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Nolan Wells' Family Says the Evidence Doesn't Add Up · The Breakfast Club

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: What really happened to Nolan Wells? His death was ruled
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: a drowning, but now his family attorneys say the state's
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: own autopsy raises questions about that conclusion.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: There's no water in the stomach. There's no water in
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: the lungs. There's no water in the throat. And yet,
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: the grand jury, what they want to determine is an
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: accidental drowning.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: And they say messages were deleted from Nolan's phone after
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: he died.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: But I could tell you from a digital standpoint, things
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: were deleted on the phone from the time he last
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: had the phone up until the time that his parents
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: got the phone.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Today, we're taking a closer look at the evidence, the
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: unanswered questions, and why Nolan's family says this case is
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: far from over. It's Monday, September 28th. From the Black
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Effect Podcast Network, I'm Amy Brown. This is Front Page,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: and here are the day's biggest stories. Stay with me.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: A week after a Mississippi grand jury decided no one
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: would be charged in the death of Nolan Xavier Wells,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: his family's legal team is laying out new evidence. And
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: they say it raises serious questions about what happened on
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Horn Island. At a news conference, civil rights attorney Ben
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Crump and his team released two new findings, findings from
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Nolan's cell phone and details from the state's autopsy report.
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: Attorney Park.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: So I'm going to talk about how we got to
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: today with the presentation of the extraction of Nolan Wells'
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: cell phone. And the reason why we're going to address
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: this is because This became a big controversy. It was
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: filled with misinformation and a lot of assumptions.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: On September 21st, the Jackson County District Attorney announced a
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: grand jury found no credible evidence of criminal conduct. The
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: grand jury said Nolan's death was consistent with drowning, and
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: the District Attorney, Angel Myers-McGillrath, said Nolan chose to stay
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: on the island. But Nolan's family does not accept that explanation.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: And now they have new evidence that deserves a closer look.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Let's start with Nolan's cell phone. Digital forensic expert Andrew
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Garrett examined the phone for the family. He says the
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: data shows Nolan's phone stayed on the boat and that
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Nolan last used it around 2.18 that afternoon.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: Then the boat stayed on Horn Island, and you can
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: see here it says device enters lock state. That means
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: he clicked the button to lock the phone. Phone unlocked
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: and application activity resumes at 2.17 p.m. That is when
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: Nolan was last using his phone. We have about 2.18.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: In order to do that, by our calculations, he was
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: on the boat when that happened.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: But Garrett said the activity did not stop there. He
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: says there were interactions with Nolan's phone after Nolan last
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: used it.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: The extraction we made of the phone also includes messages
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: after Nolan was dead. That is up until the time
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: we collected the phone. The individuals that are part of
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: this chat group continued talking after he was dead, not
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: understanding that their messages were also syncing onto Nolan's phone.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: So we have the messages up and through the date
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: and time we collected the phone. And this goes on
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: until the parents come and pick up the phone at
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: about 3 a.m. in the morning, roughly.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: And that's important because it appears to conflict with what
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: the district attorney said. After the grand jury decision, the
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: DA said a preliminary review indicated no one other than
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Nolan's family had accessed the phone and nothing had been
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: deleted since Nolan last used it. Nolan's parents have said
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: from the beginning that when they got his phone back,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: they believed messages were missing.
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: Elmore and I have read through the report page by
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: page more than once. What we have learned is that
• 4:20
  Speaker 5: we still have no answers. And the report reinforced the
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: fact that Nolan was not given a thorough, transparent, and
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: honest investigation. There is no explanation as to how the
• 4:34
  Speaker 5: bruising on his body and the blunt force trauma to
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: the back of his head occurred. So my question is,
• 4:42
  Speaker 5: how can a jury come to the conclusion of drowning
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: despite knowing that there was trauma to his body, and
• 4:52
  Speaker 5: despite hearing many inconsistencies, Elmore and I do not believe
• 5:02
  Speaker 5: that Nolan simply and accidentally drowned.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Now to the state autopsy. Both the state autopsy and
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: the family's independent autopsy listed Nolan's cause and manner of
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: death as undetermined. But the grand jury said his death
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: was consistent with drowning. Crump's team says the findings in
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: the state's own autopsy do not support that conclusion. Here's
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: attorney Liza Park.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: Lungs.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: No fluid or debris is within the airways. GI tract.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Unremarkable.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: The stomach is empty. What this means is that there's
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: no water in the stomach. There's no water in the lungs.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: There's no water in the throat. And yet, the grand jury,
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: if you read through that, especially at the end, what
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: they want to determine is an accidental drowning. But this
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: is their own medical examiner's report.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: And there's another issue the family wants explained, the trauma
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: found on Nolan's body. The state autopsy found two bruises
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: on the back of Nolan's head, each about two inches.
• 6:27
  Speaker 6: Apply your common sense.
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: This is blunt force trauma to the back of the head.
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: I mean, when you barely bump your head, it causes
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: you to be dazed. Can you imagine impact that causes
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: Two inch length, two inch width, contusions, bleeding.
• 6:50
  Speaker 6: It's significant. We have reason to believe that this could
• 6:55
  Speaker 6: be a factor, a significant factor into what happened to
• 7:03
  Speaker 6: Nolan Wells and how he ended up unalive.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: But the district attorney is standing by the investigation and
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: the grand jury's decision. Angel Myers-McGillrath says neither the state
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: medical examiner nor the family's independent pathologist ruled out drowning.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: She's also disputing the way Crump's team is describing the
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: cell phone, saying there is no evidence someone physically went
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: into Nolan's phone and deleted messages. She's saying if Crump's
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: team has evidence showing a crime was committed, they need
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: to turn it over. A grand jury declined to bring charges,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: and the district attorney says there is no credible evidence
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: of a crime. But Nolan's family say they still want
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: answers about what happened on Horn Island, what happened to
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Nolan's phone, and ultimately, what happened to their son. Nolan
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: Xavier Wells was 18 years old. His family says they
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: will keep fighting until they believe they have those answers.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: That's your front page. I'm Mimi Brown. This podcast was
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: brought to you by the Black Effect Podcast Network.