JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Three friends of Nolan Wells, a Black college student who went missing from a Mississippi island during a Fourth of July celebration and was later found dead, are suing NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Owens for defamation.
Lawyers for the friends said they intend to file several more defamation claims this week against content creators and have previously indicated their intent to sue the Rev. Al Sharpton and “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin for comments they made while discussing Wells' death.
The fathers of the three friends, who are under 21 and considered minors under Mississippi law, filed the federal lawsuit Monday on their behalf.
The lawsuit alleges Owens defamed the three friends after posting on X: “ARREST THEM IMMEDIATELY!!” Owens' post also linked to an Instagram video, which theorized the three friends killed Wells and tampered with his phone, according to the lawsuit. The post was made days after a Mississippi grand jury declined to recommend charges in Wells’ death.
Owens has 1.2 million followers on X and had previously pledged $25,000 to a reward fund for information leading to an arrest and conviction in Wells' death.
“Not only is he defaming them, he’s basically saying to the mob, get your pitchforks, get your torches,” said Edward Paltzik, a defamation and media attorney representing the three friends.
The Associated Press attempted to contact Owens through social media and SMAC Entertainment, which, according to its website, manages Owens, but did not immediately receive a response.
The three were part of a group of 30 friends, including Wells, who rode to Horn Island on three boats on the Fourth of July. Wells' friends said Wells did not return to the mainland with them, choosing instead to stay behind to talk with a girl, a claim his family has disputed. His body was found two days later off the island's coast.
Both state and independent autopsies have not determined Wells' cause of death, though the grand jury found his death was “consistent with drowning.” Wells' family and their lawyers disputed the grand jury's findings, pointing to unexplained bruising on the back of his head and noting that his airways and stomach were devoid of water.
Images showing Wells with white friends the day he went missing fueled online speculation that racial dynamics played a role in his death.
Two of the three friends who are suing Owens were singled out online in part because they appear in a photo with Wells and one other friend on a boat, which was circulated on social media after his disappearance. The third called Wells’ mother and the U.S. Coast Guard to report Wells missing.
FILE - Christine Wonsley and Elmore Wonsley, mother and step father of Nolan Wells, stand on a stage with a portrait of their son as they appear at the National Urban League's annual conference to share updates on his death, as well as Daniel Erving, and Tyler Smith, July 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/John Amis, File)
FILE - Former NFL football player Terrell Owens speaks at the NFL's Super Bowl Radio Row in San Francisco, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — An extremely wealthy Chinese immigrant and his wife amassed a brood of 21 children through a surrogacy scheme and raised them in a “house of horrors,” prosecutors alleged Tuesday.
Guojun Xuan, 66, and Silvia Zhang, 39, were arrested at their sprawling mansion in Arcadia, a city about 13 miles (20 kilometers) northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
The children suffered daily beatings from cruel nannies as the couple watched over a network of surveillance cameras and laughed, according to prosecutors. The couple allegedly recruited women across the country to serve as surrogates, promising them that they were just looking for another child to grow their family.
The couple face several counts of child abuse as well as conspiracy to commit child abuse, accessory after the fact and dissuading a witness, according to Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman.
“This case is unprecedented. It is horrific,” he said during a morning news conference. “The physical abuse, beating and punishment that these very young children received is despicable.”
In an afternoon court appearance in nearby Pasadena, the couple pleaded not guilty and denied all allegations with a Mandarin interpreter. Prosecutors sought $100 million bail per person because of the serious nature of the charges and because they are flight risks.
The couple have over 200 personal and 70 corporate bank accounts with annual transfers of $250 million, Deputy District Attorney MacKenzie Teymouri said.
Both were said to have U.S., Mexican and Chinese passports, though investigators have not determined if they are all legitimate; prosecutors said they used fake passports to create some of the bank accounts.
Inside the couple's home, investigators found a bank statement showing more than $70 million in one account along with assets such as antique sculptures and specialty alcohol that added up to nearly $10 million, according to Teymouri.
LA County Superior Court Judge Kerry White set bail at $20 million each with home detention and a protective order against visiting their children.
Mitchell Krems, the couple's attorney, called the bail amount “absurd” for the type of charges his clients face and said Zhang's health should be taken into consideration.
Zhang, who appeared in court in a wheelchair, has a rare form of leukemia and is recovering from a bone marrow transplant, Krems said.
Fifteen children were removed from the opulent home last year after an allegation of abuse, and another six living elsewhere were also located. They ranged in age from 2 months to 13 years, with most between 1 and 3. Police believe Zhang gave birth to one or two of the children, while the rest were carried and delivered by surrogates.
Hochman said the couple set up an agency, Mark Surrogacy, that they operated from home and used to hire surrogates throughout the U.S. But prosecutors said the couple misled the women, telling some that they could not conceive and others that they only had one child and wanted one more to complete their family.
“The house could only be described as a house of horrors for these incredible young children,” Hochman said.
Zhang and Xuan were first arrested in May 2025 after a hospital reported that their 2-month-old infant had a traumatic head injury, the result of being violently shaken by a nanny, according to Arcadia police.
Police did not file charges at the time, saying they needed to complete the investigation.
Hochman said the couple set up three rooms they called learning centers, where the children spent several hours a day sitting at desks under the supervision of nannies.
Through an extensive surveillance system including motion-activated cameras, the couple watched and at times laughed as the nannies physically abused the children, including daily beatings, he said.
In one video, Xuan is shown entering a room and telling a nanny to strike a child harder, Hochman said, and in another he joins the nanny in hitting the child.
The nannies were allegedly told “not to leave any physical marks on the children,” and when police arrived to investigate in May 2025, the children were told to deny they had been beaten.
After examining the surveillance video, police issued an arrest warrant for Chunmei Li, the nanny seen hurting the 2-month-old infant. However she fled to Tijuana, Mexico, and then China.
After the children were taken into state custody, Xuan and Zhang were allowed supervised visits. During one such visit, Zhang read to a child and wrote in the book, “Tell them you're happy with me, tell them you want to come home,” lead prosecutor Teymouri said.
Krems said it was “patently false” that Xuan was involved in beating any of the children and blamed all the abuse on the nannies.
“My client, Mr. Xuan, intervened swiftly,” Krems said. “He fired the nanny, excised her from the house.”
When asked about the couple’s motivation, Hochman said that was part of the investigation, as was the parentage of each child.
Krems, Xuan’s attorney, previously told ABC7 that Xuan’s goal was to raise children who become productive adults.
“The reason he has all these children is because he wants them to contribute to society. He is not a man who is self-indulgent,” Krems said. “Some who are wealthy might spend on jewelry or cars, but he is actually spending his resources to help his children become educated.”
After Tuesday's court hearing, he said Xuan and Zhang immigrated from China to exercise their freedom and have as many children as they want.
“If they were white, if they were Elon Musk, and they weren't Chinese, they wouldn't experience this level of scrutiny,” Krems said.
Surrogacy is an arrangement in which a woman agrees to carry and deliver a child for another person or couple, often after an embryo transfer.
There is no comprehensive federal law regulating surrogacy, leaving most rules to the states.
California is considered to be surrogacy-friendly because it has clear laws governing the process. Both sides are required to have lawyers, and there must be a written, notarized contract before an embryo transfer takes place.
At least eight women came forward to say they were aggressively pursued to serve as surrogates. The women, many of them first-time surrogates, said they were given misleading or incomplete information about the couple’s family situation and intentions.
Krems denied that the couple lied to surrogates about their intentions.
The district attorney's office said a federal investigation was ongoing.
Marcelo reported from New York.
FILE - An aerial view shows the home of Silvia Zhang and Guojun Xuan on July 16, 2025, in Arcadia, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
