Lorenzen Wright’s ex-wife Sherra Wright-Robinson was arrested and charged with his murder 7 years after his decomposed body was found in a field near Memphis, Tennessee.
On Friday, Wright-Robinson, 46, was arrested on 3 counts including 1st-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Wright-Robinson is the mother of Wright’s six children. A seventh child, daughter Sierra, died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
Wright-Robinson was arrested by U.S. Marshals on a fugitive from justice warrant nearly two weeks after Billy Ray Turner, 46, was taken into custody and charged in Wright’s murder.
She was booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside at 9:28 p.m. Pacific time, according to Fox13. She is being held without bail.
Wright-Robinson was the last person to see Wright alive on the night of July 18, 2010. She told police she saw Wright leave her home with cash and a box of drugs. She said she overheard him on his cell phone telling someone that he was going to “flip something for $110,000.”
His body was discovered on July 28, 2010 in a field near Hacks Cross and Winchester.
The 34-year-old former Atlanta Hawks star was shot multiple times in the head, chest and right forearm.
Wright’s mother, Deborah Marion, and his fans suspected all along that his ex-wife was somehow involved in his murder.
Marion believes Wright-Robinson and Turner conspired to murder Wright so she could cash out his $1 million insurance policy.
Wright-Robinson was a member of the same Collierville-area church where Turner was a deacon, and he was often seen doing yard work at her house. It isn’t clear if they were in a relationship.
“I think we’re confident that they knew each other so we’re going to leave it at that for right now,” said Memphis Police Director Michael Rallings at a news conference on Saturday.
According to the indictment, Wright-Robinson and Turner are also charged with conspiring to kill Wright at his home outside Atlanta sometime between April 2010 and July 2010.
Wright was in Memphis visiting his children at the time of his murder.
Shortly after midnight on July 19, 2010, a 911 dispatcher in suburban Germantown received a call from Wright’s cell phone. She heard silence then cursing followed by 9 gunshots before the call dropped.
The dispatcher said she could not pinpoint the location of the call and she didn’t know whether the caller was in her jurisdiction. Police never responded to the call and she didn’t notify the Memphis Police Department about the 911 call.
Wright’s mother reported him missing on July 22, 2010.
His bullet-riddled body was found in a swampy field near a golf course at Hacks Cross Road and Callis Cutoff Road six days later.
After nearly 10 days of searing summer heat, he was so badly decomposed that his remains weighed just 57 pounds. His playing weight was 255 lbs.
A break in the case came on Nov. 9 of this year, when police recovered the alleged murder weapon in a lake near Walnut, Mississippi.
The gun was linked to Turner, who was arrested on December 5. He is being held without bail.
The indictment charges Wright-Robinson and Turner with driving to Hacks Cross Road near Memphis to kill Wright.
Investigators found shell casings from 2 different caliber weapons at the crime scene. The indictment charged Wright-Robinson and Turner with attempting to “unlawfully, intentionally and with premeditation, kill Lorenzen Wright.” The two allegedly “acquired firearms to commit the act.”
A 3rd suspect, described as an “unindicted co-conspirator”, is also mentioned in the indictment.
“If you’re involved in this case, I would encourage you to come forward now before we come get you,” Rallings said on Saturday.
“My baby can lay down now,” Wright’s mother told the Commercial Appeal late Friday after hearing Wright-Robinson would face the same murder charges as Turner.
“Thank you Jesus! Thank you Jesus! They got her! They got her!’ They need to bury her,” she said.
