Nolan Wells: Grand Jury Finds No Criminal Wrongdoing In Teen’s Death

A grand jury in Mississippi found that there was no evidence of criminal wrongdoing in the death of 18-year-old Nolan Wells. 

According to The New York Times, the grand jury report found that “the position of, the condition of, time of discovery, and location of Mr. Wells’ body is consistent with drowning.” The report noted that Nolan’s cause of death is still undetermined, but the lack of any other clear causes of death made drowning a “diagnosis by exclusion.” 

The report also said that there was no evidence that Nolan Wells’s friend had anything to do with his death. The grand jury consisted of 23 people, five of whom were Black. After meeting for four days, the grand jury reached a unanimous finding. 

On July 4, Nolan Wells went to a party with several friends on a barrier island off the coast of Mississippi. His friends returned home without him, and all his belongings were still on the boat. After Nolan didn’t return home that night, his parents reported him missing. His body was found the next day on the shore of a barrier island. 

From The New York Times:

The grand jury’s report said Mr. Wells and his friends traveled on three boats to Horn Island, and that he and some others chose to remain there to socialize after the boats departed. The names of the people who went to the island with Mr. Wells were redacted in the report released by the district attorney’s office.

One of the questions raised earlier in the case concerned Mr. Wells’s belongings, including his phone, which his friends brought back to the mainland. The grand jury found that it was not unusual for people to return from the island on different boats than they had taken to get there or for their personal items to be sent back without them. Its report said that Mr. Wells’s was not the only phone to return without its owner to the mainland that day.

The report noted, however, that there is no statute of limitations in Mississippi for homicide cases, and that if any evidence emerges suggesting that the death of Mr. Wells was not accidental, it should be referred to the grand jury for consideration.

Nolan Wells’s death spurred many conversations about Mississippi’s history of racism and the violence against Black people that often goes unpunished. A major focal point is that Nolan was the only Black person among his friends. The grand jury report noted that Nolan wasn’t the only Black person at the Fourth of July party that day.

The grand jury report was released on Monday evening along with a video from Jackson County District Attorney Angel McIlrath. “There is absolutely no evidence to support the allegations that Nolan’s disappearance and death were racially motivated,” McIlrath said in the video.

Civil Rights attorney Ben Crump, who’s representing Nolan’s family, sent a statement to NewsOne expressing dismay at the decision and sharing the findings of an independent autopsy.

Crump’s statement said that the independent autopsy conducted by forensic pathologist Dr. Roger A. Mitchell Jr. found that Nolan “sustained recent unexplained blunt force injuries to the back of the head and additional areas of his back.” The statement also noted that the state medical examiner “neglected to take photographs of the back of Nolan’s head.”

“Today, the state of Mississippi is attempting to close the chapter on Nolan Wells’s death without getting to the truth,” Crump said in the statement. “We don’t know how Nolan died, and neither does the State of Mississippi.

Kristen Clarke, General Counsel of the NAACP, also released a statement calling for the state to release the full results of Nolan’s autopsy. 

“The results of the grand jury investigation leave Nolan’s family and the public with far more questions than answers. Make no mistake, we will continue to stand with Nolan’s family and use every tool available in the quest to uncover the full truth surrounding his tragic death,” Clarke wrote. “We urge the District Attorney to continue the investigation, release the full autopsy report from the state’s medical examiner, and make the investigative file public.”

As Clarke notes, there are so many unanswered questions about what led to this young man’s death. It’s frustrating that the investigation seemed to be focused on proving that Mississippi’s not racist and absolving Nolan’s friends. Unless someone comes out with evidence about what led to Nolan’s death, we’ll likely never know, and that’s truly a tragedy for both him and his family. 

Rest in peace, Nolan Wells. You deserved so much more. 

SEE ALSO:

Nolan Wells: Attorney Sends Letters Announcing Potential Civil Suit

Nolan Wells Family To Investigate Distress Call Made By His Friends