A Mississippi grand jury looked at the evidence in the case of Nolan Wells’s death. The national chorus of race-baiters did not.
Twenty-three jurors in Jackson County heard from 43 witnesses and reviewed the state autopsy, the family’s hired pathologist, phone forensics, GPS data, and the sheriff’s file. They returned a no true bill.
Nolan Wells’ body, they wrote, was found in a position, condition, time, and place “consistent with drowning.” There was no fatal injury and no organic disease, and no credible evidence that anyone who rode the Triton, the Palm Beach, or the Tideline committed a crime tied to his death.
After 132 subpoenas + testimony from 43 witnesses… the Nolan Wells grand jury’s conclusion?
> All markers of accidental drowning
> Zero evidence indicating foul play
> White friends totally exoneratedThere were 5 black jurors https://t.co/2tFpSNdY3d
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) September 22, 2026
District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath said there was “absolutely no evidence” the disappearance was racially motivated.
The report called attacks on Wells’ friends “malicious” and “false,” noting that he was not the only Black person on Horn Island that day, and said he chose to stay behind after a boat problem. McIlrath added that Nolan loved those friends and they loved him.
Do people like Goldberg and Hostin owe the people of Mississippi an apology?
A witness told the panel Wells slipped awkwardly off a boat around 3:30 p.m. on July 4, then kept socializing and did not appear injured. Jurors said bruising on the back of his head was not fatal and they could not say with certainty that the fall caused it.
That is the record. Here is what the industry sold instead.
Sunny Hostin told “The View” the case had “racial undertones” because it happened in Mississippi and Wells was “the only black kid on an island full of kids that were white.” Whoopi Goldberg piled on.
Al Sharpton stood with the family. Ben Crump ran the familiar civil-rights template. The Congressional Black Caucus demanded a Justice Department review and floated a possible civil-rights investigation.
An 18-year-old football player’s friends were treated as suspects in a racial killing they did not commit. Some of them later called Hostin “moronic” and put her on notice of a possible defamation suit.
Crump’s response to the grand jury was the usual complaint that Mississippi is “attempting to close the chapter” without “the truth,” and that the result leaves “more questions than answers.” Grief is not a crime. Turning a drowning into a televised lynching narrative before the evidence is in is something else.
When every tragedy is immediately branded racism, the word stops meaning anything useful. It would be worth naming and fighting when it actually appears instead of crying wolf. Stunts like this make that harder and cause nothing but divide.
Cry wolf long enough and the village stops coming. Then, when a real wolf shows up, the warning sounds like another booking segment.
McIlrath said outsiders and influencers tried to exploit the death to divide a community. She did not have to name “The View,” Sharpton, or the caucus. They heard “Mississippi,” saw a photograph, and reached for 1964. A grand jury reached for the file containing the facts.
Should a dead teenager become a fundraising script before the jurors even sit? Absolutely not, it is an insult to Wells’, his family and friends.
Wells drowned on a holiday island. That is already unbearable for a mother. It did not require a racial overlay that a sworn jury panel has now called empty.
They made accusations first, now the evidence has answered.
Unfortunately, however, they will not apologize. They never do.
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