Attorneys for the parents of Nolan Wells said the family has not refused to cooperate with the Jackson County District Attorney’s Office despite not turning over the 18-year-old’s cellphone to local law enforcement, according to a letter from the family’s lawyer.
In a letter dated Aug. 13 and posted on the website of attorney Ben Crump’s firm, Mississippi attorney Ahmad R. Smith said the family agreed during a July 15 meeting with Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath and Crump to “a jointly coordinated forensic examination of the phone that would include the use of the Digital Forensics Lab at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College as well as possible FBI involvement.”
Smith wrote that his office contacted the DA on July 25 while traveling abroad and planned to reconnect upon return. He said a letter sent to Eric Hertz on Aug. 12 that set a deadline for the Wonsleys to deliver the phone by Aug. 14 at 9 a.m. was “not practicable for a number of reasons,” and that the parties never agreed to simply deliver the device to the DA’s office.
Smith told McIlrath the parties have not yet agreed on a forensic protocol covering the scope and method of the examination, chain of custody, preservation of the extraction, access to resulting data, and return of the device. He asked the DA to send a proposed protocol and said the family would schedule the examination “as soon as that protocol is agreed on.”
Wells was reported missing July 4 after he did not return from an outing with friends on Horn Island off the Mississippi coast. His body was found on the island’s shoreline on the morning of July 6, and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department has been working with other agencies, including the FBI, on the investigation, the sheriff’s office has said. The Mississippi State Medical Examiner completed an autopsy and toxicology report and sent the results to the Jackson County district attorney, authorities said. The DA and local law enforcement have asked the public to be patient as the investigation continues, while social media speculation and racially charged accusations have circulated widely online.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
