Three individuals charged with threats against judge, witness and officials in Nolan Wells death probe
Federal authorities have charged three people with making threats toward a judge, a witness and local officials involved in the investigation of 18-year-old Nolan Wells' death, which occurred after a July 4 boat trip off Mississippi’s Gulf Coast.
Federal prosecutors have filed charges against three separate individuals for threatening a judge, a witness and local officials linked to the investigation of Nolan Xavier Wells, an 18-year-old who was found dead after a July 4 boat outing near an island off Mississippi’s Gulf Coast. None of the accused appear to have known Wells, his family or the boating group, and the threats emerged amid public scrutiny of the case.
According to an affidavit, Edward James Porter of Illinois called an unnamed witness on July 31 and threatened to kill the witness and their family, later telling another person in Mississippi that he would “cut them up and put them into a suitcase.” Porter was charged in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi on July 31.
Porter allegedly threatened two members of the family of Bart Edminston Jr., a 21-year-old who assisted the group’s boat. Family attorney Russell Latino said one of those family members is a witness in the Wells investigation.
Michelle Francine Edwards, an Ohio resident, was charged for allegedly making bomb threats to the George County Chancery Clerk’s Office and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office on July 23, including 21 calls in which she warned “the clock is ticking.”
Joseph Alfredo Vasquez Dumarce, a California man, faced charges on July 14 for sending a Facebook message that threatened to mail a bomb to a Jackson County Chancery Court judge involved in the case. Judge Ashlee Cole posted a screenshot of the message on Facebook on July 9 and later said she had deactivated her account out of concern for her family’s safety.
Attempts to contact the defendants for comment were unsuccessful, and some contact information listed in the affidavits was either inactive or unanswered. An independent autopsy commissioned by Wells’ family listed the cause of death as “undetermined” pending further investigation.