JACKSON COUNTY, Miss. — The Nolan Wells case will be turned over to a grand jury once local authorities finish gathering evidence, attorneys for Wells’s family announced Wednesday, offering the clearest timeline yet in a case that has drawn national attention and a flood of competing claims about what happened to the 18-year-old on Horn Island.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who named fellow attorney Liza Park as part of the family’s legal team, said the family met that morning with Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath and members of her team. Attorney Eric Hertz, who is leading the independent investigation, also addressed reporters. Crump described the meeting with the district attorney’s office as respectful, though largely procedural.
“She shared with the family that there will be a grand jury that she will turn this case over to once they have collected all the information and finished their investigation,” Crump told reporters.
Mutual Cell Phone Inspection Agreed in Nolan Wells Case
As part of the meeting, the family’s legal team and prosecutors agreed to a joint, side-by-side review of Wells’s cell phone data. Hertz, who is leading an independent investigation staffed by former law enforcement and federal agents, said the arrangement is meant to keep both sides accountable to the same evidence.
“So everybody will be able to see at the same time what the cell phone has,” Crump said.
The family’s investigators say they are fielding 50 to 100 calls a day from people who were on Horn Island or who know individuals who were there. Hertz said some callers have been reluctant to speak with local law enforcement directly, and his team is working to get those callers to cooperate with each other so competing accounts can be reconciled.
“Our job is to cut through all the noise and find the truth,” Hertz said. “And the truth needs to be found by unbiased investigation as well as unbiased lawyers.”
Family Pushes Back on Fake Videos and Misinformation
Much of Wednesday’s briefing centered on correcting what the attorneys called a false narrative spreading online, including a widely circulated pool photo the legal team reposted on social media. Crump said reposting content is not the same as confirming it.
“Just because we repost does not mean that we authenticate anything,” Crump said, adding that the team labels reposts clearly and uses them to solicit tips, not to declare facts.
Crump also said AI-generated videos falsely depicting Christine Wonsley, Nolan’s mother, have circulated online — an added strain, he said, as the family prepares to bury their son.
“It’s just God-awful, as they’re grieving and trying to fight for the truth, that they are also having to deal with these fake videos attacking them,” Crump said.
Attorneys also revisited a disputed video Crump’s team had previously described as capturing Wells’s voice. At an earlier press conference, Crump said the footage captured Wells demanding his phone back, quoting him as saying, “Give me my freaking phone, what are you freaking doing?”
Since then, Tracestin Shepherd, an alleged close friend who says he was on Horn Island with Wells that day, has publicly disputed that account, telling Rolling Stone the yelling heard in the video is his own voice from an unrelated altercation, not Wells’s — and that Wells isn’t shown in the video at all, though he says Wells was nearby in the water, out of frame.
Another friend, Jayvon Williams, separately told TMZ he also didn’t believe the voice belonged to Wells. Asked about the conflicting accounts Wednesday, Crump said the legal team is being more careful going forward to frame such details explicitly as unverified witness statements rather than settled fact.
Family Says Communication With Sheriff’s Department Has Been Limited
Christine Wonsley told reporters that direct communication with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department has been sparse since her son’s death. The last contact, she said, was a text message she initiated the previous Tuesday asking for an update.
Hertz told reporters that, in his understanding, Mississippi law entitles crime victims to receive an incident report within roughly 72 hours. That claim goes further than what Mississippi’s Crime Victims’ Bill of Rights actually guarantees: victims have the right to request a copy of the initial incident report, and the 72-hour window in state law applies to receiving a packet on victims’ rights and to reporting deadlines for compensation claims, not a fixed deadline for producing the report itself.
Regardless of the exact statutory timeline, the family said Wednesday’s meeting was, in part, an effort to obtain that report and establish a more reliable line of communication going forward, now that the district attorney’s office has a victim advocate assigned to the case.
“We are working with them to say there needs to be better communication with the clients,” Crump said. As of Wednesday, the family had not received the incident report.
Independent Autopsy Still Pending in Nolan Wells Case
Wells’s body was sent to Washington, D.C., for an independent autopsy, but results were not yet available Wednesday. Crump said he expects preliminary findings “very soon,” likely after the family’s funeral services conclude.
The attorneys thanked Tyler Perry for covering funeral costs and Colin Kaepernick for helping fund the independent autopsy, and said the Rev. Al Sharpton has agreed to officiate the service.
Funeral Set for Monday in Ocean Springs
Christine Wonsley said the homegoing celebration will be held at Centerpoint Church in Ocean Springs, with visitation from 9 to 11 a.m. Monday, July 20, followed by the funeral. A repass celebrating Nolan’s life — rather than a traditional gathering — will follow at the Jackson County Fairgrounds, and former teammates from his high school and middle school playing days have been invited alongside family and close friends.
Wonsley asked anyone planning to protest, including on the day of the funeral, to remain peaceful.
“Nolan would never want any type of violence or anything like that,” she said. “He was not that kind of person.”
She also thanked local officials, including Gautier, Mississippi Mayor Casey Vaughan and State Representative Jeffrey Hullum III, for checking in regularly, and urged Nolan’s friends to look after their own mental health during the ongoing case.
“I know this is a lot,” she said. “It’s a lot for us, and I know you guys are feeling some of that too.”
Crump closed the briefing by reiterating the family’s central demand: a thorough, impartial investigation into how Nolan Wells died.
“His mother and father only want what you would want if this were your son, if this were your daughter,” Crump said. “Nobody’s life should be threatened for seeking the truth, and nobody should be presumed accountable until we have evidence.”
You can view the full press conference here. Follow us for more updates
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