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Three friends of Nolan Wells, the college student who disappeared from a Fourth of July celebration on a Mississippi island and was later found dead, have sued former NFL star Terrell Owens for defamation.
The friends — Warren Hudson, Jax Pitalo and Morgan Seymour — accused the Hall of Fame wide receiver of defaming them after he posted on X: “ARREST THEM IMMEDIATELY!!”
The fathers of the three friends filed the federal lawsuit on their sons’ behalf Monday. All three are under 21, making them minors under Mississippi law.
Hudson, Pitalo and Seymour were among a large group of friends who traveled by boat with 18-year-old Wells to Horn Island on the Fourth of July. The three all said Wells did not return to mainland Mississippi with the group because he was talking to a girl, an account his family has disputed. Wells’ body was found two days later off the island’s coast.
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Images showing Wells, who was Black, with his white friends before his disappearance circulated widely online, with some social media users viewing the circumstances surrounding his death through a racial lens and directing suspicion toward his friends.
Owens joined the public criticism in a Sept. 26 post that remains online. The post links to an Instagram reel by content creator Trent Out Loud that accused the three young men of deleting Snapchat messages from Wells’ phone after his death while also suggesting they may have been responsible for killing him.
However, Andrew Garrett, a digital forensics expert hired by attorney Benjamin Crump, examined Wells’ phone and concluded that no one accessed it between 2:18 p.m. on July 4, when Wells last unlocked it, and 3:14 a.m. on July 5, when his parents gained access to the device.
Garrett also clarified that Snapchat messages can disappear from a recipient’s phone when they are remotely deleted by the person who sent them.
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In the lawsuit, the friends say Owens, 52, circulated a false narrative about them and accused them of crimes they did not commit.
“The Defamatory X Post also placed Warren, Jax, and Morgan before Owens’ audience in a false light, as murderers and participants in a murder coverup who had escaped justice,” according to the lawsuit. “There was absolutely no evidence to prompt an arrest of the Plaintiffs because they had done nothing wrong, and there was no probable cause to arrest Plaintiffs because they had not committed a crime.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Owens for comment through his social media accounts and SMAC Entertainment, which lists him as a client on its website.
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On Sept. 22, days before Owens’ post, a grand jury said Wells’ death was “consistent with drowning” and declined to recommend charges against anyone.
The grand jury did note that the state’s autopsy report, which has not been made public, and an independent autopsy commissioned by the family found that Wells had bruising on the back of his head.
The family’s forensic pathologist, Roger A. Mitchell Jr., classified Wells’ death as “undetermined,” saying he could not rule out non-accidental factors because Wells did not appear too intoxicated to swim and had “apparent acute blunt force injuries to the head and body prior to his death.”
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On Monday, Wells’ family called for a federal investigation into his death following the grand jury decision.
“Our son was found on federal land and we are asking the FBI to step in and do a full investigation,” said Elmore Wonsley, Wells’ father.
