Ex-wife of slain NBA player agrees to face Tennessee charges
FILE – In this Sept. 29, 2008, file photo, Cleveland Cavaliers’ Lorenzen Wright poses at the team’s NBA basketball media day in Independence, Ohio. The ex-wife of former NBA player Lorenzen Wright will not fight authorities’ attempt to send her from California to Tennessee, where she’s charged with killing him nearly eight years ago. The Desert Sun newspaper reports that Sherra Wright briefly appeared in Riverside County Superior Court on Monday, Jan. 8, 2018, agreed to go back to Tennessee to face first-degree murder charges.(AP Photo/Mark Duncan, file)
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The ex-wife of former NBA player Lorenzen Wright will not fight authorities’ attempt to send her from California to Tennessee, where she’s charged with killing him nearly eight years ago.
Sherra Wright briefly appeared in Riverside County Superior Court on Monday and agreed to go back to Tennessee to face first-degree murder charges, the Desert Sun newspaper reported.
Authorities now have 30 days to bring her to Memphis, where Lorenzen Wright’s decomposing body was found in 2010. The 34-year-old had been shot multiple times.
He played for 13 seasons as a forward and center in the NBA, including several for the Grizzlies in Memphis, where he was born and raised.
Sherra Wright was arrested in December. Her attorney, Eric Keen, would not say Monday why she decided to waive extradition after previously vowing to fight it. Keen said lawyers in Tennessee will now take over the case.
Superior Court Judge David Gunn asked Sherra Wright several questions to make sure she understood she would be extradited. Each time, she said, “Yes.”
A man, who Keen identified as Sherra Wright’s husband, attended the hearing, the newspaper reported. He did not speak to reporters.
A December statement from the Shelby County district attorney’s office in Tennessee said Sherra Wright and a landscaper named Billy R. Turner conspired to kill Lorenzen Wright.
Turner was arrested last month after a gun used in the killing was discovered in a lake in Mississippi. He also has been charged with first-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty.
Sherra Wright received $1 million from her ex-husband’s life insurance policy. She agreed to a settlement in 2014 in a court dispute over how she spent the money meant to benefit their six children, the Commercial Appeal newspaper in Memphis has reported.
