Speaker 1: Native lampod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with
Speaker 1: Reaisent Choice Media. Welcome home, y'all, this is our mini
Speaker 1: pod and this week we are talking about the case
Speaker 1: of Nolan Wills, which is brought into a lot of
Speaker 1: our minds and on our hearts. We've been thinking about
Speaker 1: whether or not black children are safe in the company
Speaker 1: of their all white friend group and Bakari, as you know,
Speaker 1: Nolan Wills was eighteen years old, a star football player,
Speaker 1: was on a boat in Horn Island, Mississippi with some
Speaker 1: of his friends, which is in Jackson County, Mississippi. He
Speaker 1: was there on the fourth of July and his family
Speaker 1: did not hear from him again after that. His body
Speaker 1: was found in Horn Island on the sixth. So my
Speaker 1: heart certainly goes out to his family. Our prayers are
Speaker 1: with you all, and I'm so sorry for this devastating loss.
Speaker 1: But I got to tell you, Bakari, instantly, I thought
Speaker 1: of my best friend's son, who on the same day,
Speaker 1: on the fourth was sending us videos with his all
Speaker 1: white friend group jumping off a boat into the water.
Speaker 1: And I was having a fit because I was like,
Speaker 1: you're jumping off too close to the boat. You're going
Speaker 1: to hit your head and like have a concussion. Can
Speaker 1: you please not do that, to which he responded, you
Speaker 1: only live once, which I was very upset about. But
Speaker 1: you know, after that and when we started hearing more
Speaker 1: about Nolan, I was like, well, he needs to bring
Speaker 1: a black friend with him going forward. So I just
Speaker 1: am curious to know what you think about this. I
Speaker 1: have a lot of reservations thinking about all of the
Speaker 1: many incidents over the years, ell since before we were alive,
Speaker 1: where that one black person is with the all white
Speaker 1: friend group and it doesn't end up being so safe.
Speaker 2: So I I think about this in a few ways.
Speaker 1: So you've probably been that black friend maccary in your life.
Speaker 1: You ain't never been with all white friends. You got
Speaker 1: a lot of white friends.
Speaker 2: I do, but maybe like at Heathwood Hall my ninth grade,
Speaker 2: but we didn't go nowhere. I was so young, so
Speaker 2: my parents, my parents were very cognizant, Like I wasn't
Speaker 2: able to ride with a teenager in high school, Like
Speaker 2: my parents didn't allow me to ride with another teenagers
Speaker 2: simply under the rule that teenagers don't make good decisions. Right.
Speaker 2: There are a couple of things you know, when you
Speaker 2: are a black parent, you parents your children differently culturally.
Speaker 2: My kids don't have toy guns. They just don't. They
Speaker 2: don't have a luxury going out in the street shooting
Speaker 2: toy guns at each other. Sadie and Stokely don't have
Speaker 2: toy guns. I would.
Speaker 1: I just want to make a note for the people
Speaker 1: listening that the super soaker was created by a black man.
Speaker 3: I definitely had a super soaker carry.
Speaker 2: On, Yeah, But we talked about some of these guns
Speaker 2: right now. Some of these toy guns look real as
Speaker 2: a mug right now. You know, I might let them
Speaker 2: get a super soaker or something, but like those things
Speaker 2: that anyway, also, I probably they don't. They don't really
Speaker 2: go as of right now, aren't trying to be separated,
Speaker 2: and there will. There will come a time I was
Speaker 2: joking with you off aired it. Stokely had a friend
Speaker 2: come over, and Sadie said that the friend couldn't come
Speaker 2: until gymnastics practice was over so she could be there
Speaker 2: with him. Right so she ain't gonna miss out on
Speaker 2: no opportunity to be with her brother. But at that
Speaker 2: time time comes, I would be extremely hesitant without some
Speaker 2: vetting of where you're going on a lake, probably ain't
Speaker 2: one of the places. What time you're gonna be home?
Speaker 2: Who are their parents? If I don't know, I'm not
Speaker 2: saying the answer is no. But I have to have
Speaker 2: a certain level of familiarity for you to be in
Speaker 2: this all white setting. I say that to say that
Speaker 2: I may not also let you go out without that
Speaker 2: same level of familiarity with an all black group of
Speaker 2: friends either, right, I mean I as a parent, I'm
Speaker 2: going to be not overly protective, but very very protective
Speaker 2: of my and I'm not pleased. Do not say that
Speaker 2: I'm trying to be in any way shape form a
Speaker 2: fashion critical of the parenting of Nolan. I don't know
Speaker 2: enough details. I'm not saying they. I'm just telling you
Speaker 2: how I raise my kids. Because I was looking at
Speaker 2: the young lady named Dreamed all brief. She was a
Speaker 2: twenty one year old influencer who just got shot and
Speaker 2: killed in her Lamborghini two nights ago. She was hanging
Speaker 2: out with an all black group of folks, drove off
Speaker 2: and they pulled up. They murdered her and her cousin
Speaker 2: in a car. So one of the things I say
Speaker 2: all that to say that I am educating my children
Speaker 2: on understanding, knowing your whereabouts, having a friend that you
Speaker 2: call a true friend with you at all times, and
Speaker 2: your parents simply ain't gonna let you do everything you
Speaker 2: want to do because I ain't your what's your mama say,
Speaker 2: I ain't your little.
Speaker 1: You know, Bakari When you brought that up about you're
Speaker 1: gonna vet the black kids too, you vetting the full
Speaker 1: rainbow coalition. I thought about my mom because there was
Speaker 1: only one friend that I can remember, like elementary, middle
Speaker 1: school or high school that my mom was like, hell
Speaker 1: to the naw I'm not gonna say her name for protection,
Speaker 1: but I remember her name, and I wanted to I
Speaker 1: wanted to cheerlead for like little league football, because this
Speaker 1: girl did, and I wanted to hang out with her.
Speaker 1: And my mom was like, you're not cheerleading because most
Speaker 1: of them girls is fast, and a little friend is fast.
Speaker 3: I don't even want you talking to her being around her.
Speaker 1: And I remember being so surprised because my mom was
Speaker 1: never on that type of time, but she did not.
Speaker 1: She wasn't going for it. She was like, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: you're not ready for the world like you think you are.
Speaker 1: Booth it's not happening, and so I hear that. I
Speaker 1: just think that there's something ancestrally that is stirring up
Speaker 1: us around this Nolan Wills case.
Speaker 3: When we were off air.
Speaker 1: When we were off air, we were talking about what
Speaker 1: is being reported right now in TMZ, which is that
Speaker 1: the sheriff if Jackson County is saying he doesn't see
Speaker 1: any foul play. Well, Jackson County is sixty six percent white.
Speaker 1: The kids who were with Nolan Wills have deactivated their
Speaker 1: social media accounts, and one of the kids stepmothers, is
Speaker 1: a judge in the area, and so I want to
Speaker 1: put her statement up be because I think this is
Speaker 1: interesting that a judge, while there's an open investigation, felt
Speaker 1: comfortable and audacious enough to post the following statement.
Speaker 3: So she says, our family.
Speaker 1: Along with the community, grieves the loss of Nolan Wells.
Speaker 1: Our thoughts and prayers are with Nolan's family. Our son,
Speaker 1: Warren loved Nolan dearly. Unfortunately, I feel that it is
Speaker 1: appropriate for our family to dispel some rumors with facts
Speaker 1: based upon the social media attention that is being diverted
Speaker 1: away from the Wells family and their loss. Mind you,
Speaker 1: the Wells family went to social media to find their child.
Speaker 1: But I digress. So there, she says, defensively, Yes, I
Speaker 1: deactivated my Facebook given the very heightened emotional state of
Speaker 1: social media right now, I fear for the safety of
Speaker 1: my child and my children. My husband and I have
Speaker 1: six children, and we covet their privacy. We do not
Speaker 1: believe it is appropriate for our minor children's photographs to
Speaker 1: be circulated throughout the Internet, presenting potential threats to their safety.
Speaker 1: Pausing here to just acknowledge that these are the last
Speaker 1: people Nolan was photographed with, and people want to know
Speaker 1: if they were with him or not when he died.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is why, this is why I find the
Speaker 2: share of statement to be so troubling. Yeah, because Judge Cole,
Speaker 2: we got to bring.
Speaker 3: That back up to but you can then you can
Speaker 3: pause it for now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we Judge Cole could be accurate in her assertion
Speaker 2: that that you know, her son had nothing to do
Speaker 2: with it. She could be very accurate in the assertion,
Speaker 2: and people could It could be he could have drowned,
Speaker 2: It could be an accident. He could have had a stroke,
Speaker 2: He could have all of these could have could have,
Speaker 2: could have, could have, right and we don't know what happened,
Speaker 2: and we're not here too. And I don't want to
Speaker 2: find those young boys guilty in a court of public
Speaker 2: opinion because that we that happens to us and our
Speaker 2: people too much. And I ain't about to start handing
Speaker 2: that out. But the reason in the circumstances surrounding this
Speaker 2: require more attention, it requires more detail, it requires more transparency.
Speaker 3: Well, let's keep reading her statements and you can see.
Speaker 2: So let me let me just let me tell you
Speaker 2: why the sheriffs is wrong. Because when you come out
Speaker 2: here right now and say there's no evidence of foul play,
Speaker 2: many of us look like you're drawing conclusions before we know.
Speaker 2: The investigation is over.
Speaker 3: He's made he's telling you didn't. Investigation is over.
Speaker 1: And that's what's so troubling, because this stepmom is the judge,
Speaker 1: and I want to keep reading her statement. This is
Speaker 1: why I'm bringing this up. Be she's moving in this.
Speaker 1: So she says she deactivated her Facebook. This is clear
Speaker 1: that her Facebook is back up. So if she deactivated
Speaker 1: her Facebook throughout the course of the investigation, she.
Speaker 3: Must know something we don't.
Speaker 1: She probably knows the investigation has reached this inclusion and
Speaker 1: maybe she had a little something to do with it.
Speaker 1: So she says next, I graduated high school with Christine
Speaker 1: Wells Wansley. We are from the same community. I have
Speaker 1: the utmost respect for her and all of the Wells family.
Speaker 1: We mourn the loss of Nolan with them. Our prayers
Speaker 1: have been and will continue to be with them. Then
Speaker 1: she goes on defensively to say, my husband and I
Speaker 1: were not at Horn Island at any point on fourth
Speaker 1: of July. No one in our family is trying in
Speaker 1: any way to impede with the investigation by law enforcement
Speaker 1: or to otherwise hamper the family and law enforcements quests
Speaker 1: for answers. Warren was interviewed by the This is fascinating.
Speaker 1: This is mind blowing to me that this is a
Speaker 1: judge doing this. By the way, Warren was interviewed by
Speaker 1: the Jackson County Sheriff's Department and cooperated fully. He saw
Speaker 1: Nolan last at around three pm on July fourth. They
Speaker 1: left around four point thirty pm when the boat was
Speaker 1: taking on water and they had an issue with the
Speaker 1: bilge pump. Nolan made a decision to stay on the
Speaker 1: island and return inland later with another group of friends.
Speaker 1: Yes I am a judge. Let me say that again. Yes,
Speaker 1: I am a judge. I also value transparency. I apologize
Speaker 1: if anyone was offended that I deleted my social media.
Speaker 1: There was no there were no nefarious motivations in my
Speaker 1: deleting my social media. Social media has a lot of positives,
Speaker 1: but a whole lot of negatives. But she is on
Speaker 1: here singing the pain with her song on social media.
Speaker 1: We live in a world of clickbaiting. Sad but true.
Speaker 1: She clickbaiting right now. My family is hopeful that this
Speaker 1: information will help to redirect the attention to the Wells family,
Speaker 1: their grief and their need for our community support. Here's
Speaker 1: where she fucked up. This ain't about to redirect the
Speaker 1: attention to the Wells family. People have even more questions.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: You're an heir, a judge, a sitting judge who knows
Speaker 1: that something happened.
Speaker 3: To this child.
Speaker 1: The child has lost his life, and you're up here
Speaker 1: posting about your son and wanting to protect your son.
Speaker 1: Your son and the friends who he was with didn't
Speaker 1: help to protect this black child.
Speaker 3: I don't understand.
Speaker 2: I think that the state anytime a sitting judge in
Speaker 2: a County makes a statement like this is beyond it
Speaker 2: lies because I mean, apparently your son was, you know,
Speaker 2: not a target, but a subject of the investigation. He
Speaker 2: came in, he was one of the last people that
Speaker 2: was with you know, apparently your son did have or
Speaker 2: was with people who looked as if they may have
Speaker 2: been underage, drinking on a boat or whatever they had
Speaker 2: in their hand. But I also, I mean, I think
Speaker 2: that investigations have to play out. The problem is with
Speaker 2: this happening and with the sheriff's statement, there is there
Speaker 2: is no there's no fundamental belief that the investigation is
Speaker 2: going to play out fairly or with transparency. And that's
Speaker 2: unfortunate because I don't want this family, this Wells family,
Speaker 2: and that's I mean, it should have been something, if
Speaker 2: they friends, it should have been something she texted them
Speaker 2: or called them or talked to them about and said, look,
Speaker 2: we're praying for you. But you know, Warren was with him.
Speaker 2: Warren says he swears he didn't see anything. But we
Speaker 2: taking them down into the police. Well, you know, we'll
Speaker 2: be at the funeral if you want us to be there,
Speaker 2: but we understand if you don't. But our prayers are
Speaker 2: with you and your family and doing this. I mean,
Speaker 2: that's not something that you post. I just there are
Speaker 2: too many questions coming out of is this Texas, Mississippi, Mississippi, Ssissippi.
Speaker 2: There are too many questions coming out of Mississippi, and
Speaker 2: the imagery is not something that is conducive to us.
Speaker 2: Just trusting and believing. I get What's who was it? Nixon?
Speaker 2: They said, Trust Paverify. That's what all black folk are
Speaker 2: trying to do. Trust Paverify.
Speaker 1: I'm reading this piece that talks about his best friend,
Speaker 1: jay Von Williams, who is seventeen years old, who like
Speaker 1: a normal friend would went to help with the search crew.
Speaker 1: He said he was supposed to have been on the
Speaker 1: same boat with Nolan, So I think that this is fascinating.
Speaker 1: He said he saw him later, he told him he
Speaker 1: loved him, and he spoke with other friends and a
Speaker 1: girl in the crowd. He saw him sometime after four
Speaker 1: and they said. Another friend, Trace Carter, said he spoke
Speaker 1: with Nolan before the trip and told him to be careful,
Speaker 1: hit me up when you get back, watch out for yourself.
Speaker 3: So I think that's also interesting.
Speaker 1: You know, there may have been some friends who had
Speaker 1: some reservations about this fring group.
Speaker 3: I don't know, but I think this is fascinating.
Speaker 2: So you know, the sheriff. This is the problem that
Speaker 2: I have with the sheriff, and this is the way
Speaker 2: that I look at investments.
Speaker 3: He said, they suspect he drowned. The sheriff suspected he drowned.
Speaker 2: It says that Ledbetter says everything investigators have gathered so
Speaker 2: far indicates that no crime has taken place. That said,
Speaker 2: he's cautious. The investigation remains active and tells us that
Speaker 2: assessment could change if new evidence comes to light. They're
Speaker 2: continuing to interview additional witnesses while also sorting through a
Speaker 2: barrage of emails, texts, and social media tips. Right now,
Speaker 2: much of it remains unverified. My point to you is
Speaker 2: that if you are walking into a racially tense scenarios
Speaker 2: such as this, where you have the death of a child,
Speaker 2: you don't put out bullshit statements like this. This is
Speaker 2: why people don't trust the police in law enforcement. When
Speaker 2: you get ahead of your own investigation, it breeds this trust.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and my thing is, I'm still distrusting these kids
Speaker 1: because I'm trying to figure out why they weren't and
Speaker 1: it's were they not involved in the search with the
Speaker 1: best friend, Like, if you don't know what happened to him,
Speaker 1: why are you not helping to search for the child?
Speaker 1: Are you helping to search for the jib? Where is
Speaker 1: that information? Did the girlfriend help search for the child?
Speaker 2: I mean, you would like to know.
Speaker 3: We do not know. We would like to know.
Speaker 1: I'm not seeing any article reporting that the girlfriend or
Speaker 1: these four white boys were helping to search for the child.
Speaker 3: That's all I'm saying. Javon went to go help. It
Speaker 3: looked for him.
Speaker 2: You were not supposed to bury a child. That's not
Speaker 2: what God intended. I don't know if that's the way
Speaker 2: I should phrase it, but say, but that's the way
Speaker 2: I feel about it. That's just that that type of
Speaker 2: pain is something that I don't wish on anybody. So
Speaker 2: my prayers with the Wales family and people down there
Speaker 2: are just making bad decisions. To ce Ya, that's in
Speaker 2: the legal we had that thing in the legal profession.
Speaker 2: You have a lawyer goes up there like why is
Speaker 2: he putting that on the record? What do you see?
Speaker 2: Why are they filow that motion? It's called cya. That's
Speaker 2: what's happening right now in Jackson County. They are covering
Speaker 2: your ass or their ass in this particular case.
Speaker 1: That's the thing I don't like. That's how that's how
Speaker 1: the statement Raids reads from the judge. She wrote that
Speaker 1: response or that message on Facebook like she had no
Speaker 1: legal training at all, And to be a sitting judge
Speaker 1: that is supposed to be impartial, even when your children
Speaker 1: are involved, you just don't have You shouldn't do that.
Speaker 1: You shouldn't do that. She went in and talked about
Speaker 1: when he was interviewed, you know what was asked? Who
Speaker 1: was there?
Speaker 3: You know, it's just it's just too much.
Speaker 1: And if these are the people who saw him last,
Speaker 1: even if you didn't raise them him that way, even
Speaker 1: if you didn't raise him that way, they should have
Speaker 1: to answer for when they last saw him and what happened.
Speaker 1: You know, if he drowned, was he did? He drown
Speaker 1: by himself? Nobody was around there?
Speaker 2: Did nobody called it? The last thing? Like, yeah, ain't
Speaker 2: nobody just going out Yeah, nobody call the police.
Speaker 3: Ain't nobody bumped into the water.
Speaker 2: Ain't nobody going out there just swimming by himself?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Man, we got a lot of questions that need answers.
Speaker 1: But I think what I would ask the viewer at
Speaker 1: home to consider is do you trust? And I know
Speaker 1: this may sound, you know, prejudiced, a little bit or discriminatory,
Speaker 1: and I'm sorry, but I'm curious to know where people
Speaker 1: land on this. Do you trust your black child being
Speaker 1: on a solo mission with the right a group of
Speaker 1: white friends. But Kari said he don't trust none of
Speaker 1: these groups of friends. He's gonna trust it, but verify
Speaker 1: all of them. He doing background tracks and vetting all
Speaker 1: of them. I agree, but there is a certain level
Speaker 1: of terror that I feel in my body thinking about
Speaker 1: my godchild.
Speaker 2: The optics breed a little angst. I ain't gonna lie
Speaker 2: to you, but I ain't in this environment. Listen, We're
Speaker 2: gonna figure out who you with at all times.
Speaker 3: I agree with that too, and.
Speaker 2: We're gonna know. We're gonna know everything we can about them.
Speaker 2: And you know, I wrote the children book. You know
Speaker 2: what it's called Who Who are your people?
Speaker 3: Who are your people?
Speaker 2: That's what we want to know? Who are your people?
Speaker 1: And we are asking who are your people? And who
Speaker 1: are gonna be there? That is the point.
Speaker 2: Who all gonna be there?
Speaker 3: Who are gonna be there, Welcome.
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