A Mississippi grand jury has declined to indict anyone in the July death of 18-year-old Nolan Wells, and the district attorney handling the case used the announcement to deliver a pointed rebuke to the civil rights attorney representing the teen’s family.
Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath said Monday that there is “absolutely no evidence” to support claims that Wells’ death was racially motivated, according to NBC News. The 23-member panel returned a “no true bill” in the case, voting unanimously, WLOX reported. Her office posted a redacted copy of the grand jury’s report to Facebook and released a video statement.
“Nolan’s friends loved Nolan, and Nolan loved them,” McIlrath said. “Nolan chose to stay on the island that day, and there is not a scintilla of evidence to contradict that.”
Wells was found dead on Horn Island in July. The case drew intense national attention as online speculation about the circumstances of his disappearance and death spread rapidly, with some voices — including high-profile civil rights figures — suggesting the teen, who is Black, had been harmed by the white friends he was with that day.
A direct shot at the Crump team
The district attorney aimed much of her statement at attorney Ben Crump, who represents the Wells family. McIlrath said Crump’s team had previously told her office that its own review found no indication 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, a nationally known civil rights lawyer, had posted an image in July asking, “What if the roles were reversed?” In the wake of the grand jury’s decision, he insisted the outcome does not resolve the question of how Wells died.
“This grand jury result leaves us with more questions than answers,” Crump said in a statement. “Nolan’s family will not rest until we know what happened to him, and neither will we.”
What the grand jury reviewed
The scope of the panel’s work was substantial. Jurors reviewed phone forensic reports and GPS logs, issued 132 subpoenas, and heard testimony from 43 witnesses, according to WLOX.
The state medical examiner and a pathologist retained by the family both listed the cause of death as undetermined. According to CBS News, the report found that the “position of, condition of, time of discovery, and location of Mr. Wells’ body is consistent with drowning.”
Both examiners documented a bruise on the back of the teen’s head, but concluded it did not cause his death. A witness testified that Wells took an awkward fall from a boat but appeared uninjured afterward.
The grand jury’s report also addressed the swirl of online accusations directed at Wells’ friends, calling those allegations false.
“There was never any doubt. They are terrific people,” Edward Andrew Paltzik, an attorney for the friends, told TMZ.
Pressure from outside the courtroom
The case had become a fixture in national commentary well before the grand jury finished its work. In August, the Rev. Al Sharpton suggested that a Democrat-led House should subpoena the police officers who concluded there was no foul play.
“Black boy go out with three white kids, three white kids come back,” Sharpton said at the time — a framing that the district attorney’s Monday remarks directly rejected.
McIlrath’s statement was notable not only for its conclusion but for its willingness to name Crump and his team, effectively arguing that the lawyer’s own investigators had reached the same conclusion the grand jury later did.
The case may not be closed
Despite the no true bill, the grand jury’s report left a door open. It noted that Mississippi has no statute of limitations for homicide prosecutions, meaning the case could be presented to a different grand jury if credible new evidence emerges.
That procedural detail gives the Wells family and their attorney a potential avenue to keep pressing for answers, even as the district attorney’s office signals it considers the matter resolved. For now, the panel’s unanimous vote stands as the most definitive official judgment in a case that has generated far more speculation than documented fact.
The dispute over the case’s handling also reflects a broader tension that has played out repeatedly in recent years: high-profile attorneys and activists amplifying local deaths into national causes, while local prosecutors push back against what they characterize as outside interference built on unverified claims. McIlrath’s “knew better but did not do better” line lands squarely in that argument.
Crump’s statement, meanwhile, suggests the family’s effort is far from over. Whether any new evidence materializes — and whether it would be enough to convene a second grand jury — remains an open question.
Wells was 18 when he died. The grand jury’s report, released in redacted form, represents the fullest official account of what investigators found during the weeks they spent examining his final hours on Horn Island.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/09/22/da-says-crump-team-knew-better-as-grand-jury-declines-nolan-wells-charges/