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JACKSON COUNTY, Miss. (BFMG) — Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath is forcefully defending the investigation into the death of 18-year-old Nolan Wells, accusing attorneys representing his family and others of allowing what she called false narratives to spread as a grand jury declined to indict anyone in connection with the case.
McIlrath released an extensive statement Tuesday after a Jackson County grand jury unanimously returned a “no true bill,” meaning jurors did not find sufficient evidence to support criminal indictments in Wells’ death.
Wells disappeared July 4 after traveling with a group to Horn Island, off the Mississippi Gulf Coast. His body was discovered in the water two days later. Both Mississippi’s chief medical examiner and an independent forensic pathologist retained by Wells’ family ultimately classified the cause and manner of his death as undetermined. Evidence presented to the grand jury was found to be consistent with drowning, though accidental drowning was not conclusively established as his cause of death.
In her statement, McIlrath said the grand jury’s role extends beyond deciding whether someone should be prosecuted.
“In addition to bringing prosecutions against the guilty, the grand jury must also exonerate those who have been falsely accused,” McIlrath said.
The district attorney said jurors represented a cross-section of the Jackson County community and reviewed an extensive investigation before reaching their decision. According to the grand jury report, jurors considered witness testimony, physical and digital evidence, GPS information, cellphone records, videos and investigative reports. The Associated Press reported that 43 witnesses testified and 132 subpoenas were issued during the investigation.
DA rejects allegations of racial motivation
McIlrath devoted a significant portion of her statement to addressing claims and speculation that Wells’ death may have been racially motivated.
Wells was Black, and the circumstances surrounding his disappearance drew national attention, including scrutiny from civil rights advocates and attorney Ben Crump, whose team represents Wells’ family.
McIlrath said investigators and the grand jury found no evidence supporting allegations that Wells was the victim of a racially motivated crime. The grand jury similarly reported finding no credible evidence of racial motivation or criminal conduct by people who traveled to or from Horn Island that day.
McIlrath said one narrative that circulated publicly suggested Wells had traveled to the island with only three white friends and that those three returned without him.
She said that characterization was inaccurate.
According to McIlrath and the grand jury findings, Wells traveled to Horn Island with a larger group and interacted with additional friends while there. The grand jury concluded that Wells chose to remain on the island after some members of the group departed for the mainland.
McIlrath said there was “absolutely no evidence” that Wells’ disappearance or death resulted from racial hatred or violence.
McIlrath takes aim at Crump legal team
The district attorney also sharply criticized Crump’s legal team, alleging its attorneys possessed information that contradicted some claims circulating publicly but did not adequately correct those narratives.
Those assertions are McIlrath’s account of interactions between her office and the Wells family’s attorneys.
McIlrath said the family and its attorneys were shown evidence July 15 that Wells had purchased his own alcohol. She further alleged that on Aug. 13, members of the Crump legal team told her office they had found no evidence that a crime had been committed against Wells.
The grand jury report says Wells purchased alcohol himself using a fake identification and found no evidence that an adult in the group supplied it to him.
McIlrath accused the legal team of continuing to allow allegations of criminal or racially motivated conduct to circulate despite what she said attorneys privately knew about the evidence.
“What I am suggesting is that the Crump team knew better but did not do better,” McIlrath said.
Crump and Wells’ family have continued to dispute whether the investigation has fully answered what happened to Wells. Following the grand jury decision, they pointed to injuries found on Wells’ body and said they continue to have questions surrounding his death. Crump has called for further investigation, including potential federal involvement.
Dispute over Nolan Wells’ cellphone
McIlrath also addressed controversy surrounding Wells’ cellphone and denied allegations that prosecutors refused to cooperate in examining it.
According to McIlrath, Wells’ family received possession of the phone early July 5 and retained control over it.
She said her office agreed during a July 15 meeting to participate in a mutual forensic examination of the device under conditions established by the family.
McIlrath said a planned joint extraction was later canceled after privately retained forensic examiners began conducting their own extraction of the phone.
According to the district attorney, her office subsequently received a 14-page preliminary report and was told the complete extraction data would be delivered, but she said her office never received the promised full extraction or a complete report.
McIlrath said the family’s attorneys eventually provided a 282-page selection of cellphone reports after the grand jury had convened and that jurors considered those records.
She said a preliminary forensic review indicated the phone had not been accessed by anyone other than Wells’ family after his last use and that nothing had been deleted since Wells last used the device.
Independent pathologist given access
McIlrath also rejected suggestions that her office blocked the independent investigation commissioned by Wells’ family.
She said Dr. Roger Mitchell, an independent forensic pathologist working with the family, was invited to Mississippi and given access to the investigative file and physical evidence.
According to McIlrath, Mitchell traveled to Mississippi from Aug. 30 through Sept. 1, visited Horn Island, reviewed relevant GPS locations, examined Wells’ preserved internal throat structures at the state forensic laboratory and requested additional tissue slides.
McIlrath said those slides were later shipped to Mitchell and that he subsequently testified before the grand jury.
Both Mitchell and Mississippi’s chief medical examiner ultimately listed Wells’ cause and manner of death as undetermined, according to the grand jury findings. Jurors said injuries documented on Wells’ body were not determined to be fatal.
DA denies withholding autopsy findings
McIlrath also denied allegations that Wells’ family was prevented from obtaining information from the state autopsy and toxicology testing.
She said she attempted to contact Wells’ mother after receiving the results and later discussed them with one of the family’s Mississippi attorneys.
McIlrath distinguished between sharing information with the family and releasing confidential investigative material publicly, saying legal restrictions prevented her from responding in detail while the investigation remained active.
She said that silence allowed allegations about the investigation to gain traction publicly while prosecutors were restricted in what they could disclose.
A personal message about losing a child
During the statement, McIlrath also spoke personally about the grief associated with losing a child.
McIlrath said she took office as district attorney a little more than a year after burying her own child and acknowledged the desire of grieving parents to find answers and understand why their child died.
She said Wells’ parents should be given “grace and space to grieve,” while drawing a distinction between the family’s grief and what she described as the conduct of attorneys, influencers and others who publicly advanced unsupported allegations.
McIlrath said online speculation surrounding the case resulted in threats and harassment against witnesses, public officials and people she said had no connection to Wells’ death.
She called on state and federal lawmakers to consider constitutionally permissible legislation addressing threats and other harmful conduct associated with online misinformation while preserving protected speech.
Family says questions remain
The grand jury’s decision has not ended the Wells family’s pursuit of answers.
The family and Crump have focused in part on bruising and other injuries documented during Wells’ autopsies, arguing that significant questions remain about exactly what happened before his death. The independent and state examinations were unable to establish a definitive cause or manner of death.
McIlrath, meanwhile, said the evidence presented to the grand jury did not establish that anyone committed a crime against Wells.
The case is not permanently barred from further consideration. Mississippi has no statute of limitations for homicide, and the grand jury report states that the matter can be presented to another grand jury if credible new evidence emerges suggesting Wells’ death was not accidental.
McIlrath said her office’s position throughout the investigation has been that the evidence — rather than public pressure or competing narratives — must determine the outcome.
“This is and has always been a search for the truth,” McIlrath said.
