Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath said Monday there is “absolutely no evidence” that the death of Mississippi teen Nolan Wells was racially motivated, after a grand jury declined to indict anyone in the case.
The grand jury returned a “no true bill” in the 18-year-old’s July death on Horn Island, the prosecutor announced in a video statement, NBC News reported. Her office posted a redacted copy of the report to Facebook.
“There is absolutely no evidence to support the allegations that Nolan’s disappearance and death were racially motivated,” she 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.”
The district attorney then turned to Ben Crump, the civil rights attorney representing the Wells family. She said his team had previously told her office its own review turned up no sign that Wells was the victim of a crime.
“I’m not suggesting that a grieving mother police the rumors surrounding her child’s death,” she said. “What I am suggesting is that the Crump team knew better but did not do better.”
Crump had posted an image in July asking, “What if the roles were reversed?”
The 23-member panel voted unanimously, according to WLOX. Jurors reviewed phone forensic reports and GPS logs, issued 132 subpoenas, and heard from 43 witnesses.
The state medical examiner and the family’s pathologist both listed the cause of death as undetermined. The report found the “position of, condition of, time of discovery, and location of Mr. Wells’ body is consistent with drowning,” CBS News reported.
Both examiners documented a bruise to the back of the teen’s head that did not cause his death. A witness testified that Wells took an awkward fall from a boat but seemed uninjured.
The grand jury called the online allegations against Wells’ friends false.
“There was never any doubt. They are terrific people,” Edward Andrew Paltzik, an attorney for the friends, told TMZ.
Crump insisted the decision did not settle how the teen died.
“This grand jury result leaves us with more questions than answers. Nolan’s family will not rest until we know what happened to him, and neither will we,” the civil rights attorney said in a statement.
Al Sharpton suggested in August that a Democrat-led House should subpoena police who said there was no foul play.
“Black boy go out with three white kids, three white kids come back,” the activist said.
The grand jury’s report noted that homicide carries no time limit for prosecution in Mississippi, and the case could go before another grand jury if credible new evidence surfaces.
