OCEAN SPRINGS, MS (GC Wire) — A newly acquired letter from an attorney representing the family of Nolan Wells confirms that, more than five weeks after the teenager’s death, the long-discussed forensic examination of his cellphone still had not taken place.
The August 11 letter was sent to Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath by attorney Ahmad R. Smith, who announced that his firm, A.R. Smith Law, PLLC, had been retained as local counsel for the Wells estate and family and would work alongside Ben Crump’s legal team.
The letter is dated just a day after GC Wire reported on social media allegations that Wells’ family had not turned the cellphone over to investigators and that a previously announced plan for a joint forensic inspection had apparently never been carried out.
Smith’s letter pushes back against suggestions that the family has been uncooperative.
But in doing so, it also confirms a critical part of those reports: the forensic examination was still something the parties were attempting to arrange as of August 11.
“We have been—and remain—ready and willing to cooperate in arranging a joint forensic inspection of Nolan Wells’ personal cell phone,” Smith wrote.
Smith said the parties had previously discussed conducting the examination through the Digital Forensics Lab at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, along with the possibility of FBI involvement.
“Our position has not changed,” Smith continued. “We are prepared to coordinate a mutually agreeable date and procedure for the examination of the phone.”
That language is significant because it places the proposed forensic examination squarely in the future tense more than a month after Wells disappeared during a July 4 trip to Horn Island.
Smith then directly addressed the growing public controversy over the family’s cooperation.
“Accordingly, to the extent there has been any suggestion that we have been unwilling or have failed to cooperate with the investigation, we want to make clear that this is not the case,” he wrote.
THE PHONE QUESTION ERUPTS
The letter comes after two separate reports raised questions about whether investigators had actually obtained forensic access to Wells’ phone.
On August 10, Ocean Springs attorney Tyler Cox, who represents three of the young men who were with Wells on Horn Island, made the allegation publicly during an appearance on Dan Abrams’ SiriusXM program.
Cox said he had reason to believe the family had not provided investigators with the phone.
“I do not think that they have turned in Nolan’s phone, and I’m willing to bet my reputation on that,” Cox said.
He then stated even more directly: “[Investigators] do not have Nolan’s phone.”
Journalist Sarah J. Fields separately reported that a source with knowledge of the investigation told her the phone had not been surrendered to authorities more than a month after Wells’ death.
Neither allegation had been publicly confirmed by law enforcement at the time.
Now, the August 11 letter provides the first documentary indication that the forensic examination discussed weeks earlier had, at minimum, still not occurred.
A DEAL ANNOUNCED WEEKS EARLIER
That is particularly noteworthy because the public was told weeks ago that an agreement had been reached over how the phone would be examined.
Following a July meeting with McIlrath in Pascagoula, Crump announced that the parties had discussed a joint forensic process in which experts representing both sides could participate in examining the device.
The arrangement was important because the cellphone had already become one of the central pieces of the family’s public narrative surrounding Wells’ death.
Wells’ mother, Christine Wonsley, initially raised concerns during a July 10 Good Morning America appearance because her son, a frequent Snapchat user, apparently had no new Snapchat stories or saved media from the Horn Island trip.
That relatively narrow observation quickly expanded.
Family attorneys subsequently told media outlets that some text and Snapchat messages appeared to have been deleted.
Days later, Reverend Al Sharpton went considerably further during an interview with TMZ.
“All of his photos, text messages, everything on the phone had been erased,” Sharpton said.
That sweeping assertion was made before any publicly disclosed independent forensic examination of the device.
The August 11 letter now establishes that the joint forensic examination discussed with prosecutors was still awaiting coordination weeks later.
WHAT THE LETTER DOES, AND DOES NOT, ESTABLISH
Smith’s letter does not establish that the Wells family outright refused a demand from law enforcement to surrender the cellphone.
In fact, Smith expressly disputes any suggestion that the family has been unwilling to cooperate.
What the letter does establish is narrower, but significant.
As of August 11, the family’s own attorney was still asking the District Attorney’s Office to coordinate “a mutually agreeable date and procedure for the examination of the phone.”
That means the forensic process publicly discussed weeks earlier had not yet been completed.
It also raises an obvious unresolved question surrounding one of the most explosive allegations made during the case:
If the phone had not yet undergone the contemplated joint forensic examination, what forensic evidence formed the basis for public declarations that “all” of Nolan Wells’ photos, text messages and other data had been erased?
Smith’s letter does not answer that question.
It does, however, make clear that the examination capable of helping answer it was still waiting to happen.
A SECOND UNRESOLVED ISSUE
The letter also reveals another unfinished matter involving the family’s independent autopsy review.
Smith wrote that McIlrath had previously indicated Dr. Mitchell would be given an opportunity to review materials necessary to complete his autopsy review.
“We remain prepared to facilitate that process,” Smith wrote, asking the District Attorney’s Office to provide available dates, times and instructions for Mitchell’s access.
Smith closed by saying the family wanted to move both matters forward promptly.
“We would like to move both of these matters forward promptly and remain available to coordinate with your office,” he wrote.
The letter therefore presents a considerably more complicated picture than either side of the public debate has suggested.
The family’s new local attorney maintains that his clients have been cooperative and remain prepared to make the phone available for a mutually coordinated forensic examination.
At the same time, the letter confirms that the examination had still not occurred by August 11, despite the cellphone having played a central role in national allegations surrounding Wells’ death for approximately a month.
For weeks, the public debate centered on what supposedly had been erased from Nolan Wells’ phone.
The newly released correspondence reveals that a more fundamental question remained unresolved:
Had anyone independently examined it yet?
As of August 11, the answer appears to have been no.
