A gun-wielding murderer will spend the rest of his life in prison after he was convicted of killing a former basketball star.
The body of Lorenzen Wright was found in a swampy field in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, in July 2010 – several days after he had been reported missing. Those searching for the father of six found his body with multiple bullet wounds.
Wright, 34, had retired from professional basketball just a year earlier after a long career in the NBA, playing for several top franchises including his hometown team the Memphis Grizzlies. Given his fame and the violence of his death, it became one of the most high-profile murder cases in the city's history.
Almost 12 years on from the crime, on Monday a jury of 12 spent two hours deliberating before convicting Billy Ray Turner of first degree murder, attempted murder and conspiracy in Wright's death. Turner had already pleaded guilty to possessing a weapon as a convicted felon – he had been found with two guns at the time of his arrest in 2017.
Sentencing the 51-year-old to a life prison sentence for murder, Judge Lee Coffee referred to Wright as "a sacred son" of the city. Turner will return to court at a later date to receive further sentences for the other charges. Coffee also told Wright's mother, Deborah Marion, that the trial would "celebrate the good" about her son – even if it did not bring her closure after her loss.
Outside the courtroom, Marion told reporters that she would be visiting her son's resting place later that day, and that she was pleased with the verdict. She added: "It will never be closure, because I will never see my son again. This is just some satisfaction for me and my family."
The conspiracy charge for which Turner was found guilty refers to a plan which prosecutors allege was created by the NBA star's ex-wife Sherra Wright. She recruited Turner, who she knew from church and with whom she was alleged to have had a secret romantic relationship, and her cousin Jimmie Martin to help her.
Martin was convicted of killing his girlfriend in a separate case, and has received immunity over any involvement he had in the plot to kill the former basketballer. He testified that Sherra Wright had recruited both him and Turner to carry out the murder.
Martin told the court that he had taken part in a failed attempt to enter a condo in Atlanta, Georgia, to kill Lorenzen Wright. When they found that Wright was not there, they returned home. At the time of the actual shooting, on July 19, 2010, Martin said he was in Batesville, Mississippi, and that he had played no part.
Sherra Wright entered a surprise guilty plea to facilitation of murder in 2019, two years after her initial indictment. She was later sentenced to 30 years in jail. At the time, she said she had lured her ex-husband to the field before she and Turner ambushed Wright.
The former NBA star tried to escape and jumped over a fence, but was shot before he could get away. Before his death, he had managed to call emergency services – an audio file of that call was played in court to the jury, in which the sound of several gunshots could be heard.
John Keith Perry, the lawyer defending Turner, claimed that Martin's story was "crazy" and "contrived", adding that it had been Martin who was in Memphis on the night of Lorenzen Wright's death instead of Turner. Neither Sherra Wright nor Turner took the stand to testify during the trial.
Sherra Wright had received a £750,000 payout from a life insurance policy in her ex-husband's name following his death. That money was supposed to benefit their six children, though in 2014 she settled a court challenge over how she had been spending that cash.
Paul Hagerman, prosecuting, told the court that the murderers had been motivated by jealousy and greed. The motive for the killing of Lorenzen Wright was not clear, though his mother agrees that Sherra Wright had been financially motivated. Marion said: "That's what it was about. Money."
