Ben Crump releases phone data after Mississippi teen death grand jury ruling
Civil-rights attorney Ben Crump disclosed forensic data extracted from the cellphone of 18-year-old Nolan Wells on 25 September, after a Jackson County grand jury concluded that no criminal conduct was involved in the teenager’s July drowning on Horn Island, Mississippi. The autopsy report, released earlier, showed no water in Wells’ lungs or stomach and indicated that data had been deleted from his phone after he disappeared. The Mississippi State Medical Examiner classified the death’s cause and manner as undetermined, echoing a prior private autopsy.
The grand jury, on 21 September, returned a no-true-bill, finding insufficient evidence for criminal charges and describing the death as consistent with an accidental drowning. The family later released the final text Wells sent before his body was recovered, continuing to question the drowning conclusion.
