Billy Ray Turner finds out about Lorenzen Wright’s murder

The jury on Monday was convicted Billy Ray Turner51 years old, murder in the NBA center Lorenzen Wright34. Prosecutors say Turner committed the crime on behalf of the victim’s ex-wife Sherra Wright. He was also found guilty of first-degree murder and first-degree murder.

As far as prosecutors are concerned, this concludes a story that spanned more than 11 years. Lorenzen Wright, a popular hub for teams like the Los Angeles Clippers and the Memphis Grizzles, his hometown, made a tragic final 911 call to authorities in Germantown, Tennessee, early this morning. July 19, 2010. Gunfire interrupted it violently. Prosecutors Paul Hagerman admitted to jurors that dispatch failed to track this, so Wright’s body remained in a remote area for nine days.

The case cooled down until 2012, when Sherra Wright’s cousin Jimmie Martin steps forward to claim that this relative recruited him and Turner to help plot and execute Lorenzen’s murder. He testified at Turner’s trial that he and Billy Ray arrived at Lorenzen’s Atlanta apartment after Sherra left the window open. In his account, they entered but found someone – not the target – sleeping in the living room. They left the unnamed man unharmed, he said.

Martin, an unrelated accomplice, claims he didn’t actually kill the latter, but Sherra recruited him to help clean up evidence, including the murder weapon. In her version of events, Sherra says she and Turner were both there. Prosecutors say Sherra and her lover Turner chased Lorenzen with guns, and Turner fired fatal shots.

Sherra Wright is serving a 30-year sentence after pleading guilty facilitate the commission of murder and facilitate the attempt to commit first-degree murder.

Lawyer Turner John Keity Perry said Martin was serving himself: He faced a sentence in 2012 for the murder of his girlfriend Martha Jean Bownes, serving a 20-year sentence. He said Martin’s cousin was the real killer, not Turner. He admits in closing arguments that Turner has given his car over to Sherra for Martin’s use, but Turner really doesn’t know what this is for.

Hagerman rhetorically asks what it takes to kill a person. Perry threw this back to the prosecution in opening statements.

“It needs to have the heart of a punk,” he said, referring to Martin.

Prosecutors Austin Schofield ultimately said Sherra turned to Turner for help because she trusted him, and to Martin for help because she could gain leverage over him becoming a defendant in the pending Bownes. handling. According to the status, she came into contact with herself and Turner by reaching out to him through a second woman, communicating with him using a cipher, even though the cipher was so “silly” that he We don’t even know who it is.

Lorenzen Wright was a star center at the University of Memphis in the mid-1990s. The Clippers went on to pick Wright with a 7th pick overall in the first round of the 1996 NBA Draft.

[Screenshot via Law&Crime Network]

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