also had his mother beaten to death just months before. In 2012, she was sentenced to life in prison with no parole.
Regardless of why these and other women kill their partners, something must be done to stem this trend of deadly violence among men and women who once loved each other.
Would counseling help some troubled couples find a peaceful resolution? Maybe, but far too many people are averse to seeking counseling. In its 2018 study, the Violence Policy Center urged state legislators to adopt laws that enhance enforcement of federal legislation and ensure that guns are surrendered by or removed from the presence of abusers.
That would be a start.
Lynn Norment is a Memphis journalist who previously was an editor and senior writer for Ebony magazine. She can be reached at normentmedia@gmail.com.