Mississippi
Three people charged with threatening judge, witness and officials tied to Nolan Wells investigation
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's Gulf Coast.
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 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.
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's coast.
Authorities have not made any arrests or named any suspects. An independent autopsy commissioned by Wells' family found the 18-year-old's cause of death to be “undetermined” pending further investigation.
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.
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 “into a suitcase.” Porter was charged on July 31 in federal court for the Southern District of Mississippi for the threat.
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' death.
An Ohio woman was also charged with allegedly placing bomb threats at the George County Chancery Clerk's Office and the Jackson County Sheriff's Office on July 23. The woman, Michelle Francine Edwards, allegedly called the clerk's office 21 times and said, “the clock is ticking,” according to an affidavit.
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 “threat that a bomb would be mailed to the judge's office.”
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 “stay on the island and return inland later with another group of friends.” Cole wrote that she deactivated her Facebook and that she fears for the safety of her children.
“No 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's quest for answers,” Cole wrote, adding that her son “cooperated fully” with the sheriff's investigation. Kelety reported from Phoenix. Associated Press journalist Sophie Bates in Jackson, Mississippi, contributed.
California
Judge holds DHS in contempt in case over LA immigration sweeps
A federal judge on Tuesday held the Department of Homeland Security in contempt for allegedly slow-rolling an order to create digital copies of communications from personal cell phones used by immigration agents during operations in the Los Angeles area last year.
U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong in the Central District of California previously ordered the federal government in January to expedite imaging the personal cell phones of more than 800 agents involved in controversial immigration raids in Los Angeles in 2025.
Judge Frimpong imposed a fine of $500 per day on the federal government until it complies with the order to turn over phones as part of discovery and reimburse plaintiffs' attorneys for the legal costs of getting the records.
Attorneys for DHS admitted in court in June that the agency had not provided the records. They told the judge they were processing the government devices at a rate of three phones every two weeks, which plaintiffs noted would take nearly four years to complete.
Attorneys representing immigrants caught up in Operation At Large — the name given to the Trump administration's Los Angeles immigration crackdown last year — argue the phones may contain evidence of a pattern of racial profiling by federal agents.
Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union wrote in May that the Department of Homeland Security “simply proceeded to thwart” Frimpong's order “by dragging their feet on imaging government-issued cell phones and by openly defying the order as to personal phones.”
Last month, ACLU attorneys asked Frimpong to issue another order that would prohibit agents from detaining people based on their race. They cited text messages and body camera footage in which agents used racial slurs, including “wet and “tonks,” to identify working-class Latinos to stop, according to court records.
“Not only are federal agents violating the Constitution on the streets, the government is violating court orders by intentionally withholding critical evidence about its immigration enforcement operations,” said Mayra Joachin with the ACLU of Southern California.
The Department of Homeland Security has not responded to questions about whether agents' use of the word “tonks” violated its policy.
It issued a written statement after Frimpong's contempt order that was identical to one it released last week after a different development in the case.
“Our agents are focused on protecting the American people — not entertaining performative outrage,” the statement read. “Where is the media's outrage for Angel families who lost a loved one to illegal alien crime?”
Three people charged with threatening judge, witness and officials tied to Nolan Wells investigation
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's Gulf Coast.
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 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.
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's coast.
Authorities have not made any arrests or named any suspects. An independent autopsy commissioned by Wells' family found the 18-year-old's cause of death to be “undetermined” pending further investigation.
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.
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 “into a suitcase.” Porter was charged on July 31 in federal court for the Southern District of Mississippi for the threat.
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' death.
An Ohio woman was also charged with allegedly placing bomb threats at the George County Chancery Clerk's Office and the Jackson County Sheriff's Office on July 23. The woman, Michelle Francine Edwards, allegedly called the clerk's office 21 times and said, “the clock is ticking,” according to an affidavit.
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 “threat that a bomb would be mailed to the judge's office.”
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 “stay on the island and return inland later with another group of friends.” Cole wrote that she deactivated her Facebook and that she fears for the safety of her children.
“No 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's quest for answers,” Cole wrote, adding that her son “cooperated fully” with the sheriff's investigation. Kelety reported from Phoenix. Associated Press journalist Sophie Bates in Jackson, Mississippi, contributed.
California
Judge holds DHS in contempt in case over LA immigration sweeps
A federal judge on Tuesday held the Department of Homeland Security in contempt for allegedly slow-rolling an order to create digital copies of communications from personal cell phones used by immigration agents during operations in the Los Angeles area last year.
U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong in the Central District of California previously ordered the federal government in January to expedite imaging the personal cell phones of more than 800 agents involved in controversial immigration raids in Los Angeles in 2025.
Judge Frimpong imposed a fine of $500 per day on the federal government until it complies with the order to turn over phones as part of discovery and reimburse plaintiffs' attorneys for the legal costs of getting the records.
Attorneys for DHS admitted in court in June that the agency had not provided the records. They told the judge they were processing the government devices at a rate of three phones every two weeks, which plaintiffs noted would take nearly four years to complete.
Attorneys representing immigrants caught up in Operation At Large — the name given to the Trump administration's Los Angeles immigration crackdown last year — argue the phones may contain evidence of a pattern of racial profiling by federal agents.
Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union wrote in May that the Department of Homeland Security “simply proceeded to thwart” Frimpong's order “by dragging their feet on imaging government-issued cell phones and by openly defying the order as to personal phones.”
Last month, ACLU attorneys asked Frimpong to issue another order that would prohibit agents from detaining people based on their race. They cited text messages and body camera footage in which agents used racial slurs, including “wet and “tonks,” to identify working-class Latinos to stop, according to court records.
“Not only are federal agents violating the Constitution on the streets, the government is violating court orders by intentionally withholding critical evidence about its immigration enforcement operations,” said Mayra Joachin with the ACLU of Southern California.
The Department of Homeland Security has not responded to questions about whether agents' use of the word “tonks” violated its policy.
It issued a written statement after Frimpong's contempt order that was identical to one it released last week after a different development in the case.
“Our agents are focused on protecting the American people — not entertaining performative outrage,” the statement read. “Where is the media's outrage for Angel families who lost a loved one to illegal alien crime?”
