MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Billy Ray Turner, one of the defendants in the Lorezen Wright murder case, was briefly in a Shelby County courtroom on Monday for a hearing.
Attorneys for Turner said they are still going through all of the new evidence that was just recently handed over to them by the state in late August. That information, which includes video discs, is reportedly related to other people in the case.
A defense attorney said the prosecutor’s office told him it was a mistake.
Prosecutor Paul Hagerman says his office discovered the information in the last two weeks.
“The state is under a continual obligation if they get information in the case to turn it over to defense attorneys, and that’s what we did,” he said.
“I take Paul at his word that it was an oversight that it wasn’t turned over,” defense attorney John Perry said.
Turner’s murder trial was originally scheduled to begin Monday, September 16, but was delayed due to this new evidence. On Monday, the judge set the next hearing for October 31 and said they will set a new trial date then.
Turner’s co-defendant Sherra Wright was sentenced in July to 30 years in prison for facilitating the murder of her ex-husband Lorenzen Wright.
