Sherra Wright. Photo: Riverside County Sheriff’s Department
The ex-wife of former Los Angeles Clipper Lorenzen Wright was in custody Sunday in Riverside County awaiting extradition to Memphis, Tennessee on a charge of first-degree murder for the basketball star’s mysterious killing seven years ago.
Sherra Wright, 38, was arrested on a fugitive from justice warrant during a traffic stop on Interstate 15 near Hidden Valley Parkway at 8 p.m. Friday in Norco next to the I-15 freeway north of Corona, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said.
She remained in custody at the Robert Presley Detention Center without bail, according to jail records.
She was due to appear at the Riverside Hall of Justice on Monday morning.
Law enforcement officials did not say when she would be extradited to Memphis, where she was charged with first-degree murder in Lorenzen Wright’s death, a news release from the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office said.
Lorenzen Wright, who was a first-round draft pick by the Clippers in 1996, went missing on July 18, 2010. His decomposing body was found 10 days later with multiple gunshot wounds in a wooded area near a southeast Memphis suburb. He was 34 years old.
An autopsy showed bullet fragments were lodged in Wright’s skull, chest and right forearm.
The case had gone cold up until last month when investigators found a murder weapon at the bottom of a lake in Walnut, Mississippi, leading to the indictment of Billy R. Turner two weeks ago on a first-degree murder charge.
Turner, a landscaper, and Sherra Wright, who received $1 million from her ex-husband’s life insurance policy, attended the same church, according to media reports.
More details about the connection between Wright and Turner were expected to be disclosed in court.
During Lorenzen Wright’s three seasons with the Clippers (1996-1999) he averaged 7.7 points and 7.4 rebounds per game. He played a total of 13 seasons for five different teams in the NBA.
–City News Service
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