Warren interview Part 4 | Nolan Wells Case

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0:00 Warren I didn't come down here do anything other but to get the truth. Did you kill Nolan? Did you have anything to do with Nolan's death? Did you delete anything out of Nolan's phone?

0:13 Tatum People are still out there partying and they're having a good time, but something happened to where it it it necessitated you guys to get the boat up and running. Can you explain that? Yeah, I'm like yelling at other people trying to tell them, you know, calm down. like, you know, we're the boat could possibly sink, you know, and

0:29 Warren Nolan was sitting by the boat with that Katie girl and my buddy yelled at, you know, yelled for Nolan, "Nolan, get the f on the boat. Get on the boat." And Nolan said, "No, I'm staying out here." The next day, uh, I got a phone call from my buddy Trac. He was like, hey man, they just found his body. My reaction was just I was with my buddy Brooks and I broke down. you guys had been interviewed by law enforcement. All of you guys have given statements. Um, but then then I think that there's a part associated with this that's being rumored out in the public and that is the situation with the cell phone, potential deletion of messages, how the cell phone was retrieved and I and I just want you to tell your side of this because what we're getting from the media is that they literally had to I don't know coers you guys into giving it back. You didn't know where it was at. you were hesitant to give it give to give the phone over almost as if they had to turn you know uh turn your wrist or twist your arm just to give it back. What happened with the cell phone thing?

1:35 Tatum So let's go back to the first engagement you had when it comes to the family or somebody coming back to get the cell phone and keys. When when did that occur and what what happened there? Okay. Well, that night about 12:30 I went back to my buddy's house. And you said the night of the 4th. the night of the fourth, but it was about 12:30, I would like to say. And uh so I went back to my buddy's house. I stayed the night before where we all met up, you know, and stayed together the night before. And uh my buddy got a call from this guy and the guy was like, "Oh, like you know, like what's going on with all this Nolan stuff?" Very aggravated. I mean, yeah, every right to be, but I mean, he we were trying to calm him down and like he was just like, "Oh, like, where are y'all at?" My buddy said, you know, "We're we're at my buddy's house." And uh he said, "All right." And then he just hung up. And uh so about 30 minutes later, I'd like to say, all of a sudden, the the door just got open and slammed. And there was a girl who walked in and like probably about eight or nine guys behind her and then another a mom that which was Javon's mom. And who's who is Javon? I want to put that in perspective. Who who is Javon? Javon is uh one of Nolan's good friends. He's a friend of mine too, you know, like great guy. And uh his mom and their family is, you know, very close with, you know, the Wells family. And uh I mean so I I don't know why she was there like what was going on but I I was very surprised by this. I was like you know like you just basically like kicked the door open and you know busted up in the house with no knock or anything. So is Javon black or white?

3:21 Warren Javon's mixed. I mean I don't Yeah I guess he's mixed. Yeah. Yeah. So but he's not white. No he's not white. Just just white or or all white I guess you want to call it.

3:32 Tatum Yeah. So then they come in the house. Do you know any of these people? You said you said the the mom, but do you know anybody else? I've seen the mom before and uh I know most of them. Most of the guys went to high school with me and like I'm friends with some of the guys. I mean, you know, I know some of them. So eventually like things started to get heated and I was just like a guy I was like, you know, friends with in high school. He was like, "Man, come outside with me." And I was like, "All right." And I walked outside with him. He was like, "Man, I like I don't know why." Like they're panicking and you know, like this is just like I think no one's just on somebody's couch. He's been drinking all day. He's just messed up and you know this is nothing that we have to worry about. As much as you know, I sat there and I told him I was like, you know, I agree. I I really I would think, you know, he's on somebody's couch just had been drinking all day and just, you know, drank too much and was super intoxicated. You know, that's kind of what a lot of us thought, but they were kind of losing it and they were going crazy. And the mom that was with them demanded Nolan's phone cuz Nolan's phone Nolan left the phone on the boat. And when we ran in, Nolan didn't ask for his phone. And his keys were not on the boat cuz his his car was parked at my buddy's house where we had all slept, you know, the night before the 4th. And uh so the keys were left at the house cuz he didn't Nolan Nolan's car was at my buddy my buddy's house where we stayed at. So of course he left his keys there, but his phone I mean he was drinking. He didn't have his phone in the water cuz no one did. And I mean there was more than just Nolan's phone that wasn't on the boat with us. It was more it was it was more than just Nolan's phone that was on the boat. Yeah. I mean, we obviously had all all our phones, but on the boat, but that wasn't those weren't the only people like Nolan wasn't the only person that left a phone on the boat. There was a lot of people that left phones on the boat. Not that weren't that didn't write out or in with us. So, we we I mean,

5:40 Warren there was a couple phones that we had that we didn't know who they belonged to and uh my buddies got that figured out, you know, but um it wasn't just Nolan's phone that, you know, was on was on the boat that who wasn't there, you know. It was there was a lot of phones.

5:54 Tatum So when they when they barged in, they started getting frantic. Um the mom asked for Nolan's phone. Was there a struggle over it or did you guys hand it over? Just handed it over. I mean, we didn't think anything of it. Like, you know, she asked for Nolan's phone. We knew they were close friends with, you know, the Wells family. And uh she just we just my but my buddy went out to his truck and handed the phone over. No complications, no issue, you know, nothing. But I mean, I told Miss Christine that we had his phone and he had left it in our possession on the boat. When When did you Miss Christine is Nola's mom, correct? When did you when did you talk to her about that? When I was on No, I didn't talk to her once like it was like 12:30. I mean, I might have texted her a couple times and like, you know, talked briefly about a couple things, but I never, you know, I never I told her on the phone before I called the Coast Guard that we had Nolan's phone before I called, Miss Christine. I asked I was like, "Oh, well, where's his location at?" Cuz Nolan had his Snapchat location on for me. And he he said, "Uh, you know, it's Wyatt said it's, you know, in my truck." Like because everybody who left stuff on the boat, it was Wyatt's boat. So Wyatt put it in his truck, you know, like it just normal. And uh so the the phone was in possession in in Wyatt's truck. And when that mom came over and asked for it, there was no issue at all with us giving the phone to her. I mean, Nolan just left it on the boat. We handed the phone to her that night of the 4th of July. And did you guys go through the phone or?

7:34 Warren Of course not. I mean, why we none of us had a reason to go through no one's phone? I mean, there's multiple phones on the boat. Why would we and the and the boat was having issues. Why would our concern be getting on no one's phone or something? I mean, I don't even know Nolan's password. None of my friends do. We had no reason ever to get on no one's phone and look at anything. I I don't even touch no one's phone. None of us touched no one's phone until somebody took it off the boat and put it in truck and then no one no one touched it until we handed it back, you know, to the mom that was at my buddy's house. Did she pick was that the only phone that she picked up or was it other people's phone that they came and got or that I know of? I think that was the only one that she had, you know, but I'm not completely sure. I think that's the only one that you know, she took Nolan's. That's it.

8:17 Tatum And so we're we're on the fourth where the night probably going into the morning of 5th. This happens. Then the dad comes back at some point to get the keys. What happened there? When when was this and what happened? Well, my buddy Brooks drove me and dropped me off at my house. And I woke up to a text the next morning that Miss Christina texted me and she said, "Hey, Nolan's dad's there is is there at my buddy's house to pick up the keys." And you know, I just I didn't think anything of it. I told her that I was praying for her and, you know, that we were out there and we were, you know, doing everything that we could to help out. And and when he came to pick the keys up, was there a confrontation or Cuz I could have sworn I saw on the news that when he came to pick the keys up, it was almost like an altercation because you guys didn't want to get the keys over or you you said you didn't know where the keys were at. I mean, no, absolutely not. I mean, I wasn't there, but from what my friend told me, they just had to look for

9:15 Warren Nolan's keys. It's not like why would we be hiding Nolan's keys? There's no reason to hide anything. You know, this is our friend. We have nothing to hide.

9:22 Tatum I mean, we were trying to help, do everything that we could to help out. All right. So, I want I want to be clear with this one thing because I know you mentioned before that you have no reason to touch the phone. Obviously, you didn't touch the phone, right? But is there any chance or any knowledge that you have that anybody deleted stuff from his phone?

9:38 Warren Absolutely not. I mean, like I said, uh there was no reason for us to get on no one's phone. No one touched no one's phone, but nothing if none of us had touched no one's phone, then, you know, there's no reason for anything to be deleted. I mean, none no one even was in contact with his phone until it was moved from the boat to the truck. And none of us have access to no one's password to get on his phone and delete anything. Absolutely not. And we have no reason to delete anything. I mean, you know, there's there's nothing to hide here. I mean, we we have had no reason to delete anything and, you know, we never did.

10:13 Tatum All right. So, I I have something I want to I want to make sure that we're clear about. Um because you had mentioned earlier that you saw Nolan cradling Katie. I think her name is Katie. Katie.

10:23 Warren I just want you to explain what does that mean? Some people in their mind they may think he's he's cradling like a baby or like what does that scenario look like? Yeah, he was I mean Nolan was off the last time I saw him. Like I said I was off the bow of the boat and like I said earlier if you had jumped off the bow of the boat you were probably about chest or neck deep in water. So Nolan wasn't like carrying her out the water. She's sitting in the water and Nolan's arms are under the water and he's carrying her from under the water, but her head's still out of the water. Nolan's head's still out of the water, you know, and I was looking at both of them. So, Oh, so he's kind of like holding her, right? Right. In the water, though. Like we grown, right? There's two people in the water. They they feeling each other like meeting feeling they like each other, right? And seems a little more close to her and they're kind of having a moment. Not saying not insinuating that it's sexual, but No. They're together. They like each other. You looking at him, you're like, "Bro, you crazy." Cuz you know that he like her and he's hanging out with her. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Exactly. That makes sense. And And when was the last time that you saw Nolan? And then when was the last time that someone reported to you that Nolan was seen? If that makes sense. You saw him at a certain point, but then someone else saw him a lot later when you guys were gone, right? Okay. So, the last time I personally laid eyes on Nolan was at like 3:00, you know, and uh he was, you know, front of the boat with the girl and that's the last time I saw him. But there were, you know, I've talked to somebody personally that saw Nolan at 6:00 and someone, you know, we weren't the even the last people to see Nolan. We, you know, once we left, there was still dozens on dozens on dozens of boats around us. And I mean, clearly we were not the last people to see Nolan.

12:18 Tatum So Warren, I'm gonna ask you some very pointed questions. I mean, just straight out. Okay. I didn't come down here to, you know, do anything other but to get the truth and for you to have a voice in this, right? And the first thing I want to ask you is, did you kill Nolan? Of course not. Did you have anything to do with Nolan's death? Of course not. And absolutely not. They say that you guys deleted stuff out of his phone. Did you delete anything out of Nolan's phone? No, of course not. The mom act like or at least she portrayed on television and the rumors are that you you weren't really good friends with Nolan. Is that true or not?

12:59 Warren Absolutely not. I hung I hung out with Nolan probably like three days a week. I mean seriously at least some days my friends want to hang out every single day and Nolan was always there. So, and obviously people may see this and

13:15 Tatum and know the facts later that you weren't able to go um to the funeral or the memorial service, right? Why Why didn't you go? What was that? Well, I mean, with everything going on on social media right now with people saying the crazy things that they're saying, I would never want to take the attention off of Nolan and his family. They don't deserve that. And you know, for own personal reasons, I mean, I've I've gotten thousands of death threats. My family's got thousands of death threats. And, you know, for my own safety, I I I'm not going to put my my own health and safety at risk. You know, it breaks my heart that I can't go. And it hurt me more than anything because I, you know, obviously I want to say my last goodbyes to one of my best friends, but I mean, if I'm getting thousands of death threats of people saying they're going to kill me and do crazy things to my family and I, I just I couldn't bring myself to go because, you know, I I got to put my own safety first. And even if that means, you know, missing my friend's funeral. I mean, it's it's it's horrible. And I wish I could have been there, but you know, that's what's been going on, you know, and you know, you you guys, and I think this the first time that you've publicly gave a statement about this. Yeah. And obviously you're doing it with me. Um, we're going to put it out there for the world. Why did you choose to do it now? And why did you choose to not speak to anybody but me? Right. Okay. Well, you know, Officer Tatum, I've been watching you for a a good while now, and you know, I I think you're a great guy. You've kind of ever since things got really hot, you've kind of been on my friends and I's side, and I really like that about you. I mean, I thought you were very confident, well spoken, and I really enjoyed that. And all my friends and I watch you. We all think you're great. We love your faith with the Lord, you know. We we try to be closer and closer with the Lord every day. And so did so did no one, you know, and uh you know, but we we just really like the way you spoke about us and how you took our side, not based off someone's agenda and you know, based off of race, cuz I mean that's a horrible thing, you know. Was this about race? Did this have anything to do with race as far as from your perspective?

15:38 Warren Absolutely not. I mean, Nolan's been a great friend of mine since 8th grade. Nolan isn't my only friend of color. And you know, I have I have plenty of friends through high school and friends I have now, not just Nolan, who are black, Mexican, you know, I've never looked at that. And none of my friends ever have. Like, and if you do, you know, that's disgusting, you know.

16:02 Tatum And if you had a chance to, you know, tell the the world that have painted this picture of you and your friends as being potential murderers. Mhm. of Nolan, white supremacist, racist. What would you want the world to know if you can summarize to them in a very short uh paragraph or a few sentences? Yeah. What would you want to say to them if you had the opportunity?

16:28 Warren Uh, I would want to say to them that my family and I are praying for y'all. You know, I can never bring myself to tell somebody that I'm gonna kill them and that I'm gonna, you know, I've I've received and my family's received absolutely horrible threats about this. And, you know, I just I want people to know that our faith with the Lord is stronger

16:53 Tatum and means more to us than anything. And we all trust in the Lord, the Lord in for the Lord to reveal the truth. And I know that's what will happen because I have faith and my family has faith. But I want people to know that I'm praying for them. And if they want to speak hate and and speak, you know, these horrible things, then I mean, you're obviously not in the right state of mind and you you need to work on yourself. It's a horrible thing. And, you know, but race was never a thing between Nolan and I and my friends. I mean, I have friends in my friend group that are Mexican and, you know, mixed black. I mean, that's never mattered. I think it's just absolutely disgusting that people try to make this narrative out of something that it's absolutely not first off and out of something that they have zero facts about. Jackson County hasn't released any facts there. There haven't been any facts about this case other than that, you know, just timelines and, you know, stuff like that. But it's horrible that people have made this out to be something that it's absolutely not. And it's it's disgusting in my opinion. Was Nolan the only black person on that island?

18:05 Warren Absolutely not. I saw a lot of black people. And like I said, I mean, you know, it's not pointed out or anything. I mean, I wasn't looking at that. But my like we my buddy Trac was out there and you know, he's mixed. Javon was out there. He's came out. He's mixed. I know a bunch of my friends that are black that were out there that day that I haven't even mentioned. I mean, there was no one was not the only black person out there by no means. I mean, like there was thousands of people out there, white, Mexican, black, you know, every, you know, everyone, you know.

18:42 Tatum And in the friend group, is Nolan the only black person in the friend group? Absolutely not. My buddy Trac's black. Um, you know, I have other friends of color. I mean, our friend group is very tight and, you know, we have a small, not a small group of guys, but we have a, you know, we have 10 to 12 guys in my friend group and, you know, we're all from Ocean Springs and, you know, we grew up together, but Nolan is not the only black guy in my friend group by any means and everybody knows that there's controversy around the CTO, right? You guys called it in, right? they have that uh record of you guys, you know, making that emergency call, right? But then there's this, I guess, uh, graphic of you guys traveling at a at a at a slow speed, then all of a sudden you accelerate, right? People are saying that that's an indication of something a foot or foul play going on in that in that timeline. What what do you have to say to the naysayers who were mentioning that something must have happened that you guys were going slow then you accelerated all of a sudden? Yeah, I mean absolutely doc we got towed probably a quarter mile like I said my buddy Bart drove his boat up next to ours after he pulled us out away from the island and then he towed us a little more while we were trying to get the motor figured out. I mean the motor would would trim down. So then eventually and the motor wouldn't trim down. And so eventually we figured out if you held the manual trim on the motor, the motor will stay in the water even when you start to acceler accelerate cuz when my buddy would put the boat in gear in forward, the motor would come right back up. So it trimmed down, but then it come right back up when you went to go put it in forward and drive off. So

20:27 Warren yeah, we stopped at one point. My buddy pulled the plug out the boat, got back in the boat, the captain of the boat got in the water, pulled the plug out the boat, got back in the boat and hit it.

20:39 Tatum And like I said earlier, we all move transferred our weight to the front. So, cuz there was so much water in the back of the boat that when we my buddy had it pinned out all the way trying to go as fast as we can and the boat was still sitting like this on the water, not wouldn't even plan out. So, we had to move all the way to the front of the boat. Everybody had to get on the bow and eventually we plained, everybody got sat back and when you're on plane and you're and you're, you know, you're going, water starts coming out the boat. Like that's the whole reason he pulled the plug cuz when you when you come out the water and you and you're on plane and the boat's level, water starts coming out the boat. So, I mean, that's why we came to a stop so he could jump in the water, pull the plug, and then we hauled in. you know, there was no stopping because if you do stop, the water starts coming back in the boat because the plug's out. So, so there's nothing nefarious there. Just a formality of trying to unplug the boat and absolutely not. Get it docked properly.

21:38 Warren Correct. I mean, we were just trying to, you know, solve the boat's issues because we wouldn't have ever gone anywhere if the boat wasn't figured out.

21:44 Tatum So, and and and Nolan being a really good friend of yours, really good friend of of all of you guys, some of you guys have been accused of killing him. I mean, obviously he was somebody you knew, somebody you spent a lot of time with. With all that has gone on, if

22:01 Warren Nolan was here, what do you think he would say about all this? I think Nolan has one of the most I mean, Nolan's one of the best men I've ever met. I mean, he has a amazing heart. And like I said in the beginning, I mean, Nolan is one of the nicest and sweetest people I've ever met. I mean, seriously had he had no hate in his heart whatsoever. I think if Nolan knew this was going on, he'd be sick to his stomach. I mean, it's Nolan hated hated all hate and arguing and drama. He didn't like any of that. So, I mean, I think if Nolan knew this was going on, he'd be very, very upset. I mean, it's horrible. If he knew his friends were getting these threats and, you know, we were, you know, felt threatened for our lives. I mean, I Nolan would be traumatized if he was here like, and if he knew that, like, I mean, he was not he was a person of no violence and, you know, he had a really good heart. He would hate it. You think your your friendship with Nolan inspired you to want to speak out? Of course. I mean, I know Nolan and like I said, I've been really tight with Nolan since 8th grade and he's a best friend of mine. He's like a brother and Nolan's the type of guy to fight back for what's right and fight for the truth. And I know Nolan would tell me if he was here to fight back and make sure the truth is out and make sure your word is out because that's what matters most.

23:39 Tatum So, after all that's been said uh in this interview, do you have any theories about what it what could have possibly happened to Nolan? Um, you know, my buddies and I have talked about it and like I said, I mean, I've been on the water my entire life.

23:55 Warren My friends have. It's not like we're unexperienced in this, but Noah was my best friend and he was my friend's best friends and he was like a brother to me and more than anything and the thing that's most important is what happened to him and I I mean I want to know just as much as anybody else. I mean that's all like my friends haven't stopped talking about that like what what happened and you know like just trying to figure it out but I would never want to put it on somebody else because of the hate that I've received for just being out there around them and my name getting brought up because I called the Coast Guard. I was the first one to call the Coast Guard. I mean, I I don't I don't know. And I want to know more than anybody. I mean, I just my friends and I are like very like have been wondering this for a while and you know, we just want to know as much as anybody else what happened to him. But I I would never want to sit here and blame anybody else and put this on anybody else because of the hate and death threats that my family and my friends have received. It's horrible. And I would never want someone else to like experience that, you know.

25:11 Tatum Yeah. Especially if if if there's no evidence to it. Exactly. So, I got two more things I want to address directly. Um, it's been said out there that you guys immediately delete your social media, lore it up as if you were in some type of fear that you would be implicated in this. What do you say to that? I mean, of course, we lured up and of course, you know, I deleted my social media. I was getting death threats before anything ever came out because I was the one that called the Coast Guard. I mean, people put this all on me because I was the one that called. I was the one that that was, you know, worried. My friends were just as well. I mean, of course, I delete all my social media. I was getting insane death threats, like stuff I couldn't even believe 2 days after. And you know, we went straight to the police. I wanted the police to come and ask questions. I I wanted them to know and have all of my information. And um I mean, people were accusing me of murdering my best friend. It's sick. I mean, like just because of a just because of race. I mean, it it's disgusting. It makes me stick like sick to my stomach. I mean, there's I I've obviously I delete I I got off of social media because there were people saying insane things to me and my family and I just couldn't sit there and look at it. I mean, that's it. And Warren, thank you so much, man, for being bold and courageous um for telling your story. The purpose of me doing this and flying down here is because I wanted to know for myself. I always felt that the narrative that was out there wasn't quite complete. It seems like there was a rush to judgment. And I know that you could have taken the opportunity to say, you know what, I'm not going to say anything. I'm afraid for my life. And I'm just not going to put my my neck out there. But I applaud you and appreciate you for stepping up, for doing what Nolan would be proud of you doing, and that is putting the word out there and not letting the naysayers run with the narrative, of course. And you being a young guy, I'm much older than you. I could take the punches, right?

Warren Interview (Part 4)