I'm Lester Holt tonight on Dateline fame, fortune at a fatal mystery who killed the basketball star? She was larger than life. She's making tens of millions of dollars. I mean, this is Lorenzen, right? It was as if an explosion went off.

Wow. I know someone is running for their life and there's multiple gunshots it made to on the back of your next.

I. He didn't deserve to die this way. Who would do this to him? You look at everybody, every friend, every family member, the divorce spouse.

She was the last person known to have seen him. We had to dig into it. There are these mysterious gunmen showing up looking for a. Who are these people that came by the house? All of a sudden they found a gun there on to somebody. He was under everybody's noses the whole time. Yeah. How's that for a kicker? Just the ultimate evil. Here is Andrea Canning with Death of a Hometown Hero.

It was just after midnight in Memphis as Sunday turned into Monday on Beale Street, the blues clubs were blaring.

Barbecue joint still sizzling. Even the lights of nearby Graceland were aglow. But just outside of town in this tree lined field, it was quiet, peaceful. Not a soul in sight. Then suddenly, an unmistakable sound echoed through the trees. Seconds later, it was over, the crime conceived weeks earlier, was now complete and perfectly executed. It all began in July 2010 when one of the city's favorite sons returned to town, Lorenzen Wright, or simply run, played high school and college basketball here in Memphis, then later starred for the hometown NBA Grizzlies.

Just 34 years old, ran was larger than life, according to close friend Bill Adkins.

How popular was he here in Bay? Extremely. Everybody loved friends and he was just popular. I mean, you couldn't you had to notice him. I mean, six foot 11, six, 10. You know, he walks in the door. Everybody knows it's him.

Charismatic yet humble run was as generous as he was outgoing. He was kind to everyone.

I never saw a time when he would shun people away or or say cruel or rude things to people. The guy would give you the shirt off his back. Movie star looks.

Oh, yeah. Charming, quite charming. Handsome guy.

Lawrenson, was that the end of a solid NBA career, now divorced and living in Atlanta? But he would often come back to Memphis to visit, so on a Sunday in late July, Run arrived and spent part of the day with close buddy Phil Dotson and some other old friends, the perfect Sunday afternoon of just, you know, the guys hanging, bonding. A few hours later, Phil took run to pick up his oldest son at a local gym and then drop them off at the home of Cheryl right Anzac's ex-wife, where Ren sometimes visited when he was in town.

He said, I'll call you later. And so that being about 10 p.m., I left. I got home and I never heard from. Sunday night passed, but no call from Wren, and so I sat on the text and he didn't reply. So I'm sure you tried to reach him the next day, the next day and and nothing was that odd or still thinking he's just busy with the.

Well, I just thought he was still busy with the family. It wasn't a big deal.

Run was known to go off the grid occasionally. Plus, he had a scheduled trip to Las Vegas later that week. Maybe he just left early.

When you're in Vegas and the casino, you don't get a signal. I thought it was kind of weird that he didn't text me back, but I didn't think anything about it.

But by day three runs, Mother Deborah Marijan was worried she'd been trying to reach him all week.

He never answered my call. He never called me back. Did you just think maybe he's in Vegas having a really good time not to call me?

Debra filed a missing persons report with police while Phil sounded his own personal alarm.

I'm sending him our S.O.S. code that we had for each other. We really need it. And I didn't hear anything from him.

Was this where things turn for you? When he didn't respond to started getting worried? I was like, man, where is he? He just basically has like, vanished, vanished from the face of the earth.

Yes. Yes. It was starting to get scary. At six foot 11 and two hundred fifty five pounds, Lorenzen Wright is hard to miss, but he has been missing for a week.

Police are searching for a former Memphis basketball by now.

The local media was all over the story.

He hasn't surfaced anywhere near the disappearance of Lorenzen. Right. Investigators say there is nothing to suggest that Wright is not alive. However, as time passes, the situation grows more worrisome. It was shocking.

It was just. What do you mean? Llorens and Wright is missing. Congi Anthony covered the story for NBC affiliate WMC TV in Memphis.

The whole town was abuzz. Everybody wanted to know where's Larenz and. Lawrence's former wife, Sheerer, told reporters he was fine the last night she saw him. I'm not going to believe anything other than that. He's fine now. I just need somebody to call him or anything from him.

But Run's mother, Deborah, was already expecting the worst. I told the police when I first reported him missing. Yeah, my son is not going to be real off until your intuition was telling you.

I want to let him know where you want to know when you must normally feel kind of a spiritual connection to your son or.

I told the police, I don't know how to explain it to you, but he's there.

When we come back, a terrifying call to 911. One becomes a tantalizing clue. Hello.

Hi. Oh, it made the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Someone is running for their life and there's multiple gunshots.

I had never heard of that one call like that before.

Felt like someone had pulled my heart out of my chest. Tonight, police are searching for a former Memphis basketball player, Lorenzen Wright, seven long days and still no sign of Lorenzen Wright. One of the last to see him alive was his ex-wife, Sharra.

And no new leads or anything. It's mind boggling. Also, today is one of the worst days for me because it's an entirely with each passing day, Run's mother, Deborah, feared the worst.

You must be frantic.

Well, I don't call everybody everywhere that he would be associated with nobody. No, nothing.

But police did find one clue buried and runs phone records. The last call he made was to nine one one. Remember those gunshots that began our story? They were actually fired during that chilling 911 one call on nine one one. What is your emergency?

Germantown is a suburb of Memphis.

Police there never investigated the call so that it wasn't until eight days after one went missing that Memphis Police and Deputy Director Tony Armstrong finally learned about it.

Hello. And came to realize that the frantic caller screaming in a hail of gunfire was Lawrenson Wright.

It made the hair on the back of your neck stand up. That's no joke when someone is running for their life and there's multiple gunshots being fired.

I had never heard of that one call like that before. Live pictures here from Chopper five. Police are not saying anything official at this point.

Police were able to trace the 911 one call from nearby cell phone towers and soon swarmed a field on the outskirts of town looking for Lawrenson. The information, a Shelby County sheriff's search crew to a wooded area near Hack's Bross and Winchester Road. And it didn't take long. The search team suddenly noticed something very disturbing, breaking news.

Memphis police are in southeast Memphis where a body has been found and the word went around town like wildfire. Anyone who knew and literally hopped into their car and drove to that scene. News of the discovery spread quickly and crowds of Wright's friends on and off the court steadily grew.

Lorenzo's mother, Deborah, soon arrived at the scene. Then cross the police line to where the body was being recovered. I want to walk in his last walk so I can get a feel for what happened. This let me walk the last path he walked. Why did you want to do that? Because I wanted to feel what he left for me, because I knew. Of course, she knew it was her first born son, Lawrenson. Police have notified immediate family that Lorenzen Wright was found dead here.

We have not. By now, a large crowd was holding an impromptu memorial at the grim site. Among them was Rann's friend and NBA star, Penny Hardaway. It's just a great loss for the city of Memphis, for his family. Such an early age. I mean, it's just senseless. Then Lorenzino body, which had been left in the searing Memphis sun for 10 long days, was taken in for an autopsy.

I've seen decomposed bodies before, but I wasn't ready for that. I wasn't ready for the Larisa's remains. I would not have known that that was him.

Lorenzen Wright was just 30 for the father of six young children. Now police confirmed the horrible news with the rest of his family and close friends. I literally remember freezing. I dropped the phone and my mind went blank. I'm like, what do you mean, he's dead? And then he told me he's been in the field for some days. And it was bad. It was bad. And I hung the phone up and I cried for like someone had pulled my heart out of my chest and just stomped on it.

So is your best friend? Yeah.

Yeah. Word also spread south to Atlanta, where Ran's old friend and roommate, Mike Gibson, was anxiously awaiting any news. When I found out about I just brought to my knees. I couldn't couldn't walk.

I was like paralyzed. I'm like, this can't be true. At first, nobody knew what exactly had happened to run, but later the autopsy report was released and revealed a disturbing answer. He had been shot multiple times with wounds to the chest and even his face. It was an assassination. He was murdered. The number of times that he was shot and then to know that those shots were. To his face, that's personal, that's personal, that's a deep rooted hate, so hateful and so personal, which suggested the killer might have actually known Lawrenson, I just could not imagine anybody wanting to harm him.

Did you think he was targeted? No, I thought maybe somebody wanted to rob him, but who would do this to him and why? A few tiny clues left at the crime scene would soon provide a huge lead because it appeared not only did someone want Lawrenson dead, maybe there was more than one person involved in his murder. Coming up, Shira and Lorenzino, lifestyle, fast and furious, omega trips, houses, cars, watches, rings, earrings, was his fifty five million dollar fortune a motive for murder when Dateline continues.

Memphis was in mourning. It was a sad day in the summer of 2010 when the city paid its last respects to Lorenzen Wright, the funeral so big it was televised by several local stations. His funeral.

Oh, boy. Huh? Well, it was pretty much the who's who of Memphis. Lorenzo's mother, Deborah Marion, was there, too, of course, never imagining she'd have to bury her oldest child.

I just didn't want to leave. You and Lawrenson were so close, I promise you, life wasn't worth living. I kept my firstborn just you two had been through so much together. Hmm. Yes, I'd say I was young when I had them, so we kind of like grew up together.

Ren's ex-wife, Sharon and their children all came to say farewell to six young children now suddenly left without a father.

The loss of such a great person in the fabric of Memphis society was just so tragic and painful to help the city heal.

The Memphis mayor made a promise justice will be done. That's our pledge.

Justice, of course, depended on a thorough police investigation. Detectives were now playing catch up, given how long it had taken to find Run's body after he was murdered. But at the crime scene, clues were already emerging.

Police found different types of shell casings at the scene, different casings, which meant more than one gun was used to murder Rhen, which indicated there could have possibly been two suspects responsible for the shooting.

Memphis P.D. Deputy Director Tony Armstrong was already feeling the heat to crack one of the biggest cases of his career. This case was personal to you.

It was the mayor of the city that had vowed to the public that we were going to solve it. I wanted to be able to tell his mom that we got the person that's responsible for this.

But who would do such a thing and why? Run came from humble beginnings in Mississippi, where he was born and first started playing basketball, but it was here in Memphis where he became a star during his high school days.

That's when he met his future wife, Sarah, whose father was his coach at the time, Memphis newspaper reporter Mark Paresthesia.

A lot of people didn't know about him until he played a new ball for sure, writes Dad. And Sherry's dad brought him up to Memphis and he played his last season of high school ball here in Memphis and was a high school all-American.

And coach was like, I don't know what this was do, but he can make some money.

One day, Shearer also liked what she saw, and soon the two began dating, even though she was almost five years older, as Run's friend Bill Adkins immediately noticed, she was different.

You could tell she was quite mature, quite savvy, sexy. Can I use that word? Absolutely. She was the kind of girl that guys looked at.

Lawrenson the country kid was soon smitten with the more sophisticated city girl. What was it about Charra that he fell so fast for her?

Let me see. How can I put this nasty sex? Oh, he was 17.

She was 22. So she lured him and he had a little girlfriend, but they weren't doing all this stuff. Sure I would.

She was a lady and he was a key. Deborah never really liked Shaara, but there wasn't much she could do as the romance with Rand flourished and so did his basketball career.

He soon became a star at the University of Memphis. Then in 1996, after his sophomore season, Lawrenson hit the NBA jackpot when he was drafted in the first round by the Los Angeles Clippers at the tender age of 20. Red was an instant millionaire. By now, Qara had given birth to their first baby, Lorenzo Jr. The three settled in L.A. and immediately began living the Southern California high life. After his second season ran and got married, I was one of the girls men and it was an awesome affair.

The wedding was beautiful.

It looked like a fairytale film, even lived with Lawrenson and sheriff for over a year when Wren played with the Clippers. And Sharon didn't mind you being the houseguest.

No, no, she she didn't.

They were always known for having a huge heart run, played three seasons with the Clippers, then moved on to Atlanta and signed another multimillion dollar contract before being traded to his hometown team, the Memphis Grizzlies, in 2001.

Back home, Rent reimbursed himself in the community. He opened a restaurant while committing to local charities and children who would do a summer camp here.

It was always huge. Thousands of kids would attend. Given back to his community was one of the things that that really made him happy.

Over his career, Lawrenson earned some 55 million dollars, which he lavished on his friends and growing family trips by anything he wants houses, cars, take care of his friends, took care of his family. Anybody who put a hand on the virtue of the gate or because they know the people, they actually built a home beyond the suburbs.

It was a huge thirteen thousand square foot home, cost several million dollars.

And inside their giant garage, they had a couple of Ferraris and he loved cars.

He had about two buildings in one month and Shargh, she loved jewelry. Are we talking diamonds and watches? Rings, earrings, bracelets. She loved to decorate her home, custom drapes and custom upholstery on couches. And then, you know, a couple of months go by and then she changed everything up again.

It was an embarrassment of riches. But behind the gates of their memphis' mansion, there was trouble in paradise. Coming up, he was a rock star and with being a rock star comes certain temptations, adulterous affairs, his and hers.

Lorenza went to the house where supposedly she was there with another guy. He went ballistic.

December 25th, 2007, everybody is about to come downstairs, hear him make a noise three years before Lawrenson Wright's death, his family can be seen in this rare home video celebrating what would be one of their last Christmases all together.

The house was decorated and there were plenty of presents under the tree. Iran was playing Santa for the kids. Now we go. And in the garage, Cierra had a surprise waiting for him.

We love it, Daddy. I love it. It was right out of a Christmas movie.

But behind the scenes, Memphis investigative reporter Mark Paraskevi says run and share his life wasn't always so picture perfect. Merry Christmas.

People who knew them well beyond the public arena knew they had troubles. A volatile mix of infidelity and jealousy, says Paraskevi.

It was his darker, darker side. For Lawrenson, life in the NBA was intoxicating under the bright lights in the biggest cities with plenty of cash, clubbing and women. He was a rock star and with being a rock star comes certain temptations that come at you and those temptations, unfortunately.

Did we know at times? Yes. Yes.

And the temptation temptation is a real bike. Sure. As a count from the time that he got in the NBA was like a constant parade of women. He was young. He was a good looking guy. I mean, and he had all this opportunity. I think he took advantage of it.

Cierra according to Lorenzino mother, Deborah was cheating, too, and not very discretely sure he was being seen, not her saying doing things he shouldn't be doing infidelity.

If you're going to do that, go to the next town over. She was flaunting other men in her hometown.

Yes, she wanted to be a singer for him.

So she wanted to act like a single woman, even though she was married, she didn't want to see the run.

Was upset about Sherry's alleged affairs. According to close friend Bill Adkins, he was very concerned about what he perceived as her infidelity and things I can't leave home trustor. I'm hearing stories and rumors about all these guys. At the same time, he knew he wasn't totally a saint as well in that area. He was looking for solutions to solving some of the marital issues that he was having at the time. He wanted to make it work.

He absolutely wanted to make it work. Yeah. In 2003, amidst all the turbulence, an unexpected tragedy rocked their world. It involved the couple's 11 month old daughter, Sierra Wright's wife, found the baby not breathing in her crib Saturday. She rushed her to a nearby medical center where she was pronounced dead.

Doc's report said that she died from SIDS, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. That was the hardest thing I know that he ever went through in his life.

He's in heaven with God, and I know that. So now I'm just going to work hard on trying to get myself there. Did it cause a strain in his marriage? I think it did. He was on the road when it happened and not being able to get there and protect his daughter. And I think he always regretted that. Rand's friends said that two years later, the couple's problems escalated to a whole new and now dangerous level.

There was a situation that happened and the went to the house where supposedly she was there with another guy. He knew the gentleman. He went ballistic. I think he had a gun.

The story made the local newspapers, which reported that run threatened the man and also attacked Qara. She had some marks on her face.

He hit her and the police were going to arrest him, but she would not testify against him. Lorenzo had a public image to uphold. She didn't want to expose that part of. At the time, police said they didn't have enough evidence to file an offense report in a newspaper account run, denied harming his wife or having a gun. But one of the people who said she was there told us she feared for Cheryl's life.

With the help of counseling, their tumultuous marriage somehow stayed intact and in 2007, they even renewed their vows. Everybody thought that, OK, now they're good again.

And, you know, sure enough, a few months passed by and, you know, the same things happening again, back to the final, back to the fighting.

And often it was about money, says close friend Phil Dotson, especially when it came to share spending.

There were times when she would spend money and not tell him that she would spend money, maybe get back at him for indiscretions. There would be large sums of money that would, he would think is in the checking account and it's not there and would be because of her spending.

This was causing stress in the marriage. Absolutely. By 2009, Lorenzana NBA career was winding down and so were those multimillion dollar paychecks, which didn't help his rocky relationship with Shargh.

You could see very quickly that the marriage was headed to a demise LAWRENSON and share a split up that year and went their separate ways, says Run's close friend Mike Gibson.

He says she doing her thing, though not the same thing with the law man.

The lawn man. You may want to remember him. Shirra filed for divorce and their marriage was officially over in 2010.

Run's mom says he was relieved he just couldn't take it on while she stopped making him sick just to her face. But was it somewhat also liberating for Lawrenson to finally be out of the marriage? That's all he wanted to be free and have his kids.

As part of their divorce settlement, Lawrenson took out a million dollar life insurance policy that would be paid to the six children upon his death. It would be administered by Scherrer since she was awarded custody. Run was also ordered to pay alimony and child support totaling twenty six thousand dollars a month.

LLORENS, even though he made fifty five million dollars playing basketball, he was broke.

He had two very expensive homes that were foreclosed on. They were bouncing checks left and right. I mean, they burned through all this money. He seemed to be in need of money. Big money, but from where Shirra claimed to have a lead about how Iran was trying to raise some quick cash and it would soon take his murder investigation in a whole new direction.

Coming up, there are these mysterious gunmen looking for Lorenza Shara'a points police to a dark world of crime.

You had to take the drug theory seriously.

Absolutely. Two famous people get killed in a drug war. Absolutely. Do athletes get killed in the drug world? Absolutely. When Dateline continues. When police catch a homicide case, the victim is usually a stranger, but many at the Memphis PD knew Lawrenson right, including Deputy Director Tony Armstrong. This is a guy that I used to talk to. You know, I used to eat in his restaurant. Occasionally he'd come sit down with me. We have conversations.

When he was in town, it was chili. Chilling to think how this hometown hero was so brutally murdered, seemingly for no reason. So Armstrong and his team of detectives started their investigation by looking at the victim himself. Let's retrace Lorenzo Steps, who was the last person to see him alive, who knows him better than anybody else. Let's talk to his wife.

There are no new leads or anything. It's mind boggling.

That would be Cheryl, right? Rand's ex-wife. She was interviewed by investigators when he first went missing.

I just need somebody to call to find him or anything from him.

Sherry told police something strange happened in the weeks before Iran's murder. There are these mysterious gunmen showing up with guns tucked in their waist bands who are knocking on doors, knocking on her door, looking for Lorenza.

Sheriff said she wasn't sure who they were, what they wanted. She also told police about the last time she saw run on the night she disappeared.

She gives a statement and basically saying the resident left in the middle of the night. He had been at her house. He had been at her house. He had gotten there from Atlanta.

And sometime during the night, he leaves Sherry's timeline of Lorenzino last night, had him arriving at her home around 8:00 p.m. She said run later, left the house around 10, 30, but soon returned. Then sometime before 3:00 a.m., said Sharra, he left again with an unknown person. But that wasn't all.

She told police that the night he was killed, he left with a box of drugs. He said he was going to flip something. She hears him talking on the phone about flipping, turning over a large sum of money.

But she doesn't say who he's talking to. So detectives dug deeper into Levinson's life, they discovered he was nearly broke and had a connection of sorts to a shady character named Craig Pattiz.

He's probably one of the largest drug dealers that we've ever seen. In 2009, Lorenzana name surfaced in a federal drug investigation involving a lieutenant of Petis named Bobby Cole, Cole turned over to luxury cars to police when they ran the VIN numbers.

It turned out the vehicles were registered in Ren's name, Llorens, and never transferred ownership into Bobby Cole's name, which is a classic drug scheme where drug dealers come into money illicitly and they've got to launder it.

Deborah Marion insists it wasn't her son who sold the cars, but a guy who worked for him. In fact, Ran was never charged with anything. But now that he was dead, the city buzzed with rumors that run may have been the victim of a drug hit, especially given the way he was found in that field executed.

You had to take the drug theory seriously. It was something that everybody was talking about. Absolutely.

In my experience as a law enforcement officer to famous people, get killed in a drug war. Absolutely. Do athletes get killed in a drug world? Absolutely. So we had to make sure that we looked at all of that.

With his NBA career done, the big paychecks had dried up, plus those huge alimony and child support payments were due. Police wondered if Ryan was desperate for money. Could he have been dealing drugs to make some quick cash? So detectives started interviewing a whole new cast of characters to answer that very question, we talked to informants that we heard on the streets.

Every drug dealer, every informant that we talked to basically said that that just wasn't the case.

Friends, family and friends were outraged at Shargh for even suggesting he might be dealing when she came out and said that he left with a box of drugs and some people came to the house.

Well, you take all his credibility away. None of it made sense.

Was Lorenzino knowingly involved in any criminal activity? Not that I know of at all. I never saw anything that would be out of the ordinary.

So the drug theory, which seemed to sidetrack the investigation, was now dead. Run's mother, Debra, had never believed it anyway, that she was certain the key to solving her son's murder was much closer to home. I told the police, you don't need to go talk to his ex-wife.

Deborah had never been Sherry's biggest fan. She was convinced her former daughter in law knew a lot more about what really happened to Wren. What did the police think about you? That I was the crazy lady, but I told them to keep on doing this while I would blow up one woman my body. You would have needed a sign from God to back off. Right, exactly.

Detectives did notice one thing. While Deborah was relentless, she was reclusive.

Police didn't hear a peep from her, the level of grief from both of those women who were polar opposites of each other.

Now, in fairness, ones, the mom ones divorce. You still have six kids, but as men, he's been murdered.

Shera isn't acting upset enough because that doesn't make somebody a killer.

It doesn't make you a killer. It makes you a high level person of interest on. Scherrer hardly seem like a killer. She was dating a sheriff's deputy, was deeply religious and spent a lot of time at church where she was on track to become an ordained minister. She was also extremely devoted to her six kids. I was sure as a mother, she loved her kids to love.

I saw nurturing. There's no way she could have anything to do with taking their father away.

In fact, police couldn't find any evidence linking Scherrer to the murder. As months ticked by with no new leads, the case began to go cold.

It has been 365 days, and the first anniversary of Ransdorf Debra held a vigil.

Family, friends and fans of Lorenzen Wright gathered in front of the FedEx Forum. I'm not giving up. I'm not tired yet. Somebody's going to tell on a friend. That's how this is going.

But the end didn't come. The case gathered dust. More months passed, then years. Cheryl laid low and moved on with her life until somebody decided to follow the money. Coming up, she collected the one million dollars and would spend somewhere like nine hundred and thirty thousand dollars, the entire insurance fund is almost all gone.

All that money, where was it? It's difficult for the kids and it's been difficult for me. A blockbuster new battle is about to begin. This is my dog, my dog's grew up to his fans, Lorenzen Wright seemed like a gentle giant, the last person anyone would want to kill.

But someone most certainly did. Problem was, police couldn't figure out who by now, four long years had passed since his murder and the case that once consumed the city of Memphis was now ice cold, according to WMC TV anchor Congi Anthony.

Crickets, crickets.

It was just crickets for years. And every now and then somebody would just say, gosh, do you think they'll ever figure out who killed Lorenzen Wright?

By now, Tony Armstrong was chief of the Memphis PD. His detectives had cleared almost every possible suspect, but one in particular remained in the forefront, Lawrenson Wright's ex-wife, Sharra.

She's always been a person of interest. And no matter who we talk to, no matter what door we knock down, no matter what Crime Stoppers tip we got, it always lead right back to her.

Was anyone coming to her defense and saying she loved Lawrenson? She would never do this. I've investigated people that have committed multiple murders.

It had people to come to their defense, I never to this day have gotten a call from anybody that has defended her ever, maybe that's why she had lawyered up and stopped talking to the police out of the public eye.

She sometimes surfaced at the Mount Olive Baptist Church, where she was now an ordained minister and ran a non-profit called Born to Prosper Ministries, which helped local kids.

As for supporting her own children sherries, primary source of income still came from run, she is getting his insurance money and the pension from the Grizzlies and all the other NBA teams. So the money is going to Sharra because she is the custodian of her own children with Lawrenson.

Ren had earned tens of millions in the NBA, but his life insurance policy was worth far less.

She collected the one million dollars and would spent somewhere like nine hundred and thirty thousand dollars.

But when Lorenzino father Herb Wright discovered that she had spent much of the money earmarked for his six grandchildren, he Sugiura Herb Wright versus Sheerer Wright, she received more than a million dollars between August 1st.

So we end up going to court.

The entire insurance fund is almost all gone. And his father wanted to put a stop to that.

Herb Wright is asking the court for Scherrer Wright to be removed as trustee of a million dollar life insurance.

Proceeds trust the Lorenzen Wright case was back in the spotlight as Scherrer was now in court and on camera. My whole life has been in a hole. Pretty much going through quite a bit is difficult for the kids, and it's been difficult for me. But I believe that we deserve to be happy.

The court proceedings were contentious and exposed all the specifics of Sharrow spending more than fifty five thousand dollars for furniture, more than one hundred eighty thousand dollars spent on expenses at four different properties, construction. And the judge decided to get a receiver to take over the funds and to investigate what was going on with the money, which meant what was left of Lorenzo's insurance money was now out of sherries control. But losing in court didn't stop Scherrer from launching a new career as an author, she wrote in self published a book called Mr.

Tell Me Anything. You can probably guess who the title character was supposed to be. I think a lot of it may have been true, but I think a lot of us still made up. I think a lot of us still her perspective and she wanted to make him seem like a really bad guy.

The books seem to be a fictionalized account of Sherrod's tumultuous life with Lawrenson.

It was hardly a bestseller. Markandey Anthony found it quite the read.

The similarities between Charra and Lorenzen and the two main characters in the book are uncanny. And as you're going through the book, you're hearing claims of infidelity to domestic violence.

So I asked her, said, did this really happen? She goes, Oh, yeah, absolutely. This happened. Ninety nine point nine percent of that book is our real life. I just change some names around.

The book ends with the Scherrer and Lawrenson character settling in for a night of romance.

But in real life, Rand's close friends were beginning to share the same suspicion, his mom and police already had that on the last night of his life. Scherrer wasn't Rand's lover. She just might have been involved in his murder.

I feel very confident that she played some kind of role in it, but to what degree? I did not know.

So maybe even indirectly, indirectly, directly before the fact.

After the fact.

She had something to do with it, maybe, but no one was able to prove it. As the fifth anniversary of Run's murder approached, Shargh would soon embark on a whole new chapter of her life with a new man in a new city. But could she shake her past and finally clear her name?

Coming up, there was chemistry there from the beginning of a new romance brings new revelations. We talk about the night he disappeared. She was like, you know, had he not passed, I'd be still with him. And I was thinking to myself, there's no way she killed him. When Dateline continues.

They met at a coffee shop in Memphis just after New Year's 2015. He was a journalist in search of a story. She was the ex-wife of Lorenzen Wright and seemed eager to chat.

We actually sit there and talk for another six hours.

Kelvin Cowans wanted to get inside the mind of Scherrer Wright. It had been almost five years since Lorenzo's murder, and she was still under suspicion.

She couldn't believe how people were so upset with her. And I asked her, do you have anything to do with it? She said, no, absolutely no.

I'm waiting on a day to day find the person or the people that killed him.

At the end of that marathon interview, Calvin had his story and something else we knew there was chemistry there from the beginning.

That's how it started. We almost fell in love immediately.

Scherrer had been keeping a low profile ever since her legal battle over Lorenzino Estate.

But soon she and Calvin were out and about as their romance took off.

Then a few months after they met, Kelvyn wanted to move to Houston, where he often did business, so Shara and her kids decided to go with him. She told me that she was moving to Houston.

She had enough of Memphis, and she was going to go down there and join the staff of this very famous pastor down there.

God created you to rise higher.

Joel Osteen, the World-Famous minister whose services are on TV and YouTube.

She just had, you know, all these big plans. You know, it wasn't just that she was going to go past her church. She was going to be a pastor. But megachurch, she thinks in terms of big, everything's big and grandiose.

They settled in the suburb of Sugarland and life was sweet, at least in the beginning, Calvin got a nice house on a lake in a nice neighborhood with good schools for the kids in a church nearby. Charra never did preach with Joel Osteen, but she did pray a lot.

Cheryl would sometimes go and get in I.M. closet with a pillow and cover and pray for hours. You can hear she's calling out her family and friends. And sometimes I had to get up two o'clock, two thirty in the morning and I go in class and I had to get her up and say, hey, come on, get back into bed.

Even so, Calvin was convinced he'd met the woman of his dreams. Her family felt like his they shared everything, even their deepest secrets. Nothing was off limits, including Lorenzino murder. We talk about the night he disappeared, what could have happened there. So I have no idea. I felt like Sharath still have feelings for Lorenzen. She was like, you know, had he not passed, I'd be still with him. And I was thinking to myself, there's no way she killed him.

There's no way she had anything to do with it.

You know who writes a book about someone they helped kill?

In fact, Cheryl promoted her book on a segment for Sports Illustrated and Fox Sports one in twenty fifteen. The key question wasn't about the book, but rather did you have any part in Lorenzo's murder and that first my wife, then I'm a mother.

And then thirdly, I'm an AKA. The law enforcement should do what's best to find out who's the killer.

Back in Memphis, Lorenzino, best friend Phil Dotson saw the show. And I just think, oh, come on, Sarah. What what type of answer is that? You know, did you do it? Did you find that odd? What I did, I found several things odd.

But you still didn't think I could early on in the marriage, like there was love to go from that to you murdered him. I couldn't buy it. I didn't buy it.

Neither sherries, TV interview nor her salacious book provided police with any evidence connecting her to the crime. It's almost as if she's poking fun or she's taunting law enforcement with this book. For somebody supposed to be grieving to write a book like that, which is really bizarre, but no real clues in it, I don't think anything.

And there was about, as you released, to be a clue.

She even considered writing a sequel, but instead focused more on her family and continued her free spending ways, said Kelvyn.

She had very expensive tastes and told it to share your appetite for nice things. It's not healthy and safe, I guess, the way God made me. And so I'm like, we're not going to make it with the way you think.

Your financial literacy is just off, according to Calvin. Sure was also spending a lot of time on the phone, apparently having secret conversations with someone he didn't know.

I felt like the Sheremet have been cheating on me, I speculated. A hidden lover, Scherrer denied she was seeing someone.

But gradually there, once hot romance cooled, they grew apart. And after two years together, Calvin says he decided it was over the day after a birthday.

That was what we call it quits. She was very upset. She didn't want me to go.

Calvin moved back to Memphis. Shoura went west to California, where she and the kids moved in with her brother. She and Calvin kept in touch, but soon there would be yet another man in her life. This one was also having secret conversations, but with detectives about the last night of Lorenzino life.

Coming up, a bombshell from inside prison walls. She told me she had threats from the prison here. Harrison, the killer, the secret recordings that might break this case wide open. It's called the Inland Empire. Riverside County, a sprawling stretch of Southern California suburbia east of L.A., it was here in the little town of Murietta where Cheryl, right. And her kids settled in the spring of 2017.

You got the feeling that she was starting a new life outside of the shadow of Llorens and Wright's murder in Memphis all the way across the country.

Seventeen hundred miles and seven years removed from Run's murder in Memphis to some sheriffs seemed more oblivious than ever as to what was happening back home.

Even on the anniversary of his death seven years ago to the day these family members reported Lorenzen Wright missing once again, Lorenzo's family and friends gathered to pay their respects.

Another year, another vigil to keep hope alive that his murder might somehow be solved.

We're going to keep this thing going year after year because I know that's what he would want us to do.

We. It's getting colder by the day and we're no closer to finding out who did it. There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about him and what happened to him. I always kept the detective's phone numbers just in case. They always said, let us know if you come up with anything.

By now, many in Memphis were losing patience with those detectives. Seven long years, still no arrest, no justice. Lorenzo's mom, Deborah Marijan, had been hounding the police the whole time. Calling showing up at the station, her sole mission in life was solving her son's murder. Did you feel like there's never going to be an arrest in this case?

No, cause I got to stay alive because I thought that they were going fast and that they're going to get her specifically Sharra, her. Right. And I told them it over and over and over again.

Tony Armstrong took some of her calls.

She was just relentless. She just would not let it go. Don't mess with Mama. Well, no, don't mess with Mama's babies.

He tried to assure Deborah that the case was still active.

That Scherrer really was on their radar is one thing to have a good feeling that I know this person is responsible for this, but you have to be to convince a jury you just didn't have enough evidence. There was no evidence to tie anybody to it.

But unbeknownst to anyone in Run's circle of family and friends, there was a potential witness, a man with a shady past and an explosive allegation which police had kept secret for five years, an informant who actually knew Sheere and had a strong motivation to talk. What happened was Jimmy Martin, who was Sherry's cousin, killed a love interest that he had was convicted. And it's that time, 2012, when he's going to prison, that he tells one to flip to do a deal.

Jimmy said he knew what happened to run and he offered to tell his story to detectives. So in 2012, two years after Ryan was killed, a secret meeting was held at this Tennessee prison where Jimmy claimed to reveal who was behind the murder, and that was his very own cousin and Ransacks wife, Sheirer. She told me. She had threats from the Marines over here harassing the killer, she wanted him dead before you her, Jimmy said. A meeting took place at Sherry's house some two months before Run's murder and two other men were there.

It was over. And I know, Jim, but I don't know his name. Billy Gordon. Cheryl Gardner, Billy Ray Turner, remember how Lawrenson suspected Shaara might be sleeping with her lawn man? Was this the same guy? Maybe. If so, this wasn't the only connection between Charra and Billy.

So who did sure as to kill Lorenzen? She gave Billy. Billy had a rap sheet, but in recent years seem to have gone straight when he wasn't busy running his landscaping business, he was fulfilling his duties at the very same church where Sheirer preached. He was the deacon of this church and she was a pastor. How deeply they knew each other. And there's a lot of speculation. I mean, it appears that they were intimate billion.

Scherrer, according to Jimmy, met with him again inside her house and this time got down to specifics.

She had to get out of the details like now I came to like this. At what point in hell were you offered anything to do it? She says, you helped me with my court case. If this ever gets human, I get the NBA my come and I will take care of you, she said. Whoever do issue gets 50000. Soon after making her offer, Jimmy said Shara and Billy came to his house in Batesville, Mississippi, a sleepy little town south of Memphis.

And this time she revealed how and where she wanted them to do the job. She said, we're not going to go out there and take care of it. She wants you to take care of them and I guess go to Israel out in Atlanta. We went. With directions from Sharon, he said they headed to Atlanta and straight for runs condo complex where they crawl through an open window. But Rhen wasn't there. It is somebody I don't care.

What about a police later figured out the bald headed man asleep on the couch was Run's roommate, Mike Gibson elements. Had it been there, I'd have been gone, too. Right now, you know, according to Jimmy. He and Billy spotted security guards crept out of the condo and hightailed it back home.

Soon after, said Jimmy, they met with Sharon again, and this time she revealed a whole new plan for Run's murder on her home turf.

She was like, I don't think it would be easier that way. And sure enough, at Sharon's request, Run did come back to Memphis for the very last time.

Coming up, a trap for Lawrenson Sharrow lured him back to Memphis with sexually explicit text messages and haunting details of that deadly night in the woods.

What do you say when Dateline continues?

They drove all over town that July day in 2010, surveying the city and the suburbs, looking for the perfect place to kill Lawrenson Wright, this according to Jimmy Martin, who claimed he was in a car with Scherrer Wright and her fellow minister, Billy Turner, when downspouts.

It was pigments, but I'll just telling you, it was good. Probably not getting a consult. Thank God it's not. It's back to somewhere. Soon after that scouting trip, Cierra sent ran the first in a flurry of text messages, x rated messages about hooking up in Memphis. And these are the mild messages which only grew more erotic and explicit. Police have found the texts on a cell phone when one went missing. Back then, they weren't sure if those messages might be connected to his case.

But now, seven years after the murder, the texts seem to tell a story.

Shero lured him back to Memphis with, you know, sexually explicit text messages.

Sure enough, Wren took the bait and later texted Scherrer from the Atlanta airport. Three little but life changing words. And with that, Ran was on his way to Memphis, but according to close friend Mike Gibson, he may have been seeking more than just a one night stand. Recently Runit confided he was ready to settle down after running in the fast lane after his divorce. Like, you know what? All this stuff I'm done with these girls. I'm just tired of it.

I might as well just get back with my wife Cheryl and be what with me to live a happy life. That's what he wanted.

But Sarah didn't want to remarry lawrenson she wanted him murdered, according to her cousin, Jimmy Martin. Jimmy said that two days after he, Cheryl and Billy conducted that murder site survey, she came to his house in Batesville, Mississippi. While there, Jimmy said Sharon asked his mom for an odd favor.

She has me to. Does your mom have a metal detector? So with the metal detector in tow, the two returned to Memphis, picked up Billy and drove to her house where Sir Jimmy Sharam made a stunning announcement. We don't have time to take. But the of. And who actually fired the fatal shots, Jimmy said it was Billy Ray Turner, Shiro's one time Gardner and possible lover, now alleged gunman, who at the meeting appeared to have a bad case of shooter's remorse.

Steve is shaking us down here and I can't sleep. OK? But what happened during the last moments of Lawrence's life before he was executed in that dark field that night, according to Jimmy, Sheere told Rhen she needed to meet a man to pick up some money, ran, agreed to join her. They drove to a wooded area at the edge of town.

Shira got out and walked over to Billy, who was secretly waiting nearby.

She said the result was the biggest issue. And then what happened?

He raised chasing down all of us, chased him down by following the glow of red cell phone, Sir Jimmy, and continued firing. That's when one called 911 one and screamed the last words of his life.

I go back and all those shots were fired by Billy from two different guns, said Jimmy.

They shot him, shot and shot.

Did she ever tell you that she also. Chased, Lorenzen would believe, she says he ran up the road in the first Shaffir and Jimmy, he insisted he was miles away at home in Mississippi that night.

Jimmy Martin never puts himself at the crime scene, which seems kind of odd. So is he lying, you know, to kind of distance himself, to make us look better?

But Jimmy did admit to helping Scherrer and Billy clean up the crime scene two days later using his mom's metal detector. Jimmy said the three of them looked for leftover evidence, including one of the two murder weapons which went missing during the shooting. But they never found it, said Jimmy.

So he and Billy took the other handgun to this little lake in Mississippi, as did the little people who claim they don't know how many.

It was his one book doing and that insisted Jimmy Martin was the God's truth of how Memphis Ikon Lorenzen Wright was murdered and the crime covered up, all orchestrated by Scherrer.

It was quite a story, but was there any evidence to back it up? Well, maybe the answer was sitting on the bottom of that lake coming up.

They sent a dive team down. I think it was an FBI dive team. A deep dive yields a buried treasure. Was this the gun that killed Lawrenson? Oh, my God. We're on to something. And another set of secret tapes I wanted to close with Sheirer doing the talking. Walnut, Mississippi, some 75 miles southeast of Memphis, population 800 outside of town, is a little lake, a big pond, really the very same pond that Jimmy Martin claimed held the key evidence in Lawrenson Wright's murder and how big that farm that's so high school football field.

So in May of 2012, detectives headed there on a fishing expedition for a gun. Jimmy Martin insisted that Billy Turner had dumped it there two days after shooting. Now, two years later, was it still there? It's a murky lake.

They couldn't find it. And so the whole thing kind of goes into limbo.

Again, as damning and detailed as Jimmy Martin's story seemed, detectives didn't have enough evidence to make an arrest.

But still, the investigation plodded on for years.

Was it still being investigated actively or just kind of one? New leads would come in. There were periods of time on this case that if we felt that one investigator had taken the case as far as he could take it, we give it to another investigator to get another perspective or to put a fresh set of eyes on it.

By 2016, some of those detectives who'd been digging through the case file and Jimmy Martins police interview urged the command at the Memphis PD to take a second look at the case. They dubbed it Operation Rebound. Very hush hush. And one of the things they did was go back to that murky lake in Mississippi, they got in some more information that made them more certain about this, and they sent a dive team down. I think it was an FBI dive team.

And guess what? Five years after Jimmy Martin came forward, they find the gun.

A nine millimeter handgun sitting in the muddy sediment, but was it really the weapon that killed Lawrenson? Right.

The gun was sent to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation for ballistics tests to see if it matched the casings collected at the crime scene. Then a few weeks later, the ballistics link it to the murder.

One of two guns that was used at the scene, Operation Rebound, was rolling. But investigators kept a tight lid on all their new evidence for months or ends, and rightfully so. Deborah Marion was still in the dark when she commemorated Lawrenson 40 second birthday November 4th. A day that should be spent celebrating is a painful reminder for Debbie Mary. Once again, she held a somber vigil to keep her son's name in the news. And the heat on the police is heavy on my heart all the time, especially birthdays, Christmas and July birthday.

Always I'll never have.

Deborah, of course, knew nothing about the gun or Jimmy Martin or Billy Turner as it was all top secret. I really need your help, people. Come on, tell us something.

Then a few days later, police did tell Deborah something, something amazing. The FBI helped search remote lake in Walnut, Mississippi, and found an alleged murder weapon then some seven long years after the murder. Deborah Marion suddenly felt a step closer to getting justice for her son.

Thank you, Jesus. Thank you. And found something because we hadn't heard anything and runs close.

Friends were now hopeful for the first time in years. Oh, my God. We were on to something. Are you thinking that this is just the beginning?

It's just it's going to fall like dominoes. We got it. We got an FBI dive team, found it in.

So I said, OK, well, if they're involved and I know that they're onto somebody, there were so many questions how they find this guy.

And all of a sudden, why now? Who told them? Whose gun is it? What does it have to do with Cheryl? Right. When Sherry's ex-boyfriend, Kelvin Cowan, saw the news, he called Charra in California and she sounded very somber about it.

Yeah, I saw it. Yeah. I don't believe they found a gun. She's I think they're just making it up. What does it matter? You know, he's not coming back anyway.

Cierra seemed low key on the phone with Kelvin, but detectives were betting she wouldn't stay that way for long.

In fact, just days after the news broke about the gun being found, sheriffs suddenly flew to Memphis and met with Billy. Detectives were on their tail and snapped these surveillance shots that Charra and the black sweatsuit. Police had never revealed publicly that they knew the gun belonged to Billy. Instead, they waited and let Cierra and Billy stew to see how they'd react. The police were playing.

Everybody was brilliant strategy that they wanted to get that information out to get more incriminating evidence from Charra and Billy Ray Turner. They threw them into a panic and got them talking about it.

Talking, which police started taping by tapping Scherrer and Billies phones.

Hello? Hey, this guy know what I do?

At first, the conversation didn't seem to make sense. Oh, no. I know what you mean when you get there. Right. And get there. Right.

Police eventually came to believe that all the small talk was actually related to the case, but wanted to show you something.

Oh, OK.

I'll get it ready by late 2017. Memphis police had heard enough and made their move. December 5th.

Billy Turner was arrested inside a convenience store in Collierville. And then Friday night.

And then we find out that he was her man when Lawrenson was living with Cheryl. So this is a person who knew both of them. And then we find out that he's a deacon at a church in Collierville, the very same church where Shoura had been a minister when she lived in Memphis. He was under everybody's noses the whole time.

Yeah. How's that for a kicker? That is a kicker. That's an evil kicker.

It is at this plans out being that she was the one who put everything in motion and then to be the one to actually take his life. Yeah.

Yeah. Just ultimate evil after years of nothing hits us all in one time. And we started thinking, did she. Did she actually. Calvin Cowans also had plenty of questions about his former lover, so he and Cheryl spoke again this time police were listening to on a wiretap.

How do you know, Billy, I got to do with nobody or nothing. She was like, that's my church mate. He's a church deacon, that's my friend.

He didn't have anything to do with this note to the whole world because I'm not going to get any there guys.

But it wasn't God who stepped in. It was the district attorney.

The Shelby County grand jury indicted Billy R. Turner for the premeditated first degree murder of Lorenzen Wright. But out in California, Scherrer remained free, no arrest warrant, no indictment. Are you wondering now where does sheriff fit in?

I'm thinking that Sharon is living in a house of cards and is about to crumble or is just a matter of time before they gets her. Coming up, a little too late. All right, ahead, a dramatic moment on a dark highway, seven years of waiting and then you see Sharon and she says something to you.

Yes, she tells me, did my dad do when Dateline continues.

December 2017, Christmastime, but in California, Scherrer, right, wasn't celebrating her fellow minister, friend and former lawn Billy Ray Turner was now sitting in a Memphis jail under arrest, accused of murdering Lorenzen Wright. Although there has been an arrest in the Lorenzen Wright murder case, many are left with more questions than answers.

Sheriff stayed close to home and was often on the phone calling friends and family to seek guidance or just vent, especially about Billy's arrest.

This is a from a pastor who they trying to pull me into a.

They, of course, were the police who were secretly listening in as Scherrer kept denying any role in Run's murder.

Nobody believed that we were still alive or they'll be careful for.

I don't know that a believe later, over and over, Scherrer insisted she was innocent. The investigation was a sham.

It's just until then, just 10 days before Christmas, Shargh was on the freeway and got a call from her oldest son about mommy.

But suddenly Sharon noticed something flashing in her rearview mirror a little too late and put the phone on the pole.

That after months of tapping her phone, along with all the other evidence, police had the guts to finally arrest Sheirer.

She was rushed to the Riverside County jail.

And the next day, Memphis police told the world Sugar Ray Robinson was taken into custody last night in Riverside, California, by the members of the U.S. Marshal Service.

No, everybody was talking about it. It was all over the place. It was huge news in Memphis.

So huge that the next day Deborah Marion organized a celebration in the cemetery with a little fireworks.

So I had to have fireworks at the cemetery. Never heard of anything like that before. Lorenza had to hear that. Perhaps we had to celebrate a big celebration we had about. After seven long years of trying to get Shearer arrested, Deborah had just one question for her and what I would like to say to Cheryl.

Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah.

Lorenzo's friends who knew that Shirra had long been under suspicion, still had trouble accepting the news of her arrest.

What do you mean? She got arrested for killing Lorenza. And I got really angry.

I can just imagine all the emotions you're feeling, betrayal, betrayal, and also guessing yourself.

Second guessing myself. Yes. And you knew her better than most.

Yeah, but sometimes what people do in the dark will come to light, come to light and soon come to court. As Sharon now faced several charges.

Attempted murder, conspiracy to murder and first degree murder.

Soon after her arrest, looking stressed and exhausted, I called the sheriff right matter.

Cierra appeared in a California courtroom for extradition back to Memphis, where she would face all those charges. She looked pathetic.

She looked very tired and defeated.

She looked like a broken person at this time of year weight issues in Tennessee.

But she would not be returning to her Memphis mansion this time. A jail cell awaited her after bail was set.

Filed in this case shall be said to cover this indictment. And 20 million dollars would have been sitting in the front row was Debra.

So you see Charra in court and she says something to you?

Yes, she turned around. Look me dead in my face. It's like I'm looking into I did. Do I say you which you called her a witch in court without the Bellvue.

Oh, you can't kill my keep tease me, you know.

But Deborah's rage wasn't just directed at Cierra. There, of course, was another defendant in the case, Billy Ray Turner. Sir Billy faced murder charges, too, and his bail was set at fifteen million dollars.

When he appeared in court, Debra greeted him as well.

How could you have met some Agnete billion share were scheduled to be tried together, but they were represented by different defense attorneys. Cierra would be defended by Laurie Hall and Junie Ganguli.

It was probably one of the top three cases in the last fifty years of Memphis. This case involved thousands and thousands of pages and recordings.

The recordings, especially the ones with Cheryl's cousin turned informant, Jimmy Martin. But her attorneys were already telling reporters that Jimmy, not Sheere, should be charged with the crime.

He's the one that provided, again, this alleged story. The location of the gun and the gun barrel matches the bullets found in Mr. Wright's body.

But Sherry's attorneys also believe they had another card to play, something they hoped might sway the jury and just maybe set her free. Coming up, and I did not want to go back to that life. A surprising strategy from the defense and a courtroom confrontation just hate what happened. What would Sharaf's fate be? Welcome to my seated. This wasn't quite what Cheryl Wright envisioned when she returned to Memphis in twenty eighteen wearing an orange jumpsuit and reuniting with fellow minister Billy Ray Turner, not in a church, but a courtroom.

Attorneys for both co-defendants charged with first degree murder in the death of Lorenzen Wright filed motions Thursday in both Cierra and Billy pleaded not guilty. Their trial was slated to start in September 2019. How do you feel with as the the trial draws near?

Are you confident? Yes, I am. I feel elated. And it's going to turn out just like all else is going to be in their places that mean everybody is going to be all I need to be. Including all that evidence, like the explosive police interviews with Jimmy Martin, the gun found in the lake and all those phone calls police recorded of Cierra and Billy Turner.

Well, that's right. No evidence that seemed overwhelming at that point.

Stauncher, right. She orchestrated this for the insurance money and multiple motives, you know, bitterness towards him. She was jealous and that she conscripted Billy Ray Turner and Jimmy Martin to help her do it.

If convicted, both Sharra and Billy were facing major prison time. The prosecution decided not to pursue the death penalty, but a life sentence was a distinct possibility, which was just fine with Deborah Marion. She murdered him and assassinate his character. She did them twice. I want to suffer every day.

Every day you wake up. I want to miss our kids like I miss my. An eight by 10 cell is a far cry from a mansion. So there are no diamonds and Bentleys in prison?

No, no.

Keeping Scherrer out of prison was a tall order for defense attorneys Laurie Hall and Junie Ganguli, especially if her fellow minister and alleged partner in crime, Billy Turner, flipped and testified against her.

We began to fortify the defense. The Cierra did it. She recruited Billy, but she did it to get away from this abusive relationship.

That was the defense's version. Cierra was an abused woman desperately looking for a way out. Absolutely. Two sides to Lawrence.

And right. There's the public persona, very positive, community oriented. Privately, he had a very tumultuous marriage, many affairs, and get angry and beat. Right.

In fact, Sharam mentioned the abuse during a call to her son, which police secretly recorded.

Been under a lot of time to the living hell out of me.

We were able to cooperate, share his allegations of abuse, both with the older children and with several friends of Sharaf's and family members Deborah Merian and Lorenzino. Friends were outraged by the allegations, insisting he never abused Shargh. Rhen was never charged with any violence against his wife, and Sharon never filed any reports with police alleging she had been abused. It's fairly common that victims of domestic violence don't report their abusers to the police. But why, after being divorced and living 400 miles apart, would sheriffs suddenly want Rand dead?

He was telling the children in the summer of 2010 words to the effect of your mother and I are going to get back together and share. I did not want to go back to that life.

According to her attorneys, Sharon never wanted to face runs abuse again. So when he insisted on reuniting, she helped arrange his murder. But Sherry's attorneys knew their defense was risky. We understood that Lorenzino lived in a different city. We understood that the abuse had occurred several years earlier, so none of that was lost on us. If they lost, Scherrer faced life in prison, so her lawyers negotiated a deal with the D.A., Shirra pleaded guilty to facilitation to commit first degree murder and also attempted murder for the first failed attempt on Lorenzino life.

Good morning. In July of 2019, almost nine years to the day since Run's death, the courtroom was packed for sherries sentencing hearing.

Sitting just a few feet away from her was Debra Marion, still angry and also anxious to see what the judge would impose 30 years confinement in the Tennessee Department Corrections as a 30 years.

It certainly sounded like a long time, but the defense knew that because Qara didn't have a criminal history, her sentence would be much shorter.

One, the maximum amount of time that she's going to serve would be 16 years or so, 16 years, barely over half the sentence.

But get this, Tennessee law required her to only do 30 percent of her original 30 year sentence before being eligible for parole. So with jail time served, she could get out before the year 2030.

That's not fair. That is not what I want to stay and just go do a few years. That's not fair. You know, I want her to do a plea deal. When Lorenzen come back, then she can get out.

Right at the sentencing hearing, Deborah finally got a chance to speak directly to Scherrer, despite what happened. But he that nice looking curiously for his grandmother. I'm ready for them to come back to the home with their family. Six grandchildren were not in court that day to see their mother led off to prison. We reached out to the older children, but they declined our request for an interview. We also tried contacting Sharat in prison, but never got a response.

She's eligible for parole pretty quickly.

Pretty quickly. Did she ever get what she deserved? I don't think she did. If she's the ringleaders responsible for this, at some point she is going to get out of prison and she's got a good chance to go on with her life.

The rest is never going to hold it up to. Jimmy Martin has not been charged in the case. As for Billy Turner, his attorney told us Billy was not involved in any aspect of the crime and that Jimmy Martin's police interview was not credible. Billy's trial was delayed because of covid-19 and has not been rescheduled. It's not yet known if Scherrer will testify.

But when it happens, Deborah, Marion will be there seeking final justice for her son. And also hoping to restore his reputation as a hometown hero, this boy was just love and he just loved that sight. He just saw personality. If you was good to him, he was great to you, that's for sure.

That's all for this edition of Dateline. We'll see you again Thursday at 10:00, 9:00 Central. And of course, I'll see you each weeknight for NBC Nightly News. I'm Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News, good night.