Nine years after the death of ex-NBA player Lorenzen Wright, one of his two accused killers has pleaded guilty to his murder. In Shelby County court in Tennessee on Thursday, Sherra Wright—Lorenzen’s ex-wife and mother of his children—agreed to a deal that would see her serve 30 years in prison for facilitation to first-degree murder. This comes after she and her co-defendant, a landscaper named Billy Turner, were both charged with first-degree murder in December of 2017.
Lorenzen Wright’s body was found riddled with bullet wounds in a Memphis field in July of 2010, ten days after he had been reported missing. Police found a gun they believe to be the murder weapon in November of 2017, after which they arrested Turner and then Sherra Wright. Prosecutors said Sherra planned to have Lorenzen killed by Turner and another man in Atlanta, but when that attempt failed, she and Turner plotted to kill him in Memphis. It was the second man in the botched murder attempt in Atlanta, Jimmie Martin, who gave police the information they needed to make the arrests. Martin is currently serving a sentence for a separate murder.
Turner recently pleaded guilty to a gun charge in a different case for which he has not yet been sentenced, but his trial for Wright’s murder is still set to begin on September 16. Sherra Wright’s plea deal includes the possibility of parole, which will come after she serves 30 percent of her sentence.