The family of Nolan Wells is withholding his cellphone as it negotiates with law enforcement over its investigation. Wells family attorney A.R. Smith
Kingfish note: Uh-huh. Get a warrant, seize the phone.
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45 comments:
I agree, Kingfish. "Willing to cooperate"....well, that would mean handing over all possible evidence in the case, now wouldn't it.
Occam's Razor = He drowned while intoxicated. Case closed.
You don't negotiate with evidence. F--k them. Tell them to deliver the phone or get ready to be arrested.
What sort of Mickey Mouse department didn’t get this right after it happened?
subpoena?
Even if he drowned while he was drunk - liability extends to all in his orbit.
Code for “we don’t trust you!”
Sad
RMQ
"Even if he drowned while he was drunk - liability extends to all in his orbit."
That is the most ignorant/stupid/goofy comment I've read.
@kf…Get a warrant for what? There is no probable cause of a crime.
6:46…. what? How can you get so much wrong in such a short comment?
Funny how the 30 days it takes for messages and photos to be deleted do they come forward to share the phone. It;s obvious that the Wells/Wonsley family are only interested in results that will fit their narrative.
A warrant for the phone seems justified. 4th Amendment does not apply to dead people. Mom could object if part of her cell account, seems unlikely to be a successful objection.
Warrants? We ain't got no warrants. We don't need no warrants. I don't have to show you any stinkin' warrants.
Why am I getting ideas that finding out the truth is falling second place to getting the most publicity? When the family wanted an independant autopsy I began to felt this family does not believe the local judicial system will really look for answers. Through press conferences and new counsel it sure seems that finding out what happened to Noland is not as important as getting publicity for some reason. Besides, is this really a national-level story that requires network news?
They milked the ignorant people of their $20 and now,….
I guess if it wasn’t a crime, the phone isn’t evidence. Case closed.
It should be obstruction of justice to block phone from police. I know a girl who drowned at a school swim party & no one saw it u til it was too late. She was in a swimming pool and NO alcohol was involved . Family was distraught but accepted it without blaming others as an accident
Nothing shaking on Shakedown Street
Used to be the heart of town
Don't tell me this town ain't got no heart
You just got to poke around
Gary Bufkin used the estate to conduct discovery for a wrongful death case - a questionable practice.
Now he’s out, in favor of a black attorney from Jackson. I can’t say I didn’t see this coming, and can’t say he didn’t have it coming.
Of course, if investigators actually get into the phone, it could torpedo the story Crump’s been selling that Nolan’s friends erased data from it, presumably to cover up their own wrongdoing.
This is a shakedown and a scam. Who gets to negotiate a phone when you are accusing people of murder?
Whole lotta bullshit.
“All in his orbit” that day were White boys that 6:46 desperately wants to be guilty.
This letter is stonewalling, while try to place the responsibility for doing so on someone else.
The entire Crump & Co. operation reeks of bad faith.
These people want to have their racist narrative cake and eat it too
9:11, I don't know Mr. Bufkin or anything about him, but isn't the estate required to gather assets, including claims to be made by the estate? Hence, using the estate case to discover facts seems reasonable.
RMQ
The family cannot have it both ways. They cannot claim there was a crime committed, which would thus entail an investigation, and then subsequently withhold the phone, which hinders and obstructs said investigation. This is a shitshow wrapped in race-baiting stupidity.
If the white kids were refusing to hand over the phone, what would the mob have to say?
The "family" and their attorney should be ashamed to design bait for growing a go-fund-me that looks a whole lot like selling their son's death.
No offense intended to the fine folks at MS Gulf Coast CC, but I wouldn't agree to give the cell phone to them - chain of evidence and all that. The sheriff should tell the family to give the phone to the FBI since the sheriff's department only wants the truth and is not engaged in a racial vendetta.
The people who desperately want this to be murder will justify anything Crump and team does as rational.
And they will also label any typical investigation event, or behavior the boys display as a racist cover up of murder.
There is no intelligence in the room.
Just grifters.
May that poor boy rest in peace while his family makes a mockery of his life.
@7:01 exactly just ignore them and let the grand jury decide. If they want or need the evidince they can get it.
Who has custody of the phone? Distrust cuts both ways.
Shame on those of you who are accusing a grieving family of using the tragedy of losing their son for some kind of publicity stunt. Praying that no parent should lose their child like this or in any other way. If there are those who are guilty of any action that led to this situation, may they reap appropriate punishment. But, in the meantime, SHUT UP about Nolan’s parents. Surely we are better than this. Surely.
7:20 a.m., In Mississippi, a wrongful death case is not a chancery court matter. The claim belongs to the wrongful death beneficiaries, not the estate.
I was initially wondering why they even opened an estate for a 19 year old with (presumably) no assets, and no will.
It turns out it was to conduct discovery for an un-filed case over which the chancery court doesn't even have jurisdiction. Circuit court has jurisdiction over wrongful death cases.
If my son were found dead, 10:56, I would want the authorities to discover AND MOST IMPORTANTLY. let them do their job without turning it into a public show. Grieving the loss of a child is one thing -- using the death and lead nightly news and make unproven claims turns the child from a loss into a martyr. I grieve the loss of this bright young man and the great things he would have done. I do not grieve how this has become a chance for the "look at me" paraiahs to use it for their egos...
Can you pass what you posted here onto “the community” or does that go against “community codes”?
Why can't applicable authorities just issue a subpoena, and CLONE THAT PHONE? The murder shows are always showing someone's phone being cloned - from the Provider's end - without physical possession of the phone.
I want to see the unedited data dump, from before all the @#$k-pics got deleted (just the legal ones, of course). I want to READ the nasty messages one assumes they were all sending to each other. The family and the lawyer and the preacher have insinuated so much, I think we all deserve to know the WHOLE truth, and not just the parts they want to CHERRY-PICK-FOR-PROFIT.
So 10:56, If your son was a young (white) boy who happened to be on that boat you'd be ok with Nolan's mom hiring an attorney and making national headlines that accused your son of murder?
You'd be ok with your son's reputation being ruined for what you deem an acceptable way for a mom to grieve?
Cool.
The rest of us sane people are heart broken over this (by all accounts) amazing young man's death and we are also not blindly excusing the aftermath now that it seems Crump and mom were so wrong.
We wanted factual justice from the beginning.
Yall wanted murder and now that you are not getting it, you are saying grief excuses ALL of the poor behaviors.
I do blame Crump for preying on this grieving woman, but your take to tolerate any behavior from a parent that lost a child is simply wrong.
@10:56, you were a Chokwe voter, weren't you? If not, you should find your "community". They are the ones that cannot discern when someone is not acting in good faith; a hustler. That's a curse that it seems is getting more entrenched every day.
10:56 If it sounds like a duck; then it is a duck!
Who has Crump and Sharpton accused of muder? They are fighting for answers that the local police department won’t give them except for the local official saying no foul play was involved case closed and everyone knows it’s bullshit. If these attorneys had not gotten involved there would be no answers to how this kid died. Just another black kid dead who the fuck cares one less mouth on the welfare. . All these parents are asking for is transparency which they clearly have not gotten. I certainly don’t blame them for not turning over the phone!
2:16: There was that picture of the pool party Crump publicized, and strongly suggested that it was taken the night of July 4, when the date stamp was a week prior, which he said proves that Nolan was killed onshore and then transported back to Horn Island by his "friends."
Stop pretending to be deaf to bigots' dog whistles.
And just because you don't blame them for not turning over Nolan's phone to the investigating authorities, or even the FBI, while simultaneously screeching for "transparency," that certainly does not make it reasonable.
August 13, 2026 at 2:16 PM, the continued cry from that racist camp is justice for Nolan. That, without any explanation at all, demands a guilty party that must pay the cost for Nolan's death. The continued cry from the racist camp is that Nolan's white friends are the guilty parties.
3:22 Where is the transparency from the authorities or his friends that left him on the island. We wouldn’t even be having this conversation right now if they were being transparent! Why should they give up the phone to authorities that will not give them any answers in the first place? I wouldn’t trust them either!
4:54, What exactly do you claim Nolan’s friends haven’t been transparent about? They all submitted to interviews by the investigating authorities, allowed their boats to be searched, and the gps data downloaded.
And didn’t the Jackson County DA publicly state that they could not release any of the investigative information until it was presented to the Grand Jury? Presenting a “case” to the grand jury, when no one has even been charged with a crime, isn’t “transparent” enough for you?
I think you need to look up the word “transparency.” Hint: it does not mean giving you what you want, when you want it.
@2:16 If you are referring to the Sheriff , he never said "no foul play was involved case closed". When they recovered Nolan's body he said "there was no indication of foul play but they would fully investigate". You will note, that's the same thing the "independent" autopsy said. Nolan's mother just claimed the false statement as a quick pretext to call Crump and Sharpton and start this fiasco. .Nobody in any official capacity ever suggested the case was closed. Crump and Sharpton don't move unless they can create a racial narrative ending in a money payout.
Such a shame this family wants a white kid to be blamed! Mother is too busy making the rounds with the two most racist people in the US
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