Family calls for federal review; district attorney defends investigation
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump on Thursday released forensic data from the cellphone of Nolan Wells and cited the official autopsy report in challenging the Mississippi grand jury’s conclusion that the 18-year-old Black college student’s death was “consistent with drowning.”
Crump, appearing with Wells’ parents and their legal team, said a forensic examination had tied messages on the teen’s phone to its location from the day before he went missing through the time his family recovered the device. He did not release a full report of all the messages sent and received in the days leading up to and the day of Wells’ death.
The grand jury, which convened last week, had access to 282 pages of Snapchat conversations from Wells’ phone, according to the panel’s report and Crump. The panel found no evidence of criminal conduct and concluded that Wells had not been in a fight or altercation while on Horn Island.
At the heart of Crump’s challenge is the official autopsy report, which Crump’s team received late Wednesday. The autopsy said Wells’ airways and stomach were empty. “What this means is that there is no water in the stomach, there is no water in the lungs and there is no water in the throat,” Wells’ family attorney Liza Park said at the press conference.
Both the official and independent autopsies noted fresh bruising on Wells’ head. The grand jury said it could not determine whether a fall caused the bruising but concluded it was not a fatal injury. Both autopsies said the cause of death could not be determined, and Crump and Wells’ parents questioned how the panel could determine Wells had probably drowned when the autopsies could not determine a cause of death.
A witness testified before the grand jury that he saw Wells slip awkwardly off the side of a boat around 3:30pm on July 4 but continued to socialize afterward and did not appear injured, the panel’s report said.
Crump highlighted the contents of messages recovered from Wells’ phone, saying they revealed concern among his social circle about conditions on Horn Island. “The messaging, as I said, was very telling … some of his own friends were concerned about [how] people on Horn Island can be racist,” Crump said.
Forensic examiner Andrew Garrett said GPS and other phone data showed Wells had opened his device with his face while on the boat around 2:17pm. The phone was then locked and continued to receive messages as it traveled on the boat, then by car, before being returned to Wells’ family.
Wells’ parents and their attorneys have voiced suspicion that friends left the island without him after he said he wanted to stay behind and talk to a girl. His phone was on the boat that took him to the island, and his family and their attorneys have expressed doubt that he would choose to stay behind without his phone.
Wells’ body was found on Horn Island two days after the July 4 boat trip. The high-profile death in a deep south state with a history of racial tension has sparked rampant speculation and suspicion. State and local officials, along with several of Wells’ white friends who had become the target of that speculation, had hoped that the grand jury report would quell critics.
Attorney Edward Paltzik, who represents some of Wells’ friends who have been the subject of speculation, said it was unclear what new information the cellphone analysis revealed. “They never had the phone,” Paltzik said of his clients.
District attorney Angel Myers McIlrath said in a statement released after the press conference that she stood by the investigation.
Wells’ family and their legal team have publicly criticized the grand jury report and have been working to keep the investigation open. They have asked federal authorities to look into the events surrounding Wells’ death and have called for transparency, asking that the grand jury investigative materials and the official autopsy report be publicly released.