Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / VERDICT WATCH: Basketball star Lorenzen Wright murdered by 'GOLD DIGGER?'

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VERDICT WATCH: Basketball star Lorenzen Wright murdered by 'GOLD DIGGER?' · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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