By admin 
The Sacramento man indicted in Mississippi for threatening to kill and injure witnesses connected to the investigation of the death of Nolan Xavier Wells off the Mississippi coast made his first appearance on the federal charges Monday.
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Joseph Alfredo Vasquez Dumarce, 27, of Sacramento, faces charges of transmitting messages to harm or kill Jackson County, Mississippi, Chancery Judge Ashlee Cole, and her children, including stepson Warren Hudson, one of the young men who spent July 4 on Horn Island with Wells before he went missing.
Wells was celebrating Independence Day with Hudson and others aboard a boat trip to the barrier island, about 10 miles off the Mississippi mainland and his Jackson County hometown of Ocean Springs, when he failed to return.
Wells’ body was found two days later off the northwest tip of Horn Island.
Dumarce of Sacramento was arrested July 30 and held in Mississippi on a federal charge accusing him of sending a direct message over social media threatening to kill Jackson County Chancery Judge Cole.
The charge of interstate transmission of a threatening communication, a crime that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and up to three years of post-release supervision.
Agents with the FBI Safe Streets Task Force identified Dumarce, 27, who used the username “yaeyae962,” by tracing email IP addresses associated with the account, including [email protected], along with a date of birth, phone number and street addresses linked to the account.
Investigators said the information resulted in the identity of Dumarce as the user behind the “yaeyae962” account that sent the messages to Cole.
The charging document also cited one of the many messages Dumarce sent to Cole, including some previously cited by Cole that included threats with pictures of her children.
The Sacramento man on Monday also faced Cole and attorney Michael Cox, who represents three of the young men who were with Wells on July 4, over alleged defamatory comments.
Meantime, Wells’ parents, Christine and Elmore Wonsley, are demanding answers.
Their son’s mysterious death has garnered national attention, calls for justice from civil rights and faith leaders including The Rev. Al Sharpton, of National Action Network, NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson, and National Urban League CEO Marc Morial.
The Congressional Black Caucus has also called for the U.S. Department of Justice to open an independent federal review of Nolan’s disappearance and death.
A family legal team headed by national civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump has conducted an independent investigation into his death.
An independent autopsy in July found that the manner and cause of death of the 18-year-old student-athlete were undetermined pending further investigation, Crump said in a July 22 news conference.
The Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office’s autopsy findings are completed, but Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath said the results and other information in the case will remain sealed pending a grand jury review to determine if any criminal wrongdoing occurred.
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Since Wells’ death, speculation has been rampant on social media, prompting other threats to file civil action in the case.
Wells would have turned 19 on Aug. 19. Vigils were held across the nation and in Mississippi cities that day including Biloxi where hundreds celebrated his life at that city’s Greater St. John AME Church.
“As we celebrate what would have been his 19th birthday, I am reminded as a father of a 24-year-old son and the uncle of four nephews between the age of 20 and 24, how dangerous, precarious life can be for a young Black man in America,” Morial of the National Urban League said.
Dumarce was the first of those arrested and charged for suspected threats in the case.
A second suspect, Edward James Porter, 32, of Berwyn, Illinois, near Chicago, appeared before a judge in federal court Monday for his arraignment on the same offense, but in a case involving threats to another.
Porter is charged in a federal criminal complaint with transmitting a threatening communication in interstate commerce to kill or injure two witnesses in the ongoing state investigation into the death. The charges are for suspected threats through phone calls and text messages, according to a federal complaint.
According to the records filed in the case, Porter is accused of making threats to kill the father of another friend of Wells, Bart Edmiston Jr.
According to the federal agent investigating the case, Porter sent text messages saying he had the family’s home address and included the address in the messages.
Porter also threatened to kill the father, cut up his body and put the remains in a suitcase.
Both Dumarce and Porter are charged with a felony offense that carries a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.
Both pleaded not guilty and remain jailed without bond.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Bradley Rath presided over the hearings in Gulfport.
The judge set Dumarce’s trial on the three-week calendar beginning on Nov. 2 before U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden.
The judge set Porter’s trial on the four-week calendar beginning on Oct. 5. The trial is set before U.S. District Judge Taylor McNeel.
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