♪ ♪ this is a tale out of a southern gothic novel. greed, jealousy, false trails, envy. it was a fairy tale, cinderella kind of story that's supposed to have a happy ending. >> and now it does have an ending, but not the one anybody could have imagined. >> this community has waited more than a decade in the murder case of nba star lorenzen wright. >> after 12 long years, there's a verdict in a notorious unsolved murder. a grieving mother finally has some answers about her famous son. >> me and my kids, mess with one of them, you got to go through me. >> this is a story we've been covering for years, and now tonight there are all new details coming to light. >> this is the gun that killed

lorenzen wright. >> great look to wright. count it, and one! >> lorenzen was an absolute force on the court. >> he was an instant millionaire. >> just as fast as he was making money, money was being spent. >> he loved the ladies. the ladies loved him, too. >> it as almost like he was just blind with love. >> she put moves on him like karate chop they don't do in mississippi. >> she saw a future with a millionaire. >> and then out of the blue, lorenzen wright went missing. >> investigate it. you got to investigate it. check this person out and this person out. >> oh, my god, when i heard that story -- >> i didn't know what was going on. i felt like i was in the twilight zone. >> is it possible his friends, people who knew him and loved him might not have known about this other side?

germantown 911. where is your emergency? >> to actually hear the 911 call, it's blood-curdling. >> [ bleep ] >> and you hear gunshots. >> you hear that dispatcher say "hello" over and over again. >> hello? [ gunshots ] hello? >> you hear the gunshots and -- and you hear silence. >> y'all, i got nothing but gunshots. >> that 911 call and what would come after would start a mystery in the city of memphis that would transfix it for more than a decade. >> it was the whodunit of all cases in memphis history. ♪ ♪ e. >> great city, great town. culture's unique. >> of course you think of elvis. >> elvis presley even recorded

the song "memphis, tennessee" about his hometown. ♪ hello, ms. information give me memphis tennessee ♪ >> but i think of the blues. i think of b.b. king. i think of beale street. memphis is the birthplace of the blews and rock 'n' roll. >> people in memphis love to talk about the music. what they don't like to talk about as much is the crime. >> every time you turn the tv on, you hear of someone being murdered. >> three people were shot and one man died. >> being robbed. >> an attempted robbery lead to shots being fired. >> or stabbed or shot. >> the shooting took place on chestnut. >> it's an ongoing thing, man. >> memphis has always been a city of the haves and have-nots. >> probably 30% to 40% of our people are below the poverty line, and memphis has had its share of crime through the years. >> these disparities, both racial and economic, they're still there in memphis. >> one thing brings memphis together, and that's basketball.

>> basketball bridged a racial divide in memphis. >> it's one of those binding things that brings people together from all walks of life. >> you got to understand people from memphis, they just love whoever plays for them. so imagine if that player is homegrown. >> dribble drive. left-hand follow by lorenzen wright. >> that love then just becomes off the charts. this is why what happened to lorenzen wright was such a big deal. it's why i went there, to really sit down and talk to the people who knew him best. who is lorenzen wright? >> lorenzen wright was one of the best human beings that ever drew breath on this earth. >> a lot of good basketball players come out of here. he was one who really made it big. >> it was even noted on tv broadcasts. >> he come to memphis as a superstar, so his name was all over the media, all over the press. >> he stood out.

he was a hometown hero. >> my name is deborah marion, and i am the mother of lorenzen wright. >> describe what it was like bringing lorenzen into this world. >> whoo, honey. honny, honey. first of all, he was a big child. he couldn't just lay in my lap because he was just too long. >> so he was so long his head came off your knees? >> yes. >> his mother had him at a very young age, and he was raised by his mother and grandmother within the same home. >> lorenzen's mom and dad were never married, and lorenzen's dad herb didn't live in the family home, but he was still a big part of lorenzen's life. >> by seventh, eighth grade, he was already playing with the high school team, and that's when they decided to move to get him around better competition. >> literally everywhere, they were talking about lorenzen. even in high school, yes. >> so lorenzen decides that he's gonna go to memphis state. >> the folks in memphis love it when cincinnati comes acalling. a sellout crowd expected tonight at the pyramid. >> lorenzen drew people to the coliseum to watch basketball that didn't know anything about basketball.

>> the entire city was just buzzing with the excitement of him playing for the college. >> lorenzen wright on the jam. >> lorenzen was an absolute force on the court. >> exciting, athletic, big. >> he loved people. >> these! >> he loved children. he was just a big baby. >> he was a, "yes, sir," "yes, ma'am" person. he was raised right. that was lorenzen. >> he always had that big smile with him. that smile would just wipe you away. it would always get anybody. >> he was only at memphis a couple years before he went to the nba. >> now is the time for me to accept the challenge of playing with the best basketball players in the nation. >> that nba draft was on tv. >> the los angeles clippers select lorenzen wright from the university of memphis. >> memphis just exploded. we were so happy, so joyous. >> it felt like we all got drafted.

we just went crazy. >> he was an instant millionaire, and the clippers would make the playoffs in lorenzen's rookie season. >> it was definitely life-changing for him. >> people started calling him "the howl" because after he would score or dunk, he would let out this huge howl, like he was a wolf howling at the moon. >> the transition out to california was a very, very big move. money was no object. >> it was a culture shock. memphis is a big city, but it's a big southern city. and it's not like los angeles. >> a few years later, that didn't matter. lorenzen wright was going back home. >> join me in welcoming lorenzen wright! >> to be able to play high school ball, to play college ball, and then to play in the nba in front of your hometown, i don't know if it gets any better than that. >> the whole town is excited to have lorenzen back, and he shows his gratitude by spreading his wealth around. >> he is that proverbial guy that would take the shirt off his own back and give it away. >> he took care of his childhood friends a lot, right?

what would he do for them? >> he bought cars for them and everything, let them stay with him. >> his house was the spot to hang out at. it was like disneyland at his house. >> he had a gigantic pool in the back. the number of bedrooms he had, the entertainment, it was really, really nice. >> and he purchased his mother a home literally three minutes away. >> at one point, he buys you a house. what did that feel like for you? >> oh, my -- look at my baby! look at my baby. >> the little shortcut from lorenzen's house to his mom's house was a little road. >> didn't nobody else parent live on one end and the child live on the other. that was our road, our little cut-through. >> it's called callis cutoff. callis-cutoff. >> it's not a road you wanna drive down. there are no lights. >> that was a road that if you didn't know it was there, you didn't know it was there.

>> it's in the city, but it actually just feels like you're out in the country. i mean, heavy woods on both sides. if you're driving, you just want to drive on through it. you don't want the stop. >> lorenzen had driven that shortcut maybe hundreds of times, and nothing had ever happened. he probably never thought for a moment that it might be dangerous. >> and then out of the blue, lorenzen wright went missing. >> police have joined in the search for missing nba player lorenzen wright as his family is starting to fear the worst. >> this is a millionaire. he's a basketball player. if he's missing, he doesn't want us to know where he is. >> it was a fairy tale, cinderella kind of story that's supposed to have a happy ending. >> that was the biggest mistake he ever made in his life. meet ron. that man is always on. and he's on it with jardiance for type 2 diabetes.

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i think lorenzen's strength came from the work ethic that his father instilled in him. on the court, he was a beast. >> off the court, he was just a meek and mild individual. >> so really, basketball was lorenzen's entire life, really. lorenzen met his wife through basketball. >> sherra came into the picture his junior year of high school. he met her over the summer playing aau basketball. and her dad was his coach. >> golden brown skin, beautiful smile. she looked really good. very sexy. >> she was easy on the eyes. i don't think he had never, ever came in contact with anyone that looked like sherra. i mean, she had all the goods. >> we would say she knew she was fine and you didn't have to tell her. >> there is a discrepancy about

exactly when they started dating. depending on who you talk to, she was in college when he was in high school. >> he's a junior in high school, and here he is dating a junior in college, you know? he thought he was big time then. >> they became friends, stayed in contact, and a few years later, that's when the relationship went from a friendship to a romantic relationship. >> it was almost like he was just blind with love, right? >> yes. that girl crazy. she put moves on him, like karate chops that they don't do in mississippi. >> i was hearing that sherra was wanting to get pregnant and to marry lorenzen. assuming that he was going to be this great nba basketball player. >> when she saw lorenzen, she saw a future with a millionaire. >> some of the people closest to lorenzen see sherra as a gold digger. so, were you concerned?

>> very! he wouldn't listen to none of us. and i kinda, like, cooled down. 'cause i said, "if i got to like her a little bit" -- you know, to keep my son close to me. >> you didn't try to disrupt the relationship because he loved her. >> exactly. >> deborah and sherra, they never got along. these two, they never liked each other. when she got pregnant, he was excited about it. you know, obviously his parents wasn't. >> i don't think this was a situation where she was chasing lorenzen and eventually wore him down to be with her. i think if anything, it was the other way around. >> so while we're in college doing the fraternity thing, she was about to give birth to lorenzen jr. at the time. >> in between class and practice time, he would go see his baby.

>> some of his friends and family feel that sherra has trapped him. >> she knew once she had a child it was over, marriage, because he wanted to be in the house with his child. >> and at that point, you knew that she was going to get married to him. >> yes. >> it was a couple of years later that they got married. of course, he always told us that he wanted a big family. >> as lorenzen's nba career blossoms so does his family. he has a son, lorenzen jr., a daughter lauren, twins lamar and shamar, sofia, lawson, and a daughter sierra who died tragically of sids. >> that could take its toll on any marriage, even a good one. >> family was everything to him. >> for lorenzen, his kids was everything to him. he spent his whole life, and everything he valued was based on his kids, the love for his kids.

>> what were those early days in the nba? what was the marriage like between sherra and lorenzen? >> it was good. >> the two of them were living well together? they were getting along? >> yes. >> for an nba player in a marriage, there's good news and bad news. the good news, you're making millions of dollars to support your wife and your family. >> just as fast as he was making money, money was being spent. >> the bad news, you're on the road a lot, and that comes with temptations. >> he's a ladies' man. he loved the ladies. the ladies loved him, too. >> and he would tell me every time the plane touched down, they'd be already there waiting. they were always trying to connect, trying to find out where the hookup places would be after the game. >> now, do i know that he cheated? yes. hell, i know. i was with him half the time. >> when did they start struggling and why? >> when he caught her with that guy. >> he caught her being unfaithful. >> yes. >> and that's when things started breaking down? >> yes. >> the infidelity happened, to be fair, on both sides.

so the marriage was complicated. >> i think what happened to the marriage was that, you know, they grew apart. maybe there were some greed there. he would say things like, man, it's just always about money with her. >> did they have a lot of fights? >> i've seen the evidence of some pretty bad brawls. >> he told me the marriage ended because he didn't trust sherra anymore. she felt the same about him. but they were still going to try to find a way to raise these kids. >> at that point, how was his relationship with his kids? >> fine. >> he said that sherra's the one who filed for the divorce, not lorenzen. but he was not going to fight for it because he wanted it over with as well. >> the post-divorce life between sherra and lorenzen wright appeared to be routine until that one july day when he went missing. >> at that point, we said bye. they get out of the car, i drive away, and that's the last time i see my friend. >> germantown 911. where's your emergency?

>> and when the police would begin to pull back the curtain on lorenzen's private life, the city of memphis would learn some troubling new stories about its hometown hero. >> there's another side to lorenzen that you all don't know about. some people get it, and some people can get it bad. and for those who do get it bad, it may be because they have a high-risk factor - such as heart disease, diabetes, being overweight, asthma, or smoking. even if symptoms feel mild, these factors can increase your risk of covid-19 turning severe. so, if you're at high risk and test positive - don't wait - ask your healthcare provider right away if an authorized oral treatment is right for you. we love our new home. it's just... there's so much hammering in the neighborhood. anyone got a light? [lightning bolt strikes] at least geico makes bundling our home and car insurance easy. for bundling made easy, go to geico.com and see marvel studios' thor: love and thunder. only in theaters. super emma just about sleeps in her cape. but when we realized she was battling sensitive skin,

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it's the summer of 2010. lorenzen wright is living in atlanta with his buddy, mike g. >> when lorenzen and sherra were divorced, he ended up moving to atlanta, so i went and moved in on with him. and, you know, we just had good times. >> by this time, his nba playing days are over. but what's not over, apparently, is his relationship with his ex. >> even though sherra and lorenzen were divorced, they had, certainly, a physical relationship. >> they still had an intimate relationship. >> but it was more than just sex. people who know them say they were still in love and were even

thinking of starting over. >> lorenzen did propose to sherra after they were divorced. the children saw him ask her to marry him, and sherra had said yes. >> so, on this one particular weekend that summer, lorenzen is coming back to memphis to visit. sherra calls him and asks him to go to a dance recital for their daughter loren. and it turns out his sister danotra is having a baby shower that weekend, too. so he's got a lot going on. >> i drove lorenzen to the airport to fly out to memphis. as i look back now, i think that something was going on because lorenzen was -- he was always on edge that whole week, which i thought was unusual. >> whenever lorenzen came to memphis, phil would be the first person that he would call. >> completely unexpected. out of the blue. he calls me, and says, hey, bud, i'm in town.

lets hang out. just bought a new vehicle, and i wanted him to ride in it. and we rode all around the city. he took a picture on my phone of himself that evening. >> to look at that photo, you would never know that lorenzen wright's life was in serious danger. >> just after 10:00 p.m. on this hot july evening, temperatures just now dropping below 90 degrees. it doesn't look like we're going to have any relief in sight. this is tim vanhorten, and you're listening to wrec. >> just a few hours later, a 911 call comes in to the nearby town of germantown, tennessee. >> germantown is just east of memphis. it's one of the smaller municipalities right outside of memphis.

>> it's a very short call, and you hear a desperate voice on there. you hear a series of gunshots. [ gunshots ] >> germantown 911. where's your emergency? [ gunshots ] hello? [ gunshots ] hello? [ gunshots ] hello? y'all, i got nothing but gunshots. >> there's no caller i.d., so the dispatcher doesn't know where the call is coming from specifically. they thought this call was a hng-up. >> there was no follow-up. >> operator picks up the phone. >> germantown 911. where's your emergency? >> and you hear gunshots. [ gunshots ] >> hello? [ gunshots ] >> to me, that calls for immediate response. >> like, you leave it alone. you leave it alone?

>> for our report, "20/20" reached out to the germantown police department to ask why they didn't immediately follow up on that 911 call. they declined to speak with us. but at the time, a department review concluded that dispatchers properly followed procedures. >> it was an opportunity lost. >> [ bleep ] [ gunshots ] >> because on that call is the last time anybody would hear lorenzen's voice. >> i probably called him four or five times that night. and i text him about three or four times. and i just really figured that, you know, maybe he had fallen asleep. >> he was supposed to have been coming to the baby shower. i kept calling him all the day, and he didn't answer the phone. >> i was getting married july 20th in the virgin islands. and he said he was going to come over and be my best man. i get a phone call from one of my other great friends saying,

hey, man, lorenzen in missing. >> his friends weren't really concerned in the beginning because that's -- that was just lorenzen. >> it's like still living that nba life. those guys, they'd hop on a plane and go to vegas. >> not hearing from him, it wasn't -- it wasn't out of the norm. >> but when lorenzen's mother found out that he wasn't even calling his daughter loren back, that was too much for her. she filed a missing person's report. >> when i first got the news, i got a phone call. did you hear that lorenzen is missing? initially i was not alarmed. i'm thinking if he's missing, he doesn't want us to know where he is. it's on purpose. i became concerned when i saw the concern in her face and in her voice. >> when that missing persons report is made officially known, it becomes a major news story. >> developing tonight, a former player for both the memphis tigers and the grizzlies has

disappeared, and now his family is worried about his safety. >> talk just spread all over memphis. where is lorenzen? what's going on? >> so, the memphis police department starts a missing person's investigation. when somebody goes missing, you have to look at their circumstances at the time. they look at their inner circle. was anybody new? did they owe anybody any money? what was lorenzen's financial condition after basketball? >> it was not good. it was not good at all, and that really affected him greatly. >> lorenzen wright made as much as $55 million playing basketball. but because he and sherra were spending like crazy, there actually wasn't that much left. >> so to compensate, he always had some side businesses. >> i think he was doing the side businesses just to, you know, try to create other streams of income for when he did retire. >> he wanted to invest in something else, have other things going on, you know? his dad ran his sports cafe for

him. he also had a car detailing shop. >> among those off-the-court business relationships, there would be one relationship that would come back to haunt lorenzen wright -- a man named bobby cole. >> bobby cole was a high-level drug dealer. how would lorenzen be connected to a drug dealer? cole was not only a drug dealer. h was also a race car driver, and lorenzen, as it turned out, loved cars. at some point they meet, and cole agrees to buy two of lorenzen's cars. >> i remember him telling me, man, i sold the guy my cars. now, what the guy was doing, i did not know. >> the feds had actually looked into this long before lorenzen wright disappeared to see if any of his transactions with bobby cole involved drugs or drug money. >> and the dea, the drug enforcement administration, actually investigated that connection, interviewed bobby cole. they didn't find any connection. >> but those drug rumors would actually start swirling again,

this time when police interviewed his ex-wife sherra. >> she also told law enforcement that, about six weeks earlier, she had gotten a visit from some unknown individuals that wanted to do lorenzen some harm. >> sherra wright, in talking to investigators, claims that she saw lorenzen leaving with a man she didn't know, carrying a box with drugs. >> kind of painting this portrait of a guy who's troubled, who's lost all his money. he's trying to make money illegally. >> is it possible that people who knew him and loved him might not have known about this other side that involved drugs? >> well, it's possible, but he told me about everything that he was dealing with. and i believe that if he had been doing that, i believe he would have told me. >> this whole idea that he was involved in drugs, what did you make of that? >> y'all don't want me to say what i want to say. >> but the police are on the brink of a breakthrough. >> the investigation made a dramatic turn when memphis police found out about that

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♪ ♪ ♪ i ain't never met nobody that can keep me ♪ lorenzen wright's disappearance was all over memphis tv. >> lorenzen wright has not been seen since sunday. >> one local news crew even got his ex-wife sherra to come to the door. >> he was fine. and he's fine now. and i can't -- i'm not gonna believe anything other than that he's fine now. >> in those days after lorenzen went missing, his friends are all trying to come up with

plausible explanations as to where lorenzen might be, that maybe he is fine. but there's one thing that keeps coming up, one thing that sticks out when they think back about the night he disappeared. in the hours after lorenzen took that selfie in his friend's car, they remember that lorenzen and sherra had a fight. >> that evening, phil and lorenzen had been planning a father/son night with their boys. but suddenly lorenzen gets a call from sherra, and it was unpleasant. >> i could hear sherra say, no! no, you bring him home now. and he was like, okay, all right, fine. i don't want to argue with you. and so we drove on to the house. >> he was dropped off at sherra's house. he was just going to go see his -- go see sherra. >> and when we pull up at the house, he said, "i'm gonna go in here and i'm gonna calm her

down and i'll call you later. and then we can go out." >> so phil drives away having no clue that this is the last time he'll see his friend. because a few hours later -- [ gunshots ] >> germantown 911. where's your emergency? >> that 911 call, which might not have been investigated then. >> y'all, i got nothing but gunshots. >> but it is now. nine days after lorenzen went missing, police are all over it. >> the call was revealed because they went back and checked their records, and they found that they had this -- this desperate call from a man, you know, nine days earlier. >> once the 911 supervisors realized that there was a call made on that night, they did a triangulation and found the area that the call was made from. it's a rural area, a wooded area. not a lot of traffic. >> and when police visit that wooded area, their worst fears are realized. they find the body. >> police in memphis, tennessee,

have found the body of former nba player lorenzen wright. >> of course, it was a huge story on the local news. >> they found him almost instantly. his body was found -- it wasn't much left of it because it had been out there nine days. >> even if you knew lorenzen well, there was no way in the world that you could have identified his remains as -- as him. >> the condition of his body was shocking. that he had literally melted in the hot summer sun. >> the 6'11", 255-pound nba center was just 57 pounds when his body was found. badly decomposed, investigators say he was shot at least five times. >> when did you find out that he was dead? >> when they found his body. >> when i got that phone call, you know, i just threw down the phone and just broke down. you know?

>> it was really, really -- it was really painful. >> me and my girlfriend jumped in her car and flew over there so quick. i was trying to get down there where he was 'cause i wanted to walk his last steps 'cause me an him were like this. >> so you went to the crime scene. it was as if you wanted to find a clue. >> right. >> byt literally walking in his footsteps. >> yes. >> you could see a mother's anguish in real time as news camera capture her desperation to see her son. >> lorenzen wright's mother was ushered behind the crime tape by mpd investigators. she was visibly upset but did not speak to the media before leaving the scene. >> they had her on the news. where's my baby? screaming out, where's my baby? >> did the police let you get into the crime scene? >> for a little bit, but they wouldn't let me get all where he was. they let me get under the tape. well, i went under the tape anyway. of course they tried to stop me. >> did you see your son? >> nope. they wouldn't let me get that far. >> this area is woodsy. it's quiet.

it's really remote. that area was also not very far from that shortcut where lorenzen wright once lived near his mother, the callis-cutoff. >> the callis-cutoff? that was the shortcut that lorenzen had taken hundreds of times. it was a strange place for his body to show up. was it a clue? no one was concentrating on it in that moment. >> no one was talking about the fact that, you know -- that he lived nearby. >> the body turning up there, does it narrow the scope of people who were involved in it, or does it widen it? it's still very hard to tell. >> publicly, yeah, there was a lot of talk about other people being involved. >> you talk to people and ask, did you know anybody -- any reason why anybody would want to hurt lorenzen? was he involved in illegal activity? >> they also actually found shell casings and actual bullets. >> turns out police found shells from two different caliber weapons. this is a critical piece of evidence.

it means that more than one gun used in the shooting. >> lorenzen was shot five times, but he was shot with two different guns. so we got another shooter. >> i'm thinking to myself, oh, my god, who could have killed my friend? why would somebody want him to die? >> the answers wouldn't come quickly. in fact, it would take a book written five years later to shed new light on the case. a book written by none other than sherra herself. >> and then this book comes out which almost appears to give clues. seriously, i thought they were both boys. life is full of unexpected expenses. like you weren't expecting to feed the whole neighborhood. some you can blame on the internet. okay, what is this, a spa? and some, you can only blame on yourself. oooh, maybe put it in rice? with walmart+, there are no unexpected expenses

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>> they put together a beautiful ceremony. his pledge brothers, we were all pallbearers for -- for the funeral. >> i was asked to do the eulogy. his smile was infectious, his work ethic unmatched, his generosity prolific, and his commitment unswerving. >> the thing that i remember the most about the funeral is sherra hugging me and saying, thank you for such a beautiful eulogy. ren would've loved that. >> it was such a tragic situation, seeing his kids suffer like that, knowing they'll never see their father again. >> this tragic moment, that funeral, it morphs into this, you know, whodunit. because no one knew who did it. >> at the beginning of a case, you have to remain objective. you have to let the evidence lead you. you have to prepare yourself to be surprised sometimes. >> this is now essentially a cold case because nine days have passed.

a body has been in sweltering heat, which degrades evidence tremendously. >> the killers had a nine-day head start on us. there are no witnesses. so this was not an easy case at all. >> in these kinds of things, you know, the spouse is always a suspect. they're looking at sherra hard. >> my number one suspect was the person that i hear everybody else talking about, was sherra. >> you were suspicious of sherra at this point? >> yes! >> okay, did you tell the police? >> yes! >> what did they say to you? >> "we've got to investigate. we got to investigate." >> we thought she was being forthcoming with information. and in the midst of that, she chose to lawyer up. >> lawyering up may not look good, but it doesn't mean she had anything to do with the man's murder. you need evidence if you're going to arrest someone. >> and so far there is no evide. >> and she denies involvement on a local interview. >> if i knew who did this to lorenzen, you would know who did this to lorenzen. >> when sherra was not arrested,

like, well, maybe she didn't do it. then started thinking about, well, okay, what about the drug thing? maybe that went wrong some kind of way. >> they were absolutely looking for guys who had come into memphis, hit men, to kill lorenzen, and that just didn't make any sense at all. if a guy owes you a lot of money, what point is there killing him? you'll never get your money back by killing him. >> we did look into it. i mean, if the ex-wife is telling us this, we have to investigate it. >> what was your interaction like with the police? >> i was on 'em. >> how often did you go down there? >> every day. >> every day. saying, i want you guys to get on this and find his killer? >> and this person did this, and check this person out and this person out. >> what do you say -- mama bears take care of their cubs? she was relentless in her pursuit of justice for him. not to let her son's life and legacy just go down the drain. i mean, that's a mother's love for their child. >> deborah marion says she'll keep fighting until her son's

killers are held accountable. >> i'm never, ever, ever, ever going to give up. >> every anniversary of his murder, she did a candlelight vigil. >> deborah marion says the vigil is for family, friends, and the public to come together and remember lorenzen. >> every birthday she would release balloons at his grave site. >> my son ain't did nothing to nobody to be murdered. >> but all of deborah's efforts aren't making any difference. for years the police don't arrest anyone, and sherra seems to have moved on with her life. >> after his death, she became more involved in the church that she had already been a part of and did actually become a pastor in that church. >> to me, of course, my own prejudice admitted, she was no preacher. her lifestyle had not changed, and she was just always after the money. >> the people that want to accuse sherra of being involved in lorenzen's murder point to

the fact that she did receive a $1 million payout from his life insurance policy. >> sherra ended up in a long, protracted legal battle with lorenzen's father, herb. and he claimed that she was spending money on extravagant items and not on the children. >> i didn't work from the time we separated. >> she was buying fancy cars it got pretty dirty, you know. it was all of them in court, you know, fighting over the money. >> that's common, you know, for family members to fight over proceeds and to end up in court. so that didn't have, uh, any significant impact on the case. >> investigators never knows when something odd will come up. and in this case, something odd and unexpected does come up. sherra writes a book. >> cheap dime store novel type of book. that is very curious. it has a lot clues about what happened. >> the book is called "mr. tell me anything." it's the story of a woman who has a tumultuous marriage with an nba player. it's supposed to be fictitious,

but it doesn't seem that way. >> it's almost like a confession that falls short of fully confessing. and she wants publicity, so i interviewed her in july of 2015 for about an hour and a half. >> sherra, i'm going to need you to speak up because i'm worried about the background noise. >> reporter marc perrusquia conducts an extensive interview with sherra at a restaurant called j. alexander's. it's a busy, trendy restaurant chain in memphis. >> let me ask you this, sherra. the book -- why did you write it? what are you hoping to accomplish? >> well, in marriage, i mean, you go through your ups and downs. i just believe that when the downs become more overwhelming and there's more downs than ups, then that's the time to, um, kind of go back and see which one outweighs the other. >> in the interview, sherra explains that the nba player depicted in the book is abusive, not just verbally but physically.

and she claims the character is based on lorenzen. >> lorenzen had a problem with keeping his hands to himself. well, mr. tell me anything did, and i grew him from lorenzen. like, i produced him from experiences with lorenzen. and so, yeah, he had a problem with that. >> you're planning a sequel too, right? if i read that right? >> oh, yeah. >> when is that coming out? >> it's 90% done. it's gonna take you all the way up to mr. tell me anything's death and just a little bit past it. >> is mr. -- i don't want to give away your book. but is mr. tell me anything murdered? >> oh, yes, he is. >> that was kind of a chilling moment on that recording. but see, it gives perrusquia an open invitation to ask sherra directly about the real life circumstances surrounding lorenzen's death. >> you have any idea who -- who did this? >> i don't know. >> she missed her husband.

she wanted them to find the killers, and that there's no reason for anybody to suspect her. did you have anything to do with his murder or his disappearance? >> i'm a mother. i'm a wife. i'm a author. and the police should find his killer. for my name to be even in the same sentence as something like that -- i'm a minister of the lord, and i've never been in any type of trouble or anything. i just -- i -- i'm a mother, an author, and a wife. >> she just flat denies it. to me she had -- you know, was very convincing. >> but sherra would soon appear very convincing to another reporter who comes to do a story on her. his name is kelvin cowans, and he's about to commit a cardinal sin for a professional journalist. >> i was like, she's tall, she's beautiful. i'm in trouble. we started dating immediately. >> kelvin cowans may believe he's found true love just as a memphis dive team finds something critical at the bottom

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a former player for both the memphis tigers and the grizzlies has disappeared, and now his family is worried about his safety. [ gunshots ] >> germantown 911, where is your emergency? [ gunshots ] >> hello? a tale out of a southern gothic novel. greed, jealousy, false trails, envy, cold-blooded murder. it's compelling on so many levels. >> wright was found in a wooded area just outside memphis. >> this is not only a news

story, but it's a sports celebrity story. it's a murder story all wrapped into one. >> it's just one of those things that i could never put together. how does such an amazing guy end up dead and in a field? >> it was a case that until we solved it, it was going to haunt us. it was literally going to haunt us. >> but his mother, god bless her heart, she continued to keep it in the forefront, to keep it going. >> i'm never, ever, ever, ever going to give up. >> but deborah wouldn't give up on it. >> she is absolutely the heroine. she is the hero of this story. she harassed, literally, the police department every day. >> she kept the heat on the police. she was in the news media for years criticizing them for not doing enough to finding out who killed her son. >> she basically told me once i became the director, you're going to solve my son's murder. and you are not going to get rid of me. >> you let everybody know that

you would not rest until your son's killer was found. >> yes. >> i wanted to solve it really, really bad. you know, not only for the city, for lorenzen's mom and his kids. i've never seen a mom to be that emotionally distraught over the murder of her child. and i've investigated a lot of murders. she was heartbroken. she was heartbroken, and it was very difficult for me to watch. >> so, while the case has gone cold, lorenzen's ex-wife sherra has not withdrawn from the public. and many people are suspicious of that. the book she's written, supposedly fictitious, called "mr. tell me anything," it's making headlines and raising eyebrows. >> and it seemed to garner the attention of one man in particular, kelvin cowans. cowans was a journalist who interviewed sherra about her book.

he was one of the people i really wanted to talk to when i visited memphis because of how close he says he got to her. what is "mr. tell me anything"? >> for me, it was the inside look at an nba wife. >> what does the man do to the woman in this book? >> oh, man. he breaks her. her breaks her mind. he breaks her will. according to the book -- affairs. there is some domestic violence in there. >> i believe that the stories that were described in that book were based on what really happened, yes. >> it does make lorenzen look like a really bad guy. >> in this book, there are specific descriptions of violence. what do you make of that? >> i just don't believe it. i think that is purely fiction. >> if he was all of that, why she stay with him so long? she could've got a divorce at any time and got plenty of money. girl, please. i don't believe nothing she say. if she tell me that her her hair is black, i say, "no, it's

orange." >> i just believed it. i was like, "she's baring all." >> kelvin cowans doesn't just believe her. he says he was romantically falling for her. it's something that, as a journalist, he admits was crossing the line. >> while they were dating, and even after they moved to houston, she completely convinces him that she had nothing to do with lorenzen's murder. >> i'm like, if she had done something, they'd have her by now. i mean, i never would've moved away with her if i thought she was a killer. >> sherra moved out of memphis because she was tired of the suspicion and all the negative publicity she was receiving here. >> she moves to houston, appears to live a quiet life. but one problem -- kelvin said he never could quite get used to sherra's love for money. >> that was like, oh, my god, not about money again. >> cowans says they started arguing, because, he says, long after the fight over the insurance money, sherra still

wanted more from the estate. and he claims it blew apart their relationship. why was it the last straw? >> greed. i cannot believe that your apex of life is still, how much more money can i get? >> and you couldn't live with that? >> i couldn't. >> the relationship ends. sherra moves to california with the kids to be near her brother, and kelvin moves back to memphis. neither of them are aware that the memphis police are about to take a new look at lorenzen's murder. >> they called it operation rebound. they want to rebound, to use a basketball term, go through the evidence one more time, find that one key break. >> i received a phone call from the memphis police department, and he said, "we want to run through everybody's story again." >> by now tony armstrong has left the department, but he's still following the case

closely. >> i immediately thought, okay, somebody has gotten themselves in a tight spot and they're starting to talk. >> the police suddenly announce, we found the murder weapon in a lake in mississippi. >> news about finding at least one of the guns was all over local news. >> seven years later, the gun the killer may have used was found in a lake in walnut, mississippi, in tippah county. >> how did you hear about them finding the gun in the lake? >> they called me. >> the news got around town. they found the gun. they found the gun. >> and i'm like, "what?" you found -- like -- you found -- after all this time you -- like, how? and now the next thing i'm thinking, "okay, now who was it? who killed lorenzen?" >> and that's when this man enters the story, a man who cops say is the whole reason they found that gun in the lake in the first place. because he claims he knows who put it there. >> you mean what? are you kidding me? are you actually kidding me?

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there's a bible verse that says, "you can be sure that your sin will find you out." i knew someone was going to talk, and i knew for certain it was going to involve sherra. >> the rebirth of the lorenzen wright murder investigation largely is built around jimmie martin. >> jimmie martin was a 34-year-old former rap artist who went by the name of tricksta. he was also sherra wright's cousin. martin was convicted in a totally unrelated case with killing his girlfriend. but according to prosecutors, that's when he approached cops with a story about what he says happened to lorenzen. >> it was in between the conviction for second-degree murder and his sentencing that jimmie martin offered the story.

>> i can see him saying, you know what? i'm in big trouble. i need to give them some information that's going to lessen my time. >> he meets with investigators, and he has a story to tell. >> so, what you're about to hear is what prosecutors said in court is jimmie martin's story about what he says happened to lorenzen. jimmie tells investigators that sherra wright is involved in lorenzen's murder with one other person, a man named billy ray turner. >> billy was the guy that cut the grass. >> billy ray turner was a landscaper, a yardman who happened to be a deacon in a small country church that sherra attended. >> here's what jimmie martin supposedly told prosecutors about that landscaper, billy ray turner.

>> jimmie martin says that he had once gone to atlanta with billy ray turner to try to kill lorenzen. remember, lorenzen had moved to atlanta after his divorce in 2010 and was moved in with his old buddy mike gipson. >> i had no clue, no awareness of anything like this. >> prosecutors say sherra was also in atlanta around this time. >> there's underpinnings to jimmie martin's story because, you know, she did show up down ther. >> i can remember her coming to atlanta for that first time to see the condo. very unusual. she had never been down there. >> and while sherra was there at

the condo, jimmie alleges she was setting the stage for a murder. >> jimmie martin says sherra wright left the window open so he and billy ray turner could go inside to kill lorenzen wright. >> in court, prosecutors detail step by step what jimmie martin says happened next. >> billy ray and jimmie martin go through a window, and they're looking for lorenzen, but they can't find him. >> turns out lorenzen wasn't even home at that moment. >> i was there laying on the couch. had i had woke up or had lorenzen been there, we'd both be dead. >> the story that jimmie martin tells investigators is that there's another man asleep on the couch, so they don't go through with the plan. >> with that attempt foiled, prosecutors allege a new plot to kill lorenzen was hatched. this time, they say, unfortunately it worked. >> the body of former pro basketball player lorenzen wright has apparently been found in memphis. sources say it appeared wright had been shot several times.

>> martin claims to investigators that a few days after lorenzen's death, sherra and turner confessed to him that they murdered lorenzen. [ gunshots ] [ bleep ] and that he helped them clean up the crime scene. that martin told cops that a metal detector was used to try to find a gun that was dropped during the murder there. martin claims that he and turner drove to walnut, mississippi, where he alleges turner threw a gun in a lake. >> that lake is about 45 miles from memphis. and in 2017, that's where the fbi conducted that search and found a gun at the bottom.

>> they were able to do forensics on this pistol that was recovered and determine that those shell casings came from that gun. >> even though the police know that there were two weapons used in the shooting, this evidence alone is huge. >> developing right now, new information in the unsolved murder of lorenzen wright. authorities now say a gun found over the summer may be the one used in the crime. >> they're announcing, we found this gun. why are they doing it? the reason they were doing it is they were telegraphing to the suspects to put them in a panic mode. >> so, law enforcement starts monitoring sherra's and billy ray's cell phones. and allege they learned incriminating information. >> law enforcement was able to record those calls. >> next thing you know, boom, there's this guy on tv they're handcuffing. >> 46-year-old billy turner sits behind bars this morning, arrested at a collierville gas station. >> it was a standard arrest. there was no incidents to it. >> this person who, for the past

25 years, had not had any sort of troubles. >> real nice guy. always just laughing. he never showed aggression or anything like that. >> i'm just like, who's billy ray turner? who is that, who is that, who is that? >> i never heard about billy ray turner. the only thing that i knew, and i ended up putting two and two together, is that lorenzen, he told me, you know, sherra's sleeping with everybody in memphis. she even sleeping with our gardener, which was billy ray. >> continuing coverage for you now this midday about the suspect charged with killing former memphis basketball player lorenzen wright. billy turner entered a not guilty plea on charges that he murdered wright more than seven years ago. >> emotions were extremely heavy in billy ray turner's first appearance in a shelby county courtroom. >> new developments this midday in the 2010 murder case of memphis basketball star lorenzen wright. >> when i saw him, i knew instantly she had used him,

because that's not what she want. you know, he had no money. she don't deal with no grass cutter. >> mr. turner, good morning, sir. >> you have a mother who's searched for answers for all of these years, and then finally can associate a face with the person responsible for taking my son's life. and all the emotions just came out. >> i jumped up and i asked him -- how could you have murdered my son? >> little did deborah know this mystery in memphis wasn't even close to being solved. the gillettelabs with exfoliating bar - a razor designed to take the hassle out of your routine, for an effortless shave in one efficient stroke. the bar in the handle removes unseen dirt and debris that gets in the way of the blades- so, nothing gets between you and a quick and easy shave. and you get it all with a lifetime warranty. gillette. the best a man can get.

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it's billy ray turner's arraignment, the first time anyone has ever gone before a judge in connection with lorenzen wright's murder. >> the victim's mother was emotional at the site of billy turner in court. >> lorenzen wright's mother stands up in the middle of the proceedings and yells -- >> how could you have murdered my son?

that's what i need to know! just how? >> the atmosphere was one of just "wow." the air seemed to be sucked out of the room at that point. >> why? who are you? we don't know you. it's like a stranger killing somebody. >> step to the mic. >> i could see the pain in her, and i saw how she expressed that pain to her. and i knew it was real, you know? >> mrs. wright, i understand your pain. and you're not helping your son. you're not helping the administration of justice by engaging in that sort of an outburst. because if it happens again, i would have to bar you from the courtroom. and i don't want to do that to you, mrs. wright. do you have any questions, mrs. wright? >> no, i just -- i told him what i wanted to say. >> but please don't do that again. >> so i shut my mouth for the rest of the court. >> now the question is about sherra, who, remember, was living in california but was never far from deborah's mind. >> we have thursday night bible study.

and i got so emotional. i said, god, please get sherra robinson-wright. please. that's what i said that thursday night. friday, she was locked up. >> sherra wright-robinson was taken into custody last night in riverside, california. >> the news feed hit that said that she had been arrested for the murder of lorenzen wright. and i said, hot damn, they got her. >> sherra wright robinson has been indicted for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, criminal attempted first-degree murder, and first-degree murder for her ex-husband, lorenzen wright. >> and i'm like, i just spent almost, you know, last almost three years of my life with a killer? >> they extradite her and bring her back. it was memphis police department's -- one of their finest moments of finally putting this thing together. >> today in court, sherra wright, right there behind me, pleaded not guilty to

killing her husband. >> sherra basically -- i think the reality of finally being caught really took the life out of her. >> in an orange jumpsuit, sherra wright shook her head as judge lee coffee laid down the law. >> ms. wright does appear to be an ongoing danger to shelby county, tennessee. >> judge coffee gave wright a $20 million bond. >> this is a bizarre situation. sherra, who's been this sexy, beautiful person with a lot of money, a lot of boyfriends, she's now on her way to jail. this is not going to work for her. it's not uncommon for people to act in a bizarre way in jail, particularly the ones who have never been in jail. >> she began to unravel. >> according to jail east staff, wright berated workers, stripped off her clothes, and flooded a toilet. >> she was acting very strangely. she had stripped naked and yelled out, i'm going swimming. >> mrs. wright's behavior

yesterday is absolutely shocking. >> i don't think she's right mentally. i think that's why she said she was going swimming in this jail cell. >> i think all the things that she was doing while in jail were all acts of her trying to plead insanity. i did not buy that at all. >> there was a lot of speculation as to whether or not she was being theatrical or had legitimate claims of what she was going through. >> in a stunning new development inside this shelby county courtroom wednesday morning, sherra wright's attorney stepped down. >> i'm not certain what happened btween sherra and her former lawyers. >> and a new legal team steps in. >> quite frankly, we found that sherra was easy to work with. >> she had been prescribed some medication that altered her behavior. once we were appointed on the case, her behavior had

stabilized and she had no significant problems after that. >> the objective is to give us the fairest opportunity to present our defense in the case. >> meanwhile, billy ray turner has lawyered up too. he brings in one of memphis' most high profile attorneys. >> john keith perry is kind of a rising star criminal defense lawyer. this is one of his, you know, big cases. >> there's a substantial amount of investigating that needs to continue. >> i was contacted by the family of mr. turner, and i've been on this case now since the end of 2017. we've read and listened to, i think, just about all of the discovery. now you compile notes, lay out your outlines, see the points of attack. i've never had a reason to regret representing billy ray turner. >> according to his attorney, billy ray turner has constantly said he had no involvement in the murder of lorenzen wright. he stands by that then, and he

stands by that now. >> we think that, if given a fair slate, mr. turner will walk out with me. i absolutely think that he did not do it. >> perry has several questions about the alleged case against bill ray turner, starting with his connection to sherra. >> some of the things that i've heard through the community about this super romance and that he would have been willing to jump bridges and over, you know -- over rivers or whatever. i haven't seen that. >> and even more importantly, perry says consider the source. he says the prosecution case starts with jimmie martin's story. and his criminal history, according to perry, makes him not credible. >> could he be the one that did it? absolutely. with the statement that he gave, how he gave that statement, and the fact that he is a convicted murderer, yes, there is absolutely a chance he could have committed the act himself. >> credibility-wise, he would be

low on the totem pole, i think. >> but jimmie martin denies killing lorenzen wright and has never been charged in connection with the murder, setting the stage for a climactic trial. did you expect these cases to lead to convictions? and did you expect that to happen fairly quickly? >> once the gun was found, i did. >> no case is a slam dunk. no murder case is a slam dunk. >> however no one was prepared for what would actually happen next. >> i walk into the assignment desk, and she hangs up the phone and frantically says, i just got a tip. go down to the courthouse. ♪ ♪ ♪i know it hurts♪ ♪it's hard to breathe♪ ♪sometimes♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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a significant development in the lorenzen wright murder case. >> a gun found in the summer may have been the one used in the

crime. >> sherra wright-robinson was taken into custody. >> well, you know, the buildup was huge. we were expecting, like, a -- you know, probably a weeks to months-long trial. >> the judge is expected to rule this spring on a host of pretrial motions from sherra wright's and billy turner's legal teams. >> they were going to be tried together as co-defendants. that was my understanding. >> if sherra and billy turner were tried together, our defense could be consistent. >> i think that the evidence in the case that the state has, we're anxious to get before 12 jurors and see what they think. >> any time you have multiple suspects, people are going to start throwing each other under the bus. and inevitably, it basically boils down to who can cut the deal first. >> in the several months that billy ray turner and sherra wright appear together as defendants, there was always a lingering question -- which of them could potentially plead first? >> i thought billy was gonna use his head. i thought he was gonna take the plea first.

>> it became evident to juni and me that the state wanted to work out a deal with billy turner. >> a surprise twist tonight in the lorenzen wright murder case. >> sherra's lawyers say they realized that troubling sign in june of 2019 when billy ray was in court for another matter. >> he has never said that he had a firearm related to killing anyone at all. >> billy ray is between a rock and a hard place. >> he's got a gun charge unrelated to the wright murder and faces up to 20 years behind bars if he's found guilty. he decides he's got only one choice, plead guilty to the gun charge. >> now, is that what you want to do, sir? >> yes, sir. >> has anyone threatened you, promised you anything, put any force, any pressure on you in order to get you to give up these rights and plead guilty, sir? >> no. >> billy's convicted felon in possession of a handgun trial was scheduled in june 2019, but on trial date, he plead open to the court. >> upon your plea of guilty to

indictment 1801702, a class-d felony, of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, it is the judgment of this court, mr. turner, that you are guilty. >> he plead open to the court. he doesn't know definitively what sentence he's going to get. >> sherra's lawyers are seeing this play out, and they're really worried about it. here's why. >> it's possible that the judge could take pity on billy ray and reduce his sentence if he cooperates with authorities and testifies against sherra wright. >> his potential time was completely left up to the judge. >> thank you, sir. step down from the witness stand, mr. turner. >> that was highly unusual and to us indicated that he would be cooperating. >> sherra's lawyers are not taking any chances. her lawyers go to visit her in jail, and what they tell her would shock everyone. they say she needs to consider a plea deal.

>> we told her, if billy testifies against you, it's going to be disastrous. >> get sherra wright to the courtroom, please. >> one morning out of the blue, we get a frantic phone call into our newsroom, a tip from the courthouse -- sherra wright plans to plead guilty. >> in a stunning twist, an unscheduled appearance this morning, sherra wright agreed to a plea deal in the murder case of her ex-husband, memphis basketball star lorenzen wright. >> she realized that, i'm not willing to roll the dice. i'm not willing to take a gamble on this. she cut the deal. >> no one had any foresight or knowledge that they were going to do that. >> raise your right hand, please, ma'am. do you solemnly swear or affirm -- >> everybody was sitting on the edge of their chairs. >> -- the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god? >> yes. >> they wanted to see,

what exactly what was sherra's role in this? >> we know sherra wright is there to plead guilty, but we don't know entirely what she's pleading guilty to. >> ms. wright, the agreement that you have is to say that you plead guilty to the included charge in count one to facilitation of first-degree murder. >> in the deal, the 48-year-old pleaded guilty to two counts -- facilitation of first-degree murder and facilitation of attempted first-degree murder. >> facilitating! >> yes, sir. >> facilitating a murder. i've never heard of that charge. >> in the plea deal, she pleads guilty to the lesser crimes of plotting the murder, but not murder itself. >> you're asking this court to find you guilty without a trial and accept this punishment which has been recommended on your case. now, is that what you want to do, ms. wright? >> that is correct. >> she doesn't name turner or any accomplices in pleading

guilty. >> what did you think? she's trying to outsmart them. i think she just decided to bite the bullet, so to speak, on the murder and figure out a way to get the least amount of time she could. >> she knows she was fitting to go down, down, down. way down. she wasn't gonna get no few years. she was gonna get some lifetime. >> ms. wright, it is the judgement of this court that you are guilty. this court sets your punishment at 30 years confinement in the tennessee department of corrections. >> she received a 30-year sentence, of which she'll serve 30% before release eligibility. >> i think our prosecutors failed us, those of us that loved him. i think she played them. >> my reaction was i was sick in the stomach. i'm like, are you kidding me? she may only do nine years? lorenzen, he's lost the rest of his life, and she may only have to do nine years? i felt really bad, felt really sick. i said, that's not fair!

>> if the sentence surprised a lot of people in court though, what came next was even more shocking. >> ms. marion, when you were first in court, you had some things that you wanted to say? >> yes. >> a mother is about to confront the woman who arranged her son's murder. after all these years, what will deborah have to say? if you're always asking, “where next?"... capital one has the travel card for you: venture x. earn 10x miles on hotels and 5x miles on flights booked through capital one travel. plus receive premium travel benefits, like access to over 1300 airport lounges. find your “where next?” with venture x. what's in your wallet? dry skin is sensitive skin, too. and it's natural. treat it that way. aveeno® daily moisture with prebiotic oat is proven to moisturize dry skin all day. you'll love our formula for face, too.

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sherra wright walked into the shelby county courtroom this morning after she agreed to the deal. lorenzen wright's mother, deborah marion, spoke directly to her former daughter-in-law. >> judge coffee gave deborah the opportunity to address sherra. >> miss marion, you had some d things that you wanted to say? >> yes. >> i couldn't wait to hear what she was gonna say. >> i was thinking about it the whole while as it was going on,

what i was gonna say. but once i got up to that mic, i focused on my grandkids. >> ms. sherra i want to thank you for giving me my grandchildren, that's what i want to thank you for. >> at this point, since sherra's arrest, deborah said she hadn't seen her grandchildren, who are said to be standing by their mother. >> but i want you to call them. it's okay to talk to grandma. grandma still loves you. that's all i want is my grandkids. >> deborah played it well, because no matter what you say to that woman, it's not going to bring your son back. >> with no trial for sherra, the city of memphis still had a lot of unanswered questions. and for deborah marion, the agony of knowing her son's killer had yet to face justice. >> i knew god was on my side. i wasn't gonna never get tired until i die, 'cause somebody had to pay for killing my child. >> it would take two more years, in part because of the global

pandemic, before billy ray turner's trial could begin and hopefully bring an end to one of the city's most notorious unsolved murders. >> well, today marks the first day of testimony in the billy ray turner trial. he's the man accused of murdering memphis basketball star lorenzen right back in 2010. >> turner is charged with murder, attempted murder and conspiracy. he has pleaded not guilty. >> i absolutely plan to fight like hell for my client in that courtroom. my client had nothing to do with killing lorenzen wright. >> for the record, the state of tennessee vs. billy turner. are both sides ready to proceed? >> emotions ran high for lorenzen's family, who had waited nearly 12 years for this moment. >> you knew me about my kids. you know you couldn't kill one and me not do nothing. me and my kids. mess with one of them, you got to go through me. >> for deborah to be able to be

in the courtroom, and to face the man accused of killing her son, it had to be such a relief for her to know that justice was hopefully finally going to get served. >> the first thing it took was a plan. >> chief prosecutor paul hagerman would deliver the state's opening. >> it took an evil heart to do this. >> telling jurors that it was sherra wright's lust for money that led to lorenzen's murder. >> we know that sherra wright is guilty of masterminding this and putting this into play to have lorenzen wright killed. we know that billy turner was responsible. we know that jimmie martin was part of it. >> this community has waited more than a decade to hear from jimmie martin in the murder case of nba star lorenzen wright. >> as the state's star witness, jimmie martin played a pivotal role at trial, and in return for his testimony, he was granted immunity from prosecution for his role in the murder conspiracy. >> it went from "i got a job for you," that i'm thinking i'm talking about the dog. >> martin told the jury that the

plot to kill lorenzen began with a conversation with sherra and turner two months before the murder. >> what'd you say to her when this subject matter came up? >> this is not the business you want to be in. >> for two days, martin walked jurors through the trio's disjointed plan to kill lorenzen. first with that failed attempt in his atlanta home, and then his role in cleaning up evidence at the crime scene, where martin says that sherra told him what happened that night. >> she said that she told lorenzen that she was going meet somebody for some money. her and lorenzen met up with billy on this road. that's when i guess they ambushed him. lorenzen had his back to 'em. they started chasing him. they started firing at him.

chasing him. they caught him. he fell. >> did she say whether or not she had a gun? >> yes, sir. she said both of them fired. >> prosecutors say martin has remained consistent with his story that turner shot and killed lorenzen, but this is the first time we heard his claim that sherra had a gun that night and fired at her ex-husband. >> how do you feel about that? >> terrible. >> but under cross-examination, defense attorney john keith perry challenged martin's story, including his alibi the night of the murder. >> on the night in question, nobody can validate your whereabouts, right? in all this time, nobody's verified. >> they have nothing. >> on its face, jimmie martin's not a witness to be believed. i mean, we heard about his conviction. this jury needed corroboration. >> to support martin's story, prosecutors showed jurors the

actual gun used to kill lorenzen. >> this the gun that killed lorenzen wright. >> which martin helped investigators find in that mississippi lake seven years after the murder. but they didn't stop there. >> prosecutors also presented key evidence, including cell tower records which they say placed turner in the same location as lorenzen when he dialed 911. >> they're in the exact same area. coverage area. >> at the end of the day, there were some little details that crystallized billy's role in this conspiracy and this murder for the jury. >> as the trial drew to a close, everyone wondered if we would hear from sherra wright, the convicted mastermind behind lorenzen's death, but that never happened. >> have you made a decision regarding testifying? >> yes, sir. >> and with all eyes on him -- >> what's your decision? >> i do not wish to testify. >> billy ray turner chose not to

testify, leaving lawyers to argue whether he was innocent or a cold-blooded killer. >> you a stupid fool, going to let somebody coerce you into bed to kill somebody. he dumb as a bucket of rocks. >> and with that, the case went to the jury. >> all you can do is hold your breath. >> my 19. some people get it, and some people can get it bad. and for those who do get it bad, it may be because they have a high-risk factor - such as heart disease, diabetes, being overweight, asthma, or smoking. even if symptoms feel mild, these factors can increase your risk of covid-19 turning severe.

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>> the children support sherra billy ray turner stands trial. >> people following the trial wondered in justice would finally be served in the lorenzen wright murder case. >> this jury reported a unanimous verdict on this case. >> after one week of testimony, it took the jury a little over two hours to reach a verdict.

>> mr. billy ray turner, stand please, sir. >> for both sides, the tension was unbearable as the verdict was read. >> we the jury find the defendant guilty of first-degree murder as charged in count one of the indictment. >> when the verdict came in, we looked behind us, and we saw ms. deborah, lorenzen's mom, and we saw what her face looked like. it was a good moment. >> the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict on all three counts -- first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in lorenzen's death. >> following the verdict, judge coffee immediately sentenced turner on the first-degree murder charge. >> the court will sentence mr. turner by law to life confinement in the tennessee department of correction. >> judge coffee then spoke directly to lorenzen's mother. >> mrs. marion, you have lost a lot. you have lost your son. i would urge you to consider and remember the good things.

celebrate his life. celebrate all the good, all the joy that lorenzen wright brought to you. and don't dwell on his killing, because no matter what i tell you, no matter what anybody tells you, there will never be closure. celebrate and rejoice in who he was. >> what was running through your mind after that verdict? >> thank you, jesus! he can suffer like i've been suffering the last 12 years. >> how are you feeling right now? >> elated. i haven't felt this good in years. 12 years to be exact. maybe i can sleep all night now. lorenzen's spirit been with me te whole time. he can lay down like everybody else and just rest. i say, get you some rest baby. we got this. they gone. >> with lorenzen's murder finally solved, maybe there will finally be some peace for his family. and the people of memphis, still grieving the loss of their favorite son. >> today, lorenzen's own sons,

22-year-old twins lamar and shamar wright, honor their father's memory by wearing his numbers 42 and 55 as they pursue their own basketball journey. >> you look at his kids, they suffered for this because, not only was their father taken, but their mother was taken, too. >> ultimately, only she knows why she did it -- money, love, envy. >> it really is a tragic story, and there is still no shortage of public interest all these years later. >> i got a documentary coming out. it's called "a million reasons." you get to hear her talk for herself. i don't have a monster to sell you. you know? i tell you about sherra wright you make your own decision. >> not only was he physically murdered, but then his character was assassinated. i want people to know who lorenzen wright was, what type of human being he was. the lies that were told earlier about drugs, too many people

bought into those lies. so we're trying our best right now to -- to cleanse the name of lorenzen. >> the drugs, abuse -- his friends say none of those things were true and he deserves to be remembered as the good family man they knew. the man they'll never forget. >> with lorenzen i'd be talking to his picture, and sometimes his picture could look at me a certain way, actually like it's really him. and then i have to just stop, just talk to him. he was a mommy boy. simple as that. he would still be mama's boy if he was here now, 'cause he's still my first born. >> we should point out that billy ray turner is waiting to be sentenced on the remaining charges. as for her role in the murder conspiracy, sherra wright will be eligible for parole in five years. >> as for the wright's children, four of them have recently reconnected with their grandmother deborah, who tells us all of them are now receiving their father's nba pension.

that is our program for tonight. i'm amy robach. >> and i'm david muir. from all of us here at abc news and "20/20," good night. >>, tonight at long last there

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