Mississippi DA defends Nolan Wells investigation as dispute over cellphone evidence grows

McIlrath says her office stands by its findings while Crump’s team continues raising questions about the evidence.

The Mississippi DA is criticizing Ben Crump over claims about evidence recovered from Nolan Xavier Wells’ cellphone. She says that the information she released about the investigation was “true and accurate” and accuses Crump’s team of creating a “misleading public narrative.”

The dispute comes days after a Mississippi grand jury declined to recommend criminal charges in the death of Wells, an 18-year-old Black college student whose body was found after a July 4 boat trip to a Mississippi barrier island. According to The Sun Herald, the grand jury said his death was consistent with drowning, while both the state and independent autopsies listed the cause and manner of death as undetermined.

At a Thursday news conference, forensic expert Andrew Garrett discussed an examination of Wells’ cellphone and said his team found deleted material. McIlrath disputed the suggestion that someone had physically accessed Wells’ phone after its last known use. “The information I have released to the public is true and accurate, and I stand by it,” McIlrath said in a statement reported by the Sun Herald.

According to McIlrath, the deleted material involved Snapchat activity involving other users rather than evidence that someone physically accessed Wells’ phone. “If there is evidence showing otherwise,” McIlrath said, “Crump’s team has not provided it to the district attorney’s office.” She also disputed Garrett’s description of the material provided to prosecutors. McIlrath said her office did not receive the complete 30-hour cellphone download discussed. “The 30-hour digital download that Mr. Garrett discussed during the press conference today was never provided to the state as Mr. Garrett suggested,” she said. “All that was provided to us were two emails containing around 300 pages of selected findings from Nolan’s cell phone.”

She accused Crump’s team of waiting until shortly before the grand jury proceedings to conduct its private cellphone examination. “The Crump team made a decision to wait until the 11th hour to do a private phone extraction and only provide the Grand Jury with certain portions of the results,” McIlrath said. “That is not the State of Mississippi failing to be thorough in its investigative efforts, that is the Crump team making strategic choices to control the public information on Nolan’s phone and create a misleading public narrative.”

The DA directly challenged Ben Crump to identify what evidence he believes points to criminal conduct. “Mr. Crump, why are you asking the public to ask us, what was deleted?” McIlrath said. “Which alleged snap deletion do you claim is related to Nolan’s death, Mr. Crump?” She continued: “What witness or piece of evidence on the phone or otherwise supports what you keep claiming, Mr. Crump? Tell us.”

The disagreement also extends to the physical evidence. McIlrath said the state medical examiner and independent pathologist Dr. Roger Mitchell reached the same conclusion on the cause of death, apart from disagreement over whether Wells had superficial, nonfatal bruising. “In fact, both the State Medical Examiner and Dr. Mitchell arrived at the same conclusion,” she said.

The DA’s statement became particularly pointed when she addressed Ben Crump personally. “My interactions with Mr. Crump, as well as his conduct in this case, have demonstrated that he is not worthy of our trust,” McIlrath said. She ended by challenging Ben Crump’s team to provide any new evidence they believe establishes that Wells was murdered. “Again, if the Crump team genuinely has new information or evidence that Nolan Wells was murdered they should stop playing games and immediately provide it to me.”