Ben Crump Enters the Nolan Wells Case, Karmelo's Team Fires Back, and 50 Cent Goes to the Emmys

Ben Crump has stepped in to represent the family of Nolan Wells the eighteen-year-old football player found dead on a Mississippi barrier island. The family has commissioned an independent autopsy, and claims text messages have been deleted from his phone. Karmelo Anthony's new legal team drops a sixty-three-page motion for a new trial citing secret courtroom deals, closed doors, and a ten-minute decision that shaped his defense. And 50 Cent gets three Emmy nominations for his Diddy documentary and he is NOT being humble about it.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Nolan Wells's parents are breaking their silence. They say they
don't believe their son willingly stayed behind on a Mississippi
island before he disappeared.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
It was his last weekend to half five. We can
ac us that Monday he had to report to school.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Carmelo Anthony's lawyers file a sixty three page motion claiming
a secret deal closed doors, and only ten minutes to
decide whether he would testify.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
This is a tragedy all the way around.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
And fifty Cent goes three for three at the Emmys
with his Diddy documentary Like Wow, this is amazing. It's Monday,
July thirteenth, from the Black Effects Podcast Network. I'm Mimi Brown.
This is front page and here are the day's biggest stories.
Stay with me. We talked about Nolan Wells last week,

(00:55):
and today we have new information. Now. Nolan Wells is
the eighteen year old football player from Mississippi who disappeared
during a fourth of July trip to Horn Island with
a group of friends. His friends made it back, but
Nolan did not. His body was found two days later
by a park ranger. Now here are the new developments.
Nolan's parents, they are speaking publicly for the first time.

(01:17):
Speaking with Good Morning America, Christine and Elmore Wansley say
they're demanding a transparent and thorough investigation into their son's death.
His friends told investigators that Nolan chose to stay behind
on the island, but his parents say they don't believe that.
I can't fathom why he would, like, I.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Don't know why he would.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
His mother says she can't imagine why Nolan would ever
stay behind, and his father says they've always taught him,
if you go with the group, you come back with
the group.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
We always tak him to if you go with a group,
you stay with a group. Even when he was in college,
he was her dad, well, we're going to ride down
to a party or something in a noted city. Now,
howers our telling love, if you go with five, you
come back a fire, and do not separate from the group.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
The Jackson County Sheriff's Office says investigators have not found
any evidence of foul play, at least not yet, but
Sheriff John Ledbetter says the investigation is far from over
and detectives are still reviewing a substantial number of tips,
along with photos and videos from people who are on
the island. The Wells family has also hired civil rights
attorney Ben Crump and ordered an independent autopsy.

Speaker 4 (02:29):
We're trying to be very transparent because the family has
some concerns about the state of Mississippi doing an investigation
the death of a young black man where young white
students may be looked at as having some culpability. So
the family is concerned about that. So we're going to
have an independent autopsy. We have investigators talking to witnesses

(02:53):
that have no alignment or no allegiance.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Crump says the family believes text messag were deleted from
Nolan's phone after he disappeared. He also says the family
has learned about an alleged altercation before Nolan went missing
and wants investigators to determine exactly what happened.

Speaker 4 (03:12):
It wasn't like they said, we got his phone. They
tracked it, and that highlights all these contradictions, Michael. The
fact that they said Nolan was talking to a young
woman and she said that he said I'm going back
to get on the boat with the boys. The boy
said that he said he was going to stay with her,

(03:32):
and so that's an obvious contradiction. And then this video
of this you can hear an argument going where Nolan
is saying, give me my freaking phone, what are you
freaking doing? And so then his phone ends up missing.
I don't know any teenagers Michael Strahan, who says, if

(03:53):
you believe that story, I'm gonna stay behind and I'm
going to leave my phone. I mean, no young person
leaves their phone.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
Investigators are still asking anyone who was on Horn Island
on July fourth to come forward with original unedited photos
or video, especially anything showing an argument or any interaction
involving Nolan Carmelo. Anthony's new legal team says this case

(04:22):
isn't just about what happened on the track field. They
say the entire trial process was unfair. Last week, Anthony's
attorneys filed a sixty three page motion asking for a
new trial, along with a separate motion asking that Judge
John Roach be removed from any future proceedings. Anthony was
convicted last month of murdering Austin Metcalf and sentenced to

(04:43):
thirty five years in prison. The new filings accused the
judge of making key decisions on his own. According to
the motion, no one asked for a gag order. The
defense says Judge Roach issued one on his own before trial.
They also say major hearing were held behind closed doors
instead of open court, and important filings were hand delivered

(05:05):
instead of being posted on public docket. The defense argues
that made it nearly impossible for the public to know
what was happening in the case before trial.

Speaker 5 (05:14):
No matter what, people are going to distort whatever happens
or whatever they hear into their own agenda. So what's
the point. And again, that noise affects people, affects the
fairness of the trial, the safety of the witnesses, the
safety of the jury, and those are my primary concerns,
not what social media says. It's not my duty. I
don't think it's my job to feed social media or
the media. I certainly understand the role up media plays

(05:37):
and the case like this, but I'm not here to
feed it. And I took that very very serious.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
The motion also alleges there was an off the record
agreement between the prosecution and the defense to keep certain
evidence out of trial. According to Anthony's attorneys, they built
their entire defense strategy around that agreement, including Carmelo Anthony
taking the stand in his own defense, but on the
final of testimony, the defense as prosecutors changed their position,

(06:04):
arguing the agreement no longer applied if Anthony testified. The
judge ruled he had no legal way to enforce the
off the record agreement. That left Anthony with just ten
minutes to decide whether to testify. He ultimately chose not
to take the stand, his attorneys saying that decision changed everything.
Instead of hearing directly from Anthony, the defense said it

(06:26):
had to abandon its trial strategy because testifying would have
opened the door to evidence they believed both sides had
agreed to keep out. And lastly, a fifty cent tests
something to celebrate his Netflix documentary Sean Combs The Reckoning
has earned three Primetime Emmy nominations. The project is nominated

(06:49):
for Outstanding Documentary or Non Fiction Series, while director Alex
Stapleton received a nomination for Outstanding Directing.

Speaker 6 (06:58):
The show is not completely the perspectives of people that
did not like Sean. We weren't trying to just get
the highlights, the salacious details. You know that the real
goal was to storytell. Not everyone needed to have an
allegation to be a part of this project.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
It also earned a nomination for Outstanding Picture Editing. Fifty
celebrated the news on Instagram, writing, everybody had something to
say when I announced it. Now the Emmy's got something
to say too.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
Look if I didn't say anything, you would have interpreted
as hip hop is fine with his behaviors. There's no
one else being vocal, so you would look at it
and just say, because that mind your business, or let
me not say nothing about nothing or those things. It
would allow it entire culture to register as if they're
for that.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
The documentary premiered on Netflix last December and explores the
allegation in legal troubles surrounding Sean Diddy Comb's. Comb's legal
team previously criticized the documentary and said Netflix cease and
desist letters, calling it a hit piece. Now the project
is one of this year's Emmy nominees. The seventy eight
Primetime Emmy Awards will September fourteenth on NBC and Peacock.

(08:04):
That's Your Front Page, I Mimi Brown. This podcast was
brought to you by The Black Effect Podcast Network.