PASCAGOULA - A grand jury found that friends of Nolan Wells, a Mississippi teen who died while on a Fourth of July trip, were not involved in his death. 

Monday night, District Attorney Angel McIlrath publicly posted the findings, accompanied by a video saying that the grand jury's job is to hold people liable, but to also exonerate the innocent. 

"The narrative that three white boys and a Black boy went to an island and only three white friends returned spread like wildfire," McIlrath said. "This was false."

McIlrath said the grand jury found that there is no evidence to support that his death was racially motivated. 

"Nolan's friends loved Nolan, and Nolan loved them," she said. "The family, the crime team and anyone close to Nolan knew that his disappearance and death were not the result of racial hate or violence."