What Sharpton and Crump Did To Nolan Wells' Friends After He Died

**Tony Brueski** (0:00)
This is Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski.

**Tony Brueski** (0:11)
According to their attorneys, Warren Hudson called Nolan Wells' mother at 11:07 PM on July 4th, when Nolan hadn't come home from Horn Island. He called the Coast Guard six minutes later, he called Jax Pitalo, went back to the island the next morning to search. Tristan Shepard, one of Nolan's black friends who was on the island that day, called Nolan his best friend. He said he would die for him. Bart Edmondson handed over his phone, his GPS, his boat, his 20-person witness list without a lawyer and without a warrant. That's what the friendship looked like before two men came from out of town and turned it into a circus. Asking about race in Mississippi is not just fair, it's necessary. Mississippi earned that scrutiny a long time ago and still lives it up to this day. And the question the family asks are the same questions anyone would ask when their child doesn't come home. But there is a difference between asking hard questions and aiming accusations at specific people who loved the kid you claim to be fighting for. Sharpton and Crump didn't just ask questions, they built a case. And then they let the internet deliver a verdict before evidence, before anything really. Just, here's our premise, go.
The first thing they did was erase the picture. Sharpton's framing from the July 10th press conference was one black man with three young white men, one black kid and three white kids. That's the line that put three cooperating teenagers in the crosshairs of a country that had already made up its mind. Here's what that line leaves out. Horn Island on July 4th had possibly up to thousands of people on it, at least hundreds. Multiple boats, multiple groups, families and college kids and locals who go every summer. Nolan went with a larger party, not a racial triad. Shepard and Jevon Williams, both black friends of Nolan's were allegedly on the island that day. Shepard has said publicly, this is not a race case. Williams said it wasn't like Nolan to separate from the group, but he didn't point the finger at the three white friends. One black kid and three white kids lying, erased every other person on that island, including the black friends who were there and also disagree with the racial motive and narrative. It took a group of friends who grew up together in Ocean Springs and turned them into a diagram. Nobody in that friend group, not the black friends and not the white friends, has described the relationship the way Sharpton and Crump describe it. Now, here's what they said and what the evidence actually showed when they said it. July 10th, the investigation was six days old. No autopsy results were back. The sheriff had told reporters no foul play was suspected. Sharpton stood in Harlem and said the case does not smell right. Crump called the drowning theory a contradiction and asked what teenager would leave their phone behind. Crump also cited a viral video he said showed Nolan yelling for his phone back. He said other young people on the island had identified the voices. Nolan Shepard later told reporters the voice in the video was his, not Nolan's. It was a separate argument that had nothing to do with Nolan or the phone. Crump's own evidence that he said, see, see, look, look, look at this, look at this, was wrong. The correction came from a black friend who was actually there. The correction has never been publicly acknowledged by Crump's legal team. Of course it's not. July 14th, Sharpton gave a televised interview. He said one friend actually denied having the phone and keys. He said the phone's contents had been erased. Then he asked, were any of these guys racist? He said if the races were reversed, the friends would have been held in custody. On July 14th, no autopsy had come back, no evidence of foul play had been found. Friends had already cooperated with investigators. As that vitriol is being thrown out there, they're handed over their shit. What do you need? We want to figure out what happened to our friend. Edmondson has already handed over everything he had without a warrant, believe it or not. Huh, all these friends handing over everything they have. You know who hasn't handed over everything they have? The family of Nolan Wells. His actual phone, the devices, that could actually tell us something. You know who's withholding that evidence? It ain't the white friends. It's his actual family. It's Crump. It's the people that are supposedly fighting for the truth. Holding back the actual pieces of evidence, that could get us there. Now, you got to ask yourself, why is that? Why are you, I mean, and I get it. I get not trusting Mississippi. I've already said that. We're this many weeks in. You can do scans, other ways of getting this information. But I mean, the information is information. Data is data.