A Mississippi grand jury found there was no evidence of criminal wrongdoing in the death of Nolan Xavier Wells, an 18-year-old who died during a boat trip over the July 4 holiday.
The report, compiled by 23 grand jurors in Jackson County unanimously concluded Wells “was not in any physical altercation or argument” during his visit to Horn Island. The grand jury also determined that Wells “chose to remain” on the barrier island after “the boat he arrived on departed.”
When Wells, a Black teenager, did not return home on July 4, his parents reported him missing. His body was found in the water near the island on July 6. Local officials presumed he had drowned, and the grand jury concluded that accidental drowning remains the most likely culprit for his death.
The case sparked deep concern among civil rights activists nationwide who worried Wells’s death may have been racially motivated and that Mississippi authorities were not doing enough to investigate the matter.
In a statement late Monday as she released the grand jury findings, Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath strongly rebutted suggestions that Wells’s death was not an accident. McIlrath accused attorney Ben Crump, who was hired by Wells’s parents to investigate his death, of fanning the flames of racial division in her community.
“There is absolutely no evidence to support the allegations that Nolan’s disappearance and death was racially motivated,” McIlrath said. “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.”
In a statement, Crump said he and Wells’s parents are not satisfied with the grand jury’s findings. Crump said the “state of Mississippi is attempting to close the chapter on Nolan Wells’s death without getting to the truth.”
“We do not know how Nolan died and neither does the state of Mississippi,” Crump said. “Mississippi must keep investigating, and if it will not pursue this to the end, the Department of Justice should.”
At an emotional rally on Tuesday afternoon, Crump’s legal team and Wells’s parents, Christine and Elmore Wonsley, said their investigation into his death would also continue.
“Last night was a reminder that our son’s life does not matter to those who hold positions that are supposed to serve and protect the public,” Christine Wonsley said.
In late July, Wells’s family released an independent autopsy report that discovered “red discoloration” on the back of his head. Crump has demanded that the cause of that apparent injury be investigated further.
In its report, the grand jury concluded that “bruising” was “not a fatal injury.”
Although the grand jury could not determine how that injury occurred, the report states it had received testimony that Wells “awkwardly” slipped off the side of a boat on the afternoon of July 4. But the grand jury added it “cannot say with absolutely certainty that the fall caused this bruising.”
The grand jury report says Wells, who had been consuming alcohol as a minor, and his friends traveled to Horn Island on three boats.
In recent weeks, Wells’s friends have been under intense scrutiny over questions of why they returned to the mainland later that day without him. Wells’s friends were also in possession of his cellphone.
But the grand jury, which included five Black members, concluded “it was not unusual or suspicious for individuals to return from the island on boats they did not travel to on.” It was also common, the grand jury concluded, for people to leave their phones on boats as they socialize in the water.
“Mr. Wells’ phone was not the only phone back to the mainland without its owner,” the grand jury concluded, adding the speculation aimed at Wells’s White friends “are not based in fact and solely the result of public clamor and private malice.”
“We have seen that hate directed at our community based on false narratives, lies, rumors and wildly irresponsible speculation,” McIlrath said.
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