Grandview man found not guilty at trial for 2019 fatal shooting of child’s grandfather

A Grandview man charged with murder in the 2019 shooting of his child’s grandfather was found not guilty at trial earlier this month in Jackson County Circuit Court.

A jury on April 8 found Terrance Wright, 25, not guilty of second-degree murder after he claimed self-defense in the fatal shooting of 49-year-old Benson Lewis on Nov. 23, 2019.

According to police, the shooting occurred during a custody dispute involving Wright, his daughter and Lewis, the maternal grandfather, in front of a residence in the 7900 block of East 117th Street.

During the dispute, Wright shot Lewis twice. Lewis’ wife drove him to a hospital in Wright’s car, and he was pronounced deceased.

Wright was arrested at the scene and told police the shooting was in self-defense.

He was booked into jail the day of the incident and remained there for more than a year awaiting trial. His bond was set at $250,000 cash, an amount he could not raise, according to his attorney, Sara Christensen.

When the case went to the jury, the jurors took less than an hour to acquit Wright, Christensen told The Star Thursday.

During the 17 months Wright was behind bars, he lost his job at a car assembly plant, he said. Since his release, he found out it would cost hundreds of dollars to get his car released from police impound.

That’s money he doesn’t have, making it harder to get a job.

“For now, I’m trying to play catch up and get at least to where I was,” he said.

In 2019, 20 homicide cases went to trial, resulting in 19 guilty verdicts, according to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office’s annual report.