Now that a grand jury has decided there's no merit for criminal charges in the death of 18-year-old Nolan Wells over the Independence Day weekend, Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers-McIlrath is unloading on Ben Crump, the race-baiting celebrity "civil rights" attorney hired by Wells' family to raise suspicions about the teen's friends.
True to form, Crump got the story into the headlines by insinuating there was a racial element to the teen's death; Wells was black and many in the friend group with him that day were white. A 23-member grand jury decided last week there was zero proof that racism played a role in Wells' death, concluding that it was, in fact, "consistent" with a drowning.
McIlrath now says that Crump and his team privately admitted in August that there was "no evidence of a crime being committed against Nolan Wells," but nonetheless proceeded to spin "false narratives," such as the fallacy that medical examiners "withheld Nolan’s lungs and stomach when his body was released" to the family for a private autopsy.
"All lies, and they knew it," she said of the rhetoric pushed by Crump and the Wells family.
“The Crump team knew better, but allowed the public to believe, among other false narratives, that our medical examiners withheld Nolan’s lungs and stomach when his body was released, that things had been deleted off of Nolan’s phone before it was given back to his family, that I refused to cooperate with the examination of Nolan’s cell phone, that I refused to provide Nolan’s autopsy results to the family,” District Attorney Angel Myers-McIlrath said. “All lies, and they knew it.”
In a video released Monday, the DA said that "outsiders and influencers have attempted to exploit Nolan’s death to divide and create chaos" through their “hateful rhetoric and vile speculation.”
She continued, “The narrative that three white boys and a black boy went to an island, and only three white friends returned spread like wildfire. This was false. There is absolutely no evidence to support the allegations that Nolan’s disappearance and death were racially motivated.”
McIlrath pointed to one important clue that Crump and the Wells family failed to make public: CCTV footage showed Nolan purchasing his own alcohol before the July 4 party, and he used a fake ID because he was underage.
“But that fact they chose not to share with the public,” she said. “What I am suggesting is that the Crump team knew better but did not do better."
A Mississippi DA is torching Ben Crump's team after a grand jury cleared Nolan Wells' friends of any wrongdoing in his death — revealing that Crump's own office privately told prosecutors back in August it had "no evidence of a crime being committed against Nolan Wells."
— Fox True Crime (@FoxTrueCrime) September 22, 2026
That… pic.twitter.com/kyoRYlx4Xb
A Mississippi DA is torching Ben Crump's team after a grand jury cleared Nolan Wells' friends of any wrongdoing in his death — revealing that Crump's own office privately told prosecutors back in August it had "no evidence of a crime being committed against Nolan Wells."
That admission came after Crump's team conducted its own independent autopsy and reviewed hundreds of tips. Yet the racially charged narrative that "3 white boys and a black boy went to an island and only 3 white friends returned" continued to spread online for months.
The grand jury of 23 members — including White, Black, Hispanic, Native American, and Asian jurors — found the death consistent with drowning and called the public allegations against the boat occupants "not based in truth." Now an attorney for the accused friends says they plan to pursue accountability against those who "exploited tragedy to divide and injure."
As RedState reported earlier Tuesday, the grand jury – after pouring over physical and digital evidence, cell phone information, photographs, videos, GPS data, maps, investigative reports, and other evidence – concluded no crime had taken place.
A GoFundMe set up for the Wells family on July 6th has raised nearly $900,000 to date.