MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Sherra Wright was in and out of court quick Monday.
Her case was re-set to March 19 after attorneys Blake Ballin and Steve Farese Junior confirmed they would be representing her.
“These are not easy cases from out stand point,” Attorney Ballin said. “They are not cheap cases from a client’s stand point. So there were financial issues to deal with.”
Prosecutors say next month they will know if they plan to see the death penalty against Wright and her co-defendant Billy Turner.
Both Wright and Turner will be tried together.
“There are two defendants and a case that was cold for years and years. It’s challenging,” Prosecutor Paul Haggerman said.
But Sherra Wright’s attorneys don’t think the case will meet the state requirements for the death penalty.
Some of Lorenzen Wright’s family members don’t want her to face the death penalty either.
“I don’t want her to get the death penalty. I want her to live,” Lorenzen’s grandmother, Willie Mae Vassar, said.
“It’s been really hard, but I am glad. I have been waiting seven years for this,” Lorenzen’s mother, Deborah Marion, said.
If the case goes to trial, officials say they are not ruling out a change of venue.
Attorneys will now start going through evidence, including taped recordings.
They are trying to see what prosecutors have that led to the murder charge and to police reports that said Sherra and Billy Turner apparently tried to kill Lorenzen once before in Atlanta.
WREG spoke with Lorenzen’s Atlanta roommate, Michael Gipson, who recalls Sherra in Atlanta before Lorenzen’s death.
“I was at work all day. Once I got off work I did see her when I got back to the condo, but she was headed out. She was headed back to Memphis, which I though was kind of weird,” Gipson said.
He says it’s frightening to think he and his kids, who were sharing the condo with Lorenzen, could have been in the line of danger.
“I’m overwhelmed. Like I said, what if I was there? What if I was included, you know?” he asked.
“We just want justice. When Sherra got arrested, that was a major shock. We all suspected she may have had something to do with it, but we were hoping that was not the case,” Gibson said.
Turner has also pleaded not guilty in the case.