Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath said she cannot publicly share certain details of the investigation into the death of 18-year-old Nolan Wells and urged the public to allow the legal process to proceed, in a statement released late Tuesday.
Attorneys representing Wells’ parents have pushed back on claims that they have failed to cooperate with the district attorney’s office, and said the family has not turned over the teen’s cellphone to local law enforcement since his body was found on Horn Island on July 6, the attorneys said.
In her statement, McIlrath said she does not have “the freedom to release letters I’ve sent in this investigation, discuss witness cooperation, or the testing of evidence. I do not have the freedom to identify what information is verified and what information is false,” adding that she cannot “publicly adopt a narrative and choose one fact over another.”
McIlrath said she also cannot control whether private individuals release letters or other information, or whether that information is shared in context or “twisted, or misconstrued.” She wrote that “public commentary does not make the speaker transparent, just like exercising restraint consistent with the law does not make the process corrupt.”
McIlrath said prosecutors are held to “the highest ethical standard under the law” and that she would be stepping outside legal bounds if she filled what some perceive as a public information void. “My obligation and commitment is to present the Grand Jury with all the evidence collected in this case in order for them to reach a decision based on a thorough investigation, complete evidence presentation, the actual truth, and an understanding of the law,” she said.
She concluded that there is nothing more to share at this time, cautioned the public about “assigning trustworthiness to things they read and see online,” and asked people to “step back, allow the process to work and allow us to do the job we were elected to do.” McIlrath said she will present the grand jury with a “thorough, complete, and fair investigation into the death of Nolan Wells.”
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
