Warren interview Part 4 | Nolan Wells Case

0:00 Warren I didn't come down here to 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?

0:14 Tatum People are still out there partying--

0:16 Warren Right.

0:16 Tatum --and they're having a good time but something happened to where it, it, it necessitated you guys--

0:21 Warren Yeah.

0:21 Tatum --to get the boat up and running. Can you explain that?

0:23 Warren 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 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 I got a phone call from my buddy Tracestin. He was like hey man they just found his body. My reaction was just I was with my buddy Brooks and I broke down.

0:54 Tatum You guys had been interviewed by law enforcement.

0:57 Warren Mhmm.

0:57 Tatum All of you guys have given statements. 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 coerce 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 turn your wrist or twist your arm just to give it back.

1:34 Warren Right.

1:34 Tatum What happened with the cell phone thing 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?

1:47 Warren Okay. Well that night about 12:30 I went back to my buddy's house.

1:50 Tatum And you said the night of the 4th?

1:51 Warren The night of the fourth but it was about 12:30 I would like to say and so I went back to my buddy's house that I stayed the night before we all met up you know and stayed together the night before and 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 he had 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 he said all right and then he just hung up. And 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 Jayvon's mom and--

2:51 Tatum Who's who is Jayvon? I want to put that in perspective. Who, who is Jayvon?

2:55 Warren Jayvon is 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 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.

3:19 Tatum So is Jayvon black or white?

3:21 Warren Jayvon's mixed. I mean I don't--

3:25 Tatum So I guess he's mixed.

3:27 Warren Yeah yeah.

3:27 Tatum So but he's not white.

3:28 Warren No he's not white.

3:30 Tatum Just just white, or or all white I guess--

3:31 Warren White yeah. Yeah yeah.

3:33 Tatum --you want to call it.

3:33 Warren Yeah yeah yeah yeah.

3:33 Tatum So then they come in the house. Do you know any of these people?

3:37 Warren I know some of the guys.

3:37 Tatum You said you said the, the mom but do you know anybody else?

3:41 Warren I've seen the mom before and 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 Nolan'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 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.

5:19 Tatum It was more, it was, it was more than just Nolan's phone that was on the boat.

5:22 Warren 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 ride out or in with us. So we, we--I mean there was a couple phones that we had that we didn't know who they belonged to and my buddies got that figured out you know but 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.

5:57 Tatum So when they, when they barged in they started getting frantic. The mom asked for Nolan's phone.

6:03 Warren Right.

6:03 Tatum Was there a struggle over it or--

6:06 Warren No no I mean--

6:06 Tatum --did you guys hand it over?

6:08 Warren 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 she just--We just--My bud, 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.

6:30 Tatum When, when did you--Miss Christine is Nolan's mom?

6:33 Warren Correct.

6:33 Tatum When did you when did you talk to her about that?

6:36 Warren 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 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 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.

7:31 Tatum And did you guys go through the phone or--

7:33 Warren Of course not. I mean why--We--None of us had a reason to go through Nolan'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 Nolan'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 Nolan's phone and look at anything. I I don't even touch Nolan's phone. None of us touched Nolan's phone until somebody took it off the boat and put it in Wyatt's 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.

8:04 Tatum 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--

8:10 Warren 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.

8:27 Warren Right.

8:27 Tatum What happened there? When when was this and what happened?

8:30 Warren 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 Christine had 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.

8:54 Tatum And and when he came to pick the keys up was there a confrontation or--

8:57 Warren Uh-uh.

8:57 Tatum 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--

9:07 Warren No absolutely not.

9:07 Tatum --you said you didn't know where the keys were at.

9:15 Warren I mean no absolutely not. I mean I wasn't there but from what my friend told me they just had to look for 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. I mean we were trying to help do everything that we could to help out.

9:28 Tatum All right. So I want, I want to be clear with this one thing--

9:28 Warren Mhmm.

9:28 Tatum --because I know you mentioned before that you have no reason to touch the phone. Obviously you didn't touch the phone.

9:33 Warren Right.

9:33 Tatum 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 there was no reason for us to get on Nolan's phone. No one touched Nolan's phone but nothing--If none of us had touched Nolan's phone then you know there's no reason for anything to be deleted. I mean no one, 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 Nolan'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--

10:17 Warren Mhmm.

10:17 Tatum --because you had mentioned earlier that you saw Nolan cradling Katie.

10:23 Warren Right.

10:23 Tatum I think her name is--

10:23 Warren Yeah Katie.

10:23 Tatum Katie. 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--

10:29 Warren Yeah.

10:29 Tatum --or like what does that scenario look like?

10:32 Warren 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.

10:56 Tatum Oh so he's kind of like holding her?

10:58 Warren Right. Right. In the water though.

10:59 Tatum Like we grown right?

11:02 Warren Yeah yeah.

11:02 Tatum There's two people in the water--

11:03 Warren Right.

11:03 Tatum --they, they're feeling each other--

11:04 Warren Right.

11:04 Tatum --like meeting feeling they like each other.

11:05 Warren Right right. Obvious.

11:06 Tatum And seems a little more close to her--

11:09 Warren Right.

11:09 Tatum --and they're kind of having a moment.

11:10 Warren Correct.

11:10 Tatum Not saying not insinuating that it's sexual but--

11:12 Warren No no.

11:12 Tatum --they're together. They like each other. You looking at him you're like bro you crazy--

11:20 Warren Yeah.

11:20 Tatum Cuz you know that he like her--

11:21 Warren Yeah.

11:21 Tatum --and he's hanging out with her.

11:22 Warren Yeah yeah. Right. Exactly.

11:22 Tatum 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.

11:34 Warren Yeah yeah.

11:34 Tatum You saw him at a certain point--

11:36 Warren Right.

11:36 Tatum --but then someone else saw him a lot later when you guys were gone.

11:40 Warren Right. Okay. So the last time I personally laid eyes on Nolan was at like 3:00 you know and 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.

12:23 Warren Okay.

12:23 Tatum I didn't come down here to you know do anything other but to get the truth--

12:28 Warren Right.

12:28 Tatum --and for you to have a voice in this.

12:30 Warren Right.

12:30 Tatum And the first thing I want to ask you is did you kill Nolan?

12:35 Warren Of course not.

12:35 Tatum Did you have anything to do with Nolan's death?

12:38 Warren Of course not. Absolutely not.

12:42 Tatum They say that you guys deleted stuff out of his phone. Did you delete anything out of Nolan's phone?

12:48 Warren No of course not.

12:51 Tatum 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.

13:12 Tatum And obviously--People may see this and and know the facts later--

13:18 Warren Right.

13:18 Tatum --that you weren't able to go to the funeral--

13:21 Warren Mhmm.

13:21 Tatum --or the memorial service.

13:22 Warren Right.

13:22 Tatum Why, why didn't you go? Why was that?

13:25 Warren 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.

14:26 Tatum And you know you, you guys--And I think this the first time that you've publicly gave a statement about this.

14:35 Warren Mhmm. Yeah.

14:35 Tatum And obviously you're doing it with me. 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?

14:47 Warren 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 Nolan you know and 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.

15:31 Tatum 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--

16:13 Warren Mhmm.

16:13 Tatum --of Nolan, white supremacist, racist. What would you want the world to know if you can summarize to them in a very short paragraph or a few sentences--

16:26 Warren Yeah.

16:26 Tatum What would you want to say to them if you had the opportunity?

16:28 Warren 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 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.

18:02 Tatum 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 Tracestin was out there and you know he's mixed. Jayvon 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--Nolan 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?

18:46 Warren Absolutely not. My buddy Tracestin's black. And 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.

19:11 Tatum There's controversy around the Sea Tow--

19:13 Warren Mhmm.

19:13 Tatum Right. You guys called it in--

19:16 Warren Right.

19:16 Tatum They have that uh record of you guys you know making that emergency call--

19:23 Warren Right.

19:23 Tatum --but then there's this I guess graphic of you guys traveling at a, at a, at a slow speed then all of a sudden you accelerate.

19:31 Warren Right.

19:31 Tatum People are saying that that's an indication of something afoot or foul play--

19:38 Warren Mhmm.

19:38 Tatum --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?

19:49 Warren Yeah I mean absolutely not. 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 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. 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 plane 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 planed, 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.

21:31 Tatum So there's nothing nefarious there. Just a formality of trying to unplug the boat and--

21:36 Warren Absolutely not.

21:37 Tatum --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 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 Nolan was here what do you think he would say about all this?

22:07 Warren 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 an 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.

23:09 Tatum You think your your friendship with Nolan inspired you to want to speak out?

23:15 Warren 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 in this interview do you have any theories about what it--What could have possibly happened to Nolan?

23:47 Warren 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. My friends have--It's not like we're unexperienced in this but Nolan 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.

25:14 Warren Exactly.

25:15 Tatum So I got two more things I want to address directly.

25:19 Warren Mhmm.

25:19 Tatum It's been said out there that you guys immediately deleted your social media, lawyered up as if you were in some type of fear that you would be implicated in this. What do you say to that?

25:32 Warren I mean of course we lawyered 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 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 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.

26:37 Tatum Warren thank you so much man for being bold--

26:40 Warren Of course.

26:40 Tatum --and courageous 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.

26:54 Warren Mhmm.

26:54 Tatum 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--

27:08 Warren Mhmm.

27:08 Tatum --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--

27:19 Warren Of course.

27:19 Tatum --and you being a young guy I'm much older than you. I could take the punches.

27:25 Warren Right.

27:25 Tatum You know I I love dishing it out--

27:28 Warren Mhmm.

27:28 Tatum --but for you as a young man to to really put your neck out there to stand up for your friends and stand up for for Nolan is very honorable and I appreciate you doing this interview with me.

27:39 Warren Well I appreciate you. I mean you being here and flying down has meant a lot and I mean I just wanted to get my story out there cuz I know that's what Nolan would want me to do and I want the truth to come out and I pray that the good Lord reveals the truth to everybody. So thank you Brandon.

27:57 Tatum Appreciate you man thanks.

27:57 Warren Mhmm.

Warren Interview (Part 4)