Demanding justice

By Stephen Oduntan

Contributing Writer

INGLEWOOD — With Mississippi authorities closing their criminal investigation into the death of 18-year-old Nolan Wells without filing charges, his family and civil rights attorney Ben Crump are now demanding that the FBI and Justice Department conduct an independent investigation into how the college student died.

Wells disappeared July 4 during a boating trip with friends to Horn Island, part of the federally administered Gulf Islands National Seashore off the Mississippi coast. His body was recovered two days later. Both Mississippi’s medical examiner and an independent forensic pathologist retained by the family listed his cause and manner of death as undetermined.

The appeal brought Wells’ parents, Christine Wells-Wonsley and Elmore Wonsley, to Center of Hope Church Oct. 5, where Crump argued that unanswered medical questions remain despite a Jackson County grand jury’s decision not to bring criminal charges.

“When you think about the fact that there is so much that screams out that we should not close this investigation, that we should keep asking questions,” Crump said. “We should keep dotting every I and crossing every T.”

The grand jury found that the position and condition of Wells’ body, along with the time and location of its discovery, were consistent with drowning. It also found no credible evidence that anyone who traveled to or from Horn Island with Wells engaged in criminal conduct related to his death.

Crump and Wells’ family contend that conclusion does not resolve how the teenager died.

Crump pointed to blunt-force injuries documented on the back of Wells’ head and what he described as the absence of water in the teenager’s throat, lungs and stomach.

The grand jury report acknowledged bruising on the back of Wells’ head but said the injuries were not fatal. According to the report, a witness testified that Wells slipped awkwardly from the side of a boat earlier that day, although the witness could not say whether Wells struck his head. The witness said Wells continued socializing afterward and did not appear injured.

The grand jury also found no evidence that Wells was involved in a physical altercation that day.

“Both of them have noted cause and manner to be undetermined, meaning they don’t know,” Christine Wells-Wonsley, Wells’ mother, said of the two autopsies.

She questioned why investigators did not do more to resolve the unanswered questions and said her family has been left with “more questions and heartbreak than any answers.”

“It is our plea that his case is reopened, re-examined,” she said.

The family’s effort has increasingly shifted toward federal authorities because of where Nolan’s body was found.

During the Oct. 5 news conference, Crump read from a letter by U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Florida, requesting a “prompt and exhaustive investigation” into Wells’ death by the National Park Service.

Horn Island is federally administered as part of Gulf Islands National Seashore, and Wilson asked the National Park Service’s Investigative Services Branch to examine the circumstances surrounding Wells’ death and pursue every available lead.

Crump said the Congressional Black Caucus and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, have joined calls for federal intervention. Waters had been scheduled to attend the news conference but was unable to appear because of what Crump described as unforeseen circumstances.

Crump said the Congressional Black Caucus asked the FBI to intervene 54 days ago and that the family is still waiting for a response.

Asked how much confidence he has in the current Justice Department and FBI to conduct the thorough investigation he is demanding, Crump said the family’s right to federal scrutiny should not depend on who controls those institutions.

“We are taxpayers. We are American citizens, and the federal government has to do for us what they would do for any other American citizen,” Crump said. “If the roles were reversed, whatever you would do for them, we want you to do it for us as well.”

Crump also pointed to another recent case in which, he said, persistent public pressure eventually resulted in authorities opening an investigation.

“They kept asking questions. They kept the pressure on, and finally they got an investigation open,” Crump said.

He argued that Wells’ family deserves the same response.

“We want the same thing done for Nolan Wells,” Crump said. “Let’s open an investigation to help us get to the truth — the truth of what happened to Nolan Xavier Wells.”

The push for federal intervention comes after an extensive state-level investigation.

The Jackson County grand jury reviewed testimony from 43 witnesses and evidence obtained through 132 subpoenas before unanimously declining to return indictments.

Its report addressed allegations that had circulated publicly about Wells’ final hours, concluding there was no credible evidence that he was involved in a physical altercation or that others on the boating trip engaged in criminal conduct connected to his death.

But the absence of criminal charges has not established precisely how Wells died.

The independent autopsy, conducted by forensic pathologist Dr. Roger A. Mitchell Jr., documented blunt-force injuries and left the cause and manner of Wells’ death undetermined. Mississippi’s medical examiner likewise classified the cause and manner as undetermined.

That unresolved medical determination remains at the center of the family’s argument for another investigation.

Cynthia Choi, executive director of Stop AAPI Hate, joined the family at Center of Hope Church and called for a “full and thorough federal investigation.”

“When a family is denied truth and when anyone seeking justice is met with closed doors, intimidation instead of answers, this fight belongs to all of us,” Choi said.

Choi also condemned what she described as harassment and intimidation directed at the family as they continued pressing authorities for answers.

For Elmore Wonsley, the question is ultimately whether another investigative agency will take up a case Mississippi authorities consider closed.

“Today, I am asking the people whose job it is to serve and protect to keep their word to our family,” Wonsley said. “Our son was found on federal land, and we are asking the FBI to step in and do a full investigation.”

“We’re not asking for special treatment,” he added. “We’re asking for what any father would do for his child, and that’s to find the truth of what happened to his child.”

Stephen Oduntan is a freelance writer for Wave Newspapers.