I probably will the rest of my life," Phillips said. I needed someone trained to put their emotions to the side., Oral "Nick" Hillary, center, hugs defense attorney Edward Narrow after being found not guilty in the murder of Garrett Phillips on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2016, in Canton, N.Y. (Jason Hunter/AP). First, why the actual eff was he allowed to be in the interrogation room with Tandy? On Wednesday morning, Hillary was found not guilty by a judge, after a two-week long trial. Garbus shares that she was in contact with Tandy while in production on the project, and she expressed the possibility of sitting down for an interview once the trial was over. Join now Sign in . There was another former flame of his mother Tandy Cyrus a local sheriffs deputy against whom she had previously filed a complaint saying he made her fear for the safety of myself and my sons.. In the gallery, Tandy slumped and cried. (Hillary has denied visiting the apartment without Cyrus' permission. It suggests that a kid named Brandon who lived next door gave two different statements about his whereabouts. And Nick doesnt have any of that right now. "It's very frustrating," he told "20/20." he was with his girlfriend til 11pm (his girlfriends mom confirmed this). Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Again, I saw an abrasion, but it ankle didnt look swollen to me. On the morning of October 26, 2011, Hillary, then a soccer coach in Potsdam, was summoned to the Potsdam police station. "Oral Hillary will face that for the rest of his life unless the true perpetrator is found and held accountable," Bastuk said. Dismiss. All Rights Reserved. Who Killed Garrett Phillips? airs July 23 and 24 on HBO. Cookie Notice In April 2012, Nick filed a suit against the police department for how he was treated. Nick Hillary is the ex-boyfriend of Tandy Cyrus. The altercation made him fearful for himself and his family, NNY 360 reported. "I think about him every day. They immediately called an ambulance. They also heard someone saying no and crying out for help. When the former live-in boyfriend of the mother, a black Jamaican-born soccer coach, became an almost immediate suspect in the murder, a cry went out from his camp that he was being railroaded. While there would be the occasional inconsistency in a detail someones story, be it Hillarys or Murrays or Joness which she didnt shy away from including in the final cut everyone was adamant about their beliefs. "We weren't thinking it was a homicide immediately, but something had happened. Let me know what you think in the comments. Today, Garrett's mother's ex-boyfriend, Nick Hillary, was found not guilty in the boy's murder. His admiring teammates in their undefeated season called him, "The General. He'd parlayed his experience into a job as the head coach of the men's soccer team at Clarkson. She had also been in a relationship with a police officer named John Jones at the time. The district attorney, Mary Rain, teared up at a post-verdict press conference, and said Tandy told her, I know you guys tried., But Nicks attorney Earl Ward, speaking to a group of press outside the courthouse, reiterated what the defense team maintained all along: Nick Hillary is an innocent man., Nick spent that afternoon surrounded by a group of family, supporters and former soccer teammates. When he entered, he found an adolescent boy, just around the corner, lying on his back in the master bedroom, with his head facing the door. and our 3. Oral "Nick" Hillary still coaches soccer. On Tuesday, the eve of the verdict, Interim Potsdam Police Chief Mark Murray took ABC News' Elizabeth Vargas through the crime scene: a 3-bedroom apartment where Garrett lived and where he was found on the floor that fateful October day. He denied any butt-head moment with Garrett, or spats over homework or chores. But his involvement with Hillary's case isn't over, even though Hillary was acquitted in 2016, according to The New York Times. He talked a lot about accountability, but with guys rarely getting benched, demoted or cut, it was just talk. -- It was Oct. 24, 2011, when 12-year-old Garrett Phillips was found strangled to death inside his home in Potsdam, New York, a small town near the Canadian border. Privacy Policy. Back at the apartment, the investigation was just beginning. Hillary was considered a suspect because he was an ex-boyfriend of the boy's mother. He added: "It was definitely frustrating. The first part of the documentary Who Killed Garrett Phillips? Garrett had been strangled and suffocated. However, at 6:24pm, Nicks daughter texted her dad asking what was for dinner, despite having told the police Nick was home with her at the time of the murder and they had talked about dinner. A roller coaster of emotions. For years, one of the loudest voices demanding justice for Garrett Phillips belonged to his uncle. Just to say, I tried. Just like his father, spitting image of my brother, a heck of a little athlete. The next part of the investigation was from a surveillance camera. 24. A security camera recorded Garrett skating home from an afternoon of basketball with his school pals just before 5 p.m. The prosecutor would thunder that the camera had in fact recorded Nick out "hunting" for the boy just minutes before his death. On May 14, 2014, Nick was arrested and charged with second degree murder. Tandy said she broke up with Nick because Garrett didnt like him. The first part of the documentary Who Killed Garrett Phillips? "He was something else. Nick soon asked for a lawyer, food and cigarettes. Years passed with no arrest, and now Nick Hillary, a former college soccer coach and an ex-boyfriend of Phillips's mother, awaits trial on a murder charge. Hillary, after years in the bulls-eye of public opinion, also broke down in tears, a free man once more. 1.) Cyrus says that when she showed up at the hospital, her son had bruises all over his face, and Marks on his neck. premieres on HBO on Tuesday, July 23 at 8/7c. Garrett and Aaron's school schedules were on the fridge and family portraits were on the wall. Garrett Phillips' mother, Tandy Cyrus. 0. Director Liz Garbus is pictured in an undated photo. The medical examiner also collected DNA from under Garretts nails. Bastuk admits theyre just familiarizing the AGs office with the details of the case. But who's looking, you know, 40 yards off, 50 yards off the street on a dark, rainy night for someone jumping out a window?". Potsdam's chief of police is now Mark Murray, who was lead detective on the Garrett Phillips investigation. One DA declined to pursue an indictment and was eventually voted out of office. The prosecution, he ruled, had not made its circumstantial case "beyond a reasonable doubt." We reached out to Murray this winter ask how hes handling the investigation, but he declined to comment. After it ended in an acquittal, Phillips said he had to draw back. He was interviewed in the episode, but he mainly talked shit about Nick. What makes this weirder is that Brandon and his dad both say they saw a white male with dirty blonde hair go in out of 100 Market Street around 3 - 330. ABCwrites, Almost immediately, police focused on her ex-boyfriend Hillary as the prime suspect, but it would take them several years before they arrested him for the murder., Cyrus and Hillary broke up a few monthsbefore Garrett was killed, and Cyrus believes that Hillary blamed Garrett for the breakup. ABC News writes, While Cyrus said she never saw Hillary hit a child, lose his temper with a child or threaten a child during their nearly one year together, she told 20/20 that she has no doubt that Hillary killed her son., Nick Hillary's Daughter: Race 'Definitely' a Factor in Murder Case https://t.co/mu2gutc1Qo pic.twitter.com/GcybAmJpxJ, Marko Zelic (@SnoperMZ) September 30, 2016. But then when we looked at it closer. Pasqua and local police have declined to comment. When police arrived and got into the apartment, they found Garrett unresponsive on the floor in a bedroom. "To keep dredging up that case and to continue to put people in the spotlight who Im sure dont want to be in the spotlight like Garrett Phillips family," Pasqua said. "The district attorneys office, the police, and the sheriffs department refuse to get to the bottom of things and basically have swept this investigation under the rug.". Oral "Nick" Hillary still coaches soccer. "Ideally, it should be used as a learning experience, where all the parties go back and theyre open with each other and honest with each other," Trainum said. Criminal justice experts say its not uncommon for an investigation this complicated to have leads that dont really go anywhere but that doesnt mean police should just forget about them. Yet somehow, within hours, police. ", So far, this new lead doesnt seem to count as "something different. The Accused: With Lester Holt. Related stories:A phone call from inside the investigationSteve Downs, former chief attorney for New Yorks Commission on Judicial Conduct, said Friday that state rulings require avoiding those potential conflicts. The apartment is on the second floor of the roughly 100-year-old building, Murray said. But at the same time, so many armchair sleuths, so many Reddit boards, so much discussion only increased the chances of it being solved.. "Everybody that knows me knows what goes through my head and who I believe," Phillips said. That process has a name sentinel event review. And the focus right now is to start puttin this in the rearview mirror.. ", Shortly after he took office in 2018, the new St. Lawrence County D.A., Gary Pasqua, told NCPR he wanted to conduct his own review. Then, at the hospital, she found out he was in cardiac arrest. Phillips was the 12-year-old boy who was fatally attacked at his home in Potsdam in 2011. As least, thats what many may hope after the new St. Lawrence County district attorney admitted a new tip earlier this spring. He was read his rights. He died at the hospital that night. For years, no one was named in Phillips death. "Theoretically, the person making this jump is waiting," he said. ", Brian Phillips, Garretts uncle, said he hadn't been notified about the existence of any tips but he also admitted he's not too interested in continuing to hear them. Nick said he had nothing against the boy or his mother and that his alibi witnesses, his daughter and an assistant coach, would place him elsewhere at the time of the murder. ), Police canvassed the neighborhood, but no one had witnessed anything, Murray said. Brian Phillips helped produce hundreds of yard signs that read "Justice for Garrett," with a picture of the boy, smiling. Nick said he was at the high school to watch a soccer game, went home and talked with his daughter, and then went to his assistant coachs house. In 2015, Hillary had also alleged that he'd been harassed by Jones in 2010, which was reported by NNY 360. An officer arrived on the scene and found 12-year-old Garrett . But you cant take race out of the picture the way in which white Americans are just more likely to look at Black people as capable of committing crimes. (Courtesy of HBO ). Whatever has come to light or will come in the years ahead Phillips said hes tried to focus on the good. What was his relationship like with Garrett? Who Killed Garrett Phillips? Police have estimated that Garretts murder took place around 5pm neighbors called the police to complain of hearing strange noises coming from his apartment at 5:07pm. A new foreign DNA company called Starmix said that Nicks DNA matched the crime scene, however, during the investigation, the police said the DNA mixture was too small. After Garrett is seen turning towards his house, the car is seen following him. New information has come to light and is being investigated in the 2011 murder of 12-year-old Garrett J. Phillips. She ignored Hillary's phone calls. Photo: Lauren Rosenthal. Photo: Brit Hanson, Groups call for independent probe of Garret Phillips murder, Groups call for independent probe of Garrett Phillips murder, David Sommerstein (News Director), cleared in Garrett Phillips death almost four years ago, local police and prosecutors declared the case closed, Nick Hillary's civil rights case, and how it links to a broader moment of reckoning, A phone call from inside the investigation, Gumball machine serves up free poetry in the Adirondacks, Not in Old Forge's backyard? (Courtesy of HBO ). Garrett Phillips was strangled in his family's second-floor apartment in upstate Potsdam in October 2011. And is being investigated in the bulls-eye of public opinion, also broke down in,. Whatever has come to light or will come in the 2011 murder of 12-year-old J.! Was just beginning focus on the Garrett Phillips investigation said he had to draw back would... Team at Clarkson of my life, '' Phillips said ), police the! 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