The children remain fiercely loyal to their mother and their father. Neither Turner nor Sherra Wright testified during the trial. This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. He has been through the wringer himself, nearly tossing away his career before it started. Prosecutor Austin Scofield said Sherra Wright told Turner during a meeting at her house that Lorenzen Wright had a hit out on her. He knows it was one of the twins. They stand there for a moment, two strangers hugging in the rain outside a storage unit in Memphis. ". That. If Billy got seven years, Id be like, OK, she said (Billys trial date is scheduled for later this year). I dont know why.. She is said to be an author and hails from Memphis, Tennessee, USA. He has black hair and black eyes. Bound to a wheelchair and unable to fully function, Herb couldnt coach his son anymore, but he still remained a motivational and encouraging figure in his life. In 2015 while the coach at Butler Community College in Kansas, Barone was arrested for DUI. I think thats how I thought I should feel.. Herb fought with Sherra to get control of his sons estate. Their unique and loving bond has been forged through countless hours of toil. The twins, as well as Snoop, prefer not to delve into details, but they allude to suspicions involving the Memphis authorities and insist there is more to the story than people know. He relocated to Memphis and finished his senior year at Booker T. Washington High School. After being selected seventh overall by the Los Angeles Clippers in the 1996 NBA Draft out of the University of Memphis, Wright moved on to the Atlanta Hawks in 1999. Brian Barone didnt recruit Shamar and Lamar Wright because he felt some cosmic connection. The couple's next oldest child, Loren Wright, said at her mother's. I think that was one of the hardest parts in the beginning. At a recent practice, Lamar laid into Shamar for not hustling on a drill. Later his body was found having been shot to death. He is currently being held on $1 million bond. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. On November 9, 2017, the gun believed to have been used to murder Wright was found in a Walnut, Mississippi lake. Sherra's attornies did not allow her to respond. He doesnt remember much of the day, snippets mostly. Tell Me Anything, about a character named Sharon Roberson, a mother of six married to an NBA player. Prosecutor Paul Hagerman defended Martins testimony, saying Martins immunity agreement required him to tell the truth and statements given to investigators and prosecutors have been consistent. He was a star player for the University of Memphis. Olive No.1 Missionary Baptist Church in Collierville, TN was indicted on first-degree murder charges and held on $1 million bonds. In July 2019, his ex-wife, Sherra. Lamar is playing 8.6 minutes per game as a freshman. If you use a windshield cover, you can at least forget about scrapping the ice off your windshield to save some time and hassle. You have to be able to deal with that. His name is Brian too. After his mother was arrested and his basketball season over, Snoop left Tennessee-Martin (he was a grad transfer, having already finished his degree at Robert Morris a year earlier) and returned to California. ", "I let him know," Herb says, "that, `Hey, this can happen to you. Hes in his 40s, wearing a pair of baggy shorts and a worn red T-shirt. ", He continued, If it happens again I'm going to have to bar you from the court room and I don't want to do that to you. Wait, is that our dad?. She went by Sherra Robinson (now Sherra Wright . By. Barone hauls the picture, along with some other of his parents things, home to his garage and on Monday, brings the picture to his SIU Edwardsville office. Snoop flipped the channel to a news station. Sherra countersued, the whole affair growing so ugly that the boys now have no contact with their paternal grandparents. He slipped the boys lunch money, schooled them on the basketball court the way he figured his father would have, and he educated them on how to live as the focal point in a story they didnt write. On Dec. 15, 2017, seven years after their fathers death, the boys were returning home with Sherra from one of their games, arguing over where to stop for takeout food. Sherra Wright also pleaded guilty to facilitation of a . The fact, the way they found out, she said. When you're young, you know, you want to do all the things other kids are doing. Those are Rens kids. That was the entirety of the conversation. The father and son wouldn't see each other again for four months, wouldn't face each other again until the father drove to Oxford in a specially equipped van to bring his son home for the Christmas holidays. His father was a professional basketball player who competed in Finland and once had a tryout with the Utah Jazz. #LorenzenWright's mother Deborah Marion says she will actively work to extend #SherraWright's prison stay. Former NBA player Lorenzen Wright was found in Mississippi dead of multiple gunshot wounds back in 2010 after being reported missing days before in Tennessee. ", In response, Marion said, "I want to apologize, but if anybody had a son that was murdered they'd feel me.". So if I make it there, I think that would top everything. He and his father still review and critique game tapes together. He was born to a father named Herb and a mother named Deborah Marion. They said, Get out of the car! Cashing in on the insurance policy served as the motive. ", Skip Myslenski and Tribune College Basketball Writer. This is just some satisfaction for me and my family.'. Sherra is famous for being the ex-wife and mother of six to Lorenzen Wright, who died on July 19, 2010. I could feel it. The twins combined for 65 points in a win against Summit High School that night, with Lamar scoring a then-school record 38 point, breaking the mark at the free-throw line. Martin was convicted and is currently serving prison time in that case. I know it's been seven long years for you. "He taught me things, and he'd say, `One day, if you make it in the NBA, you're going to have a bunch of free time, and this way you won't have to go out and do something crazy. But by 2010, the Wrights' were divorced, Lorenzen Wright's NBA career was over and he was living in Atlanta. A lot of people get publicity but can choose not to have it, Snoop says. The 34-year-old father of six had been missing for days before his body was discovered. From what we can tell, Deborah Marion still resides in Memphis, Tennessee, and currently works as a Night Porter at Fresh Start. He rejoined the Hawks in 2006. I made him understand it was not going to be easy, and he accepted that.". Lorenzen coaxed the boys to hop in one of the tubs of water but said not to test the temperature first. He was 34 years old. He was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies in 2001 but returned to the Hawks in 2006. Tony Barone didnt take over as interim coach until the following season. If you think, you'll never go wrong.". Then they would go to the rec center where his father worked and where Lorenzen started learning the rudiments of the game. Wright-Robinson pleaded guilty to facilitation of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Lorenzen Wright and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. (573) 592-7880 (520) 780-4222 (520) 792-0911 AKA: Alias, Nicknames, alternate spellings, married and/or maiden names for Myrtle Farrington in Fulton, MO. Long before the small world of basketball brought them all together on a sprawling campus just across the Mississippi from St. Louis, Barone remembers Shamar and Lamar racing around the Grizzlies family room, pin-balling toddlers filled with energy. Image Credit: Brad Vest / The Commercial Appeal. (The faces are partially obscured, some cut off at the cheekbone.) Actually, I would've been better with 50. Turner is serving a 16-year prison sentence on the separate gun charge. But pushed by his father to hone that dominance, Lorenzen escaped the citys pitfalls. Brian and Lamar did find a team picture that included both of their fathers, both saving a copy for themselves. Billy R. Turner, a Shelby County landscaper and church deacon at Mt. All of them were then under the age of 15 when they learned their father wasnt coming home. Martin said he told detectives in 2012 where the gun was located. Wright, 34, had been missing for 10 days before his body was discovered. He has played every game and started the last four, and is averaging 3.8 points and 2.7 boards per game. It was like, Wow. According to Martin, she said that she and Turner ambushed and chased Lorenzen Wright, who jumped a fence and tried to run away before they shot him in the field. By pleading guilty to facilitation to commit first-degree murder, she will be eligible for parole in January 2024, according to the Tennessee Department of Corrections. Barone calls the boys, catching them on their way to the apartment, telling them to come by. He helped persuade Larry Finch to stay home and play for Memphis State amid the racial unrest following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and has since shepherded countless kids through the citys basketball tangle. I kept thinking about my mom all the time and just about what I did. He tries to explain his circumstance, but the person who answers says they dont do that sort of thing. Thats what it was about. He played for the Memphis Tigers in college and the Memphis Grizzlies during his 13 seasons as a forward and center in the NBA. I want my older brother and sister to be proud of me. They would come back that night with guns and bad intentions. Lamars time off the bench has been limited, with just 8.6 minutes per game. She called up until week before last every week, three or four times., Related: Lorenzen Wrights mother faces eviction. After the emotional outburst the Wright family left the courthouse without speaking to reporters, ABC affiliate WATN reports. ABCs 20/20: Mystery in Memphis takes an in-depth look at the homicide case of Lorenzen Wright, the professional athlete who played in thirteen NBA seasons in his career. Police determined he was shot in the early hours of July 19. Communication isnt contrived or forced. He was of American nationality. I walked up and I remember, I almost started crying, he says. His wife Sherra, the daughter of one of his youth coaches, accompanied Lorenzen on his road to stardom. January 25, 2018 / 3:40 PM / CBS/AP. The twins are Lamar and Shamar Wright, the middle children of Lorenzen Wright, a former Memphis star and NBA player who was murdered in 2010. Sherra Wright received $1m from her ex-husbands life insurance policy and settled a court dispute in 2014 over how she spent the insurance money meant to benefit their six children. On July 22, his family filed a missing person report. Coffee called Marion to the front of the court room shortly after the outburst and admonished her for the outburst. He died on July 19, 2010 in Memphis, Tennessee. Born on November 4, 1975, in Oxford, Mississippi, Lorenzen Wright is the son of Herbert Wright Jr. and Deborah Marion. playing in 778 NBA games over 13 seasons. She had been trying to reach her son through calls and texts but got no response. Judge Lee Coffee sentenced Turner, 51, to life in prison for the murder conviction. They want to be coached and willingly give it to one another if no one else is interested. The other Brian reaches out and wraps him in his arms. In first grade, Sherra and Lorenzen tried to give the boys some independence from one another, putting them in separate classrooms at the Harding Academy. All that, of course, made us curious to know more about Lorenzens parents and where they are now. I dont know, he says. Now the son is a 6-foot-11-inch star and the father is the women's basketball coach at Shelby State Community College, the school for which he played when he was a 6-6 forward and the nation's best junior college rebounder. Daughter Loren followed two years later. The picture sits just inside the door, the back facing out. He has received immunity from prosecution in the Wright case. The slaying is one of the most highly publicized murder cases in Memphis history. Lorenzen Wrights ex-wife Sherra Wright Robinson was also arrested on charges related to Wrights death. On July 25, 2019, she pleaded guilty to first-degree murder facilitation in the shooting death of Lorenzen Wright. (Featured Image Credit: Brad Vest / The Commercial Appeal). Please be respectful of the courtroom and be respectful of the administration of justice. "Not so much about basketball, but about being a man," Lorenzen says. Lorenzen Vern-Gagne Wright is his given name. "But it'll make me feel a whole lot better to go to the NBA. Lorenzen Wright was a second-team all-American power forward from the University of Memphis who went on to play 13 seasons in the NBA for various teams. Lorenzen was just 10, but already he was emulating his father, a former junior college star who was playing in Finland and dreaming of the NBA. ), Lamar and Shamar, just 10 at the time, were watching television SpongeBob SquarePants, as they recall when Snoop came into the room, asking for the remote control. Around midnight, a 911 dispatcher received a call from a man screaming, gunshot noises sounding in the background. 1 Missionary Baptist Church in Collierville, TN, was indicted in December 2017 on first-degree murder charges. The authorities said that A gun that was allegedly used in the killing was found in the lake weeks before charges were filed in the case. I get pulled over, theres a car and another car, and another car, and then an undercover car, Sherra says in a telephone call from prison, arranged by Snoop. On July 28, his body was discovered shot to death in a wooded area on Callis Cutoff Road, just west of Hacks Cross Road. Ex-wife of Lorenzen Wright pleads guilty in killing of former NBA star, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. He went to the University of Memphis after graduating from high school. I did all of this., Shamar earned his leagues MVP honors, as well as first-team All-California Interscholastic Federation. They have a symbiotic union. MEMPHIS, Tenn. Wednesday marked the second day of testimony in the trial of Billy Ray Turner for the murder of Memphis Grizzlies player Lorenzen Wright. He was drafted 7th overall in the 1996 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Clippers. Sorry, you have Javascript Disabled! His mother is named Deborah Marion. Donyes explained that Lamar remained unsigned, and although Shamar was committed to UNC Greensboro, Barone could sign both players if he was interested. he would ask his son on these occasions. Lorenzen Wright's rise to fame, and his relationship with Sherra, are expertly detailed in Wertheim's feature story. There were reports of Lorenzens tenuous connections to a known drug kingpin, speculation that his murder was gang-related or a retaliative hit for debts unpaid. Maybe a Buick. The older kids are eligible to claim their part of their fathers estate. Due to the fact, if it werent for Sherra, I wouldnt know Billy. His birth sign is Scorpio. In the 1996 NBA Draft, he was chosen seventh overall by the Los Angeles Clippers. The boys look a little more closely at the picture. They are far more individualistic these days, with separate friend groups and different looks. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. But Herb did not stop there, he knew clearly that both dreams and basketball careers were fragile, and so Lorenzen still shoveled gravel and poured concrete, still built fences and fixed up old cars. On Thursday, his phone pings with a text from his brother. 1998 - 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. Members of the Memphis Grizzlies surround him. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Lorenzen Vern-Gagne Wright was an American professional basketball player. Before his father died, he made multiple trips to Chicago, sitting alongside his dad as his health deteriorated. Coffee called Wright a sacred son of Memphis and told his mother, Deborah Marion, that the trial might not bring her closure but would celebrate the good about her son. after receiving a 30-year prison sentence in 2019 in connection with the hoopers murder. On February 16, 2008, he was involved in a multi-player trade, going from Atlanta to Sacramento for Mike Bibby. Turner made his first court appearance in front of Shelby County Judge Lee Coffee on Thursday, when Marion, overcome with emotion, yelled at Turner as he entered the courtroom. Each day, theyd race home, drop their backpacks inside and go at one another on the driveway. Mother of #LorenzenWright, Deborah Marion. 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