No criminal charges will be filed in the death of Nolan Wells.
Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath announced Monday that a grand jury unanimously found that there was no evidence to support bringing criminal charges connected to the Ocean Springs native’s passing. Wells was discovered deceased by a park ranger on Horn Island on July 6. He was 18 at the time of his death. Before being found dead, he was last seen on July 4, when he visited the barrier island with a group of friends.
The grand jury found that the cause of his death, according to evidence reviewed, is consistent with drowning.
The move not to pursue criminal charges against those who were with Nolan the day he disappeared followed the grand jury assessing physical evidence, witness testimony, GPS data, and cellphone footage linked to the case.
Wells, who is Black, visited Horn Island with several white friends on Independence Day, sparking rumors that his death was racially motivated. Civil rights activist Al Sharpton referenced the killings of Emmett Till and Medgar Evers when speaking at Wells’ funeral. Both Till and Evers, who were killed in Mississippi as a result of racial violence, are widely considered icons of the U.S. civil rights movement.
McIlrath, however, said a diverse grand jury found no evidence of any foul play, let alone racially malicious intent, when reviewing the circumstances surrounding the Ocean Springs native’s death. The district attorney further asserted that bad actors had drawn up a false narrative to divide the Mississippi community where Wells grew up for personal gain.
“The death of Nolan Wells has devastated our community. Outsiders and influencers have attempted to exploit Nolan’s death to divide and create chaos here. But we are better together,” McIlrath said in a 15-minute video. “The narrative that three white boys and a Black boy went to an island, and only three white friends returned, spread like wildfire. This was false … There is absolutely no evidence to support the allegations that Nolan’s disappearance and death were racially motivated.”
The suspicion of foul play largely stemmed from the fact that Wells’ friends returned to the mainland without him. The 18-year-old’s friends told investigators that Wells elected to remain on the island when they decided to leave. He reportedly notified them that he would catch a ride with someone else. A source who grew up in Ocean Springs told SuperTalk Mississippi News that it is not uncommon for someone to go to the barrier islands on one boat and return to the mainland on another.
McIlrath said the grand jury’s findings aligned with the testimony of Wells’ friends. She added that, after an independent autopsy had been conducted to determine the manner and cause of Wells’ passing, Ben Crump, the civil rights attorney the deceased’s team hired in response to Wells’ death, admitted that his team found no evidence of a crime being committed.
“Nolan’s friends loved Nolan, and Nolan loved them. Nolan chose to stay on the island that day, and there is not a scintilla of evidence to contradict that,” McIlrath said. “The family, the crime team, and anyone close to Nolan knew that his disappearance and death were not the result of racial hate or violence. Yet the flames of that narrative, set against the backdrop of Mississippi’s terrible history, were fanned by both people who knew the truth and those who didn’t.”
The district attorney contended that her office fully cooperated with Wells’ attorneys and gave them ample opportunity to share any independent findings with the grand jury. McIlrath alleged that while she was not able to comment publicly on the case as the investigation played out, Crump’s camp knowingly and willfully misled the public, despite knowing that the narratives being perpetuated online as a result of his words did not match up with what the attorney knew to be factual.
Specifically, McIlrath said Crump’s camp allowed the public to believe that her office withheld material crucial to an independent assessment of Wells’ body, that her office obstructed a mutual examination of Wells’ cellphone, and that her team kept the autopsy and toxicology report away from Wells’ family. McIlrath provided 17 pages of correspondence between her office and Crump’s team, aimed at debunking rumors of negligence by her office to both cooperate with Crump’s team and handle the investigation professionally and above board.
“What we have seen in Nolan’s case, where lives and reputations have been damaged, is reprehensible. People have suffered. Public offices have been harassed. Witnesses, public officials, and others who are completely unrelated to this case have been subjected to threats of harm and intimidation by an angry mob.”
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Crump had not publicly addressed McIlrath’s comments at the time of publication, but did weigh in on the grand jury’s decision. In a social media post, Crump said the decision does not resolve how Wells died.
“The public still deserves a clear account supported by records, evidence, and independent scrutiny,” Crump wrote. “Nolan Wells’ death still deserves answers.”