Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath is pushing back on new cellphone findings presented by Nolan Wells’ family attorneys, disputing claims that someone accessed Wells’ phone after his last known use and accusing the legal team of withholding portions of its forensic analysis.

Ben Crump and digital forensics expert Andrew Garrett presented during a news conference Thursday (September 24) findings from a private examination of Wells’ phone.

As BIN reported, Garrett said his examination recovered deleted Snapchat data and other information from Wells’ phone. Garrett also discussed activity involving the device after Wells’ last known use and before his parents received it.

According to the Sun Herald, McIlrath disputed the suggestion that someone physically accessed Wells’ phone during that period.

“The 30-hour digital download that Mr. Garrett discussed during the press conference today was never provided to the State as Mr. Garrett suggested,” McIlrath said in a statement.

“All that was provided to us were two emails containing around 300 pages of selected findings from Nolan’s cell phone.”

McIlrath said the information provided to her office showed no one physically accessed Wells’ phone. She said the activity Garrett referenced involved other Snapchat users.

“If the Crump team has evidence to the contrary, they have not provided it to us,” McIlrath said.

The Sun Herald reported that McIlrath also accused Crump’s team of waiting until shortly before the grand jury proceedings to conduct its private examination and providing jurors with only portions of its findings.

Crump’s team disputed McIlrath’s account of the phone examination. Attorney Liza Park, a member of Wells’ family legal team, said Thursday that the family never kept Wells’ phone from the district attorney’s office or law enforcement.

Park said discussions about a joint examination began after a July 15 meeting with McIlrath, but the family’s legal team said the state later changed the terms of the proposed examination, including selecting a location that would not have allowed the family to be present.

The Jackson County grand jury declined to bring criminal charges in Wells’ death on Monday (September 21).

McIlrath also defended the medical evidence presented to the grand jury, saying both the state medical examiner and independent forensic pathologist Dr. Roger Mitchell listed Wells’ cause and manner of death as undetermined.

She said neither doctor found evidence of a fatal injury or disease that would have caused Wells’ death, and neither ruled out drowning.

McIlrath said Crump’s team previously told her office it had no evidence of a crime against Wells.

“If the Crump team genuinely has new information or evidence that Nolan Wells was murdered, they should stop playing games and immediately provide it to me,” McIlrath said.

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