{"id":1428,"date":"2026-08-05T22:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T22:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/?p=1428"},"modified":"2026-08-05T22:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T22:15:08","slug":"nolan-wells-investigation-3-charged-with-threatening-judge-witness-and-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/?p=1428","title":{"rendered":"Nolan Wells investigation: 3 charged with threatening judge, witness and officials"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Three people have been charged with threatening a judge, a witness and local officials connected to the investigation into the death of Nolan Xavier Wells<\/a>, an 18-year-old found dead after a July Fourth boat trip with friends to an island off Mississippi\u2019s Gulf Coast.<\/p>\n

None of the three appear to know Wells, his family or the boating group, or be part of the investigation. The threats came amid rampant speculation<\/a> and scrutiny of the investigation, deepened in part by uncertainty surrounding Wells’ final hours, distrust of law enforcement and the state’s long history of racist violence.<\/p>\n

The teenager, who was Black, had traveled to the uninhabited island with a group of friends from high school, all of whom were white. He did not return with his friends to the mainland that evening. His body was found two days later off the island\u2019s coast.<\/p>\n

Authorities have not made any arrests or named any suspects. An independent autopsy<\/a> commissioned by Wells\u2019 family found the 18-year-old\u2019s cause of death to be \u201cundetermined\u201d pending further investigation.<\/p>\n

Attempts to reach the defendants for comment were unsuccessful. Phone numbers listed for some of the defendants in affidavits weren’t active and a call to another number went unanswered. Emails sent to addresses listed in an affidavit for one of the defendants went unanswered. It is unclear if they have attorneys yet.<\/p>\n

One of the defendants, Edward James Porter of Illinois, allegedly called an unnamed witness on July 31 and threatened to kill them and their family, according to an affidavit. Porter also allegedly told another person in Mississippi in a phone call that he would cut them up and put them \u201cinto a suitcase.\u201d Porter was charged on July 31 in federal court for the Southern District of Mississippi for the threat.<\/p>\n

Porter threatened two members of the family of Bart Edminston Jr., a 21-year-old who knew Wells and provided aid to the boat the group used on July Fourth, said family attorney Russell Latino. Latino said that one of the family members who Porter threatened is a witness in the investigation into Wells\u2019 death.<\/p>\n

An Ohio woman was also charged with allegedly placing bomb threats at the George County Chancery Clerk’s Office and the Jackson County Sheriff\u2019s Office on July 23. The woman, Michelle Francine Edwards, allegedly called the clerk’s office 21 times and said, \u201cthe clock is ticking,\u201d according to an affidavit.<\/p>\n

A California man, Joseph Alfredo Vasquez Dumarce, was charged on July 14 for allegedly sending a threatening Facebook message to a Jackson County Chancery Court judge with ties to the Wells investigation. According to an affidavit, a Facebook user believed to be Dumarce sent a message to the judge’s account that constituted a \u201cthreat that a bomb would be mailed to the judge’s office.”<\/p>\n

Judge Ashlee Cole posted a screenshot of Dumarce’s threatening message on Facebook on July 9. Cole wrote in an earlier Facebook post that her son last saw Wells on July Fourth around 3 p.m. and decided to \u201cstay on the island and return inland later with another group of friends.\u201d Cole wrote that she deactivated her Facebook and that she fears for the safety of her children.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one in our family is trying in any way to impede with the investigation by law enforcement or to otherwise hamper the family and law enforcement\u2019s quest for answers,\u201d Cole wrote, adding that her son \u201ccooperated fully\u201d with the sheriff’s investigation. ___ Kelety reported from Phoenix. Associated Press journalist Sophie Bates in Jackson, Mississippi, contributed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Three people have been charged with threatening a judge, a witness and local officials connected to the investigation into the death of Nolan Xavier Wells, an 18-year-old found dead after a July Fourth boat trip with friends to an island off Mississippi\u2019s Gulf Coast. None of the three appear to know Wells, his family or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}