Latest / NO FILTER / Wife orders murder of NBA player ex-husband in love triangle with man from church(MP3_160K)
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: I'm Chris Hansen right now on Crime Watch Daily. From
- 0:02Speaker 1: here in New York City. A married NBA star, a
- 0:13Speaker 1: father of six, gunned down in cold blood.
- 0:16Speaker 2: One Where's your mergency?
- 0:19Speaker 1: Every chilling second of his murderer captured on a nine
- 0:22Speaker 1: to one one call.
- 0:24Speaker 3: Hello.
- 0:25Speaker 1: The crime a total mystery.
- 0:27Speaker 4: They tried to trace the call and they couldn't.
- 0:29Speaker 1: Until his killer makes a huge mistake. When I saw that,
- 0:33Speaker 1: like wow, Today the clues hidden in a graphic crime
- 0:36Speaker 1: novel that will solve this.
- 0:38Speaker 4: Case potentially dynamite for the prosecution.
- 0:42Speaker 1: Then look closely. The figure in this video is twenty
- 0:46Speaker 1: one year old college student Jayla Glatt being stalked in abductor.
- 0:50Speaker 3: I just thought I was never gonna see my daughter.
- 0:52Speaker 1: Again, kidnapped, stuffed in a trunk, and assault. She somehow
- 0:57Speaker 1: manages to text her boyfriend throughout the ordeal.
- 0:59Speaker 5: The message say kidnap.
- 1:02Speaker 1: Today after three hours of pure hell, how she outsmarted
- 1:05Speaker 1: her camped you saved.
- 1:06Speaker 2: Your own life?
- 1:08Speaker 6: Right now go, let's go.
- 1:10Speaker 7: Jason Matowa with Prime Watch Daily, I'm miss.
- 1:12Speaker 2: Also going up from Crimewatch Daily.
- 1:14Speaker 8: Yes, let's be smart.
- 1:15Speaker 9: From Crimewatch Daily.
- 1:16Speaker 5: It's Ana Garcia.
- 1:17Speaker 10: From Crime Watch Daily.
- 1:18Speaker 8: You got anything to say?
- 1:20Speaker 1: Is crime Watch Dally? You don't know if she's thirteen.
- 1:23Speaker 1: You're running away now, So welcome to Crime Watch Daily.
- 1:28Speaker 10: Everyone.
- 1:28Speaker 1: I'm Chris Hansen. It's one of the most anticipated murder
- 1:31Speaker 1: trials ever in the state of Tennessee. Two unlikely suspects
- 1:34Speaker 1: charging the brutal slaying of a local NBA star, lorenzen Wright.
- 1:38Speaker 1: Melissa McCarty is here now with today's top story, The
- 1:41Speaker 1: Final Shots.
- 1:43Speaker 10: Chris lorenzen Wright was a favorite sun here in the
- 1:45Speaker 10: city of Memphis, a local basketball star who went on
- 1:49Speaker 10: to have a very long and successful NBA career. One
- 1:52Speaker 10: year after leaving the game, right would make headlines for
- 1:55Speaker 10: a completely different reason.
- 1:58Speaker 11: Jarge Ham nine, where's your emergency?
- 2:03Speaker 10: The unnerving sounds of a murder in progress. Hello, The
- 2:10Speaker 10: gut wrenching screams of an anguished mother.
- 2:13Speaker 1: How could you have murdered? Fun?
- 2:17Speaker 10: The torment bestowed upon a wife and mother of six.
- 2:20Speaker 2: He was fun, He's fun. I can't.
- 2:25Speaker 5: I'm not gonna believe anything.
- 2:26Speaker 10: A fictional novel filled with real life clues.
- 2:30Speaker 4: This is some really strange stuff, but I mean potentially
- 2:34Speaker 4: dynamite for the prosecution.
- 2:37Speaker 10: When NBA star Lorenzen Wright's life was cut down in
- 2:40Speaker 10: a Halo gunfire. Hello. He left behind not just his
- 2:47Speaker 10: devoted family, childhood friends, and rabid fans. The hoops hero
- 2:53Speaker 10: also left a daunting mystery that would confound Memphis police
- 2:57Speaker 10: for years.
- 2:59Speaker 4: This death was bare very very shocking and took a
- 3:01Speaker 4: huge toll, especially that the fact that no one knew
- 3:04Speaker 4: who did it.
- 3:06Speaker 10: The history of Memphis is rich and profound. It's where
- 3:09Speaker 10: the king of rock and roll once ruled and where
- 3:12Speaker 10: another king died fighting for the rights of all. But
- 3:16Speaker 10: Lorenzen Wrights staked his claim as the city's most recent
- 3:20Speaker 10: favorite son, not as a king, but a prince of
- 3:24Speaker 10: the court.
- 3:25Speaker 4: Lorenzen Wright is a hometown hero. Really, I mean it
- 3:28Speaker 4: was a beloved figure.
- 3:30Speaker 10: Lorenzen's swift rise to the top was rooted in deeply
- 3:34Speaker 10: humble beginnings. How long have you known him?
- 3:36Speaker 2: How'd you meet?
- 3:37Speaker 5: Been known since the fourth grade?
- 3:39Speaker 7: We met between our mothers our mother with France Scruns
- 3:41Speaker 7: has never lost to us. He's always stayed in contact.
- 3:44Speaker 7: I always just say had a certain chemistry.
- 3:46Speaker 10: Lorenzen was a star at the University of Memphis. Then
- 3:49Speaker 10: he canapulted to the NBA as the seventh pick in
- 3:52Speaker 10: the first round. Did you watch it on TV? Yeah,
- 3:56Speaker 10: of course, what was going through your head?
- 3:57Speaker 7: I mean just see if my friend get drafted and
- 3:59Speaker 7: seeing this family up there, that was awesome.
- 4:01Speaker 5: Fieldings.
- 4:03Speaker 10: This woman accompanying Lorenzen on his road to start of
- 4:06Speaker 10: his wife, Shira, the daughter of one of his youth coaches.
- 4:09Speaker 10: Shira was with him basically from the very beginning.
- 4:12Speaker 4: Yeah, Shara was five years older than Lorenzon, which is
- 4:15Speaker 4: a beautiful young lady.
- 4:18Speaker 10: The Rights built quite the brood along the way, six
- 4:21Speaker 10: kids in fact, enough for a basketball team plus one.
- 4:24Speaker 10: How is his a father?
- 4:26Speaker 7: Oh my god, I'd say, is this the number one
- 4:28Speaker 7: thing that he'd care about? Most of his World Wars kids.
- 4:30Speaker 7: He always put them out of anything everything he did.
- 4:34Speaker 10: Lorenzen was crushed by the tragic death of a seventh child,
- 4:39Speaker 10: a baby girl who fell victim to sudden infinitess syndrome.
- 4:42Speaker 10: The hoops star established a scholarship in her name and
- 4:45Speaker 10: got deeply involved in philanthropy.
- 4:47Speaker 7: He's always gave, and gave and gave.
- 4:50Speaker 10: Lorenzen played for several pro teams before ending up with
- 4:53Speaker 10: his beloved hometown franchise, The Memphis Grizzlies.
- 4:57Speaker 7: Where we went, people want to autograph, take picre It
- 5:01Speaker 7: was huge.
- 5:02Speaker 10: How did he take all that in?
- 5:03Speaker 7: He enjoyed it, He had loved that, He embraced it.
- 5:06Speaker 7: He never was selfish or anything. Anybody that want to
- 5:09Speaker 7: offer autograph, he kind of gave it to him. He
- 5:12Speaker 7: took pictures with anybody who asked for He was very home.
- 5:15Speaker 10: He had a long career, but very profitable as well.
- 5:18Speaker 10: How much did he net over that time?
- 5:20Speaker 4: According to court records, he earned fifty five million dollars
- 5:23Speaker 4: of the course of I think it was thirteen years
- 5:26Speaker 4: that he was in the NBA.
- 5:28Speaker 10: But by the time Lorenzen writes, hoop Days hit the
- 5:31Speaker 10: final buzzer, his rags to riches story and brilliant career
- 5:35Speaker 10: had dimmed to a familiar cliche. Too much fame, too
- 5:39Speaker 10: much fortune, much too soon.
- 5:41Speaker 4: By the time he was done playing, he was broke
- 5:45Speaker 4: pretty much. I mean, he had two expensive homes that
- 5:47Speaker 4: were in foreclosure, and according to Chera, they had a
- 5:50Speaker 4: lot of creditors after them.
- 5:52Speaker 7: He's got a lot of family and people coming at
- 5:53Speaker 7: you as well too. You know, you got this money
- 5:56Speaker 7: and fame and success had you so the problem was
- 5:59Speaker 7: he was a giver. He gave to anybody who put
- 6:01Speaker 7: their hand out.
- 6:03Speaker 10: It's that dangerous two headed monster that stalks the unsuspecting
- 6:07Speaker 10: sports superstar, alluring him down a path of self destruction.
- 6:11Speaker 10: Money and women. Lorenzen loved to score in more ways
- 6:16Speaker 10: than one. It turned out he was a chronic cheater,
- 6:19Speaker 10: nearly a woman in every port. As they say, Shira
- 6:22Speaker 10: was devastated.
- 6:23Speaker 4: You really get the sense of somebody who feels betrayed, hurt,
- 6:28Speaker 4: cheated on.
- 6:29Speaker 10: Close friends were stunned.
- 6:31Speaker 7: Earth together for so long and what they put out
- 6:34Speaker 7: to the public and to family and friends was pretty
- 6:37Speaker 7: much good relationship.
- 6:40Speaker 10: Lorenzen Wright had flamed out, broke, divorced, and now living
- 6:44Speaker 10: hundreds of miles away in Atlanta, desperately missing his kids.
- 6:48Speaker 10: He told childhood friend Michael Gibson he was rethinking his life.
- 6:52Speaker 7: He's like, I might as well get back to my wife,
- 6:54Speaker 7: you know, and just be happy.
- 6:55Speaker 10: As we told me, he might as well just get
- 6:57Speaker 10: back with her and be happy, because he wasn't happy
- 7:00Speaker 10: in the dating scene right. Coming up a novel with
- 7:05Speaker 10: a violent and vengeful premise, Lee's Cops down a revealing path.
- 7:09Speaker 4: The theme that comes through is that of a very
- 7:12Speaker 4: embittered woman.
- 7:13Speaker 1: You return with more of today's story. The final shot.
- 7:19Speaker 1: Once again, here's Melissa McCarty.
- 7:21Speaker 10: Lorenzen Wright had dug himself a grave and filled it
- 7:25Speaker 10: with bad choices. Divorced, broke, and soon to be gunned
- 7:29Speaker 10: down in cold blood during a trip back to Memphis.
- 7:38Speaker 11: George hand nine one one, where's your margency?
- 7:42Speaker 4: There are words of panic, there's some cursing on there,
- 7:45Speaker 4: and you hear gunshots, as many as ten eleven gunshots,
- 7:50Speaker 4: and this is you know, him getting murdered.
- 7:53Speaker 9: Hellogunshot, Hello, Hello.
- 8:01Speaker 10: It feels like he really didn't know what was happening
- 8:04Speaker 10: until that moment, right, That's.
- 8:05Speaker 5: What I think. I think he had in the word
- 8:07Speaker 5: to The.
- 8:09Speaker 4: Call was picked up by a nine one one dispatcher
- 8:12Speaker 4: in Germantown, and they never they never pursued it immediately.
- 8:17Speaker 10: What do you mean they didn't pursue it. It's still
- 8:19Speaker 10: a shooting.
- 8:19Speaker 4: It's a shooting, but they didn't, they didn't know it
- 8:21Speaker 4: was a shooting. They tried, they tried to trace the
- 8:24Speaker 4: call and they couldn't, and they just somehow just dropped
- 8:27Speaker 4: the ball. They should have alerted Memphis.
- 8:30Speaker 10: It was an astounding and reckless era one that hurt
- 8:34Speaker 10: the subsequent investigation badly. Once Memphis police were notifying, they
- 8:38Speaker 10: traced the call and found the body in a remote meadow. Unfortunately,
- 8:43Speaker 10: it was nine days after the murder.
- 8:46Speaker 4: Whoever did it had a nine day head start. You know,
- 8:48Speaker 4: if they could have got found the body in that
- 8:51Speaker 4: that night, you know, the trail's much fresher. He's been
- 8:54Speaker 4: laying nine days in one hundred degree heat in Memphis,
- 8:59Speaker 4: and the body just severely decayed at that point.
- 9:02Speaker 12: And we'll just go wherever the investigation leaves us.
- 9:05Speaker 1: So we're not ruling in, we're not ruling out.
- 9:08Speaker 10: What clues existed were weak. Shira told police Lorenzo left
- 9:12Speaker 10: her house that night with a box of drugs and
- 9:15Speaker 10: a man she didn't know.
- 9:16Speaker 4: She mentioned that he was going to flip something for
- 9:19Speaker 4: one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars.
- 9:21Speaker 10: There was some speculation that Lorenzoen got tangled up with
- 9:24Speaker 10: the local cartel.
- 9:26Speaker 7: We had read some about him selling cars through some
- 9:28Speaker 7: drug outs, so we just thought that was it. We
- 9:30Speaker 7: was like, oh my god, what do you get involved in?
- 9:33Speaker 10: But there was no direct evidence linking lorenz into drug dealing.
- 9:36Speaker 10: Whatever the motive. Police believe the former NBA star was
- 9:40Speaker 10: double team that night.
- 9:42Speaker 2: How many shooters.
- 9:43Speaker 4: The autopsy reports and the police have said that there
- 9:47Speaker 4: were two different shell casing types or two different calibers.
- 9:51Speaker 10: Nine days lost, and not a tip or clue that sticks.
- 9:54Speaker 10: Nothing more irritating for detectives than to have to put
- 9:57Speaker 10: the case on ice.
- 9:58Speaker 4: That was the frustrating thing, especially for Lorenzo's mother, Debra,
- 10:03Speaker 4: Just this agonizing question of you know who did this
- 10:06Speaker 4: and why, and you just don't get those answers.
- 10:09Speaker 8: I really need. You'll help, people, come on, tell us something.
- 10:12Speaker 10: Then, five years after her husband's murder, Shira Wright does
- 10:16Speaker 10: something unexpected. She pens the salacious novel one seemingly based
- 10:21Speaker 10: on her life with Lorenzen. It's called Mister Tell Me Anything.
- 10:26Speaker 4: The character I guess he would be the antagonist in
- 10:29Speaker 4: the book, a basketball player who whose name in the
- 10:32Speaker 4: book is mister tell Me Anything You know. He so
- 10:36Speaker 4: closely resembles Lorenzo in that he grew up in Mississippi,
- 10:40Speaker 4: came up to Memphis to play basketball, made the pros.
- 10:42Speaker 10: But the novel covers so much more. It seems to
- 10:45Speaker 10: tell the real life story of an unfaithful marriage, including
- 10:49Speaker 10: characters like Honey Blonde and writer or Die Chick.
- 10:52Speaker 4: The theme that comes through is that of a very
- 10:55Speaker 4: embittered woman.
- 10:57Speaker 10: Mark Periskia is an investigative reporter for Memphis newspaper Commercial Appeal.
- 11:02Speaker 10: He met with Shira at a local restaurant to talk
- 11:05Speaker 10: about her book.
- 11:06Speaker 4: They're very graphic scenes and again she catches her husband
- 11:09Speaker 4: cheating with another woman in the act of it, and
- 11:12Speaker 4: the other woman, I think she calls her miss Honeyblonde.
- 11:15Speaker 4: In the book, she runs into a bathroom and Scherah
- 11:19Speaker 4: comes and kicks the door in and proceeds to beat
- 11:21Speaker 4: her up like is whacking around the head and all that.
- 11:25Speaker 10: The words read like cheesy pulp fiction. His face was
- 11:29Speaker 10: all adorned in bright red blood and hers in black
- 11:32Speaker 10: because of the smudge, mascara and tears they were even
- 11:36Speaker 10: now she was done. His money was poisonous. In the book,
- 11:41Speaker 10: Shira's character is fat, shamed, beaten, and even considers suicide
- 11:46Speaker 10: over repeated infidelities on the part of the NBA player
- 11:50Speaker 10: she's married to.
- 11:51Speaker 4: She said she struck him with keys like had keys
- 11:55Speaker 4: and a fist and punched him in the face and
- 11:57Speaker 4: drew blood so I asked her, I said, did this really?
- 12:00Speaker 10: Oh yeah, got h Now Mark is wondering if this
- 12:04Speaker 10: book of fiction is based on a true story. He
- 12:08Speaker 10: changes the subject to her husband's murder. Do you have
- 12:11Speaker 10: any idea who who did this?
- 12:13Speaker 13: Or I don't know?
- 12:15Speaker 4: And I got to ask you this, but I mean,
- 12:17Speaker 4: did you have anything to do with his murder or
- 12:19Speaker 4: his disappearance.
- 12:21Speaker 13: I'm a mother, I'm a wife, I'm an author, and
- 12:27Speaker 13: the police should find his killer. I'm a minister of
- 12:30Speaker 13: the Lord, and I've never been in any type of
- 12:34Speaker 13: trouble or anything. I just I'm a mother, an armor
- 12:40Speaker 13: and a wife.
- 12:41Speaker 10: And in fact, Shira had become an associate minister at
- 12:45Speaker 10: Mount Olive Church. But as possible, her brand of worship
- 12:48Speaker 10: includes a certain moral flexibility when it comes to the truth.
- 12:52Speaker 10: Remember her account to police that Lorenzo had a box
- 12:55Speaker 10: of drugs and a friend she didn't recognize.
- 12:58Speaker 13: And I never said to drugs. You can write that
- 13:01Speaker 13: because that's not true.
- 13:03Speaker 10: What did you say.
- 13:03Speaker 4: I just said he had a box, and they added
- 13:06Speaker 4: the part about the drugs. I guess did you tell
- 13:08Speaker 4: him the first time that he was.
- 13:10Speaker 1: At your house and he left? It was somebody that
- 13:12Speaker 1: he didn't know.
- 13:12Speaker 13: I never told them who he left it because I
- 13:16Speaker 13: didn't see that, and so that would be an unstrue statement.
- 13:20Speaker 4: There are accounts that.
- 13:22Speaker 13: You told the police a few weeks before this that
- 13:25Speaker 13: two or three.
- 13:26Speaker 4: Guys came up to the house looking for him and
- 13:28Speaker 4: they had guns.
- 13:29Speaker 13: Did you remember that or I don't remember. I mean,
- 13:32Speaker 13: I try not to even think about being like that.
- 13:36Speaker 10: She was asked directly, did you have anything to do
- 13:38Speaker 10: with it? And I thought it was interesting. Never once
- 13:41Speaker 10: did she say no. She just kept repeating, I'm a mother,
- 13:45Speaker 10: I'm a wife, I'm an author.
- 13:46Speaker 7: Yeah, And I thought it didn't I'm like, huh. When
- 13:49Speaker 7: I saw that, I'm like, wow, come on, Sarah.
- 13:54Speaker 10: But here's where she was unflinching audacity will drop your jaw.
- 13:59Speaker 4: She told me in the interview that she was working
- 14:02Speaker 4: on a sequel and the sequel was going to be
- 14:04Speaker 4: called The Whole Nine. And that's where I said, Okay,
- 14:07Speaker 4: this character in this book, mister, tell me anything, is
- 14:09Speaker 4: he murdered? And she says, oh, yes he is, and
- 14:11Speaker 4: that's what the sequel is going to be about.
- 14:14Speaker 10: It was difficult to discern whether Shira was just toying
- 14:17Speaker 10: with Mark and even police. A sordid book in conflicting
- 14:20Speaker 10: statements do not make a murderer, or at least one
- 14:24Speaker 10: you can convict. In the meantime, Shira has collected on
- 14:28Speaker 10: a million plus life insurance policy and in less than
- 14:31Speaker 10: a year she is just about spent it all. Lorenzen's dad, Herb,
- 14:36Speaker 10: is concerned about the children's welfare. He takes Shira to court.
- 14:40Speaker 14: Trude's demands that you spend the money in the court,
- 14:44Speaker 14: wasn't the best interest of the children.
- 14:46Speaker 5: If you buy pieces, you don't buy a state or
- 14:48Speaker 5: maybe by hand.
- 14:49Speaker 7: Been Herbert Wright tried to get a million dollars a
- 14:52Speaker 7: couple of years ago.
- 14:53Speaker 14: He didn't get it.
- 14:54Speaker 3: Then he's back for a second bite at the apple.
- 14:56Speaker 10: Now, Shoe's behavior no doubt suspicious. If it were a
- 15:00Speaker 10: TV drama, perhaps she'd get arrested and tried. But this
- 15:04Speaker 10: is real life, and so far no one is confident
- 15:07Speaker 10: that any case is provable beyond a reasonable doubt. Coming
- 15:12Speaker 10: up now, it's seven agonizing years without justice for Lorenzen,
- 15:16Speaker 10: right until cops hit the jackpot. In Lorenzen's home state
- 15:20Speaker 10: of Mississippi.
- 15:21Speaker 9: Authority's located the murder weapon in a lake near Walnut, Mississippi.
- 15:28Speaker 1: It was about as high profile of a murder as
- 15:31Speaker 1: you could possibly get. Former NBA star Lorenzen Right gunned down.
- 15:35Speaker 1: For years, the case would go cold until a key
- 15:37Speaker 1: discovery would lead police to a surprise suspect.
- 15:41Speaker 5: Once again.
- 15:41Speaker 1: Here's Melissa McCarry hello.
- 15:47Speaker 10: Former NBA star Lorenzen Wright was gunned down by the
- 15:51Speaker 10: rapid fire bullets of at least two weapons. The case
- 15:57Speaker 10: was far from a slam dunk. Five years later, it
- 16:00Speaker 10: was still steeped in mystery. Lorenzo's ex wife, Shira, had
- 16:04Speaker 10: plowed through a million dollar plus insurance payout, then published
- 16:08Speaker 10: a novel filled with jealousy, violence, and vengeance that she
- 16:11Speaker 10: claim paralleled her own life.
- 16:14Speaker 4: I said, this seems to me about you and Lorenzo.
- 16:17Speaker 4: Then she said it is, she said, she told me
- 16:19Speaker 4: ninety nine point nine percent of the book.
- 16:22Speaker 10: Is real, A history of violence.
- 16:24Speaker 5: Yeah.
- 16:25Speaker 4: It says she was beaten at times. You know, So
- 16:28Speaker 4: somebody who clearly has, you know, some issues perhaps of
- 16:33Speaker 4: you know, revenge and bitterness toward this basketball guy who
- 16:38Speaker 4: was Lorenzen.
- 16:40Speaker 10: If one reads between the lines, a motive for murder
- 16:43Speaker 10: may be gleaned from these pages, but in an interview
- 16:47Speaker 10: recorded at a local restaurant, Shira insisted she wasn't feeling
- 16:51Speaker 10: any heat.
- 16:52Speaker 13: They didn't have any real suspects, if you want to
- 16:55Speaker 13: quote f So you asked the police then, and they
- 16:59Speaker 13: just said that. They said that the list was long alive.
- 17:02Speaker 10: Enter Wendy Wilson, Lorenzen's longtime personal assistant, who witnessed Shira's
- 17:07Speaker 10: rage in the years leading up to the ballplayer's murder.
- 17:11Speaker 15: If she didn't get in touch with the Mills automatically,
- 17:13Speaker 15: you know, I think she began to be mistrustful, and
- 17:16Speaker 15: then from that to the anger and eventually to if
- 17:19Speaker 15: I ever caught him with anyone else, I'm gonna am up.
- 17:23Speaker 15: And she said a couple of times, I'll.
- 17:24Speaker 3: Kill them kel.
- 17:26Speaker 10: Wendy actually recorded Shira's threats, played them for Lorenzen, and
- 17:30Speaker 10: also gave a copy to police.
- 17:32Speaker 15: I just wanted to make certa that I documented a
- 17:34Speaker 15: distant case.
- 17:35Speaker 10: After Lorenzen's murder, Wendy reminded Memphis police of those rapidly
- 17:40Speaker 10: relevant threats, and neighbors even reported seeing Shira burning items
- 17:45Speaker 10: in the backyard of her home just after the murder.
- 17:49Speaker 10: It was a blistering July. There's no doubt Shira Wright's
- 17:53Speaker 10: status was now straddling the line between person of interest
- 17:57Speaker 10: and full blown suspect. Still too more years would pass
- 18:01Speaker 10: with no one in cuffs, and then it came a
- 18:06Speaker 10: break at the bottom of a lake. FBI divers searched
- 18:10Speaker 10: for five days in a row without tipping off neighbors.
- 18:15Speaker 5: We were told it was a diving training exercise.
- 18:18Speaker 10: The covert mission proved to be more than fruitful.
- 18:21Speaker 9: Authorities located the murder weapon in a lake near Walnut, Mississippi.
- 18:27Speaker 10: The gun was traced back to one Billy Ray Turner,
- 18:30Speaker 10: a man with an eye raising connection to Shira Wright,
- 18:34Speaker 10: with a deacon in her church where she was a minister.
- 18:37Speaker 10: He also had a landscaping business and mowed her lawn.
- 18:40Speaker 10: Were they intimate? Was there some affair?
- 18:42Speaker 4: I mean, it doesn't seem that far fetched to think
- 18:44Speaker 4: that that played into this.
- 18:46Speaker 10: Police won't say who tipped them off for how they
- 18:48Speaker 10: connected the gun to Turner, but it was enough to
- 18:51Speaker 10: move and move quickly. Surveillance tape from our Memphis affiliate
- 18:57Speaker 10: WMC shows the exact moment caught snab Turner at a
- 19:01Speaker 10: convenience store.
- 19:02Speaker 9: This morning, Shelby County grand jury indicted Billy R. Turner
- 19:06Speaker 9: for the premeditated first degree murder of Lorenzen Wright.
- 19:11Speaker 10: The alleged killer was met with the anguished screams of
- 19:14Speaker 10: Lorenzen Wright's mother in a Memphis court room.
- 19:17Speaker 1: How could you have murdered Matson?
- 19:19Speaker 5: I'm just said of pain this right? Will please be
- 19:22Speaker 5: respectful of the fort role.
- 19:24Speaker 10: And guess who's next to face the judge in the
- 19:28Speaker 10: wrath of a devastated parent. Shira Wright was arrested in Riverside, California,
- 19:33Speaker 10: where she made her first court appearance. She was confined
- 19:36Speaker 10: to a wheelchair for reasons unknown.
- 19:40Speaker 11: Just hands the way extradition to state of Tennessee.
- 19:43Speaker 10: Since Lorenzo's death, Shira Wright had married and divorced a
- 19:46Speaker 10: police officer and was now on her third husband, a
- 19:49Speaker 10: California record producer. I was seated right behind Shira Wright
- 19:54Speaker 10: as she was read the charges.
- 19:55Speaker 1: Was right, You've been indicted by a granduary chart in
- 19:58Speaker 1: a three count inditing.
- 19:59Speaker 8: Place evil, evil, evil, just the wicked witch of the South.
- 20:05Speaker 10: Note the criminal charges first degree murder, first agree murder
- 20:09Speaker 10: CARA is one conspiracy to commit first degree murder.
- 20:12Speaker 7: They carry anywhere from fifteen to sixty years in.
- 20:15Speaker 10: Prison, and interestingly, criminal attempt first agree murder the understand
- 20:20Speaker 10: he charged within his case Mouse, police believe Shira had
- 20:24Speaker 10: tried to kill her husband several times before and had
- 20:27Speaker 10: finally succeeded. Do you think police are thinking Shira and
- 20:32Speaker 10: Billy Turner both charge we're both gripping a gun and
- 20:35Speaker 10: shooting at him.
- 20:36Speaker 4: I think they place her at the scene in the indictment.
- 20:39Speaker 10: But keep in mind court documents refer to an unindicted
- 20:42Speaker 10: co conspirator.
- 20:43Speaker 12: Are you expecting charges against anyone else?
- 20:46Speaker 5: Can't comment on that.
- 20:47Speaker 10: Could that unindicted third party be the snitch? You can't
- 20:51Speaker 10: pry that answer out of cops right now.
- 20:53Speaker 9: I will say this now and probably several times. This
- 20:57Speaker 9: is a pending indictment. This is an ongoing investigation.
- 21:02Speaker 10: An investigation with a poignant name.
- 21:05Speaker 12: So Operation Rebound was what we thought was the perfect
- 21:08Speaker 12: title for this case, because in basketball, when you get
- 21:12Speaker 12: a rebound, that gives you a second chance, that gives
- 21:16Speaker 12: you another chance to score.
- 21:17Speaker 5: The basket, that gives you an oportunity to win.
- 21:19Speaker 7: The case of.
- 21:23Speaker 10: Both defendants maintain their innocent in a way. Trial behind
- 21:27Speaker 10: bars Lorenzo's childhood pal ponders the last seven years of
- 21:31Speaker 10: hurt and lost, seven long years of living with an
- 21:35Speaker 10: open wound, and it's still far from over. And what
- 21:40Speaker 10: does justice look like for you?
- 21:42Speaker 7: For me, he won't do anything because it can't bring
- 21:44Speaker 7: him back. You know, I lost my friend, so I'd
- 21:47Speaker 7: rather have him back than any of this.
- 21:51Speaker 1: If Shara is convicted, Wright's mother says she plans to
- 21:54Speaker 1: fight for custody of her son's children, four of them
- 21:57Speaker 1: are still under the age of eighteen. Coming up, a
- 22:02Speaker 1: young woman leaves the supermarket with a predator on our back,
- 22:06Speaker 1: abducted in her own car, texting her boyfriend terrifying clues
- 22:10Speaker 1: every step of the way.
- 22:12Speaker 5: She told me he had a knife. She was scared.
- 22:15Speaker 1: You were praying every sing Crime Watch daily with the
- 22:18Speaker 1: race against the clock to track down Jaila before it's
- 22:22Speaker 1: too late. Next, we're back here in New York City now,
- 22:28Speaker 1: and our next story today starts with a pretty typical
- 22:30Speaker 1: task for millions of Americans buying groceries. But what would
- 22:34Speaker 1: happen next is anything but typical. I'm Mirchel Sagonez here
- 22:38Speaker 1: now with the details.
- 22:39Speaker 8: Chris, just outside of Atlanta, Georgia, a twenty one year
- 22:42Speaker 8: old college student would leave a local grocery store and
- 22:45Speaker 8: unknowingly walk in two hours of pure terror. A one
- 22:51Speaker 8: word text message will strike absolute fear and so many.
- 22:55Speaker 2: What did the message say?
- 22:56Speaker 5: Kidnap?
- 22:57Speaker 8: That text followed by almost three hours of pure health.
- 23:02Speaker 5: Jayla at that moment had to believe that it was it.
- 23:06Speaker 4: But this was my worst nightmare.
- 23:09Speaker 8: That white dog called on surveillance cameras is Leah Williams's daughter,
- 23:13Speaker 8: twenty one year old Jila Gladden.
- 23:15Speaker 3: I mean, literally my worst nightmare.
- 23:17Speaker 8: Jela's being hunted by this dark figure on the screen.
- 23:21Speaker 8: He's got a knife in his hand and evil on
- 23:23Speaker 8: his mind.
- 23:24Speaker 3: I just thought I was never gonna see my daughter again.
- 23:31Speaker 3: I thought I was never gonna see my daughter again.
- 23:36Speaker 8: Jaylah Gladden grew up surrounded by strong Southern women, especially
- 23:40Speaker 8: her mother.
- 23:41Speaker 3: I did try to instill certain things in her to
- 23:45Speaker 3: help her through life, to the good time as well
- 23:49Speaker 3: as the bad time.
- 23:50Speaker 8: One of the things Leah taught her daughter was to
- 23:53Speaker 8: always watch her back. She even had Jaela watch television
- 23:57Speaker 8: shows that would help protect her.
- 23:58Speaker 3: When she was younger. I used to watch a lot
- 24:01Speaker 3: and order SVU all the time. She always might have
- 24:03Speaker 3: watched me.
- 24:04Speaker 8: Jalla may have had a love for crime shows, but
- 24:07Speaker 8: her true passion was helping people, so she decided to
- 24:10Speaker 8: make that her career, studying to become an occupational therapist
- 24:14Speaker 8: at the University of West Georgia. It's there she meets
- 24:17Speaker 8: the love of her young life.
- 24:19Speaker 2: You are the boyfriend, yes, ma'am, described Jayla for me bubbly.
- 24:26Speaker 8: For two years, Tamir Bryant tells me he and Jayla
- 24:29Speaker 8: were inseparable. They even lived right across the street from
- 24:32Speaker 8: each other in student housing.
- 24:34Speaker 11: She's completely different from anybody I've ever met, and that's
- 24:37Speaker 11: why I love it so much.
- 24:40Speaker 8: On the night of September fifth, Tamir's heart would jump
- 24:43Speaker 8: from his chest to his throat.
- 24:46Speaker 5: No one she had to go through all what she
- 24:47Speaker 5: had to go through.
- 24:49Speaker 8: Jela's nightmare starts around ten pm. Jaela tells Timir she
- 24:53Speaker 8: thinks she's getting a cold and needs to go to
- 24:56Speaker 8: the store right down the street.
- 24:58Speaker 2: Had you ever worried about her going there before? No, ma'am,
- 25:01Speaker 2: you're waiting for her to come back, yes, ma'am.
- 25:04Speaker 15: Well.
- 25:04Speaker 8: While he waits, Tamir dozes off he wakes up to
- 25:08Speaker 8: a bizarre buzz from a message on his cellphone.
- 25:11Speaker 2: What did the message say?
- 25:13Speaker 5: They only said shared location.
- 25:16Speaker 8: Shared location is a feature on smartphones where you can
- 25:19Speaker 8: send someone your precise location. But Tamir is baffled by
- 25:24Speaker 8: the alert because Jayla had never shared her location before.
- 25:28Speaker 5: So I clicked on that and I saw how far
- 25:30Speaker 5: she was.
- 25:32Speaker 8: Now he's panicked. Jayla went to a Kroger just a
- 25:35Speaker 8: few miles away. The location shows she's about fifty miles
- 25:40Speaker 8: away from Carrollton and heading towards Atlanta.
- 25:43Speaker 5: That's when I responded, you know, where are you? Why
- 25:46Speaker 5: are you there?
- 25:47Speaker 8: But Tamir was not expecting Jailah's answer.
- 25:50Speaker 5: She responded, kidnapped. I was, you know, in shock.
- 25:55Speaker 8: At first he thought Jaela was kidding.
- 25:57Speaker 5: I told her, you know, stop playing right now.
- 26:00Speaker 8: Till Jilla sends this powerful response in God.
- 26:05Speaker 2: And you took it seriously.
- 26:06Speaker 5: Of course, she would never play like that.
- 26:08Speaker 2: So what do you do?
- 26:10Speaker 11: I jump out of bed, I run start yelling, screaming.
- 26:14Speaker 11: I bang on her roommates doors, tell them you know,
- 26:17Speaker 11: Jayla's gone.
- 26:18Speaker 5: Jayla's been taken.
- 26:19Speaker 2: You are not playing around.
- 26:20Speaker 8: No, ma'am, Jamir takes off for the Carrollton Police Department.
- 26:25Speaker 2: How fast did you drive to the police station.
- 26:27Speaker 11: It's about a five minute drive from where we stay.
- 26:29Speaker 11: I made it in two minutes.
- 26:31Speaker 2: What happens next?
- 26:32Speaker 11: I was greeted by a detective and he asked to
- 26:34Speaker 11: see her location on my phone.
- 26:36Speaker 8: Tamir hits the refresh bucket and his heart sinks. Jayla
- 26:40Speaker 8: is even farther away and still moving in the wrong direction.
- 26:45Speaker 11: When she told me kidnapped, you know, all the little
- 26:48Speaker 11: memories start playing in my head. I'm I'm not sure
- 26:53Speaker 11: what's gonna happen now.
- 26:55Speaker 8: Cops are using electronic breadcrumbs to track Jila, asking to
- 27:00Speaker 8: to keep texting her for clues.
- 27:02Speaker 2: How many texts would you say you received from Jala?
- 27:05Speaker 5: Roughly about seven eight?
- 27:07Speaker 2: And what does she say specifically in her messages?
- 27:11Speaker 11: She's given one word answers, but I'm getting a lot
- 27:14Speaker 11: of information, you know, through those texts.
- 27:17Speaker 5: She was in her car, which is also a big hill.
- 27:21Speaker 8: Then the text turned to absolute terror.
- 27:24Speaker 5: She told me he had a knife.
- 27:27Speaker 11: She was scared he would harm her if he saw
- 27:31Speaker 11: blue lights.
- 27:33Speaker 2: I'd have to be a tough message for you to read. Goodridge,
- 27:36Speaker 2: you were praying.
- 27:38Speaker 5: Every second.
- 27:41Speaker 8: Up next well, Tamir's prayers be answered. He texts, Jala,
- 27:45Speaker 8: We've got help coming. Jala answers, don't let me die.
- 27:50Speaker 8: It's her final text of heartbreaking.
- 27:53Speaker 3: I can't even mask him what she was feeling at
- 27:55Speaker 3: that moment.
- 27:58Speaker 1: A young college student has just been kidnapped while out
- 28:01Speaker 1: running errand Our Michelle Sagona picks up the.
- 28:04Speaker 5: Story from there, Chris.
- 28:05Speaker 8: Jayla Gladden didn't know how much time she had left,
- 28:08Speaker 8: held hostage by a man with a knife who abducted
- 28:12Speaker 8: her from a grocery store. Police and Carrolton, Georgia, are
- 28:18Speaker 8: desperately searching for twenty one year old Jaala Gladden. This
- 28:21Speaker 8: is the very last time she was seen in this
- 28:24Speaker 8: grainy surveillance video in a Kroger parking lot. That's Jayla
- 28:28Speaker 8: in the white shirt with a monster in dark clothing
- 28:32Speaker 8: quickly closing in on her. The next time anybody hears
- 28:36Speaker 8: from Jayla, she's on the move, taken against her will.
- 28:40Speaker 5: She was moving towards Atlanta.
- 28:42Speaker 8: Atlanta is fifty miles away, and Jayla is dropping electronic
- 28:46Speaker 8: breadcrumbs to her boyfriend, to me or Bryant, and a
- 28:49Speaker 8: trail of terrifying text messages.
- 28:52Speaker 2: Did one of the messages say she didn't want him
- 28:54Speaker 2: to kill her?
- 28:55Speaker 5: Yes, ma'am.
- 28:57Speaker 8: Then Jaela sends this, Mike put me in drunk.
- 29:01Speaker 5: That was very hard for me to see.
- 29:04Speaker 2: Every minute is of the essence, Every second.
- 29:06Speaker 5: Is of the essence.
- 29:08Speaker 8: The Carrollton cops alert Atlanti PD to be on the
- 29:10Speaker 8: lookout for Jala's car. Then suddenly Jala text stop and
- 29:15Speaker 8: panic sets in. They realized Jala's in the hands of
- 29:19Speaker 8: a true monster.
- 29:21Speaker 2: What do you know about the suspect, Well, you had
- 29:23Speaker 2: a guy who had been in and out of jail
- 29:27Speaker 2: for the better part of his life.
- 29:29Speaker 6: He was twenty eight and had been in and out
- 29:31Speaker 6: of the system since he was thirteen.
- 29:34Speaker 8: Attorney Rod Dixon says the man who took Jala is
- 29:37Speaker 8: Timothy Wilson, a predator of the most dangerous kind. Wilson
- 29:41Speaker 8: had recently been released from prison and was looking for
- 29:44Speaker 8: a car and a meal ticket to get to Michigan.
- 29:49Speaker 8: He was also hungry for sex.
- 29:51Speaker 6: He stood in front of the Kroger and, according to
- 29:55Speaker 6: the police report, waited there for an extended period of
- 29:59Speaker 6: time before picking out his victim.
- 30:01Speaker 5: That's just a setup for the worst.
- 30:04Speaker 8: It's now been nearly two hours since anyone's heard from Jayla.
- 30:08Speaker 3: My heart hurts so much for her because I can't
- 30:11Speaker 3: believe this, being in the car with a strange man,
- 30:14Speaker 3: and then, you know, faith for your life.
- 30:17Speaker 8: Jailah's mom is praying her brilliant daughter will be able
- 30:21Speaker 8: to outsmart the man who grabbed her and do whatever
- 30:24Speaker 8: it takes to stay alive.
- 30:27Speaker 2: Normally, these victims who are taken, they don't make it
- 30:31Speaker 2: out alive.
- 30:32Speaker 3: My mind was all over the place, and I just, honestly,
- 30:37Speaker 3: I mean, how can a mother not think the worst?
- 30:39Speaker 8: Tonight those prayers will be answered. Cops track down the
- 30:43Speaker 8: location pings on Jaylah's cell phone. It leads them straight
- 30:46Speaker 8: to her car.
- 30:47Speaker 11: I still remember seeing her name pop up facetimed.
- 30:52Speaker 5: Hit you know, except it's Jayla.
- 30:57Speaker 11: She's crying running down the street, but I see, you know,
- 31:02Speaker 11: flashing red and blue lights behind her.
- 31:04Speaker 8: Jaella is safe, but the man who took her is
- 31:07Speaker 8: still on the loose. Timir doesn't care as long as
- 31:10Speaker 8: the love of his life is still alive.
- 31:12Speaker 10: I know she was okay, okay.
- 31:15Speaker 8: But damaged, and the road to recovery will be a
- 31:18Speaker 8: long and difficult one.
- 31:20Speaker 2: What do you tell yourself every day? I survived the
- 31:24Speaker 2: strong statement, I survived, very proud.
- 31:28Speaker 5: Of it, very very proud of it.
- 31:31Speaker 8: And now Jalla is sitting down with Crime Watch Daily
- 31:35Speaker 8: to tell her incredible story of courage surviving absolute torture.
- 31:40Speaker 8: She was kidnapped at knife point, stuffed in the trunk
- 31:43Speaker 8: of her car, then raped and sodomized in of all places,
- 31:47Speaker 8: the parking lot of a church.
- 31:51Speaker 2: Was there anyone in the PARKU mont at all?
- 31:53Speaker 14: Love him?
- 31:54Speaker 2: And you couldn't even scream?
- 31:58Speaker 14: He made his duty to make sure I saw his knife.
- 32:03Speaker 2: Tell me what happens next.
- 32:06Speaker 14: He told me to take my clothes off, and then
- 32:10Speaker 14: I started to try to plead with him and ask
- 32:13Speaker 14: him not to and he told me that there was
- 32:15Speaker 14: no purpose of crime. So I didn't and that's where
- 32:21Speaker 14: I was assaulted.
- 32:24Speaker 8: But the twisted X con wasn't done. He took Jill
- 32:27Speaker 8: around the back of the church to a playground, where
- 32:29Speaker 8: the terror continued.
- 32:31Speaker 14: We're sitting on a bench and it's a two tiered
- 32:34Speaker 14: bench and I'm on the lower level and he's right
- 32:38Speaker 14: behind me with his arm around me.
- 32:40Speaker 2: What did he say?
- 32:41Speaker 14: He told me that it was just easier to get
- 32:43Speaker 14: rid of my body the playground.
- 32:45Speaker 2: That had to be one of the most fearful moments
- 32:47Speaker 2: of this ordeal, not knowing what's going to happen next.
- 32:51Speaker 14: I thought about literally everything everybody I could possibly think
- 32:57Speaker 14: of that I've meant and and has impacted my life, because.
- 33:04Speaker 5: I didn't know if that was gonna be where I died.
- 33:13Speaker 8: Jayla says it was at that moment she decided to
- 33:15Speaker 8: fight back, not with her fist, but with her brain.
- 33:19Speaker 8: She heard her mom's voice telling her to look at
- 33:22Speaker 8: her surroundings, and then all those episodes of Law and
- 33:25Speaker 8: Order flashed before her eyes.
- 33:28Speaker 2: Are you studying him?
- 33:29Speaker 5: Definitely?
- 33:30Speaker 14: Definitely. If it's anything I learned watching the crime shows
- 33:34Speaker 14: that I watch, it's watch how a person is, because
- 33:38Speaker 14: that determines what I do next.
- 33:41Speaker 8: What Jaila does next is truly remarkable. She tells the
- 33:45Speaker 8: man who had just violated her in the most unspeakable way,
- 33:49Speaker 8: she wants to help him get to Michigan, and.
- 33:51Speaker 14: I told him I couldn't get him where he needed
- 33:54Speaker 14: to be unless he gave me my phone.
- 33:56Speaker 8: Wilson made the mistake of telling Jayla he spent years
- 33:59Speaker 8: in PRIs and just got out Because of his time
- 34:02Speaker 8: behind bars, Jayala suspected he wouldn't be very tech savvy.
- 34:07Speaker 14: I'm sure that he knew that I didn't know where
- 34:11Speaker 14: I was, but I'm also sure that he wasn't as
- 34:14Speaker 14: educated about technology as I was.
- 34:17Speaker 8: So she pretended to use her phone as his roadmap
- 34:20Speaker 8: to escape to Michigan. Instead, she hit her share a
- 34:23Speaker 8: location button and directed her boyfriend Timir and cops right
- 34:27Speaker 8: to them.
- 34:27Speaker 2: You outsmarted this man, and you saved your own life. Really,
- 34:32Speaker 2: you and Tamyr together. He thought he was going to
- 34:35Speaker 2: get away with it, but you knew help was on
- 34:39Speaker 2: the way.
- 34:40Speaker 8: Yes, as cops closed in, Wilson slipped away under the
- 34:45Speaker 8: cover of darkness. Timothy Wilson's found the next day sleeping
- 34:49Speaker 8: on a park bench. He's arrested and charged with kidnapping, rape, sodomy,
- 34:53Speaker 8: and aggravated assault and assaulting an officer. He is pleaded
- 34:58Speaker 8: not guilty.
- 35:01Speaker 14: The thought of him pleading not guilty is absolutely insane
- 35:09Speaker 14: to me, so I'm just ready to.
- 35:15Speaker 2: Give him his sentence.
- 35:17Speaker 8: Wilson could be sentenced to life if convicted on all charges.
- 35:21Speaker 8: But this is not a story about a thug with
- 35:23Speaker 8: a long rap sheet. It's a tale of a survivor
- 35:26Speaker 8: who inspires us all with her undeniable courage.
- 35:31Speaker 14: I've been told that I'm very brave for sharing my
- 35:34Speaker 14: story and courageous, and this support.
- 35:43Speaker 15: Means more than people know
- 35:45Speaker 2: They're inspiring