Mysterious death of Mississippi Black teen. Doctor's ex-wife allegedly plots his murder. Plus, geofencing.

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0:43Yep, even on weekends. That's pretty much all he talks about. In a good way. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See CapitalOne.com slash Bank Guy. Capital One N.A. member FDIC. Good morning, good morning, good morning. You're listening to the Dateline Story Meeting. They suspect that the boyfriend is involved. Our producers are catching up on breaking crime news. It's a fascinating and interesting twist. Everything seems to be kind of pointing the husband's direction. I think we should pay attention to this one. Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly. I'm Andrea Canning. It's July 16th, and here's what's on our docket.

1:23In a wealthy Los Angeles suburb, New details in the prosecution's case against a woman accused of masterminding a hit on her ex-husband. It was no secret that there was bad blood between the two of them. In Dateline Roundup, an update on the Texas man who fled to Italy right before he was to stand trial for the murder of his pregnant wife. And a verdict in the murder trial of Navy optician Larry Miliete. They were hugging each other a lot. It was emotional. There was a catharsis. Plus geofencing. The powerful tool allows investigators to identify people in the vicinity of a crime scene. But it's coming under fire in the courtroom.

2:01We'll explain why. There have been some examples of people even being arrested, you know, falsely, despite being completely innocent. But before all that, we're heading to southern Mississippi, where the mysterious death of a young black man over the July 4th weekend is making headlines across the country.

2:20On the morning of Saturday, July 4th, 18-year-old Nolan Wells took a boat with some friends to Horn Island, seven miles off the Mississippi coast. They met up with other teens to party on the beach and celebrate the holiday. But when Nolan's friends returned to the mainland that afternoon, Nolan was not with them. And later that night, his mother Christine got a panicked call from one of his friends. Here she is talking to NBC News senior national correspondent Kate Snow. What did he say? He said, hey, Ms. Christine, have you seen Nolan or talked to Nolan? I said, no, I thought he was with you guys, you know.

2:55He's like, no, nobody's talked to him. Two days later, Nolan's body was found floating in the water off Horn Island. The Jackson County Sheriff's Office launched an investigation but said it didn't look like there were any signs of foul play. Nolan's family didn't buy it, raising questions about whether his race had something to do with why he ended up dead. We just want to know what happened and why our baby didn't come home. NBC News national correspondent Aaron Gilchrist has been covering the story from day one and is here now to bring us the latest on this developing story. Aaron, thank you so much for being here.

3:31Absolutely, Andrea. Glad to be here. Yeah. So, Aaron, before we get into the case, tell us about Nolan Wells. He sounds like he was a charismatic, popular kid just out having fun on the holiday. Yeah, you're right. By all accounts, everything that we've heard about this young man is that he was universally loved, that he was the guy who made a friend every time he walked into a room, that people looked forward to having him around. He was a student at a community college there in Mississippi, was about to start his second year there, would have turned 19 next month. And his dad said that on the Monday that his body was found, he was supposed to be returning to school to start training for the next football season.

4:16This is truly an awful story. So we know that Nolan and his friends set off for Horn Island on July 4th. Set the scene for us. You know, why Horn Island? Our understanding is that Horn Island is a destination that people went to regularly. It is an uninhabited beach that apparently is just gorgeous. Nolan had been there before, and we've seen this in some of the video that's been circulating out there. There were tons of people either on the island, in the water, or on boats around Horn Island on July 4th. Aaron, what did Nolan's friends tell his mom, Christine, about why he didn't come back to the mainland with them?

4:52The understanding that we have from the mother of one of the young men who was in the group apparently with Nolan was that he opted not to return back to the mainland with his friends because he had met a girl in this gathering of people on the island and wanted to stay behind to talk to her and said that he was going to return with a different group of friends on a later boat. Nolan's parents have pointed to that story as one of the things that just doesn't make sense to them about this whole thing. That he had been taught that you return with the people you left with. And that was something that he knew.

5:29So after she got the first call, his mom reported Nolan missing to the police. He was finally found on Monday, July 6th. So tell us, you know, what condition his body was in. We heard early on that there were no immediate signs of physical injury to Nolan's body when it was recovered. The sheriff's office said that they, at that time, believed it was likely to be an accidental drowning. But they did say that they were going to continue to investigate this death and to try to get an understanding of exactly what happened before they would make any definitive statements. What has made Nolan's parents suspicious that this could be more than an accidental drowning?

6:12Well, their position is that this was a young man who was athletic, who knew how to swim, and again, who would have been surrounded by people. And so the idea that he drowned and no one saw anything, no one heard him screaming for help, no one attempted to help, just doesn't make sense to them. And then there's this element of his cell phone that's caused his family to sort of question things, right? His phone did not stay with him on the island. they were able to get his phone from a friend. So the thinking is the phone stayed on a boat and made it back to the mainland and into the home of one of his friends.

6:50Now, we've heard some accounts that that island is so isolated that cell service is very unlikely there. Okay, that makes sense then why you might leave it in a boat. Right, and so if you were getting into the water, a friend of his said apparently it would not have been totally unusual for people to leave their phones on a boat so that they could swim. Nolan's parents said that they were surprised that on the phone he didn't take any, you know, there were no photos. Kind of unusual for a young person, maybe on a holiday like that, to not take any photos, at least to post later. Right. His mother said that this is a young man who was the prolific user of apps like Snapchat.

7:29And when she was able to get into his phone, there were no photos that had been saved, nothing that was waiting to be sent or uploaded to the app. and that caused some concern for her as well. She is suspicious that something could have been deleted from his phone. Yeah, and the parents have brought up race in this, that they say there is concern for them that he was with all, you know, kids who are white. Just tell us more about that whole element of this case. Yeah, I think their concern is sort of historic in nature, right? I mean, we're talking about the Deep South. Nolan lived in a community that is largely white, I think almost 80 percent white, single digit percent black population in that area.

8:13His friends have said in some of the interviews that have been done with Rolling Stone, for example, that race wasn't a big issue in this friend group. At the same time, this family says you cannot ignore the fact that this is a place that has a racist history in some instances. They held a news conference on Friday with Ben Crump, their attorney. The history of Mississippi is something that they don't just read about in books, but it's a lived experience for many black Americans. We are going to make sure that we get to the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth because Nolan deserves it.

9:00Nolan's parents have sent their son's body off for an independent autopsy. Do we know when we could expect results from that? We don't know exactly when we may hear details about that independent autopsy. At the same time, the state medical examiner is performing an autopsy as well. And our understanding is that they're still waiting for some toxicology results. Aaron, you spoke to the Jackson County sheriff. He told you the investigation will be fair and accurate. Let's take a listen. Our investigators are working around the clock, working diligently to get the facts out, mainly to get the facts to the family because that's what they deserve.

9:40Do you feel like you're getting useful information that's been helpful to figuring out what happened? Yes, sir. We're getting very useful information. All this pressure and publicity can't hurt, right, in trying to draw out information. And the case, as we know, is just getting a ton of attention. There's a lot of things swirling around online, which, you know, can be good and bad, I guess. Yeah, I think you're right. The Internet really paying attention to this story can be helpful in sort of making sure that it doesn't get swept under the rug. At the same time, there's this very real concern about misinformation.

10:15We know that this video was floating around out there early on. a young woman told NBC News that she had shot this video and that it was really just a wide sweep of that area on the island where you could see people on boats and you could see people in the water and you could see people standing on the island. And the speculation that had been out there, and Ben Crump had suggested as well that Nolan was in that video, that he was heard arguing with someone. And since then, we have heard from a friend of Nolan saying it was him. The friend was in that video yelling. Nolan was in no way connected to that video.

10:48And so there you have people trying to, I don't know, sometimes I suppose people are trying to be helpful, but sometimes it's just sort of fueling the misinformation out there. It just creates another layer of frustration when this family is having to deal with a very real moment of the loss of a child. On Wednesday morning, Nolan's parents and their attorney, Ben Crump, met with the local district attorney for an update on how the case was going. Afterwards, Crump said that the DA promised a grand jury will meet once the investigation is complete. The DA told NBC News that a grand jury presentation after an investigation is over is standard procedure for cases dealing with unknown causes of death.

11:33Meanwhile, Erin, Nolan's mom, Christine, said she still has questions, but it's time now to think about Nolan. His funeral is on Monday. To the community, thank you so much. just the outpouring of love, support, and to his friends, stay strong and please just take care of your mental health because I know this is a lot. It's a lot for us. And I know you guys are feeling some of that too. Do you know what's next, Aaron, in all of this? So we are very much in a wait and see position at this point, right? We're continuing daily to press for any new information about what may have happened to Nolan, who his family is still going to have to bury here.

12:16Aaron, thank you for filling us in on this very tragic story. I really hope that the family gets answers soon. We all do, for sure. Thank you, Andrea. Coming up, California prosecutors outline their case against a doctor's ex-wife and the people who allegedly helped her kill him.

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14:13For our next story, we're heading to Woodland Hills, California, an affluent suburb of Los Angeles. On the evening of August 23rd, 2024, Dr. Hamid Mirshouje was walking to his car in the parking lot of his Woodland Hills clinic when he was shot dead by a masked gunman. Days later, friends and family members gathered just steps from where he died for a memorial. His ex-wife Ahong was there, along with their children. Thank you so much for coming here to remember my father. I know he touched a lot of people's lives in a lot of different ways. But then, months later, Ahong was arrested and charged with masterminding Hamid's murder.

14:50Three other people were charged in connection to the crime. All of them have pleaded not guilty. Now, in a recent series of pretrial hearings, we're getting our first glimpse of the prosecution's case against Ahong and her co-conspirators. Here to walk us through it all is Dateline associate producer Rachel Ligon. Rachel, welcome to the podcast. Hi, Andrea. Rachel, before we get into the case, let's start with Hamid himself. Give us a quick snapshot of who he was. So Hamid was an emergency care physician. He specialized in addiction medicine and was known for the relationships he built with his patients.

15:25We mentioned that Hamid and Ahang were divorced, but Hamid had actually remarried, right? Yes. So he and Ahang divorced in 2010. And then in 2022, he remarried. And at the time of his death, he had a six-month-old daughter with his new wife, Ghazal. Take us through the scene of Hamid's murder. What happened? What did investigators have to work with? Detectives were able to find surveillance footage from cameras in the plaza. And you see a man run up to the doctor as he walks to his car, shoots him in the head, and then runs off. But he's wearing a mask, so he's not easy to identify. The shooter also left a shell casing behind.

16:03And, Rachel, this was not the first time Hamid had been targeted? No. Back in May, so just three months before the murder, he'd been beaten up by two men with a baseball bat. And they got away. Okay, so then how do detectives then make this turn where they start looking at Ahang as possibly connected to all of this? It was no secret that there was bad blood between the two of them. It turns out that Ahang and Hamid were embroiled in litigation. They had mutual business interests that had gone sour. For one thing, Ahang owned that shopping plaza where Hamid had his clinic. And six months or so before the murder, Hamid sued Ahang, saying she owed him$270 ,000 that she'd failed to pay him.

16:49According to the indictment, the other people charged alongside Ahong included the alleged gunman, a getaway driver. How do prosecutors allege that Ahong met these alleged co-conspirators? This is what we found out at a recent preliminary hearing, mainly through the testimony of the two lead detectives. They testified that the alleged gunman, a man by the name of Evan Hardman, worked security at a hookah lounge in the shopping plaza. The detectives revealed that Ahong ended up calling Evan. She told him she had surveillance video of Evan breaking into another business in the plaza and she'd go to the police if he didn't come and work for her.

17:26Work for her? What do police say they think she meant by that? According to the detectives, it was things like evicting tenants from an apartment building she owned. But then she came up with another task for him, rob her ex-husband, Hamid, and beat him up. And this is the incident we were talking about earlier. Prosecutors say Ahang and Evan were the ones behind the incident where Hamid got beaten up. Okay, so Rachel, prosecutors are saying that Ahang asked Evan to murder her ex-husband, and she promised to pay him a lot of money,$400 ,000? That's right. According to the detectives, she provided Evan with the gun, a getaway vehicle, and even gave him a deadline to carry out the killing.

18:04How did the detectives get all of this information? This was something I had no idea about until the prelim. It turns out Evan, the alleged gunman, spoke to detectives at length in recorded interviews not long after his arrest. Ahong and Evan have pleaded not guilty. And Ahong's defense attorney at the prelim hearing was Mark Garagos. He is a very famous celebrity defense attorney. He represented Sean Combs and a slew of other high-profile defendants. What did he have to say about the prosecution's theory? Garagos questioned the credibility of Evan's alleged story. He said that it was noteworthy that during the interview, Evan hadn't talked about Ahung by name.

18:46He called her boss lady. And Garagos suggested the detectives might have fed Evan the story. He also raised questions about Nick, Ahang's son. Garagos asked how hard investigators had looked into him as a possible suspect. And the detective said they did look into Nick and came up with no evidence linking him to Hamid's murder, but conceded he was fighting with his dad over money, too. Okay, so you did say there were multiple alleged co-conspirators. What do we know about the other defendants in this case? The alleged getaway driver, a woman by the name of Ashley Sweeting, admitted she picked up Evan after the murder but said she didn't know what he was planning or that a murder had even happened.

19:23Ashley was very emotional in court and even mouthed, I'm so sorry, to Hamid's widow. The other co-defendant, Sarala Jawed, said he was never told there was going to be a murder. After listening to the prosecution make its case over three days at this preliminary hearing, the judge made a big decision, Rachel. Yes. The judge dismissed the murder charges against both Ashley and Sarala Jawed, saying the prosecution didn't have enough evidence against them, leaving them to face lesser charges. And then at a hearing last week, the prosecution decided not to file any charges against Ashley Sweeting at all, meaning she is no longer part of the case.

20:00What about Ahong and the alleged gunman? Ahong and Evan Hardman remain in custody and are heading to trial. And in an interesting development, Ahong decided not to retain Mark Garagos, so she's asked for time to get a new attorney. Okay, and the next hearing is set for July 23rd. Rachel, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me, Andrea. Up next, it's time for Dateline Roundup. An update on the Texas man who fled to Italy right before his murder trial. And a verdict in the trial of the Navy optician accused of murdering his wife, Maya. will take you inside the courthouse. Plus, the Supreme Court weighs in on geofencing, a tool investigators use to identify potential suspects at a crime scene.

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22:27Welcome back. Joining us for this week's Roundup is Dateline booking producer, Caitlin Cutt. Hey, Caitlin. Hi. So, Caitlin, first, we are heading to your neck of the woods. We're heading to San Diego County, where a verdict has been reached in the murder trial of Navy optician Larry Miliete. A man prosecutors say killed his wife, Maya, back in 2021 and hid her body somewhere that's never been found. Caitlin, before we get to the verdict, just give us a quick recap. Absolutely. So for seven weeks, prosecutors portrayed Larry as a man spiraling out of control as it became clear his wife was planning to leave him.

23:05Now, obviously, one of the standout witnesses from this trial was a man who called himself a spellcaster who said Larry paid him to cast spells on Maya to keep her close to him. Then the defense countered that investigators had no physical evidence proving Maya was even dead, let alone that Larry had murdered her. Yeah. So, I mean, this trial has been a wild ride. The jury finally got the case last Thursday. What happened next? They came back after only five hours of deliberation. What did they decide? They found Larry Miliate guilty of first-degree murder despite the lack of a body. Wow. Caitlin, how did people respond in the court room when the verdict came in.

23:47It's been so emotional for a lot of people. Oh, absolutely. There were lots of sniffles and tears coming from Maya's family. They were hugging each other a lot, consoling each other. It almost just, it was emotional. There was a catharsis. Okay, so that's Maya's side. What about Larry and his family? Well, Larry's family sat still in silence as the verdict was read. After hearing the guilty verdict, his attorneys whispered something to Larry, and Larry leaned over and appeared to thank them, and his eyes looked pretty red. After the verdict, Caitlin, the prosecutors held a brief press conference with Maya's family.