Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Basketball star murdered by 'GOLD DIGGER?'

Transcript

Basketball star murdered by 'GOLD DIGGER?' · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. We see them on TV,
0:16
Speaker 1: we read about them and the tabloids. They're famous, they're young,
0:21
Speaker 1: they're athletic, they got it all right. Well, not this
0:26
Speaker 1: NBA star who ends up dead. Why Crime Stories with
0:39
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace At nearly seven feet tall, Loren's and Wright
0:49
Speaker 1: was a giant in his hometown, first as a local
0:52
Speaker 1: high school star, then at the University of Memphis, and
0:56
Speaker 1: finally in the NBA with the Memphis Grizzlies. Wrensen was
1:00
Speaker 1: the hometown boy makes good. Former Memphis Police director Tony
1:06
Speaker 1: Armstrong says Wright's impact was big. You can imagine with
1:10
Speaker 1: all of their lives to hear to us not only
1:12
Speaker 1: here in this city, but all across the world. It
1:14
Speaker 1: was a phenomenal story. Lorenzen at an NBA great joining
1:22
Speaker 1: me and all star panel to break it down and
1:24
Speaker 1: put it back together again. First of all, renowned criminal
1:26
Speaker 1: defense attorney joining us out of LA Troy Slayton, Bobby Chicoon,
1:32
Speaker 1: former special agent, FBI screenwriter on Criminal Minds, Doctor Angela Arnold,
1:39
Speaker 1: you know her well psychiatrists joining us out of Atlanta
1:42
Speaker 1: and you can find her at Angela Arnold MD dot com.
1:47
Speaker 1: Joseph Scott Morgan, Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of
1:51
Speaker 1: Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon and now the star
1:54
Speaker 1: of an e show Poisonous Liaisons on the True Crime
1:57
Speaker 1: Network and Crime online dot Com. To get a reporter,
2:01
Speaker 1: Levi page, Levi, tell me about Lorens and Wright's NBA career. So,
2:07
Speaker 1: Nancy Lorens and Wright grew up in Mississippi, but when
2:10
Speaker 1: he was in high school, he moved to Memphis, Tennessee,
2:13
Speaker 1: and he was a breakout high school basketball star. He
2:17
Speaker 1: went on to play for the University of Memphis. Then
2:20
Speaker 1: he went into the NBA and he played thirteen seasons
2:23
Speaker 1: in the NBA. He played for the LA Clippers, the
2:26
Speaker 1: Memphis Grizzlies, which is where he became a star. He
2:29
Speaker 1: was beloved in Memphis. He played for the Atlanta Hawks,
2:32
Speaker 1: Sacrameno Kings, and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Yeah, yeah, I remember
2:36
Speaker 1: when he played for the Hawks. He was a superstar
2:40
Speaker 1: at the time they needed the most. We're talking about
2:43
Speaker 1: a guy that comes from very very humble beginnings in Mississippi,
2:48
Speaker 1: family moves to Memphis and that is where he broke
2:52
Speaker 1: into basketball in a major way. How did a superstar
2:58
Speaker 1: like Lorenz and Wright and up dead and why has
3:04
Speaker 1: the case languished for so long? Take a listen to
3:09
Speaker 1: our friend Melissa McCartney at Crime Watch Daily. This woman
3:13
Speaker 1: accompanying Lorenzen on his road to stardom. His wife, Shira,
3:17
Speaker 1: the daughter of one of his youth coaches. Shara was
3:20
Speaker 1: with him basically from the very beginning. Yeah, Shara was
3:23
Speaker 1: five years older than Lorenzen, which is a beautiful young lady.
3:28
Speaker 1: The Rights built quite the brood along the way, six kids,
3:30
Speaker 1: in fact, enough for a basketball team plus one. How
3:34
Speaker 1: is his a father? Oh my god, I'd say this
3:37
Speaker 1: the number one thing that he'd care about most of
3:39
Speaker 1: his World Wars kids. He always put them out of
3:41
Speaker 1: anything everything he did. Lorenzen was crushed by the tragic
3:46
Speaker 1: death of a seventh child, a baby girl who fell
3:49
Speaker 1: victim to sudden INFANDESK syndrome. The hoop star established a
3:53
Speaker 1: scholarship in her name and got deeply involved in philanthropy.
3:57
Speaker 1: He's always gave and gave, and Gabe, you were here
4:00
Speaker 1: first our friend James Brown at CBS News and then
4:03
Speaker 1: from Melissa McCartney a Crime Watched Daily. So not only
4:06
Speaker 1: did Lorenz and wright have this incredible, stellar career in
4:12
Speaker 1: the NBA, which you know most of us can only
4:15
Speaker 1: dream of. He had the happy home too, the wife
4:20
Speaker 1: that had been with him for years and years. He
4:22
Speaker 1: didn't turn his back on her when he had starred.
4:24
Speaker 1: Him and seven children, six of them healthy and well,
4:30
Speaker 1: the seventh passing away with SIDS. But the family picture
4:34
Speaker 1: as well, you know, that's very rare to doctor Angela
4:38
Speaker 1: Arnold Psychiatrists joining us out of the Atlanta jurisdiction for
4:41
Speaker 1: someone that is so consumed with their career, him being
4:45
Speaker 1: an NBA star but still is a devoted family man too,
4:49
Speaker 1: with six children and a gorgeous wife, seems like he
4:52
Speaker 1: had at all. That's very rare, yes, And it's rare
4:56
Speaker 1: for him to have had the time as he was
4:58
Speaker 1: rising in his career to care for all of these children,
5:02
Speaker 1: formed good relationships with them, the marriage going on very
5:07
Speaker 1: very happily with the six children, the mansion, the beautiful
5:11
Speaker 1: wife almost picture perfect. But take a listen to Crime
5:17
Speaker 1: Watch daily. He had a long career, but very profitable
5:21
Speaker 1: as well. How much did he met over that time?
5:23
Speaker 1: According to court records, he earned fifty five million dollars
5:27
Speaker 1: of the course of I think it was thirteen years
5:29
Speaker 1: that he was in the NBA. But by the time
5:32
Speaker 1: Lorenzen writes hoop Days hit the final buzzer, his rags
5:36
Speaker 1: to riches story and brilliant career had dimmed to a
5:39
Speaker 1: familiar cliche. Too much fame, too much fortune, much too soon.
5:45
Speaker 1: By the time he was done playing, he was broke
5:48
Speaker 1: pretty much. I mean, he had two expensive homes that
5:51
Speaker 1: were in foreclosure, and according to Sharon, they had a
5:53
Speaker 1: lot of creditors after them. He's got a lot of
5:55
Speaker 1: family and people coming at you as well too. You know,
5:58
Speaker 1: you've got this money, fame and success, says you saw.
6:01
Speaker 1: The problem was he was a giver. He gave to
6:03
Speaker 1: anybody who put their hand out. It's that dangerous two
6:07
Speaker 1: headed monster that stalks the unsuspecting sports superstar, luring him
6:12
Speaker 1: down a path of self destruction. Money and women. Why
6:17
Speaker 1: is that? Do you? Troy Layton, renowned attorney out of LA.
6:22
Speaker 1: You're in the thick of it in LA where all
6:24
Speaker 1: the stars and the athletes choose to live. All the
6:27
Speaker 1: money seems to destroy everything, and here's this guy at
6:32
Speaker 1: fifty five million dollars and he was going broke. How
6:38
Speaker 1: does that happen with these stars. Well this may surprise you, Nancy,
6:42
Speaker 1: but not everything is sunshine and lollipops with superstars. And
6:49
Speaker 1: he went through his fifty five million dollars, and it
6:53
Speaker 1: may not be the rosy picture that you paint between
6:56
Speaker 1: him and his wife and six children. Thing may have
7:00
Speaker 1: been very dark back at home. Well, if my husband
7:04
Speaker 1: ran there fifty five million dollars, I can tell you
7:06
Speaker 1: it's going to be dark when he walks in the
7:09
Speaker 1: door at home. Oh yes, I just don't get it
7:13
Speaker 1: to Bobby to come. Former special agent with the FBI,
7:16
Speaker 1: screenwriter on Criminal Minds, Bobby fifty five million dollars they
7:24
Speaker 1: ran through. Yeah, you know, these these these young men
7:28
Speaker 1: make so much money on the really the god given talent,
7:30
Speaker 1: and they're not provided a lot of times with the
7:33
Speaker 1: tools they need to manage that kind of fame and
7:36
Speaker 1: that kind of wealth that's thrust upon them so quickly
7:39
Speaker 1: in life. I mean, it's a challenge for anybody. But
7:41
Speaker 1: if you don't have the skill sets and you don't
7:43
Speaker 1: have the support system around you to deal with that
7:46
Speaker 1: kind of celebrity status and the attention and not only
7:49
Speaker 1: not only positive attention that comes with it, you get
7:52
Speaker 1: a many grifters coming at you, You get many family
7:55
Speaker 1: members and friends, and it's really it can be quite
7:58
Speaker 1: overwhelming to get that kind of fame and that kind
8:01
Speaker 1: of wealth so early in life. Well you left out something.
8:04
Speaker 1: Hoochie Mama's women that come at the professional sports stars,
8:11
Speaker 1: they want money. They think the way to get it
8:14
Speaker 1: as sex and to potentially have a baby with the star,
8:18
Speaker 1: because then the stars on the hook for life paying
8:21
Speaker 1: for the little baby. So long story short, he had
8:25
Speaker 1: women throwing themselves at him, and you know I disagree,
8:30
Speaker 1: doctor Angela Arnold you hear Troy Slayton, you know, basically
8:34
Speaker 1: sucking up to celebrities. They're not equipped to handle it
8:38
Speaker 1: too much, too fast. Same thing with you, come, he
8:42
Speaker 1: knew he wasn't supposed to be cheating with other women
8:45
Speaker 1: and giving them money. You don't need a financial advisor
8:50
Speaker 1: from sun Trust come tell you that. That's being sorry
8:54
Speaker 1: to come but you're just you're wrong, No, I mean,
8:57
Speaker 1: you know, maybe he could have used a good therapist,
9:00
Speaker 1: but or maybe he could have used zipping up his pants.
9:04
Speaker 1: That probably would have helped things a lot. But long
9:08
Speaker 1: story short, forget about the women for a minute. We
9:12
Speaker 1: got to figure out what happened to this NBA star
9:29
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. We are talking about a
9:34
Speaker 1: guy who had it all young, many people think attractive, healthy,
9:40
Speaker 1: NBA star, gorgeous wife had been with him from the
9:44
Speaker 1: get go, six healthy children, the mansion, the cars, that
9:50
Speaker 1: everything right wrong because he ends up dead. How the hey,
9:57
Speaker 1: this family, this man ran through fifty five million dollars.
10:02
Speaker 1: I do not know. I don't get it now. Slaighten it, Chikon,
10:06
Speaker 1: Troy Slaton and Bobby Checkon say, oh, it's classic too much,
10:10
Speaker 1: too soon. Leave page with me Crime online dot Com
10:13
Speaker 1: investigative reporter. Any idea what he did with all that money?
10:17
Speaker 1: You know, Nancy? Of course people talk about infidelity, but
10:20
Speaker 1: also he was very charitable. There was actually an orphan
10:24
Speaker 1: that was a native to Memphis who was a little
10:27
Speaker 1: kid and his mother died in the home and he
10:30
Speaker 1: lived in that home with his mother's corpse for a
10:33
Speaker 1: month and his story made national news. And Lorenz and
10:36
Speaker 1: right when he found out about this story, donated thousands
10:40
Speaker 1: of dollars to this little boy, and so did other
10:43
Speaker 1: Hawks players as well. So he was very charitable, very
10:46
Speaker 1: involved in his community, especially with children. Volunteering his time
10:51
Speaker 1: as well well, needless to say, running through fifty five
10:56
Speaker 1: mill and I appreciate that. I really do leave a
11:03
Speaker 1: page the generous nature. And he did give to a
11:07
Speaker 1: ton of charities. He had a very tender heart there
11:12
Speaker 1: in his new hometown in Memphis. He was always unasked,
11:18
Speaker 1: giving thousands of dollars where he thought it was needed,
11:21
Speaker 1: and it was needed. You know, have you ever noticed
11:24
Speaker 1: this about rich people, doctor Angela Arnold. The richer they get,
11:28
Speaker 1: the more stingy they get. Have you ever noticearily agree
11:32
Speaker 1: with you? We talked about that at our house all
11:34
Speaker 1: the time. Can I tell you a story, Joe Scott Morgan,
11:37
Speaker 1: And you may know this judge all right. I tried
11:40
Speaker 1: a couple of case in front of her and she
11:42
Speaker 1: was no picnic. So this judge is married to a
11:47
Speaker 1: name partner in one of the biggest law firms in
11:53
Speaker 1: the South. Really in the world now, I mean in
11:55
Speaker 1: the country now that I'm thinking about. It's huge. And
12:00
Speaker 1: her staff went to the Christmas party at their house.
12:05
Speaker 1: All they had was chip and dip. That's it. There
12:09
Speaker 1: was a bowl of chips and a bowl of dip.
12:12
Speaker 1: That was it. And this mansion, Chip Dip, Jo Scott.
12:18
Speaker 1: That's it and we we laughed. They told that story.
12:22
Speaker 1: They're still telling the story, Chip and Dip. They're millionaires.
12:27
Speaker 1: This is your staff Christmas party. Help me, Jesscott. What
12:31
Speaker 1: happens to rich people? What are they thinking? Well, since
12:34
Speaker 1: they've never been one, I can't really tell you, however,
12:38
Speaker 1: and dip in my house anytime you want. Well, thank
12:41
Speaker 1: you very much, because I got to tell you. Chips
12:43
Speaker 1: and Dip. I'm gonna be following these folks around me.
12:45
Speaker 1: I mean it was the homemade kind with sour cream
12:47
Speaker 1: and French onion dip mix. Yeah, I mean, you know,
12:51
Speaker 1: the baked salmon and the caviar and that sort of thing.
12:54
Speaker 1: That's that that doesn't agree with my palette as much
12:57
Speaker 1: as the chips and dip, But yeah, he is. I
13:01
Speaker 1: know what it's like to be poor, and I know
13:03
Speaker 1: what it's like to grow up in the South, and
13:05
Speaker 1: I can tell you this. When you come into that
13:08
Speaker 1: kind of money, I can only begin to imagine that
13:13
Speaker 1: it would knock you for a loop, that you would
13:15
Speaker 1: become disoriented because all those things that you wanted for
13:18
Speaker 1: all those years are suddenly laid at your feet. You've
13:21
Speaker 1: got people giving you everything, and everybody, I mean everybody
13:25
Speaker 1: wants to be your friend. You know another thing, I'm
13:27
Speaker 1: gonna throw a bone to Bobby Checkon and Troy Slaton
13:30
Speaker 1: verst of you Slaton. There's also the feeling of invincibility,
13:34
Speaker 1: like you don't think you're ever. You don't really think about, hey,
13:39
Speaker 1: one day I'm gonna die. I don't. I never think
13:41
Speaker 1: about it. I don't want to think about it. I've
13:43
Speaker 1: got so much to do. I don't want that to happen.
13:45
Speaker 1: But also in that frame of mind, Troy, he probably
13:48
Speaker 1: didn't wasn't thinking, hey, one day I'm not going to
13:51
Speaker 1: be an NBA star and have all this money rolling in.
13:54
Speaker 1: So it was probably just like running water. He never
13:59
Speaker 1: thought it was going to end. There is a certain
14:01
Speaker 1: feeling of invincibility with celebrities, whether it be in the
14:04
Speaker 1: sports or entertainment spaces where they've got everybody around them
14:10
Speaker 1: telling them how amazing they are. And many people can
14:13
Speaker 1: be philanthropic, they can give a lot of money to charity,
14:17
Speaker 1: but they can have dark things going on inside their home.
14:21
Speaker 1: There's a lot of stress with six children. I have
14:24
Speaker 1: two children, and I know how stressful it is. I
14:27
Speaker 1: can't imagine the stress on a family when there are
14:31
Speaker 1: six children and there's that same and celebrity, and you're
14:35
Speaker 1: being pulled in a million directions and you start to blame.
14:38
Speaker 1: You start to blame your family for all the stuff
14:41
Speaker 1: that's going bad. With fifty five mill, they can have babysitters, Nanni's,
14:48
Speaker 1: you name it please, Yeah, And I think I think
14:51
Speaker 1: he might have seen a little bit of that. I
14:52
Speaker 1: think he did actually start a couple of businesses. Now,
14:55
Speaker 1: oftentimes these aren't the best conceived business plans that these
14:59
Speaker 1: guys try to execute, but I think he had an
15:01
Speaker 1: auto body shop, so I think he had a couple
15:04
Speaker 1: of other businesses that he thought, maybe I'll need some
15:08
Speaker 1: kind of income or some kind of business after retirement,
15:13
Speaker 1: and I think he had some thoughts of that. I
15:16
Speaker 1: just don't know how well they did or how well
15:18
Speaker 1: conceived these business plans were running through fifty five million dollars,
15:22
Speaker 1: having women throwing themselves at him, and he certainly did
15:26
Speaker 1: not shy away from it leads to one thing. Take
15:30
Speaker 1: a listen to our long time fran Ryan Smith at ABC.
15:34
Speaker 1: Even though Shara and Lorenzen were divorced, they had certainly
15:40
Speaker 1: a physical relationship. They still had the antimate relationship, but
15:46
Speaker 1: it was more than just sex. People who know them
15:49
Speaker 1: say they were still in love and we're even thinking
15:51
Speaker 1: of starting over. Lorenzen did propose to Shara after they
15:55
Speaker 1: were divorced. The children saw him ask her to marry
16:00
Speaker 1: a Helm and Sharon had said yess so. On this
16:04
Speaker 1: one particular weekend that summer, Lorenz's coming back to Memphis
16:07
Speaker 1: to visit. Sharon calls him and asks him to go
16:10
Speaker 1: to a dance recital for their daughter, Lauren. And it
16:13
Speaker 1: turns out his sister Denotre's having a baby shower that
16:16
Speaker 1: weekend too, so he's got a lot going on. I
16:24
Speaker 1: drove the Rension through the airport in the flowers to
16:26
Speaker 1: Memphis as I looked back, and now I think that
16:28
Speaker 1: something was going on because the Residon was. He was
16:31
Speaker 1: always on edge that whole week, which I thought was unusual.
16:35
Speaker 1: So the family is split apart all the fame, the fortune,
16:41
Speaker 1: the losing the fortune, the women. It ends the marriage
16:45
Speaker 1: with six children at stake. But these two could not
16:48
Speaker 1: stay away from each other. They decided to rekindle their
16:53
Speaker 1: romance and decided to re marry you know to doctor
16:59
Speaker 1: Angela Arnold, M isn't it true that your second marriage
17:05
Speaker 1: has less of a chance a success? Plus the stat
17:09
Speaker 1: on that I'm not sure, Yes it is, I'm not.
17:12
Speaker 1: I think about a third of second marriages go belly up.
17:18
Speaker 1: First of all, if you've already had one divorce, Nancy,
17:22
Speaker 1: there's no there's no stigma about it in your in
17:24
Speaker 1: your mind anymore, is there. So that's a way out.
17:27
Speaker 1: And people that just like children of divorced parents, it's
17:30
Speaker 1: a way out. It's something that they know, it's something
17:33
Speaker 1: they're familiar with. So it's not gonna it's not gonna
17:35
Speaker 1: stop you necessarily if things start to go south, to
17:38
Speaker 1: have another divorce. But these two had been had already
17:43
Speaker 1: rekindled their relationship, they were sleeping together, they loved being together.
17:49
Speaker 1: They decided to remarry, but something was bothering Lorenz and right,
17:57
Speaker 1: and then this journey on nine one one, where's your emergency?
18:04
Speaker 1: So hello, Hello, I don't have nothing but gunshot? Hello Hello,
18:25
Speaker 1: that's all the nine one one dispatch heard, nothing else,
18:29
Speaker 1: just gunshots. It sounds as if she's actually hearing the
18:35
Speaker 1: murder as it occurs. Crime stories with Nancy Grace guys,
18:54
Speaker 1: we are talking about the death of an NBA star,
18:58
Speaker 1: Lorenz and right, I want you to listen one more
19:01
Speaker 1: time to that nine one one call, same call. Listen
19:06
Speaker 1: journey on nine one one. Where's your emergency? So hello, Hello,
19:20
Speaker 1: I don't have nothing but gunshot? Hello, Hello, straight out
19:31
Speaker 1: to Joseph Scott Morgan, Professor forensic Jackson State University. What
19:35
Speaker 1: do you do in a case like that? You hear
19:39
Speaker 1: those were the gunshots? Yeah, yeah, And it's kind of
19:42
Speaker 1: tell tale, isn't it, Nancy. There is there's initially one
19:46
Speaker 1: gunshot wound, one gun fire shot that you hear, and
19:51
Speaker 1: then there's a pause, and then suddenly you've got two
19:56
Speaker 1: or three they're fired, and then you've got even more.
19:59
Speaker 1: I can tell you this just from listening to the
20:02
Speaker 1: sound of this. We're talking about a weapon that sounds
20:05
Speaker 1: as though to me, at least by ear that this
20:09
Speaker 1: is a semi automatic handgun more than likely, which is
20:12
Speaker 1: something that will It's not like a revolver that spends
20:15
Speaker 1: a round. This is launching rounds by just simply merely
20:19
Speaker 1: pulling the trigger repetitively. And I've got some thoughts about
20:24
Speaker 1: this later down the tracks, but I gotta tell you,
20:27
Speaker 1: that's an indication for us as investigators that we know,
20:32
Speaker 1: if we find a body, we're gonna be able to
20:35
Speaker 1: match it up, perhaps with this number of gunshot wounds
20:38
Speaker 1: at minimum. To Bobby Chicoon, former special agent FBI, screenwriter
20:43
Speaker 1: on Criminal Minds, Bobby Chakoon, just hearing that nine on
20:47
Speaker 1: one call where you hear one gunshot, there's no mistaking
20:50
Speaker 1: the gunshot. As I always say, it's like when you
20:52
Speaker 1: hear a rattlesnake for the first time, or a racking
20:57
Speaker 1: a shotgun. You know it when you hear it. I
21:00
Speaker 1: know that is not fireworks. That is a gun shot.
21:04
Speaker 1: Why Tottontops traced the call, Well, that's a good question,
21:07
Speaker 1: and there was some questioning of the nine one one
21:09
Speaker 1: handling of this call. Why they didn't now this nine
21:13
Speaker 1: one one call comes into a jurisdiction which is a
21:17
Speaker 1: suburb of Memphis. It's a smaller town, and there was
21:20
Speaker 1: some discussion about how they handled that call, whether or
21:24
Speaker 1: not they should have immediately jumped on it, tried to
21:26
Speaker 1: triangulate it with cell towers and see where that call
21:30
Speaker 1: was coming from. Initially, apparently that was not done. The
21:34
Speaker 1: department says that the nine one one operators handled it
21:37
Speaker 1: properly per their policy, But there is some question about
21:41
Speaker 1: that because quite frankly, when you hear that those shots,
21:44
Speaker 1: to me, I can hear the movement. So when you
21:46
Speaker 1: hear pause and gunshots, it means the shooter is usually
21:48
Speaker 1: moving either at their target or you know, in a
21:52
Speaker 1: position to get two better shots at the target. And
21:54
Speaker 1: then later on in the call you hear a succession
21:56
Speaker 1: of shots in a row. That means the shooter has
21:59
Speaker 1: now got the position where they're firing directly at their target.
22:02
Speaker 1: They've got a good site picture, and they're firing directly
22:05
Speaker 1: in So the pause is usually movement of the shooter
22:08
Speaker 1: towards this target. And then when you hear them the
22:11
Speaker 1: rapid fire, they're they're at where they need to be
22:14
Speaker 1: and they're shooting their target directly. When you say, I
22:17
Speaker 1: need to reinterpret for all of us regular folks, nine
22:22
Speaker 1: one one took the call. You hear gunshots and to me,
22:25
Speaker 1: someone dialing nine one one with gunshots in the background
22:31
Speaker 1: nothing good. When you say they should have triangulated the call, explain.
22:35
Speaker 1: So when a call comes into nine one one, it
22:39
Speaker 1: it's a cell phone call. It bounces off of a
22:41
Speaker 1: cell tower, so you can get that information. You can
22:44
Speaker 1: find out where that tower is. Now there's a way
22:47
Speaker 1: that they can figure out from the call and this
22:50
Speaker 1: is more of a technical matter, but they can find
22:53
Speaker 1: the nearest three towers to that call where it came in,
22:56
Speaker 1: and they can get a very kind of a localized
22:59
Speaker 1: area with dot call came from, you can get a
23:01
Speaker 1: general area. And then obviously you can have no police
23:04
Speaker 1: units respond into that area and see because you heard
23:07
Speaker 1: a succession of shots, you know, I mean the don't
23:09
Speaker 1: one one operators says they're gunshots. You can hear her
23:12
Speaker 1: say their gunshots. So I mean they should have flooded
23:15
Speaker 1: that whole area with police looking for what happened, but
23:18
Speaker 1: they didn't take a Listen to our friend James Brown
23:21
Speaker 1: at CBS. By twenty ten, Wright was thirty four years
23:25
Speaker 1: old and at the end of a long NBA career.
23:29
Speaker 1: But then one night in July he suddenly went missing.
23:33
Speaker 1: He had disappeared and he was gone over all of
23:36
Speaker 1: these days and nobody knew anything. This is a growthrom
23:39
Speaker 1: ten investigative reporter April Thompson covered the story for the
23:43
Speaker 1: Memphis CBS affiliate is mother, Deborah really kind of pushed,
23:47
Speaker 1: if something's not right. We ticked all his friends from
23:49
Speaker 1: here to Atlanta, Mississippi, everywhere, so I don't have a clue.
23:53
Speaker 1: Ten days later, the shocking news Lorenz and Wright's mother
23:58
Speaker 1: runs toward investigation. Memphis, Tennessee. Here found the body of Homer.
24:02
Speaker 1: The police found Right's body near a backwoods road some
24:06
Speaker 1: twenty miles outside of Memphis. He was shot five times.
24:10
Speaker 1: This was Lorenzen Wright, who would be hating him that much.
24:15
Speaker 1: As Memphis mourned, months turned into years, and the city
24:20
Speaker 1: became obsessed with solving the murder of its favorite son.
24:23
Speaker 1: It was a lot of pressure to solve it because
24:25
Speaker 1: of who Lorenzen Wright was and what he meant to
24:27
Speaker 1: this city. Well, all that pressure didn't him mount to
24:30
Speaker 1: a hill of beans, because the case goes unsolved. In
24:34
Speaker 1: the meantime, listen to our friends at Sports Illustrated and
24:39
Speaker 1: Fox Sports. Wright struggled financially in his final year, jobless,
24:44
Speaker 1: with mounting child support and four closed homes. But five
24:48
Speaker 1: months before his death, Wright took out a one million
24:51
Speaker 1: dollar life insurance policy during the divorce. It was part
24:54
Speaker 1: of a permanent parenting plan for his six kids, and
24:58
Speaker 1: on July first, two thousand eleven, rights kids were set
25:01
Speaker 1: to inherit the one million dollars. As I recall, in
25:05
Speaker 1: somewhere in the timeframe of about ten months, she spent
25:09
Speaker 1: almost all of that million dollars. There are indications of
25:12
Speaker 1: frivolous spending. There were some luxury cars bought. There was
25:15
Speaker 1: a very expensive trip to New York for a couple
25:17
Speaker 1: of days. But then too she bought a house and
25:22
Speaker 1: did some renovation to the tune of something like three
25:24
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand dollars. How I take care of
25:27
Speaker 1: my children, that's nobody's business but mine and Laurenton, and
25:30
Speaker 1: he headed outline how he wanted him to be taken
25:33
Speaker 1: care of. And that's what I've done. Okay, you were
25:37
Speaker 1: hearing the wife, sure a right, speaking very coherently about
25:41
Speaker 1: what her plan was to take care of the children
25:44
Speaker 1: after her husband soon to be new husband had been
25:48
Speaker 1: found dead. A one million dollar life insurance policy. And
25:53
Speaker 1: remember he took out the policy, not her. But then
26:00
Speaker 1: her spending came under question leavi page What happened? What
26:04
Speaker 1: was she spending the money on? So she had got
26:08
Speaker 1: that one million dollar payout and in ten months, she
26:12
Speaker 1: had spent nine hundred and seventy three thousand dollars of it.
26:16
Speaker 1: She took trips to New York, She purchased cars, she
26:19
Speaker 1: bought a new home. She was buying new clothes and jewelry. Whoa, whoa,
26:23
Speaker 1: whoa Wait wait, I thought she said it was part
26:26
Speaker 1: of a family, permanent family plan. Wait a minute. Cars?
26:30
Speaker 1: Do you know how many cars too? Do you know
26:33
Speaker 1: what they were? Do not know the brand? I'm very
26:36
Speaker 1: curious to make I'm very curious, jack Sure they were
26:39
Speaker 1: looking on it a new home and then three hunt
26:44
Speaker 1: of fifty thousand dollars of renovations plus a new home.
26:48
Speaker 1: Did you say jewelry? Yes, clothes, things like that. She
26:53
Speaker 1: had been taking trips too to New York for what shopping?
26:56
Speaker 1: Hasn't she heard a target? It's right up the street.
26:59
Speaker 1: What do you mean? Why does she go to New York?
27:01
Speaker 1: She went to New York to shop? You know, Jackie,
27:03
Speaker 1: have you ever heard of people that go to Paris
27:05
Speaker 1: to shop? It's not us, it's not us. I mean,
27:10
Speaker 1: you know, Troy Slight and I'm sure some of your
27:13
Speaker 1: clients out there in La will just hop on over
27:15
Speaker 1: to Paris to go shopping. But isn't that a little extravagant, Troy.
27:19
Speaker 1: Sometimes people buy things. Sometimes people do drugs to cover
27:25
Speaker 1: up pain and hurt in their lives. And so there's
27:31
Speaker 1: no playbook on how somebody is supposed to act when
27:36
Speaker 1: the father of her children are gone. She's now responsible
27:40
Speaker 1: for six children and trying to put them in a
27:43
Speaker 1: lifestyle that they had become accustomed to during the life
27:48
Speaker 1: of their superstar father. So to put the children back
27:52
Speaker 1: in the lifestyle to which they were accustomed, she bought
27:55
Speaker 1: herself expensive clothes, expensive cars, and jewelry. Okay, I'll let
28:02
Speaker 1: doctor Angela Arnold work that one out. Time stories with
28:21
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace. Guys, what happened to Lorenzen? Right? The NBA
28:27
Speaker 1: star take a listen to our friends at Sports Illustrated.
28:32
Speaker 1: Fox Sports didn't have any part in Lorenzen's murder, and
28:38
Speaker 1: mat First, I'm my wife, then I'm a mother, and
28:43
Speaker 1: then thirdly, I'm an author the law enforce. One should
28:48
Speaker 1: do what's mess to find out who's the killer. And
28:56
Speaker 1: you understand obviously why I had to ask that I do.
29:00
Speaker 1: But I'm a wife, a mother, and an author. I
29:07
Speaker 1: let people do what they're good at doing, and I'm
29:11
Speaker 1: just gonna do what I'm good at doing. They need
29:14
Speaker 1: to spend time and focus and find out what happened
29:18
Speaker 1: to him. We all need to know. Shara has since remarried,
29:24
Speaker 1: recently moved to Houston, become a minister, and wrote a
29:27
Speaker 1: self help novel for abused women, beast loosely on her
29:31
Speaker 1: marriage to a basketball star. Okay, guys, Jackie got the
29:35
Speaker 1: answer for me. LEVI did you hear that? Thirty two
29:38
Speaker 1: grand for a calait escalade and a Lexus whoa about
29:45
Speaker 1: twelve thousand for a labbist trip to New York City,
29:49
Speaker 1: eight thousand for oh my goodness for a swimming pool
29:53
Speaker 1: just as a deposit, a knee pool knee furniture for
29:56
Speaker 1: seventy grand, oh and five grand from motorized lawnmore. You
30:01
Speaker 1: know what, when I was growing up, Joe Scott, I
30:04
Speaker 1: don't know if you had this or not, but you know,
30:06
Speaker 1: we grew up on a red dirt road in Middle
30:08
Speaker 1: Georgia and we actually had the lawnmoar that was not motorized.
30:13
Speaker 1: That's a nice way, that's an ephemism. It had a
30:17
Speaker 1: blade that turned around. It just turned around and you
30:21
Speaker 1: pushed it over and over for the whole front and backyard.
30:26
Speaker 1: Are you showing me more expenditures? Oh oh, okay, about
30:30
Speaker 1: four hundred thousand dollars on properly she placed in her
30:33
Speaker 1: children's name. I mean it just goes on and on.
30:35
Speaker 1: Do you remember those lawnmoars? They still exist. They're not
30:38
Speaker 1: that old Joe Scott Morgan, but she's been on a
30:42
Speaker 1: motorized riding lawnmore five grand. Well, yeah, I started out.
30:49
Speaker 1: Those are called real lawnmoors. I started out on one
30:51
Speaker 1: of those r E E L and yeah, they're the
30:55
Speaker 1: devil to push through high grass and you have to
30:58
Speaker 1: stay on top the grass or you'll want losing about
31:00
Speaker 1: fifty pounds of water weight out in the hot southern sun. Yeah,
31:04
Speaker 1: I'm very familiar with those. Nancy five thousand dollars. Okay.
31:08
Speaker 1: Royce Layton would tell you she's just expressing her grief.
31:12
Speaker 1: But take a listen to the real woman, and lorenz
31:16
Speaker 1: And writes live. Take a listen to our friend Ryan
31:19
Speaker 1: Smith at ABC twenty twenty. It was almost like he
31:22
Speaker 1: was just blind with love, right, Yes, yeah, gard crazy.
31:27
Speaker 1: He put moves on him by karate a job. They
31:29
Speaker 1: didn't do him this different. I was hearing that that
31:32
Speaker 1: Cheryl was wanting to get pregnant and to marry Lorenzen,
31:39
Speaker 1: assuming that he was going to beat this great NBA
31:42
Speaker 1: basketball player. When she saw Lorenzen, she saw a future
31:49
Speaker 1: with a millionaire. Some of the people closest to Lorenzen
31:53
Speaker 1: sees Chary as a gold digger. So were you concerned
32:00
Speaker 1: he will listen to no one else? And I counted
32:02
Speaker 1: like cool down because I said, if I got a
32:04
Speaker 1: lighthood a little bit, you know, to keep my son
32:06
Speaker 1: close to me. You didn't try to disrupt the relationship
32:11
Speaker 1: because he loved her exactly. So there's the dilemma, doctor
32:16
Speaker 1: Angela Arnold, you're the psychiatrist. When the mother does not
32:21
Speaker 1: like the daughter in law at all, that keeps up
32:25
Speaker 1: a relationship to stay close to the sun and vice versa.
32:29
Speaker 1: But you know what, Nancy, not all gold diggers or murders.
32:32
Speaker 1: Let's be honest, true, very can't we can't you know?
32:36
Speaker 1: Just because okay, so she wanted a nice life. Nancy,
32:39
Speaker 1: who doesn't want a nice life? I don't know anything
32:42
Speaker 1: about their angel Arnold, Doctor Angie, because I never grew
32:47
Speaker 1: up wanting to a five thousand dollars motorized lawn more
32:51
Speaker 1: or fancy clothes or expensive jewelry didn't think about that
32:57
Speaker 1: or you know, vehicles, and she got it. She got
33:00
Speaker 1: a taste of that. I mean, how is that part
33:02
Speaker 1: of a permanent parenting plan? I know, I agree with you, Nancy,
33:06
Speaker 1: but I'm not going But just because she's a gold
33:09
Speaker 1: digger doesn't mean she doesn't mean that she would become
33:13
Speaker 1: a murderer. You know what, I've got a feeling that
33:16
Speaker 1: Troy Slightness about to put you on retainer, Doctor Angela Arnold,
33:19
Speaker 1: go ahund Troy Slighton. I'm sure you're chopping at the bit.
33:22
Speaker 1: Let me guess she runs through a million dollars on herself,
33:26
Speaker 1: and the mother always says she was a gold digger.
33:30
Speaker 1: But that does not a murder make right. Absolutely, there's
33:34
Speaker 1: something called battered woman syndrome, and I'm sure doctor Angie
33:39
Speaker 1: could tell us all about it. It's interesting you say
33:42
Speaker 1: that because nobody else ever heard about that battered women's syndrome.
33:46
Speaker 1: Her face was so damaged by this NBA star that
33:55
Speaker 1: she has permanent disfigurement and fractures in her school. Hold
34:01
Speaker 1: on one moment, let's hear cut nineteen Please Alexi Lorenzo
34:07
Speaker 1: Fox thirteen. Through the years, the shock turned into sorrow
34:10
Speaker 1: for each of Lorenzen's family members as they kept up
34:13
Speaker 1: with the case. Before Shara's twenty seventeen arrest, she published
34:17
Speaker 1: a book. It was Love and Hate at the Very
34:19
Speaker 1: First Sight, she wrote in the twenty fifteen publication, The
34:22
Speaker 1: La Times says the book details several violent instances and
34:26
Speaker 1: infidelity between the two main characters. In an interview with
34:29
Speaker 1: The Commercial Appeal, Shara said ninety nine point nine percent
34:32
Speaker 1: of the book was made up of true stories of
34:34
Speaker 1: the couple's relationship, but Lorenzen Wright's mother says her son
34:38
Speaker 1: never laid a hand on anyone, not Shara and not
34:42
Speaker 1: the kids. I'll tell all book came out in twenty eighteen.
34:47
Speaker 1: It was written by Shara's last boyfriend and detailed everything
34:50
Speaker 1: Sharah had told him about her and Lorenzen's relationship and death.
34:54
Speaker 1: I went through it today and couldn't find any allegations
34:57
Speaker 1: of domestic abuse. The demand abuse contested. But it is true,
35:02
Speaker 1: is it not? Bobby Chicone? That typically the first person
35:06
Speaker 1: you'll look at and a homicide is the spouse. That's
35:09
Speaker 1: just standard operating procedure. Yeah, it certainly is. And so
35:12
Speaker 1: you start looking at all the different issues and problems
35:16
Speaker 1: that could come up in a marriage. So you know,
35:17
Speaker 1: these two obviously had gotten divorced, so and you know
35:21
Speaker 1: obviously then they tried to get back together again. So
35:23
Speaker 1: you look at all of those issues in a marriage
35:25
Speaker 1: that could cause stress and train and you know, and
35:28
Speaker 1: anger towards each other. And so sure are you always
35:30
Speaker 1: going to look at the spouse, you know in the
35:33
Speaker 1: initial round of success, and the things that they do
35:36
Speaker 1: in their behavior either lead you towards them or away
35:39
Speaker 1: from them. Speculation was high until a guy named Jimmy
35:46
Speaker 1: Martin steps into the spotlight. Listen to Paul Hagerman homicide
35:54
Speaker 1: investigators interview Jenior Morgan, who say that he had a
35:58
Speaker 1: role in the murder of Arncy Riding. Jimmy Martin stated,
36:01
Speaker 1: in the days before the murder of Lorens and Right,
36:03
Speaker 1: he was presenter and during a meeting in which Sharyl Wright,
36:08
Speaker 1: Billy Turner, and he planned the murder of Lorenz and Right.
36:12
Speaker 1: Jimmy Martin say that he participated in the planning of
36:15
Speaker 1: the murder with Shara Wright and Billy Turner, and he
36:18
Speaker 1: received payment for this by Shara right. Jimmy Martin then
36:23
Speaker 1: stayed in the days after the murder of Lorenson. Right,
36:26
Speaker 1: he was picked up by Shara Wright at his home
36:28
Speaker 1: in Baseball, Mississippi. Jimmy stated at Chary right barn metal
36:32
Speaker 1: detecher from his mother, Edna Robinson, and they then left.
36:36
Speaker 1: Jimmy Martin said that he rode to Memphis, Tennessee with
36:38
Speaker 1: Shara Wright, where they picked up Billy Turner and they
36:42
Speaker 1: confessed to him that they had just murdered Lorens. And right, Okay,
36:47
Speaker 1: that cracks the case wide open. When this guy comes
36:50
Speaker 1: forward claiming that he was paid by Lorenzen's wife, Shira
36:55
Speaker 1: to commit a murderer, listen to this. Jimmy Marry Martin
37:00
Speaker 1: say that he assisted Sharaw Wright and Billy Turner in
37:03
Speaker 1: cleaning up the crime scene and destroying evidence from the murder.
37:07
Speaker 1: Jimmy Martin say that the metal detector was using an
37:10
Speaker 1: attempt to locate a firearm that was dropped during murder.
37:14
Speaker 1: Jimmy Martin stated he accompanied Billy Turner to a lake
37:18
Speaker 1: located on Highway seventy two in Walden, Mississippi, where Billy
37:22
Speaker 1: Turner to smoke dispose of a handgun that was used
37:25
Speaker 1: to murder Warrens and right on May the thirty four,
37:28
Speaker 1: twenty twelve, investigators took Jimmy Martin to a lake near
37:32
Speaker 1: two four nine one country Road number three or two
37:35
Speaker 1: in wad, Mississippi. So we've got the wife, Jimmy Martin
37:41
Speaker 1: and Billy Turner allegedly involved. Billy Turner, a church deacon,
37:46
Speaker 1: Levi Page the one sings like a bird? What happened
37:50
Speaker 1: to the other two? The church deacon and Shira Wright?
37:54
Speaker 1: So Nancy actually Jimmy Martin is Lorenzen's cousin who aimated
38:00
Speaker 1: at his own cousin's murder, and after he was arrested
38:05
Speaker 1: for murder in a separate case, he told police he said,
38:08
Speaker 1: Sharah Wright wanted me to kill Lorenzen right, she wanted
38:12
Speaker 1: him dead. He gave police of the names of people involved,
38:15
Speaker 1: including Turner, who was a landscaper in a Memphis suburb,
38:20
Speaker 1: and Sharah Wright. They attended the same church. They masterminded
38:25
Speaker 1: this plot, and they had done so not only in
38:28
Speaker 1: Memphis where he was killed, but they had tried unsuccessfully
38:32
Speaker 1: to do it a year earlier in Atlanta, where he lived.
38:35
Speaker 1: And she has actually pled guilty to that Nancy. She
38:41
Speaker 1: is eligible for parole after serving thirty percent of her sentence,
38:47
Speaker 1: which will be in about nine years. Nine years she
38:50
Speaker 1: could walk She was paid to gold digger who planned
38:55
Speaker 1: to take lorenzen Wright's money from the first moment they met,
39:01
Speaker 1: and she could walk free in a matter of nine years.
39:05
Speaker 1: That is not justice. Nancy Gray's crime story, signing off
39:10
Speaker 1: Goodbye friend,