Three charged with threatening judge, witness and officials in Nolan Wells case
Federal authorities have indicted three individuals for making threats against a judge, a witness and local officials linked to the investigation of 18-year-old Nolan Wells' death.
Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of Mississippi have charged three people with threatening a judge, a witness and local officials connected to the investigation of Nolan Xavier Wells, an 18-year-old who was found dead after a July 4 boat trip off Mississippi’s Gulf Coast. None of the defendants appear to have known Wells, his family or the boating group, and the threats emerged amid intense public scrutiny of the case.
Edward James Porter of Illinois was accused of calling an unnamed witness on July 31 and threatening to kill the witness and their family, and of telling another person in Mississippi that he would “cut them up and put them into a suitcase.” Porter was charged on July 31 in federal court.
"Porter threatened two members of the family of Bart Edminston Jr., a 21-year-old who knew Wells and helped with the boat," family attorney Russell Latino said, adding that one of the threatened family members is a witness in the investigation.
Michelle Francine Edwards, an Ohio resident, was charged with making bomb threats to the George County Chancery Clerk’s Office and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office on July 23, allegedly calling the clerk’s office 21 times and saying, “the clock is ticking.”
Joseph Alfredo Vasquez Dumarce, a California man, was charged 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.
"No one in our family is trying in any way to impede the investigation or hamper the family and law enforcement’s quest for answers," Cole wrote, noting that her son had cooperated fully with the sheriff’s investigation.
Authorities have not disclosed any arrests or identified suspects in Wells’ death. An independent autopsy commissioned by the family listed the cause of death as “undetermined” pending further investigation. Attempts to contact the defendants for comment were unsuccessful.