Nolan Wells, an 18-year-old Mississippi community college football player, disappeared on July 4, 2026, after traveling with friends by boat to Horn Island, near the state's coastline. His friends returned to the mainland without him, saying Wells had chosen to remain on the island, but his family disputed that account.
A search began after he was reported missing, and his body was found in the water near Horn Island on July 6. Authorities initially suspected drowning, but both the state medical examiner and an independent pathologist ultimately listed the cause and manner of death as undetermined.
Wells' family continues to question what happened during his final hours, but a grand jury has found there was no evidence to bring charges against Wells' friends, who are white. The grand jury also debunked public assertions that Wells was the only black person on Horn Island on July 4.
A grand jury is a group of citizens empowered by law to review evidence, investigate crimes, and decide whether a prosecutor has enough proof to bring formal criminal charges against someone. Unlike regular trial juries, grand jury meetings are closed to the public. Only the prosecutor, witnesses, and the jurors themselves take part. There is no judge presiding over the room, and the target of the investigation usually does not present a defense or have a lawyer present.
Angel Myers McIlrath, the district attorney overseeing Wells' case, rejected the narrative pushed by activists like Al Sharpton and Ben Crump that Wells' death was racially motivated and that this was a case of another young black man denied justice by a racist and corrupt system.
April Chapman of the Project 21 Black Leadership Network personally travelled to Mississippi and met with individuals involved with the case.
"Immediately, I was one of the first voices to highlight that this was a political attempt, a part, in my opinion, of this consorted effort by the Democrat Party to use the same tactics that they used in Jim Crow, but the faces of the individuals have changed," she tells AFN. "They do it to retain the political power that is waning, particularly in a lot of these red states."
Crump's claims against Jax Pitalo, Morgan Seymour, and Warren Hudson, the friends publicly identified as being with Nolan Wells immediately before he disappeared, have been disputed, and the attorney has since focused heavily on alleged blunt-force injuries.
Just ahead of the midterm elections, Chapman says it is all about stirring up blacks to vote for Democrats.
"Ben Crump and Al Sharpton expected white America to bow down and just take it, either write a check or be the scapegoats in their racial villain story, but the opposite happened," she said.
"Unless you rise up and fight back like these three young men are fighting, along with their families, this is going to continue to happen," Chapman adds.
