No felony expenses in dying of Nolan Wells, grand jury finds

A grand jury won’t pursue expenses within the dying of Nolan Wells, the native district lawyer stated Monday, forcefully rejecting months of hypothesis that race performed a task within the dying of the Mississippi teen this summer season.

District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath made the announcement in a video message, saying the grand jury returned a “no true invoice,” that means it didn’t discover ample proof to indict anybody with against the law. {A partially} redacted copy of the grand jury report was additionally posted to the DA’s Facebook web page.

Wells, 18, was with friends celebrating July Fourth and was final seen on Horn Island, a barrier reef off Mississippi accessible solely by boat. His physique was discovered on the northwestern tip of the island on July 6, his household’s lawyer stated.

“There is completely no proof to assist the allegations that Nolan’s disappearance and dying had been racially motivated,” Myers McIlrath stated. “Nolan’s pals cherished Nolan, and Nolan cherished them. Nolan selected to remain on the island that day, and there’s not a scintilla of proof to contradict that.”

The household’s lawyer, civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, beforehand known as into query whether or not race was a think about Wells’ dying, because it appeared Wells was one of some Black individuals there that day.

On Monday, Myers McIlrath took direct intention at Crump and his group, saying in addition they beforehand knowledgeable her workplace that they’d discovered no proof against the law had been dedicated towards Wells.

“I’m not suggesting {that a} grieving mom police the rumors surrounding her little one’s dying,” the DA stated. “What I’m suggesting is that the Crump group knew higher however didn’t do higher.”

Crump’s group didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark early Tuesday. However, he posted on his official Instagram account a short assertion noting: “No True Bill Does Not Resolve How Nolan Wells Died.”

“The public nonetheless deserves a transparent account supported by data, proof and impartial scrutiny,” Crump added. “Nolan Wells’s dying nonetheless calls for solutions. No true invoice mustn’t imply no additional questions.”

The grand jury issued 132 subpoenas and heard from 43 witnesses, and 7 individuals had been invited to testify earlier than the panel, in line with the partially redacted report.

It was made up 23 grand jurors from a “cross part of residents” from Jackson County aged between 27 and 68, it stated. Among them had been 13 males and 10 girls, together with “12 Caucasians, 5 African Americans, one Asian, two Hispanics, two Native Americans, and one particular person who most well-liked ‘different,’” it stated.

“The grand jury finds no credible proof to assist the general public allegations that any individuals who rode to or from Horn Island on July 4, 2026 … engaged in any felony conduct associated to ​the dying of Mr. Wells,” stated the grand jury report launched by McIlrath’s workplace.

Wells was final seen someday within the afternoon of July 4. Friends informed police they needed to depart early because their boat started taking on water however that Wells selected to remain and catch a experience again later with others.

The grand jury report discovered that it was widespread for individuals on Horn Island to “socialize on boats and within the water,” and that it was “common or suspicious” for individuals to return from the island on completely different boats.

It concluded there was no proof that Wells had any kind of bodily altercation or argument with anybody the day he was final seen. It added “that the place of, the situation of, time of discovery, and site of Mr. Wells’ physique is in keeping with drowning.”

Crump and Wells’ household have beforehand rejected notions that he drowned, saying he was athletic and a superb swimmer. An impartial post-mortem commissioned by the household’s authorized group discovered that {the teenager}’s trigger and method of dying had been “undetermined.”

The state’s chief medical expert and a forensic pathologist retained by Wells’ household each “opined that the trigger and method of Mr. Wells’ dying is undetermined and that drowning is a analysis of exclusion,” in line with the grand jury report. It famous, nevertheless, that neither has dominated out unintended drowning as a trigger.

Wells’ funeral on July 20 attracted lots of of individuals.

“Your absence has left an vacancy that may by no means actually be crammed,” his mom, Christine Wells-Wonsley, stated on the time. “In a planet that may typically really feel darkish, be like Nolan, be the sunshine that brightens the lives of these round you.”