Three friends of Nolan Wells sued Terrell Owens for defamation after the Hall of Famer demanded their arrests, even after a grand jury declined charges in the teen's drowning death.
The fathers of Warren Hudson, Jax Pitalo and Morgan Seymour filed a federal defamation lawsuit Monday on their sons’ behalf against the former NFL star, saying his social media blast painted the young men as killers who got away with it.
All three plaintiffs are under 21 and count as minors under Mississippi law. The suit targets a Sept. 26 post in which Owens wrote “ARREST THEM IMMEDIATELY!!” and linked an Instagram reel that accused the trio of deleting Snapchat messages and suggested they may have been responsible for Wells’ death.
Fox News Digital reported that the post remains online. Owens, 52, and SMAC Entertainment, which lists him as a client, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Nolan Wells, an 18-year-old wide receiver at Southwest Mississippi Community College, joined a large group of friends on a Fourth of July boat trip to Horn Island. He did not return to the mainland with the group. His body was found two days later off the island’s coast.
Friends said Wells stayed behind because he was talking to a girl. Wells’ family disputed that account.
On Sept. 22, a grand jury said the death was “consistent with drowning” and declined to recommend charges against anyone. The panel noted bruising on the back of Wells’ head in both the state’s autopsy, which has not been made public, and an independent exam.
Family forensic pathologist Roger A. Mitchell Jr. classified the death as “undetermined.” He said Wells did not appear too intoxicated to swim and pointed to “apparent acute blunt force injuries to the head and body prior to his death,” saying he could not rule out non-accidental factors.
"Our son was found on federal land and we are asking the FBI to step in and do a full investigation,"
Wells’ father, Elmore Wonsley, said after the grand jury decision.
Four days after the grand jury acted, Owens posted the arrest demand and linked a reel by content creator Trent Out Loud. That reel accused Hudson, Pitalo and Seymour of deleting Snapchat messages from Wells’ phone after his death and floated the idea they may have killed him.
The lawsuit states the post did more than criticize.
"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,"
the filing says.
It continues:
"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."
The New York Post reported that the fathers also plan additional claims against other public figures who commented on the case. Defamation attorney Edward Paltzik, who represents the three friends, put the stakes in plain terms.
"Not only is he defaming them, he’s basically saying to the mob, get your pitchforks, get your torches,"
Paltzik said.
Attorney Benjamin Crump hired digital forensics expert Andrew Garrett to examine Wells’ phone. Garrett concluded no one accessed the device 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.
Garrett also noted that Snapchat messages can disappear from a recipient’s phone when the sender remotely deletes them, a technical point that undercuts simple claims of local tampering in that window.
Hudson, Pitalo and Seymour later sat for an exclusive interview with Fox News’ Kayleigh McEnany. The young men have described receiving death threats as online accusations spread.
Owens is a Hall of Fame wide receiver with a large platform. He visited Fox Business Network’s “The Claman Countdown” in New York on June 10, 2026. His September post did not wait for new evidence after the grand jury. It told followers to arrest three people a panel had already declined to charge.
The friends’ account of the island trip and the family’s doubts remain in tension. The state’s full autopsy stays private. The independent pathologist left the manner of death open. None of that supplied probable cause for the arrests Owens demanded in public.
Federal court is now the venue where the three young men, through their fathers, are forcing the former star to answer for the damage. Reputation is hard to restore once a famous name brands you a murderer who walked free.
Due process still applies when the accusation arrives by megaphone. Fame does not turn a grand jury’s “no” into a green light for a public hunt.
