(OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss.) — Family and friends of Mississippi teenager Nolan Wells gathered Monday for his funeral in his hometown of Ocean Springs as authorities continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding his death.

Wells’ mother, Christine Wonsley, said at the service at Center Pointe Church, “We thank you, Lord, for the beautiful 18 years that you blessed us with him.”

“Thank you for the joy he brought, not only to our family, but also to his friends and everyone in the community whose lives he touched,” Wonsley said with her husband, Rev. Al Sharpton and family civil rights attorney Ben Crump by her side.

“Nolan had such a gentle, calming spirit about him,” she said.

She described her 18-year-old son as protective and nurturing, noting that he hoped to have three daughters one day.

“We will miss everything about him, from his quiet nature to the corny jokes. His gentle smile, the way he made everyone around him feel comfortable, loved and at ease,” Wonsley said. “Your absence has left an emptiness that can never truly be filled — a piece of our hearts will always be missing.”

“We will continue to fight for you,” she said through tears.

Wells’ father, Elmore Wonsley, was overcome with emotion as he recalled his son’s excellence in football, telling the mourners, “I nicknamed you Mr. Cool Hands, because it seemed like you were catching a touchdown every game.”

“You wanted to be the best, so I poured all my knowledge into you that I could — by taking you to the gym to work out, taking you to the beach to do drills in the sand, teaching you how to watch film, how to study your opponents’ strengths and weaknesses. And you carried these teachings all the way through high school,” he said.

Elmore Wonsley thanked everyone for attending the funeral.

“Nolan meant a lot to a lot of people, and today just shows us how much he meant to the community, to the country and to the world,” he said.

Sharpton, who delivered a eulogy, said, “We want to celebrate Nolan, and at the same time, say we want a full and thorough investigation.”

As Wells’ parents joined Crump on stage, he led the mourners in a chant, saying, “Nolan’s life matters.”

“Until we get answers, until we get to truth, until we get to justice, we going to stand up and we going to keep ringing the justice bells for Nolan Wells,” Crump said.

Although the investigation is ongoing, officials say there’s no indication that Wells’ death was the result of anything criminal.

Director Spike Lee was among those who attended the service, Sharpton said, and actor and director Tyler Perry paid for the funeral.

Wells went missing on the 4th of July after going on a boat trip with his high school friends to the popular, undeveloped Horn Island, just south of Ocean Springs, according to officials and Crump.

“[The friends] left [Horn Island] and went back without Nolan,” Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said. “From what we understand, he chose to stay there.”

Wells’ body was recovered two days later, according to officials.

Authorities said they believe the college football player drowned. The sheriff said he doesn’t suspect foul play, but he stressed that investigators are “working diligently to determine exactly what occurred.”

The autopsy from the coroner’s office has not yet been completed. Wells’ family is desperate for answers and sent his body to Washington, D.C., for an independent autopsy, Crump said previously.

Ledbetter told ABC News that the sheriff’s office welcomes the family’s independent investigation.

“Nolan Wells’ family deserves a thorough and factual investigation, and that’s exactly what they’re going to get,” Ledbetter told ABC News last week.

Wonsley told ABC News her son was a “bright light,” recalling that “his smile, his energy was just, just so infectious.”

“He was just a genuinely a good person,” she said.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Ismael Zambada Garcia, known as “El Mayo,” was sentenced Monday to life in prison on drug trafficking charges that accused him of being one of the most prolific and powerful narcotraffickers in the world, according to federal prosecutors in New York City.

Together with Joaquín Guzmán Loera, known as “El Chapo,” he founded the Sinaloa cartel and oversaw the shipment of millions of kilograms of lethal drugs, including cocaine, fentanyl, and methamphetamine. He employed armed sicarios who assaulted, tortured, and murdered and he paid millions in bribes at all levels of the Mexican government, officials said.

In federal court in Brooklyn, U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“Ismael Zambada Garcia spent nearly four decades poisoning American communities to make billions of dollars in profit and ordering the murders of anyone who stood in his way. Today, that chapter closes for good,” U. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella Jr. said in a statement.

The sentence was not in doubt. El Mayo pleaded guilty last August to a charge of committing a continuing criminal enterprise, a catch-all that included 85 violations of the law, and agreed to the mandatory life imprisonment along with a $15 billion forfeiture.

“It would be difficult to overstate the magnitude of the defendant’s crimes and scale of the corruption, violence, and other harm he spread throughout Mexico, the United States, and the world,” federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said in a sentencing memo that called for life in prison.

As part of his plea, El Mayo, 76, admitted he was responsible for at least 1.5 million kilograms of cocaine and vast quantities of heroin and fentanyl.

Federal prosecutors said El Mayo represents “serious security concerns” that must be considered when the judge recommends a prison where he will serve his sentence.

“The defendant is the co-founder of one of the world’s most violent criminal organizations, and for decades directed its operations, including its violence. Moreover, many members of the Cartel remain loyal to the defendant, including one of the defendant’s sons, who remains a key leader of the defendant’s faction of the Cartel in the defendant’s absence,” federal prosecutors said.

The defense noted that El Mayo spared the judicial system a trial and “helped protect the safety of potential witnesses who will not need to be disclosed or called to testify.”

In a statement ahead of his sentencing, El Mayo said he recognized the “grave harm that illegal drugs have done to the people of the United States, of Mexico and elsewhere.” He also said he recognized the “human toll of the violence and lawlessness that my criminal organization engaged in.”  

El Mayo said he took responsibility for his role in all of it and apologized to “everyone who has suffered or been affected by my actions.”

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Gas prices in the United States topped $4 per gallon on average Monday as an escalation of the Iran war renewed fears of a global oil shortage.

Prices at the pump have jumped 13 cents per gallon, or 3%, over the past week, AAA data showed, with the average price per gallon now at $4.003.

The recent cost rise brings gasoline prices back to a level achieved soon after the Iran war began in late February. The Middle East conflict prompted Iranian closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the maritime trading route that facilitates transportation of about one-fifth of global oil supply. The historic oil disruption sent gasoline prices surging.

Gas prices temporarily fell below $4 a gallon last month after the U.S. and Iran struck a preliminary agreement aimed at ending the war. Before the Iran war, fuel costs had last exceeded $4 a gallon in August 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

An exchange of strikes between the U.S. and Iran in recent days has reignited large-scale fighting and dampened prospects of a resolution.

President Donald Trump on Sunday said the U.S. hit Iran “hard” in honor of the U.S. service members who were killed by Iran over the weekend.

U.S. Central Command said two service members were killed in an attack on Jordan on Friday, and that a third service member remained missing. Another service member was killed in Iraq on Saturday, CENTCOM said.

The U.S. resumed its naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz last week, reversing a key commitment made as part of the agreement. That move came after Iran fired upon oil tankers in the strait.

The Iran war triggered one of the largest oil shocks ever recorded, sending the national average price of gasoline as high as $4.56 a gallon on May 21, AAA data showed.

Oil and gasoline prices began to fall in late May, however, as Iran and the U.S. appeared willing to strike an agreement that would reopen the strait. By late June, those prices gad fallen fell to their lowest level since before the war began.

Relief at the pump helped bring down prices overall. Inflation dropped more than expected in June as gas prices eased, federal government data on Tuesday showed.

Gas prices rose 3.5% in June compared to a year earlier, marking a retreat from a year-over-year inflation rate of 4.2% in the prior month. The reading for June marked the lowest inflation since March, though the pace of price increases remains more than a percentage point higher than its pre-war level.

Even after easing last month, overall inflation stands markedly higher than the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2%.

ABC News’ David Brennan contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.