There’s a vigil Wednesday night in Mississippi to mark the birthday of Nolan Wells. The teen who was found dead after being left on a island would have been 19 years old.
Transcript
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Today would’ve been Nolan Wells’ 19th birthday. Wells, a Black teenager, was found dead on an island just off the Mississippi coast over a month ago. He and his friends were celebrating July Fourth when he went missing. His friends returned home to Ocean Springs, but Wells’ body was found on Horn Island two days later. Tonight, friends, family and the community are gathering to remember Wells on his birthday while the investigation into his death continues. Elise Gregg with Mississippi Public Broadcasting and the Gulf States Newsroom has been following the story and is with us now. Hi.
ELISE GREGG, BYLINE: Hi there.
SUMMERS: Elise, just tell us a bit more about how people are remembering Nolan Wells today, on his birthday.
GREGG: So folks are holding a prayer rally in Biloxi this evening at Greater St. John AME Church. They’re holding a service tonight. And prayer is really being emphasized as the core of the evening. I spoke with Pastor Jamal Bryant ahead of the rally. He’s the pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia, and the keynote speaker for tonight. He honed in on the fact that they don’t want this to be a political rally.
JAMAL BRYANT: We’re not pointing fingers at people, but we’re lifting our hands towards God. We don’t want this to be lost in a partisan conversation. We really just want justice for the family. And we want closure for the family.
GREGG: The criminal investigation is ongoing, but investigators still haven’t shared any updates or findings.
SUMMERS: I mean, Elise, it’s been more than a month and no word from authorities?
GREGG: No, not at all. That’s right. I’ve been checking in with the district attorney and the sheriff’s offices, and they’re still not sharing anything. In fact, Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath had done a press release just yesterday. It’s the first release she shared in nearly a month. She reiterated that she doesn’t have the freedom to share information and details from the investigation, and that she can’t control what other people may share from the investigation. She also mentioned letters that she can’t share but that other people have posted. That’s likely a reference to letters exchanged between her office and attorneys for the family regarding a review of Wells’ cellphone.
SUMMERS: Now, the attorneys have shared some of those letters with you. Tell us what they say.
GREGG: So Wells’ cellphone has not yet been examined. When Wells’ body was discovered, he didn’t have his phone on him. His parents had tracked it to a friend’s house, and his parents have the phone now. And there’s been a bit of a back-and-forth with investigators. They just don’t want to turn the phone over to them. And letters show that the family is trying to negotiate a joint forensic examination. Attorneys say that they had an agreement with investigators on July 15 for joint examination. But nothing has happened so far. The district attorney is not commenting. Here’s Lisa Park, an attorney for Wells’ family, in Atlanta last week.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LISA PARK: We are waiting for the DA to determine the time, the place, the date. Let us know, and we are going to be there with our forensics team and anybody else. But it’s done one time, one examination. We’re ready for it to happen.
GREGG: They asked the district attorney to pick a day this week for that examination. It’s not clear whether that’s happened.
SUMMERS: Elise, do you have any sense of the timeline for when more information might be released about this investigation?
GREGG: Unfortunately, no. Officials still haven’t indicated if the investigation is officially complete, although it seems unlikely if they’re still waiting to examine Wells’ phone. Now, we do know that the official autopsy of Wells’ body is complete. But again, they’re not sharing results of that. And an independent autopsy came back with inconclusive results. And the district attorney has indicated that the results of the investigation will go to a grand jury. One of the family’s attorneys, Eric Hertz, told NPR last week that he believes that could happen in less than 30 days. He said that’s based on the timeline of evidence he’s seen. He didn’t say who might be the subject of that grand jury review. But several of Wells’ friends have retained high-profile lawyers in case of wrongful death suits and to potentially file defamation suits.
SUMMERS: Elise Gregg with Mississippi Public Broadcasting and the Gulf States Newsroom. Thanks.
GREGG: You’re welcome.
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