Friend defends man accused of murdering local doctor

FORT MYERS, Fla.- A longtime friend of Curtis “Wayne” Wright, the man detectives say killed Dr. Teresa Sievers, is claiming Wright is innocent.

Jerry Lubinski says he’s known Wright for eight years, and says his friend is not capable of committing murder.

Lubinski last spoke with Wright only four days before Sievers’ death, where Wright told him he was heading out of town to Florida.

“I know darn well he didn’t plunger that woman with a hammer, I know darn well.”

Lubinski says he’s sure detectives have the wrong man behind bars.

“The murder itself, I don’t think, no not being him, especially with a hammer. The way it was done, no I don’t believe Wayne did that.”

Wright is currently in jail, accused of killing Sievers in her Bonita Springs home back in June.

“I’ve never seen any bad side in this man in 8 and 1/2 years that I was around him. I was around him a lot,” said Lubinski.

Thousands of court documents show detectives believe Wright left his Missouri home the morning of June 27, drove to Bonita Springs with his accomplice, Jimmy Rodgers, and murdered Sievers before returning to Missouri on June 29. Their movements were tracked through a GPS in Wright’s rental car, a GPS authorities say belonged to Lubinski.

But despite all the evidence, Lubinski says Wright told him, he never went to Florida, and he believes him.

“He told me he didn’t go because he got sick,” said Lubinski. “The man has never lied to me about anything.”

Lubinski also says Wright installed the alarm system in the Sievers’ home. The alarm was not on when Sievers arrived home the day of her death.