Wright jury to return on Monday

Raleigh | The jury deliberating Thomas Wright’s future has retired for the day and will continue deliberating on Monday.

The jury in Wright’s criminal trial left just after noon to begin considering whether the former lawmaker is innocent or guilty of four felony charges.

Before leaving the courtroom, the jurors heard closing arguments from Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby, who described Wright as a man who helped people from his community but began to take the wrong path in his political career.

“I believe when you come back out, you’ll look Thomas Wright in the eye and with your verdict, you’ll say, ‘How could you?’” Willoughby said to the jurors. “’How could you do this, you were an elected official?

“’You could have been speaker of the House; you could have been governor of this state. How could you throw it all away? Where did you go wrong?’”

Wright is accused of misleading a bank to get a $150,000 loan when he tried to buy a building on North Fourth Street to house offices for his nonprofit health foundation and to develop a museum about the 1898 Wilmington race riot. The bank eventually foreclosed on the bank when loan payments ran behind, and the museum has not been developed.

Prosecutors say Wright also deposited $8,900 in corporate contributions to that nonprofit in his personal bank account.

Wright’s attorney, Doug Harris, finished his closing statements to jurors shortly before 11 this morning.

Harris argued that several things did not add up in the fraud case against his client.

Harris attempted to plant doubts in jurors’ minds about why they were hearing a case in which most of the transactions and players were in New Hanover County and not Wake County, the site of the trial.

“Sometimes the state goes after somebody, and they will use all their power. That’s what’s happening here,” Harris said. “The evidence in this case shows that Thomas Wright has been set up.”

Jurors have been listening to evidence since Monday in the case and could return a verdict today.

If convicted of all four charges, Wright could face almost 10 years in prison.

Check back later for more on this developing story.

Vicky Eckenrode: 343-2339

vicky.eckenrode@starnewsonline.com