Memphis police have officially arrested and charged the ex-wife of former NBA player Lorenzen Wright with a charge of first-degree murder in the case of Wright's 2010 slaying in his home state of Tennessee.
It was on July 28, 2010 that Wright's body was founfd ridden with bullets and badly decomposed in a wooded area in Memphis after being reported missing ten days earlier. An autopsy would later reveal that the 6'11" power forward was shot five times. The investigation would go on to show that a 911 call was placed from Lorenzen Wright's cellphone on the morning of July 19. The dispatchers would not notify police until eight days later despite gunshots being heard on the line.
For seven years, the case went cold until a murder weapon was disvocered in a lake in Walnut, Mississippi back in November of this year after reopening the investigation in 2016. The break eventually lead authorities to Billy R. Turner, once a deacon at the church where Wright's ex-wife Sherra Wright-Robinson was a minister. Turner was arrested on December 5th, and Friday night, Wright-Robinson was arrested and charged with her husband's murder.
"We looked through this case and we did one thing, we followed the evidence and the evidence led us to Billy Turner and Sherra Wright,” said Memphis Police Major Darren Goods earlier on Saturday. “We wanted to investigate it as if it had just happened. We went to the crime scene and walked in Lorenzen’s final steps.”
The Wrights divorced 13 months prior to Lorenzen's death, ending a 13-year marriage. Wright was last seen leaving Wright-Robinson's home on July 19 around midnight before disappearing. Despite her constant denial, police have always pinned down Wright-Robinson as a possible suspect in the death of her ex-husband, with Wright's $1 million life insurance policy being the possible motive.
Lorenzen Wright, 34 at the time of his death, was selected by the Los Angeles Clippers as the seventh overall pick in the 1996 NBA Draft. He would go on to play for five teams, including a stint in his hometown with the Grizzlies, before retiring in 2009.