Multiple people have received letters giving notice of an anticipated civil lawsuit by the family of Nolan Xavier Wells, a community college football player whose body was found near Horn Island off the Mississippi Gulf Coast two days after he went there with friends to celebrate the Fourth of July.
A copy of the letter was provided to some news organizations by recipients, and was published. The attorney who sent the letter, Gary Bufkin, was not immediately available for comment Tuesday and he did not confirm that he sent the letter to the other outlets.
The letters direct recipients to immediately preserve all evidence in their possession, control or custody in their original form. They are also directed to suspend any automatic deletion or overwrite functions on cellphones, computers, video cameras and other devices.
Most of the letter’s pages are dedicated to the types of evidence recipients should save, broken down by nearly 20 categories, which generally fall into communications; photos, audio and video recordings; metadata for content; records about place and location; and law enforcement and prosecutorial records.
Bufkin is representing Wells’ estate in Jackson County Chancery Court. The teenager’s mother Christine Wonsley was appointed administrator the week of his funeral.
Ridgeland-based Carroll Bufkin PLCC, Bufkin’s firm, is working with national civil rights attorney Ben Crump, whom Christine and Elmore Wonsley hired days after Wells’ death.
Crump’s firm is investigating the death of the Black teenager and pushing for autopsy and other investigative records. A Mississippi-based firm is handling estate matters in state court because Crump is not admitted to practice law in Mississippi.
A spokesperson from Crump’s office did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
The letters are dated July 20, the same day of the 18-year-old’s funeral in Ocean Springs attended by hundreds of people, including family, friends, teammates and community members.
On Tuesday, the estate’s attorney sent several subpoenas to technology companies that run social media applications including Facebook, TikTok and SnapChat.
Wells celebrated the Fourth of July with others by taking a boat to Horn Island, a Gulf Coast barrier island where people dock boats, wade in the water and walk on the shore of the barrier island. Hundreds of people were on the island that day, according to photos and videos.
He was reported missing after he did not return to Ocean Springs. Investigators have said his friends told them he wanted to stay behind to talk with a woman and that he planned to get a boat ride off the island. Two days later, a U.S. park ranger found his body off the northwestern tip of the barrier island that is about 8 miles offshore.
Last week, a few county and state officials commented about Wells’ case, some for the first time.
Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath, who previously met with Wells’ parents, repeated in a Thursday video statement what she previously relayed to the family, that the state’s autopsy report would not be released publicly until grand jury review.
McIlrath said state rules direct investigators and prosecutors not to make comments or release information that could affect the integrity of those processes.
“I understand the public’s urgency to understand what happened to Nolan. But we are not taking time for time’s sake,” she said. “We are taking the time required to complete the work this investigation demands.”
Grand juries listen to evidence presented by prosecutors to decide whether anyone should be indicted on criminal charges and potentially go to trial. Their proceedings are not open to the public, and jurors are prohibited from talking about grand jury proceedings and disclosure of any indictments cannot be made until six months after final adjournment, according to state rules.
McIlrath did not say in the video whether the law enforcement investigation is complete or when the next grand jury will be convened. Generally, grand juries meet a few times a year across the state, and its members are chosen randomly from a list of registered voters in the county.
Jackson County does not list its grand jury terms online. Neighboring Harrison and Hancock counties are in a separate circuit district and their grand juries meet twice a year, according to the circuit court directory and terms list published by the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office.
The same day McIlrath released her statement, state Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell spoke with Mississippi Public Broadcasting about the Wells case, including how law enforcement handles investigations and why updates are generally not quickly shared with the public.
He mentioned that the FBI is investigating threats against people involved in the case, including witnesses, Wells’ family, and local and state public officials. Tindell reminded people that intimidating witnesses and public officials is a felony.
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch released a statement after Tindell’s interview extending prayers to Wells’ family and standing by the professionalism of law enforcement, the district attorney and other local leaders working on the case.
Like Tindell and McIlrath, Fitch asked for people to respect the integrity of the investigation process, saying that efforts to intimidate, disrupt or interfere with the work of law enforcement and prosecutors or threaten their well-being “will be taken seriously and we will hold those who make them accountable.”
Also on Thursday, Gov. Tate Reeves made his first public comments about Wells on X, but he did not mention the teenager or offer condolences to his parents.
Instead, Reeves accused the family’s attorney, Crump, of lying about facts in the case and about Mississippi. The governor extended the criticism to the Rev. Al Sharpton, who has spoken in support of Wells’ family, including at the funeral. Reeves wrote that “Crump, Sharpton and their ilk don’t care about facts” – facts that he is confident will be released from the Jackson County investigators and the State Medical Examiner’s Office.
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