MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Billy Ray Turner is currently serving a life sentence at a Middle Tennessee prison for murdering former NBA star Lorenzen Wright.
But he’s hoping to get a new trial on appeal.
In a hand-written letter to WREG dated Dec. 5, 2022, Turner wrote, “It has been five years to this date” that he’s been incarcerated, and “it’s time for me to come home.”
Much of the time Turner has spent behind bars has been focused on getting out. He says he’s spent the time “just continuing to draw myself close to God, continue to fight this case within myself.”
“If you seen the evidence that they presented, it doesn’t say that I did anything,” Turner said.
His direct appeal consists of “what the judge did wrong,” he said. According to Turner’s appeal, one of the things the court got wrong was “refusing to allow the defense to present a recorded conversation.”
That conversation was between Sherra Wright — Lorenzen’s ex-wife, who’s also the woman convicted of conspiring the murder plot Turner carried out — and Sherra’s cousin, Claudia Robinson. Robinson got immunity in exchange for her testimony.
Turner says he remembers calling Sherra, per their request. He doesn’t remember the details of that conversation but says if he heard it, it would probably jog his memory.
The recordings are just one of five issues Turner’s side wants the Court of Appeals to review. Two others are related to objections, another questions whether the trial should have even taken place in Shelby County court, and finally, whether the evidence presented was enough for a conviction.
“You know, like I say, it’s just a lot of stuff that was mentioned that was in my discovery, that was in the transcript, that it never was brought out or had light shed upon it,” Turner said.
The State of Tennessee refutes each of the claims, saying the court got it right and its “judgment should be affirmed.”
WREG contacted both sides, but we haven’t heard back.
Turner’s current attorney, Shea Atkinson, recently filed a motion with the court of appeals to withdraw from the case because he’s relocating to Knoxville, but the court denied the request.
Turner’s former attorney, John Keith Perry, began laying the groundwork for an appeal shortly after Turner’s conviction when he filed a motion for a new trial. It was denied.
But he’d already told WREG he hoped Billy would get a shot at a new trial.
“If the court of appeals reviews it and says we’re entitled to a next time, you know there are a lot of things that could happen differently, I believe,” he said.
It’s the main reason Billy Ray Turner says he reached out to us — to share his story, which he adamantly claims is much different from what the jury heard.
We also thought it was important to ask him what may seem obvious for a man serving a life sentence: Why should anyone believe you?
Zaneta Lowe: “Someone might hear that and say he’s already doing time on the gun that was found at his home. A separate case that you pleaded to. And now he’s been convicted of the murder of Lorenzen Wright. Of course, he’ll say he didn’t do it. How do you respond to that?”
Turner: “I mean, being convicted with the shotgun, knowing that I shouldn’t have that in my possession at the time, but yet because of the area I was living in, I was just only protecting my home. And for me to say, yes, I didn’t do it because I am honest, I am honest about it, and the truth about the situation that I did not do it. I did not do it. I was wrongfully convicted of this crime. I am innocent.”
Only time will tell if that’s true.
Meanwhile, Turner isn’t the only person looking ahead to what’s next.
Lorenzen Wright’s mother fought for her son’s case for years. Deborah Marion is now moving on, but don’t tell her that Billy Ray Turner is innocent — she’s adamant he’s lying.
“I don’t want to hear nothing that boy has to say, never in life,” she said.
Marion says she’s at a good place in her life. She’s reconnected with her grandchildren.
After their father’s death, Marion says she longed to see them but knew the turmoil they felt as they also wanted to be there for their mother, Sherra Wright.
Marion says she felt it when the older children including Lorenzen’s oldest daughter showed up to support Sherra during a court hearing and didn’t come over to Marion at all.
“That was a child with her momma at that time. But she says, as she thought about it over the years, she knows I am the only one on her side,” Marion said.
She showed us recent pictures with her smiling grandchildren, saying she talks to them just about every day now.
“I got five of the six back with me. I am talking about, I done saw these kids in the last two months more than I seen them in a lifetime,” she said. “I’m good. I got my babies. I’m great.”
The children’s mother, Sherra, was denied parole last year. She is up for parole again in 2027.
Marion vows to fight her early release. She says she hasn’t talked to Sherra and has no reason to.
“For what? For her to say she ain’t have nothing to do with it and she don’t know why they keep bringing her up? (A) lie don’t care who tell it as long as it be told, and I am not ready to hear none of them,” Marion said. “Until she say, ‘Deb I’m sorry, I (messed) up,’ I don’t want to talk to her period. She got to come up with a lot of ‘I’m sorries.’ ‘I messed up that time. I didn’t have nothing to so with it.’ Don’t come to me with that.”
As for Sherra, she still hasn’t responded to our request for an interview from prison.
But her former attorney Juni Ganguli says when Sherra goes back before a parole board in 2027, there are certain things they will be looking for as they consider her release.
“Acceptance of responsibility, remorse and they would again want to hear from her family members, and nine and a half years, that’s realistic,” Ganguli said. “I don’t know if she will be released, but it is realistic.”
Turner is also hoping to one day be a free man.
“But that keeps me going,” Turner said. “Knowing that, you know, I have God on my side and knowing that he’s able to deliver me from all this situation. So I’m just waiting on my day, being patient, waiting on my day in trial once again to be delivered from all of this.”
WREG will continue to follow Billy Turner’s appeal and Sherra Wright’s parole.
Watch the special, and catch up on the podcast
Saturday night at 6 on WREG News Channel 3, join us for a one-hour special, Killing Lorenzen: Billy Breaks His Silence. The episode will also be on our YouTube channel.
And for more on this real-life story, please check out our podcast, Killing Lorenzen: Love Basketball Murder, wherever you get your podcasts.