(FULL VIDEO) Attorney Ben Crump Gives HUGE UPDATE on Nolan Wells Autopsy

[00:00:03]Willie D live.

[00:00:06]>> What's up, family? As questions continue to swirl about Nolan Wells's final hours at a Fourth of July party, his loved ones gathered at an emotional farewell.

[00:00:19]And what's up, family? As questions continue to swirl about Nolan Wells's final hours at a Fourth of July party, his loved ones gathered today to say farewell and to urge the public What's up, family? As questions What's up, family? As questions continue to swirl about Nolan Wells's final hours at a Fourth of July party.

[00:01:04]What's up, family? As questions continue to swirl about Nolan Wells's final hours at a Fourth of July party, his loved ones gathered today to say farewell at his funeral and to urge the public to come forward with any information that may assist them in finding out exactly what happened to Nolan. Immediately after the funeral, the family gathered with attorney Ben Crump and Al Sharpton for a press conference to provide a critical update. Check it out.

[00:01:37]>> Let me say that uh be mindful of the fact that these two parents have just funeralized their son and we would hope you respect that. Uh they've just uh got off the phone with Tyler Perry thanking him again for paying for the funeral and now matching me and putting up now a $100,000 reward for anyone that gives information that directly leads to the arrest and prosecution and conviction of someone if a crime was committed. We are committed in Nash Action Network and other organizations.

[00:02:19]I can't let that slide, fam.

[00:02:23]If a crime was committed, a crime was committed.

[00:02:30]There, I fixed it.

[00:02:32]>> Uh to stand for this family. Uh it does not end uh with the funeral. We intend to be vigilant on this local uh investigation and we intend to push as hard as we can to find out what happened. What was this uh cause of this tragedy?

[00:02:55]Clearly the inconsistencies and unanswered questions leaves a serious cloud. Uh, we are not making direct accusations and we don't appreciate those that are making them against Nolan.

[00:03:12]>> I'm making direct accusations.

[00:03:15]Speak for yourself.

[00:03:17]>> Uh, we want the truth and sometimes the truth hurts. Uh, and sometime the truth is also something that is required. So, we'll take your questions, uh, Attorney Ben Crump and I, and, uh, if you have something that is, uh, that you want to ask the family. Again, if you go beyond the boundaries of, uh, what is appropriate, I will stop the question, not the family, because they're not here uh, to be ridiculed. Uh, they are here uh, because they're mourning and they had enough uh, heart to say they would come with us to the press conference.

[00:04:00]just very briefly. I I want to thank Reverend Al Sharpton and National Action Network and Mr. Tyler Perry because we're in a ferocious search for the truth and we know there were hundreds of people on Horn Island.

[00:04:21]Many of them have contacted us saying that they believe that they need to tell the family their truths directly for whatever reasons they said we make.

[00:04:36]>> Okay, I got the reasons. Uh they don't trust law enforcement. call the law enforcement agencies, but we want to tell you all the truth of what we saw or what we videotape or photographs we took. And we believe that everybody should want the same thing, the truth.

[00:05:01]And it is imperative as soon as possible. Do not let time continue to. It's been two weeks now almost.

[00:05:12]Let's intensify. And that's why I'm grateful for the reward. Let's intensify this search for the truth because they have a tendency to sweep things under the rug as time goes by. We don't want too much time to go by when memories get foggy.

[00:05:34]When people start to feel pressure, they heard a law enforcement person say no foul play and they don't feel like if they say anything, it's going to be attacked. No, no. Tell us. We want to evaluate every aspect to be able to give Christine and Elmore answers as to why Nolan Wells is dead and not with us. And so with that, we will take your questions if you have any.

[00:06:08]>> Please identify your outlet and say your name.

[00:06:13]>> Trist Smith from Dayline NBC. First, thank you for allowing us here today.

[00:06:17]I'm praying for your family and I hope you get answers to your questions soon.

[00:06:22]I just wanted to know um family that man said first of all, thank you for allowing us to come in. I'm praying for your family. He's a journalist and for him to speak like that to show such r empathy for a journalist because they see everything.

[00:06:56]>> I ain't got no problem with that.

[00:06:58]>> With the community turnout, the football players, the um state reps, everybody state. What does that mean to you and your family?

[00:07:06]>> That means a lot. Again, that is a testament to who Nolan is and was as a person, how many people he touched. Um, it's also a testament to those who have questioned our parenting. You know, what type of parents we are to all of our children. and we just cannot thank our community enough for rallying around us during this time. Um, also again to Colin Kaepernick, Tyler Perry, um, Byron Allen, like just so much love from places we could have never imagined and and we're just we're grateful.

[00:07:48]>> Thank you, >> Danielle Willis, WJTV out of Jackson.

[00:07:53]And um, again, my condolences as well to you all. We are praying for What would transparency look like to you all? I know we spoke about transparency during the eulogy. What are you hoping and wanting from investigators? The truth. I think that uh we need to hear uh exactly uh by with evidence of what they say happened. Uh, I think that part of what uh in embellished the concerns we had was for someone in law enforcement here to say we see no foul play. Uh, so they're really going to have to show us one way or another where they go from here. The fact is that uh you cannot convince many of us given the un unanswered questions, cell phones, stuff taken off the cell phone, uh keys, all of which was at first denied uh and no one turned they did not come to the family. The family started missing him and searching for him. Uh all of that does not add up. So what we would want to see is something that adds up to saying truth, not adds up to just some loosely connected stories.

[00:09:12]>> The the only thing I would add to Rean Al's uh answer to your question, what is transparency to us? It is truly having a fair and impartial investigation as if Nolan the facts were reversed. I It's inescapable. You know, people often talk about, you know, well, you all keep interjecting race. Well, y'all know in every situation that is a identifier when you're talking about matters. You know, we hear black-on-black crime. We you they it's inescapable. And so we want to really be able to say to this family, but to America, it was a fair investigation. Everything they did had the roads being reversed racially where they had three young black men and a white man died after being on the boat.

[00:10:13]You have his cell phone. Those are the things that we're searching for. Did you search their phones? You know, you we talking about Nolan's phone. Those are the questions that transparency the autopsy.

[00:10:26]You know, we waiting for it. It It shouldn't take that long. We want those answers. And so transparency is giving complete equity to this family. a fair and thorough impartial investigation where we know that due process was respected every step of the way.

[00:10:52]Let me tell you, let me speak on this race thing really quickly. The only people who say y'all always make it about race are racist people who are delusional and coons. That's absolutely it.

[00:11:14]Those are the only people that has to make a point to say you make it about race.

[00:11:23]Many have questions and so we are trying to be respectful and collaborative as much as we can. We will hope that they would give the same to us.

[00:11:36]>> Attorney, we talked before about situations like this and I'm just wondering does it bother you a little bit that we don't have that news conference where they where officials are given a timeline where they've mapped things out for what they know where they share as much information as they have with the public because obviously people are paying attention.

[00:11:55]>> Yeah. You know, Ryan, it's it's always troublesome to all of us uh when these investigations just take forever. I mean, 6 months to get a toxicology report back, to get a autopsy done. As if, you know, the longer we let it go, the more people forget other things happen. it gets swept under the rug. And so that's what's important to have a timeline. And when you don't have that timeline, you start to say, "Oh, what?

[00:12:29]Yeah, what what Nolan Wales, what happened?" I mean, I remember that case, but we got no answers. And so that's the trouble without having a timeline. And so that's why the people who are calling us, I mean, there we have people presenting videos. Uh, and it's so helpful as we try to put this puzzle together. People are talking about their boats and when they were out there, when they were in earshot of Nolan and people on the boat, we need all of that information because we want to make sure what goes to the grand jury is accurate.

[00:13:09]>> We know when it goes to the grand jury, we never will know what happened in that grand jury. That's why we're collecting affidavits. Did this get presented to the grand jury? It is it's never lost on me. Uh it's never lost on me. You can get an indictment on a ham sandwich in a grand jury if you want to. The question is, are you trying to get to the truth?

[00:13:35]Are you trying to help keep the truth hidden from us? And that's what we're fighting for. The last thing I would say is this, and it's important. Um, you know, there are people who are presenting videos, photographs that may show Nolan was on the boat with the person Katie. We got to fully bet that I I I respect so much what my mentor Reverend Al said up there. We're going to go wherever the truth uh leads us. We we want the truth no matter who it implicates or exonerates. We want justice no matter who it acquires telling one story, Katie telling one story. What is the truth?

[00:14:26]>> One more question. Just u obviously mom and dad thank you for doing this news conference with us but so many people from the community both black and white showed up today. coaches said that they would love to have your son be their son. When you hear men and teammates reflect on your son's life in the way they have, can you explain to us what that sounds like in your hearts?

[00:14:54]To me, that sounds like me and my wife did an excellent job at raising the fine young man.

[00:15:01]>> Yes. Nolan was loved by many, both young and old. He helped a lot of people.

[00:15:10]Um, no matter if you were regular or handicapped, people still love knowing. He he would help I said special needs, he would help special needs kids all the time. Basketball, teach them how to play basketball. Um, I mentioned in my speech about getting phone calls and emails. There was a father who asked Nolan to help his special needs son train basketball. And Nolan did it willingly and that made that kid's day and he couldn't he sent me out one day and he couldn't stop thanking me and praising me enough for the son that I raised and how much that meant to the son. So, as far as I'm concerned, we did a great job.

[00:15:51]>> Yes, you did. Yes, you did.

[00:15:53]>> One more question. Uh, one more question.

[00:15:56]>> Um, we were asking, did you guys ever get the incident report back? We know it was an issue getting >> No, we we we brought that up in our meeting. So hopefully uh we will address that. Uh won't be today, but we will address that.

[00:16:12]>> Okay.

[00:16:12]>> Hi, my name is Ken. I'm from DFW night shift crime in Dallas, Texas. Um I just want to offer my condolences to you. I wanted to ask you what does honoring Nolan legacy look like for your family moving forward? Are there any foundations, scholarships, community initiatives for our cause that you hope people will support in his memory?

[00:16:32]>> Absolutely. Um this is actually um something my cousin Keezy and I have briefly discussed. Um but of course with everything that's going on, we want things to kind of cool down a little bit. U my husband and I honestly we have not fully processed this. We have not fully grieved um Nolan. But that is the plan is to come up with some foundation just to honor him but also to um United Kent Navy >> big help um boots on the ground almost immediately after I spoke with Josh Gil.

[00:17:10]So, you know, we have to remember those types of organizations in our communities um and utilize them, but also give back to them. So, that is that is our hope that we'll be able to give as much as we've been given during this time.

[00:17:26]>> Yes.

[00:17:27]>> Stephen Smith with the Associated Press.

[00:17:29]Is there any update to the independent autopsy that you guys requested?

[00:17:33]>> Sure. And just on that last question, very good question. got Christine and Elmo and uh Cliff Jones and Lisa Park at office. They talk frequently and that's one of the things she stressed at the funeral service. She want to celebrate his life and celebrate define what his legacy will be. So we look forward to working to define his legacy. Nobody else is going to define his legacy but the people who knew him best.

[00:18:01]>> That's right.

[00:18:02]>> Yeah. Um, as it relates to the independent autopsy, we uh are looking to have findings sooner rather than later. Obviously, um, you want stuff from the first autopsy.

[00:18:17]Uh, because they had the body closer to time. Uh, we got the body almost 6 days later. Uh, Dr. Roger Mitchell. So, there are limitations as to what he could do.

[00:18:31]So, you know, you you do the best you can, but there are unanswered questions.

[00:18:36]So, he's getting his report together. I believe it will be coming uh be coming very soon. Yeah.

[00:18:43]>> I take Wait, let me take one. I'm going to take three more. One, two, and we'll come back to you.

[00:18:51]>> Rivet with People magazine. I also want to extend my condolences and to thank you for allow us allowing the media to come. I know you didn't have to allow us to be here. Um, I just had two small questions, both related to cell phones.

[00:19:05]One, one of the things that came out of your meeting with the local DA was that you agreed you would both analyze uh Nolan's phone. I wanted to know um when that might take place. And the other was that at the end of the last press conference, you said that Ben, you said you wanted everybody's cell phones looked at. So that to me, that meant the other young men that were with Nolan that day. Did you communicate that to the DA? And what did she say? If so, have they analyzed their phones? Do they plan to?

[00:19:36]>> I did uh communicate that to the district attorney. Um whether they're going to do that, that's a question that you have to ask them. But we thought that it's only fair if we're going to look at Nolan's phone. We should look at the other people who were with Nolan that day. Uh because again, we just want equal justice. We think that if Nolan was on that boat, roads were reversed, they would look at his phone and so that is going to be important. Uh we have not established the time yet of when we're going to do the mutual inspection of the cell phone. We have to do some technical things. We're getting our experts together, working with phone companies and so forth. But uh we hope to do that sooner rather than later. This was a big first step for the family getting through the day. So now we can get laser focus on all those things to finish this investigation.

[00:20:33]>> Uh Will Pson with Woox. Ben, you had mentioned that uh it had been a couple of days, I think you had said 6 days since after the state's autopsy was done before you were able to get access to the body. I know whenever it first came out, it was being flown to DC and then autopsy planned for that Friday. Can you confirm when that autopsy was done? Uh they had weather issues. So I do think it they got the body Friday night or Saturday morning uh around that time.

[00:21:02]>> Is that the same day that the autopsy was?

[00:21:04]>> I I can't confirm that. I know they received the body and I think they immediately went to it would be in the report the date they did the autopsy.

[00:21:12]>> Yes.

[00:21:13]>> Miss Selena Charles purpose for the people. You guys are supposed to be having a rally on the 26. Is that still going to occur? Well, I think that was the community people who are activists who we are very grateful standing up uh demanding a fair and impartial investigation. And we want to say thank you to all the community leaders and activists standing up saying, "No, no, we want a timeline. We want transparency. We want them to check cell phones. We want everything that you would have done had it been your child."

[00:21:43]So that's what they're going to be talking about on the 26th. Thank you.

[00:21:50]Okay, fam. So, here's the deal.

[00:21:55]Even if they get a suspect, they identify a suspect and they get an indictment and they drag that univilized mut or muts into the courtroom.

[00:22:14]It's going to be hell. It's man, it's gonna be hell to get a guilty verdict because just like Emit Thiel, the univilized mut will be judged by a jury of their univilized mut peers, Mississippi, they have earned [clears throat] their right to be the most univilized state in the country. They've earned it.

[00:22:43]I mean, they go out of their way to earn it. love being the Andrews and they love being hot out laws. They absolutely love it. It's corrupt from the top all the way down, fam. And if they were to bring an indictment, it would just be a dog and pony show. They are going to continue to look out for each other because that's what they do.

[00:23:05]They're going to look out for each other. They gonna hide. They're going to uh circumvent justice. They are going to suppress evidence. They're going to omit president uh evidence.

[00:23:16]They are going to flat out uh uh cover up this case. They're going to cover up.

[00:23:23]This is going to be a complete cover up.

[00:23:25]I'm telling you, fam. I do believe that uh Ben Crump and the family will be successful at obtaining some type of information, some type of evidence that will compel the the uh state to actually file charges against somebody.

[00:23:47]But I don't think that somebody is going to be found guilty and have to do any time.

[00:23:52]But it is America and Donald Trump became president.

[00:23:57]So, I guess anything is possible. But what say you, fam? Drop a comment. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

[00:24:05]No more talk.

[00:24:10]Willy D