Sherra Wright

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Speaker 2 I'm gonna need the name of everyone that could have a connection.

Speaker 2 You don't understand. It was just the five of us.
So this was all planned. What are you gonna do?

Speaker 1 I will do whatever it takes to get my son back.

Speaker 2 I honestly didn't see this coming. These nice people

Speaker 2 killing each other. All her fault.
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Leave my kids out of your mouth.

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Speaker 1 She was his high school sweetheart and became a basketball wife.

Speaker 2 He made a $55 million playing basketball. It seemed to be a true love story with the two of them.

Speaker 2 I knew he was madly in love with her.

Speaker 1 On a steamy summer night in Memphis, this fairy tale of riches comes to a startling end.

Speaker 1 Hi, how are you?

Speaker 1 Jar Town 911, where's your emergency?

Speaker 2 You're literally hearing someone be murdered.

Speaker 1 For nearly a decade, the case haunts the city.

Speaker 1 And when the truth finally comes out, a cold-hearted killer is close to home corpse.

Speaker 2 This wasn't a robbery. It would lead you to believe it was something personal.

Speaker 2 I mean, that was the Kodak moment when they brought that weapon out.

Speaker 2 He was nothing more than a pawn on a chessboard that did what his queen wanted him to do.

Speaker 1 July 22nd, 2010. In a wealthy suburb just outside of Memphis, Deborah Marion makes a phone call to the Collierville Police Department.

Speaker 1 Deborah identifies herself as mother to famed NBA star Lorenzen Wright. The name is well known to the officer and everyone else in Memphis.

Speaker 2 He was called a hometown hero. So you would see his name on billboards everywhere.
Every restaurant you go to, they'll have something of his nature now, whether it was a jersey or a poster.

Speaker 1 Deborah tells the officer that 34-year-old Lorenzen, who currently lives in Atlanta, arrived in Memphis four days earlier to visit, but now has disappeared.

Speaker 2 One of his sisters was pregnant at the time and she was having a baby shower, but he would not have missed it for the world. He didn't show up for that.

Speaker 1 Deborah insists this just isn't like her son.

Speaker 2 No one could get in contact with him. They knew that there was something was wrong.
Something was bad.

Speaker 2 The mother filed the missing person report.

Speaker 2 All of us became highly concerned then because it was not like Wren.

Speaker 2 Something has happened.

Speaker 1 As investigators review the report, news of the missing NBA player spreads quickly across the city.

Speaker 2 This was indeed a very big deal. He was one of Memphis' favorite sons.
The whole city was a buzz wanting wanting to know what happened.

Speaker 1 Lorenzen Wren Wright was born on November 4th, 1975 in Oxford, Mississippi, to Deborah Marion and Herb Wright. Although his parents never married, Lorenzen was close to both his mother and his father.

Speaker 2 The relationship that him and his mom had was a bond that would never be broken. I mean, they were very, very close.

Speaker 1 Lorenzen's bond with his father, a former NBA prospect, centered around their shared love of basketball.

Speaker 2 His father Herb was injured, wounded, and was paralyzed, and Herb never let the wheelchair stop him. Wren loved his daddy.
He loved him, and Herb was his first sort of coach.

Speaker 2 taught him a lot about basketball.

Speaker 1 By the time Lorenzen was in high school, it was clear that the 6'11 teenager was a gifted athlete.

Speaker 2 Anybody could see, even when he was in high school, this guy got an express train ticket to the NBA. He was one of the top players in Mississippi.

Speaker 2 Then, his senior year, his daddy made the move to get him out of Mississippi and get him to Memphis. Memphis produces a lot of top basketball players.

Speaker 2 If you want to be better, if you want to get better, play the best.

Speaker 1 During the summers, Lorenzen played for the exclusive Amateur Athletic Union.

Speaker 2 AAU is like a, they call it all-American, all the top players around the country play in.

Speaker 1 Lorenzen was a star on the team, gaining plenty of attention from his coach as well as from his coach's daughter, Shara Robinson.

Speaker 2 From what I know, Shera's mom died at a young age, and she met Lorenzen through her dad.

Speaker 2 Her father was an AAU basketball coach, and by that being the case, Cheryl had a lot of access to knowing who basketball players were.

Speaker 2 Cheryl was different.

Speaker 2 Just different than anything he had been around.

Speaker 2 He was madly in love with her.

Speaker 1 In 1994, Lorenzen began his freshman year of college playing for the University of Memphis. That same year, Shara became pregnant with his child.

Speaker 1 The couple was excited, but decided to hold off on marriage so Lorenzen could focus on basketball.

Speaker 2 Here this kid is, 6'10, 6'11, could run like a gazelle.

Speaker 2 He had it.

Speaker 2 And it was everything.

Speaker 1 A year later, Lorenzen was still playing at the University of Memphis when all of his dedication and hard work paid off.

Speaker 2 Draft night, Lorenzen get drafted by the L.A. Clippers as the number seventh player, Ben Bay Draft, so instantly his life changed.

Speaker 2 So now, Lorenzen was out on the road 42 times a season playing basketball.

Speaker 1 But he was always eager to return home to Shara and his son.

Speaker 2 Being on the road was fine, and it's fun for a while, but he always wanted to get home to his children.

Speaker 1 By 1998, the couple had married, and Lorenzen had built both a reputation in the NBA and a handsome bank account. In 1999, Shara gave birth to their second child.

Speaker 2 Oh, the wedding was awesome.

Speaker 2 Had a huge wedding in Memphis.

Speaker 2 The wedding was beautiful. Yeah, he's excited.
We're all excited for him.

Speaker 1 His marriage to Shara was a constant. Even when his NBA career had the family moving from LA to Atlanta after he was traded to the Hawks.

Speaker 1 Then in 2001, another dream came true.

Speaker 2 That's where they held the press conference at for Lorenzen to come in to play for them if his business. It was real, real big.

Speaker 2 It was very, very, very much like this thing is coming back for a circle.

Speaker 1 Shara and Lorenzen moved their family to the wealthy Memphis suburb of Collierville.

Speaker 2 The neighborhood's a very exclusive neighborhood, and in that neighborhood were two NFL football players in that same little cove that they were in.

Speaker 1 Their family continued to grow. By 2002, they had seven children, three girls and four boys.

Speaker 2 Shara was always there for her kids. She was great as as a mother.
They had all kinds of help, whether it was family friends and live-in nannies.

Speaker 1 By 2003, Lorenzen and Shera were living a fantasy.

Speaker 1 But tragedy struck when their youngest daughter, Sierra Simone, died of SIDS at 11 months old.

Speaker 2 Shera was heartbroken. You know, it really, really hurt her a lot.
Lorenzen was devastated.

Speaker 2 That was probably the pivotal point in his marriage.

Speaker 2 Well, their relationship became very volatile. The arguments just continued on.

Speaker 2 On and on and on.

Speaker 1 Over the next few years, the relationship was tumultuous, but the couple didn't give up.

Speaker 2 They had some issues in Memphis when he was with the Grifflies before he got back to Atlanta. But they decided to, hey, okay, let's just squash it.
They renewed renewed their vows.

Speaker 1 In 2006, Lorenzen was traded once again, this time back to the Atlanta Hawks.

Speaker 1 But less than three years later, he was cut and wouldn't play again.

Speaker 1 By then, it was clear that both his career and his marriage were in trouble.

Speaker 2 Cheryl moved back to Memphis and Lorenzen actually stayed. I think they started to drift apart.

Speaker 1 So he lived in Atlanta, Emma come back and forth to Memphis. In February 2010, the couple finally divorced.

Speaker 2 It was still a 50-50 thing. She would have kids, obviously, during the school year or whatnot, but Lorena still made time, whether it's

Speaker 2 having them here in Atlanta or he was in Memphis. She loved his kids to the fullest.
The kids were a big reason why they actually stayed together for as long as they did.

Speaker 1 But on July 22nd, just days after returning to Memphis to visit his family, Lorenzen is missing.

Speaker 2 It wasn't entirely unlike Lorenzen to go a day or two without making contact with his family, not knowing exactly where he was. He did like to travel.
He did have friends in various cities.

Speaker 1 Family members say Lorenzen had an amicable relationship with his ex-wife Shara and planned to stay with her and his kids while while he was in Memphis.

Speaker 1 When friends and family reach out to Shara, she isn't overly concerned.

Speaker 2 She says there's nothing to be worried about. I'm sure he's just gone.
He'll come back. This is what Lorenzen does.

Speaker 2 But when he hadn't been heard from for four days, it became an issue. Lorenzen tends to disappear whenever he needs some time to himself, but he'd always let somebody know it.

Speaker 2 We're just thinking the worst.

Speaker 1 Coming up, was Lorenzen's return to Memphis an act of love?

Speaker 2 And that's one of the reasons he came back to Memphis. He was trying to get back with her.

Speaker 1 Or was it a fatal mistake?

Speaker 2 Two Hispanic men assured the house and they were armed and they were looking for Lorenzen.

Speaker 2 Hello.

Speaker 2 Hello.

Speaker 1 Memphis investigators are looking into the disappearance of NBA star Lorenzen Wright by tracking his last known whereabouts the night of July 18th, 2010.

Speaker 1 Family members tell police that earlier that day, Lorenzen was with his college friend, Phil Dotson.

Speaker 2 So, Mr. Dodson was interviewed.
He was somebody who's a lifelong friend of Lorenzen's. He has dinner with a bunch of his fraternity brothers from the University of Memphis, among them Philip.

Speaker 2 And then after dinner, Phil Dodson takes him over to the gym.

Speaker 1 At the gym, they watched Lorenzen's son play in a pickup game of basketball. But their time was interrupted by a constant stream of texts, all from Shara Wright.

Speaker 2 Cheryl started sending Lorenzen, you know, noodley pictures. You know, okay, well, come on, come on, get this.

Speaker 2 Shara sending him these sexually explicit text messages. I want you to come see me.
You know, we're going to do this, that, and the other.

Speaker 1 Eventually, Phil tells the investigators he took Lorenzen and his son to Shara's house.

Speaker 2 They then all get in the car and Mr. Dotson drives them out to Collierville and drops them off, I believe, around 10 p.m.

Speaker 1 And that was the last time he saw or heard from Lorenzen.

Speaker 2 Mr. Dodsink was an extremely cooperative.
He was somebody who was a lifelong friend of Lorenzen's. As far as he was concerned, there was nothing odd.

Speaker 1 Since Shira's home was Lorenzen's last known location, investigators speak with her next.

Speaker 1 Shira corroborates Phil's story and tells detectives she last saw Lorenzen after he returned to the house with their son on the night of the 18th.

Speaker 2 She has Lorenzen coming to the house, I think around 10 o'clock that evening.

Speaker 2 Them spending some time together. And then Lorenzen was making comments about having a box of drugs.

Speaker 1 Shara claims around 10.30 that same night, two men she had never seen before arrived to pick up Lorenzen.

Speaker 2 The two Hispanic men show up at the house and they're wearing long overcoats and they were armed and they were looking for Lorenzen.

Speaker 2 And then he left, got in the car with them.

Speaker 2 The words coming out of her mouth would alert alarm and suspicion, you know, to anybody.

Speaker 2 There's red flags popping up. The entire tenor of the story is one that would make us concerned for his welfare.

Speaker 1 After they finish their interview with Shara, investigators continue speaking with those close to Lorenzen and learn it's no secret the couple has had their troubles.

Speaker 2 Both were having extramarital affairs.

Speaker 2 They didn't argue in front of people.

Speaker 2 So whatever happened behind closed doors.

Speaker 1 However, the infidelity was nothing compared to the financial shock that came when he was cut from the hawks.

Speaker 2 He made $55 million playing basketball. I think by the time they got divorced, that was basically gone.

Speaker 2 They had cars that had been repossessed, and I don't think he was in a good place financially.

Speaker 1 But in spite of all their problems, when the divorce became final just a few months ago, they seemed to regret it almost instantly.

Speaker 2 And that's one of the reasons he came back to Memphis. She asked him to come back and

Speaker 2 he came back. He was trying to get back with her.

Speaker 1 Did Lorenzen's financial troubles lead him to get involved with the wrong crowd?

Speaker 1 Investigators need to verify Shara's story and identify the two men Lorenzen left with.

Speaker 1 They immediately subpoena his phone records.

Speaker 2 And back then it took a little bit longer than it does for detectives to get his call records that include location information.

Speaker 1 While detectives wait for the phone's location data, they are able to check the last call made from Lorenzen's phone and they spot another red flag.

Speaker 2 And they see that there's an outgoing call at 12.12 a.m. So just right after midnight.
They realize that the last call that was made was 911.

Speaker 1 On July 27th, detectives obtain a recording of the call from neighboring Germantown, just 22 miles east of Memphis. And what they hear is terrifying.

Speaker 1 Germantown 911, where's your emergency?

Speaker 1 Hello.

Speaker 2 Hello.

Speaker 2 Hello?

Speaker 1 Sounds like I'm messing with a gunshot.

Speaker 2 Anyone listens to it, it's chilling and

Speaker 2 it's pretty brutal.

Speaker 2 So they, in turn, then contact the Germantown Police Department to follow what did Germantown do, what did the Germantown Police Department do to follow up on this 911 call?

Speaker 1 They get an answer they didn't expect.

Speaker 2 The call was not followed up on at all.

Speaker 2 It wasn't shared with any of the other agencies. It was just

Speaker 2 ignored.

Speaker 2 The tower that the call is pinging off of kind of sits right in the middle of three jurisdictions.

Speaker 2 So when Germantown looked at the longitude and latitude, they saw that it was not in their jurisdiction, so they just dropped him.

Speaker 2 It's brutal, it's shocking. I don't know how you hear that phone call and just go, well, that was weird, and move on.
It was shocking.

Speaker 2 You hear these shots, I mean, you have to imagine that at some point, Lorindon is running for his life as he's being shot.

Speaker 1 More than a week after the 911 call, Collierville detectives get the phone information they've been waiting for.

Speaker 2 They're able to use cell phone location information, triangulate where that came from. The location where this happened, suburbs of Memphis, name of the street is Callas Cutoff.

Speaker 1 Along with a full forensic team and K-9s, investigators head to the narrow street.

Speaker 2 Carlyville Police Department led that,

Speaker 2 gridding everything out, and they kind of began that very exhaustive exhaustive search.

Speaker 2 They go over the barbed wire fence, walk through a field, up a little hill, by some bushes, and probably haven't walked more than maybe 120 yards, and they found his body.

Speaker 2 So you're talking nine days, a decomposing body, laying out nine days

Speaker 2 in

Speaker 2 the

Speaker 2 Memphis weather in July. It was nothing but bones.

Speaker 2 It's unrecognizable as a person, except for the bright white tennis shoes that remained.

Speaker 1 Between the shoes, jewelry, and clothing, investigators are all but certain the body belongs to Lorenzen.

Speaker 1 As the medical examiner collects the remains, investigators comb the area around the body for evidence.

Speaker 2 They search numerous times in an attempt to find his cell phone. It's never found, but they find at least two different kinds of casings: one a small caliber handgun and one a 9mm.

Speaker 2 It suggests more than likely multiple perpetrators. A.25 caliber gun's not going to shoot 9mm and vice versa.
Typically, in my experience, people aren't shooting too-fisted.

Speaker 1 detectives believe that this wasn't a random attack.

Speaker 2 He still has his watch on. He still has diamond earrings and a chain, which kind of right off lets you know this wasn't a robbery.

Speaker 2 It would lead you to believe it was something personal.

Speaker 1 Investigators aren't able to keep the discovery of the body under wraps for long.

Speaker 1 You could see his mother, Deborah, pacing and wanting answers from the police.

Speaker 2 That was breaking news. And

Speaker 2 his mama

Speaker 2 was one of the first to get to the scene.

Speaker 1 It was just so visceral.

Speaker 1 It was just really, really hard to watch her find out that moment that it was him.

Speaker 1 A day later, the medical examiner uses dental records to confirm that the remains belong to the basketball star.

Speaker 2 He was shot five times. He was shot in the head.
He was shot in the chest.

Speaker 1 What could have possibly happened? You just got this really chilling visual of just those last moments, and so you felt like it had to be some type of execution.

Speaker 1 Coming up, Shara's story continues to raise questions.

Speaker 2 Once the officers start pointing out to her that she's saying things that don't match up, she gets a lawyer and stops talking.

Speaker 1 And a darker truth begins to unfold.

Speaker 2 His phone was hitting on a tower overlapping the same general area where Lorenz and Wright's 911 call was overlapping.

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Speaker 1 Having found the badly decomposed body of NBA star Lorenzen Wright, investigators follow up on his ex-wife, Shara Wright's claims that he left her house with drugs and two mystery men.

Speaker 2 Originally, she was just telling family members, Just Lorenzen being Lorenzen, don't worry about it.

Speaker 2 And then it wasn't until she was interviewed by police the first time that she tells the story about him leaving in the middle of the night.

Speaker 2 If anyone left under those circumstances disappeared, the loved one who witnessed that would immediately be concerned for the welfare, but Shara is not.

Speaker 1 When investigators follow up with more of Lorenzen's family and friends, they explain that if Lorenzen blew through his fortune, he had plenty of help from Shara.

Speaker 2 She would often brag that the clothes that she wore, you know, was available in most people's cars.

Speaker 2 This was her style.

Speaker 2 And she loved to spend money.

Speaker 1 Lorenzen's loved ones say that even if Lorenzen was having money problems, there's no way he was involved in drugs.

Speaker 2 Anybody that knows Lorenzen, first of all, know that he don't have a bad bone in his body. Drugs, no.
Lorenzen is not a street guy.

Speaker 1 After the interview, investigators want to speak to Shara again, but she throws up a roadblock.

Speaker 2 Once the officers start pointing out to her that she's saying things that don't match up, she gets a lawyer and stops talking.

Speaker 2 So they begin looking at the text messages that she sent to Lorenzen to get him to come to Memphis.

Speaker 1 Investigators subpoena Shara's phone records, and it's clear that Shara had been on a campaign to get Lorenzen to come to Memphis for days before he arrived.

Speaker 2 She's sending him pretty sexually explicit text messages to come to Memphis and see her.

Speaker 1 Was Shara really that eager to reconcile with her ex, or was she luring him into a trap?

Speaker 1 As investigators comb through the texts in the days before Lorenzen went missing, they discover a number of messages between Shara and two men, Billy Turner and Jimmy Martin.

Speaker 2 Shara had exchanged a series of suspicious, appeared to be coded, text exchanges with Jimmy in the days before the murder.

Speaker 1 Investigators discover that Jimmy is Shara's cousin, and he is currently out on bail awaiting trial for second-degree murder.

Speaker 2 At the time Lorenzen was killed, Jimmy Martin had his own legal problems going on. He had been charged with the murder of his girlfriend.

Speaker 1 When detectives ask around about the other man, Billy Turner, they learn he is Shara's landscaper.

Speaker 2 Her and Billy met at church. He was the deacon at the church, and he also became her yard guy.

Speaker 1 When detectives pull location data from their phones, Billy's phone is the only one that raises an alarm.

Speaker 2 His phone was hitting on a tower overlapping the same general area where Lorentz and Wright's 911 call was overlapping.

Speaker 2 That helped us put Billy close to, if not on the scene, shortly after the murder happens.

Speaker 1 Investigators reach out to Billy and Jimmy, but both men deny any involvement.

Speaker 2 We have a crime scene that's been covered up. The 911 call was not followed up on at all.

Speaker 2 They ran down all these tips. They got phone records.
They talked to a lot of people, but eventually you kind of run up into a wall where what else are we going to do here?

Speaker 2 And if you don't catch them with, I guess, the literal smoking gun in this case, you kind of run into a dead end.

Speaker 1 Lorenzen's mother refuses to let the case go cold.

Speaker 2 Deborah Marion, who is pushing, pushing, pushing, I want this investigated. I want justice for my son, and I'm not going to leave you alone until I get it.

Speaker 1 While Deborah is dogged in her efforts to get the case solved, investigators learn Shara is on a different quest.

Speaker 1 She had nearly spent a million dollars in 10 months months of the insurance money after Lorenzen's death.

Speaker 2 I was covering the court case.

Speaker 1 His dad was suing Shara to try to stop a money bleed.

Speaker 2 She burned through it like Sherman burning through Georgia. She just went through expensive trips, houses, furniture, lawn equipment.

Speaker 1 Two years pass, and it looks as if Lorenzen's murder will remain unsolved.

Speaker 1 Then, in 2012, Shara's cousin Jimmy Martin's murder trial wraps up and brings an unexpected twist.

Speaker 2 Jimmy gets convicted and at that point he comes forward to authorities. It's like a lot of prisoners in jail.
They're trying to get better conditions.

Speaker 2 They sometimes want to be moved to a distant prison. They're trying to work a deal.

Speaker 1 Jimmy shocks investigators when he says he is finally ready to talk about Lorenzen's murder.

Speaker 2 Jimmy Martin told police about meeting with Sher Wright and Billy Turner at Shera's home and talking about a plot to kill Lorenzen Wright. Jimmy, he didn't really take her seriously.

Speaker 1 Jimmy claims when they decided to put the plan in motion on July 18th, he was abruptly left out.

Speaker 2 His story is that night, I was supposed to be there, but they never came and got me.

Speaker 1 After midnight, Jimmy says he finally heard from Billy, who told him that he and Shara needed his help.

Speaker 1 Billy admitted that Lorenzen was already dead, but during the attack, Shara had panicked and left a 25-caliber pistol at the scene on Callas Cutoff Road.

Speaker 2 They told him that she started shooting and essentially ran up the street in a panic and threw it.

Speaker 2 He talked about getting a metal detector and they kind of went back to the scene the next day. Use the metal detector to find the gun.

Speaker 1 Jimmy says that Shara took the.25 caliber pistol with her while he went with Billy to get rid of the nine millimeter.

Speaker 2 He talked about this lake that he and Billy went out to and threw one of the guns in the lake.

Speaker 1 Jimmy's story matches evidence recovered at the scene by investigators.

Speaker 2 Up on the road, you had 25 caliber shell casings and one 9mm shell casing.

Speaker 1 But investigators also know they will need more than a convicted murderer's word to bring this case to justice.

Speaker 2 We're going to follow up on that evidence and we are going to let the evidence drive the investigation.

Speaker 1 Coming up, investigators take a deep dive for evidence.

Speaker 2 The divers told us, if it's there, we're going to find it.

Speaker 1 And they stop at nothing to uncover the truth.

Speaker 2 The plan for the wiretap was to tap both of their phones, but you got to jump through quite a few hoops to get that. So we did that.

Speaker 1 Two years after the murder of Lorenzen Wright, detectives head out with Jimmy Martin to the spot where he claims his co-conspirator, Billy Turner, dumped one of the murder weapons.

Speaker 2 Those investigators asked for a volunteer dive team from Walnut, Mississippi to come and search the lake. They did it on the day after it had rained and all the lake was muddy.

Speaker 2 They spent a few hours and were unable to find anything.

Speaker 1 Detectives are forced to consider the possibility that the most promising break in years was just a ploy.

Speaker 2 The original detectives dismissed Jimmy Martin's account and the case went cold for years.

Speaker 2 I don't know why they didn't go back and search the lake with a professional dive team on a day when conditions were clearer.

Speaker 1 In the following years, Shara moves to Riverside, California, and she remarries twice.

Speaker 1 Meanwhile, Lorenzen's mother, Deborah, refuses to let her son's case die.

Speaker 2 God bless her heart. She wouldn't let a day go by.
As she didn't phone call him and go up there to the police department, she kept saying, y'all gotta find who killed my son.

Speaker 1 In 2017, seven years after Lorenzen's death, Deborah gets her wish. The Memphis Police Department officially reopens the case with a multi-agency gang unit.

Speaker 1 They dub it Operation Rebound.

Speaker 2 I was the operations commander for the multi-agency gang unit, which included Memphis Police Officer in Shelby County, Sheriff Deputies, special agents with ATF, special agents with the FBI.

Speaker 1 On June 27, 2017, Memphis detectives bring an FBI dive team to the Mississippi Lake where Jimmy Martin told them he helped Billy Turner dump the murder weapon.

Speaker 2 The divers told us, if it's there, we're going to find it. And they went down

Speaker 2 in maybe an hour. We hear them talking to the command post.
We've got a gun.

Speaker 2 That was one of the happiest moments of my life. I mean, that was the Kodak moment when they brought that weapon out.

Speaker 1 Detectives send the nine millimeter gun for ballistics testing. Over a month later, the results are in.

Speaker 2 They took the shell casing from the test fire and compared them microscopically to the shell casing recovered from the scene, and they matched it. 9mm shell cases.

Speaker 2 That was truth test number one for Jimmy Martin. So that's a big deal, but that's still not time to go out and charge somebody.

Speaker 2 We decided that a good investigative strategy would be to go on a wiretap on her phone and on Billy Turner's phone.

Speaker 2 The plan for the wiretap was to tap both of their phones after getting a court order signed by a judge. You got to jump through quite a few hoops to get that.

Speaker 2 So we did that for both Billy Turner's phone and Shara Wright's phone.

Speaker 1 On November 9th, 2017, Memphis police announced the discovery of the gun.

Speaker 1 The media latches on to the story. And within a couple of hours, it's clear that Shara has heard the news.

Speaker 2 She said somebody had been told somebody about something.

Speaker 2 They've got some kind of informant.

Speaker 2 She knew not to have

Speaker 2 those confessional conversations on the phone.

Speaker 2 Luckily for us, we were listening not only to her phone, we were listening to Billy's phone as well.

Speaker 1 The wire tab also allows detectives to track the search activity on Shara's cell phone.

Speaker 2 Shara Wright begins internet searches on her phone that include how long do fingerprints last on a gun underwater?

Speaker 2 She also searches for the name Billy Turner.

Speaker 1 Within days, Shara is on a plane back to Memphis. When she touches down, detectives tail her.

Speaker 2 She uses a third party's phone to contact Billy Turner and set up a secret meeting with Billy Turner.

Speaker 2 When we knew they were going to meet at a certain location, then we would kind of get ahead of that and set up surveillance.

Speaker 2 They're not able to get audio, but they're able to get video of the meeting.

Speaker 2 They're actually Billy looking over his shoulder to make sure nobody else is watching numerous times during about a 30-minute conversation that is animated.

Speaker 1 On December 5th, 2017, investigators obtain a search warrant for Billy's residence in Memphis in an attempt to recover evidence connected to Lorenzen's murder.

Speaker 2 We conducted a search warrant. We found some weapons.
Billy's a convicted felon. He's not allowed to have weapons.

Speaker 2 So we arrested him and got an indictment on him for weapons charges as well as being responsible for killing Lorenzen.

Speaker 2 So it's beginning to kind of come together.

Speaker 1 But when investigators speak with Billy, the only thing he admits to is being more than Shara's friend.

Speaker 2 He admitted to police that he had had sex with her at least once.

Speaker 2 And then at some point, he just said he didn't want to talk anymore.

Speaker 1 A few days later, U.S. Marshals arrest Shara in California.

Speaker 2 She was at her boys' basketball game, and they just followed her from there, made a traffic stop, took her into custody.

Speaker 2 Neither one cooperated. Shara did not give a statement.

Speaker 1 On December 16th, 2017, the Memphis Police Department calls another press conference.

Speaker 2 Shira Wright has been indicted for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, criminal attempt first-degree murder. and first-degree murder for their

Speaker 2 for her ex-husband, Lorenzen Wright.

Speaker 2 When the announcement was made, that there was a cheer across this town, like Lorenzen escorted a slam dunk.

Speaker 1 After seven long years, Lorenzen's mother finally has justice.

Speaker 2 Last night, it's like the good Lord put me in the bed and put me in a coma until my lawn pop went off this morning.

Speaker 1 Yes, indeed, this is the day

Speaker 2 I've been waiting on for the last seven years.

Speaker 1 But prosecutors know that an arrest doesn't assure a conviction, especially when it comes to Shara Wright.

Speaker 2 She stays ahead of the game and she stays ahead of the curves and she always outthinking her opponents.

Speaker 1 Coming up, prosecutors try to build a witness list.

Speaker 2 We reach out to Billy Turn.

Speaker 1 But Shara has one last trick up her sleeve.

Speaker 2 She knew that if she had to go to trial herself, then what eventually came out would have been her own demise.

Speaker 1 As prosecutors in Shelby County build their case against Shara Wright, her motive is crystal clear.

Speaker 2 There's not a doubt that Lorenzo Wright was worth more to Shawright dead than he was alive at the end. There's a life insurance policy.
There's also an NBA pension policy.

Speaker 2 Add those together, about $2 million.

Speaker 1 Prosecutors believe that Shara recruited her lover, Billy Turner, to help.

Speaker 2 Billy Ray Turner was nothing more than a pawn on a chessboard that did what his queen wanted him to do.

Speaker 1 They theorize that on July 18th, 2010, Shara lured Lorenzen to Memphis with promises of sex and reconciliation.

Speaker 1 Then, around midnight, she convinced him to take a ride with her.

Speaker 2 During some of their family interviews, our investigation revealed that oftentimes when they would kind of get into these heated arguments, they would go to Calus Cut Off to kind of have these very deep conversations.

Speaker 2 That was their lover's life.

Speaker 1 When they arrived, Billy Turner was waiting, gun in hand.

Speaker 2 Billy Turner was armed, and Shara was armed.

Speaker 2 They both fired shots at Lorenzen there on the road. He jumped over the barbed wire fence.
Billy pursued over the barbed wire fence. They started shooting and then he ran away.

Speaker 2 They had to chase him and they fired a lot of bullets.

Speaker 2 Lorenzen was on his phone trying to call 911. Billy followed the light from the phone.
Lorenzen thought when he got to those bushes that he had some sort of cover, but he didn't.

Speaker 2 Billy fired numerous shots and executed them right there.

Speaker 1 As they prepare for two trials, prosecutors are shocked when Shara's lawyers unexpectedly contact them about a plea.

Speaker 2 I believe that she knew that if she had to go to trial herself, then, you know, what eventually came out would have been her own demise.

Speaker 1 On July 25th, 2019, Shara pleads guilty to facilitation of first-degree murder.

Speaker 1 A judge sentences her to 30 years. She will be eligible for parole in 2027.

Speaker 1 For those who had waited seven years for her arrest, the sentence feels like a slap in the face.

Speaker 2 For her to get off, knowing that she might not even do the whole 30 years, probably not, you know, is really sickening. I was mad,

Speaker 2 angry. A few other words that I don't want to use because of my clerical collar.
She got off easy.

Speaker 1 Billy Turner takes his chances in court. At his trial in March 2022, his lawyer places a lot of the blame on Shara.

Speaker 2 Billy Turner didn't wake up one morning wanting to kill Lorenzen Wright. Billy Turner is somebody that was manipulated and used by Shara Wright.

Speaker 1 The tactic doesn't work. Billy is convicted of of first-degree murder attempted murder and conspiracy

Speaker 2 in the state of tennessee when you're found guilty of first-degree murders automatic life sentence

Speaker 1 in memphis lorenzen's legacy lives on but the city is haunted by what might have been

Speaker 2 I think he would have been actively involved in our community. That is one of the biggest things that Lorenzen

Speaker 2 had. He had a heart to give.

Speaker 2 He had a heart to pour back into.

Speaker 2 He had a heart to

Speaker 2 inspire.

Speaker 2 We've got some great players on the Grizzlies team right now, great guys. I mean, great.
But none of them have risen to the point where Lorenzen was with Memphis.

Speaker 2 And because of that, people still grieve his loss today.

Speaker 1 Billy Ray was sentenced to life in prison. His parole eligibility has not been determined.
Shara Wright will be eligible for parole in 2027. She will be 56 years old.

Speaker 1 Jimmy Martin has never been charged in connection to Lorenzen's murder.

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