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. This led to Hillarys arrest, which satisfied Brian Phillips, who still passionately professes his belief that Hillary is guilty in Garbus doc. According to the documentary, that once police focused in on Hillary an Army veteran and respected soccer coach at nearby Clarkson University other investigative avenues were not explored. "He was a kid he was a 12-year-old kid. After about a year together, Tandy moved out with her sons. The latest events in the case come as Oral "Nick" Hillary, who was found not guilty of the murder, is suing Potsdam and St. Lawrence County police, claiming he was unfairly accused because he is Black. Oral "Nick" Hillary still coaches soccer. Back at the apartment, the investigation was just beginning. "You would think, like, wouldn't someone hear somebody yelling, or see something or do anything? But hes also said recent new leads have gone nowhere. Why would I even want to hurt a child, after having worked with kids for over two decades? They called 911 around 5:08pm. Garbus film, which debuts on Tuesday, uses police footage and photos, video evidence and interviews to recount what went wrong in meticulous detail. Whatever you might say about the film and how it portrays the justice system and Nick Hillary, my hope is that it also reflects the pain of the loss of this family and the gaping hole it left in their lives, Garbus says. Garrett Phillips was a 12 year old boy who lived with his mom, Tandy and brother, Aaron, in Potsdam, New York. 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. When police arrived and got into the apartment, they found Garrett unresponsive on the floor in a bedroom. "Theoretically, the person making this jump is waiting," he said. premieres on HBO on Tuesday, July 23 at 8/7c. "Thats not gonna change.". "When someone is wrongfully convicted or wrongfully prosecuted, the true perpetrator remains on the streets to commit another crime," Bastuk said, referring to the Phillips case, which remains unsolved. Still, hed urge every black person in America to see the movie., We can change how black people deal with the system, Tafari says, so they understand that when it comes to law enforcement, you are going to be the subject of their suspicion and you should learn that cooperation could dig your own grave.. civil actions filed against DA Rain and Jones, circumstantial evidence against him and Hillary. It's about the unsolved October 2011 murder of a 12-year-old boy, Garrett Phillips, who was strangled by an intruder while he was home alone in the Potsdam, N.Y., apartment he shared with his . They struck up an easy conversation that, in short order, became a live-in relationship with a blended family. Forty minutes later, he was found strangled to death in his mother's bedroom. July 18, 2019 2:39 pm ET. I was in complete shock, she told ABC News. This button displays the currently selected search type. But in a county thats population is more than 90% white, the killing of a child -- a crime that screamed out for justice -- became an investigation that boiled with questions of racial fairness. "Everybody that knows me knows what goes through my head and who I believe," Phillips said. "I think about him every day. They couldnt break down the door, so they got the manager to unlock the door, which was locked from the inside. A police chief whose brother names his successor as mayor. 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. Advocates say raise it first, DEC says 2022 tied for the safest hunting season on record, Governor Kathy Hochul Releases New York State Budget, New York redistricting commission to hold final public hearings this week, New York unlikely to have a new chief judge until later this spring, Adirondack Council leader to step down later this year, Stefanik opens district office in Rensselaer County Government building, Budget watchdog says NY should plan for an upcoming "fiscal cliff", Community Advisory Board (NCPR Executive Council). I think of Michelle McNamara: Did that book [Ill Be Gone in the Dark] solve that case? "We weren't thinking it was a homicide immediately, but something had happened. Movie Info. You know, outlandish thoughts like, 'Maybe Garrett fell out the window and made his way back up here and died,' or an accident happened in the apartment and one of the kids didn't wanna get caught or in trouble, so he went out the window. 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. Could the choke out theory be true. New York, 2011: Garrett Phillips, 12, is found strangled. Potsdam's chief of police is now Mark Murray, who was lead detective on the Garrett Phillips investigation. IE 11 is not supported. And they havent been in touch with Garrett Phillips family. "To date we do not know who murdered that 12 year-old boy," said WilliamBastuk, executive director of It Could Happen To You, a Rochester-based not-for-profit that fights to overturn wrongful convictions. Would love your thoughts, please comment. (Courtesy of HBO ). He spent more than two decades asa homicide detectivein Washington, D.C., where he eventually opened a cold case unit. The police wanted to locate Garretts family and tell them what had happened. The judge dismissed most of the claims, but some are still ongoing. Police said they tested every person with access to the apartment, including residents and maintenance staff. 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. In 2015, Hillary had also alleged that he'd been harassed by Jones in 2010, which was reported by NNY 360. Garrett, 12, was found strangled in his empty home on October 24, 2011, with no witnesses reporting seeing the killer enter or exit the second-floor apartment. Meanwhile Garretts autopsy was done. Photo: David Sommerstein, D.A. proceeds with the case. The police soon zeroed in on Nick Hillary, the ex-boyfriend of Tandy. NCPR checked in with Pasqua last month. But despite being a free man, it seems Hillary is still struggling to clear his name in his community. Tandy's 12-year-old, Garrett, bristled at his mom's new boyfriend, said Tandy. Apparently, the town of Potsdam is split about if Nick is guilty or innocent. He would be both judge and jury in what's called a bench trial. Nick also denied this ever happened. He was, they said, the only person in town with a grudge against Garrett, blaming him, the family argued, for the break-up of his relationship with Tandy. "In my mind, that investigation is still out there.". Tandy also told the police that Nick had a key, and had shown up at their house unannounced one night, and stood over her bed. Clearly, the film won't be . Weve been covering the case for over a year. Gary Pasqua in his office near the St. Lawrence County courthouse. Potsdam, NY, interim police chief takes ABC News through the crime scene. That process has a name sentinel event review. Whether Phillips mother agrees remains to be seen. All of other window screens in the home were intact, Murray said. On that rainy afternoon in October 2011, police responded to the scene at just after 5 p.m. after next-door neighbors heard concerning noises from Garrett's apartment and called 911. After Hillary was cleared, Rain claimed the case was closed because she still believed he was guilty, which is crazy, according to Garbus. In an unusual case, there was another twist. "It's a very busy street. Nick is targeted. Director Liz Garbus investigates the 2011 murder of a 12-year-old boy. It doesnt say what his relationship was like. Ignorance and arrogance walk hand in hand through "Who Killed Garrett Phillips ?"documentarian Liz Garbus 's incendiary true-crime drama about the death of . Garrett and Aaron's school schedules were on the fridge and family portraits were on the wall. Garrett was described as always being a happy kid, who always had a smile on his face. Today, Garrett's mother's ex-boyfriend, Nick Hillary, was found not guilty in the boy's murder. The apartment is on the second floor of the roughly 100-year-old building, Murray said. Garrett Phillips' mother, Tandy Cyrus. Phillips was the 12-year-old boy who was fatally attacked at his home in Potsdam in 2011. Interim Police Chief in Potsdam, New York, Mark Murray, stands in the house where Phillips' body was found on Sept. 27, 2016. There were people outside changing a tire, but they only reported hearing the window screen being pushed out, Murray said. The judge took it all in and after about a week of both sides summing up their arguments, he came back with a verdict. I did everything I could. 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. — -- 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. Prosecutors also referenced two interviews Shanna-Kay gave in 2014 and 2015 in both interviews, she said she ate dinner at 6pm. A few other people who were interviewed in this episode also said they didnt see a limp and it could have been the recording and camera. According to North Country Now, that includes civil actions filed against DA Rain and Jones. Now, it looks like as if the case is not over after all not since new information made its way to police. Bastuk said local law enforcement is too compromised and an independent prosecutor needs to take over. The medical examiner also collected DNA from under Garretts nails. 2023 Variety Media, LLC. "Sees the people down there or hears them changing the tire, and waits until the coast is clear to make the jump.". Police went up the apartment building stairs and into the home, where they found Garrett unconscious and alone inside. 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?". 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. The Accused: With Lester Holt. On September 21, Hillarys daughter, Shanna-Kay, took the stand to defend her father. She ignored Hillary's phone calls. Cookie Notice People want to be heroes. 3. The police also made Nick strip down in the nude, so they could take photographs. On October 26, two days after the murder, Nick was brought into the station. For years, one of the loudest voices demanding justice for Garrett Phillips belonged to his uncle. 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). About his hitch in the U.S. Army. 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Her father said Ill be right back through the door, and when she got out of the shower 20 minutes later, her father was home. miaomy 3 yr. ago. #AD - Use this link for a 7-day free trial - http://bit.ly/23sh00652In today's video I discuss the case of Garrett Phillips as well as the documentary 'Who k. Two years after the slaying, Garretts mothers ex-boyfriend, Oral Nick Hillary, was arrested, tried for the murder and acquitted. Shanna-Kay, who is now 19-years-old, has testified that on the day of the murder, she was at Potsdam High School. "He was something else. According to Grantland, Officer Mark Wentworth investigated the apartment at 100 Market Street. On Wednesday morning, Hillary was found not guilty by a judge, after a two-week long trial. He was interviewed in the episode, but he mainly talked shit about Nick. At 4:40pm, Shanna-Kay took a shower. 2. He was read his rights. Director Jesse Quackenbush, a man from Albany, New York who graduated from the University of Houston Law School in 1987 and, that year, moved to Amarillo, made the documentary The Last Word which argues that Garrett was in fact innocent of the crime. She had also been in a relationship with a police officer named John Jones at the time. Powered by. But Murray said, "even if we had collected hairs and fibers [matching Hillary], he had been in the apartment -- he moved [Garrett's mother] Tandy in, he was in the apartment in the middle of the night on a number of occasions. He argued that Garrett was the victim of overzealous prosecutors and poor defense attorneys. As least, that's. https://www.oxygen.com/martinis-murder/who-killed-garret-phillips-theories, https://heavy.com/news/2016/09/garrett-phillips-abc-news-2020-trial-potsdam-obituary-nick-hillary-websleuths/, https://philosophyofcrime.com/the-murder-of-garrett-phillips/, https://www.nny360.com/news/crime/garrett-phillips-revisited-recent-leads-in-murder-case-fall-flat/article_615185e3-73a4-511c-a287-43c85b845d14.html. That there'd been a rush to judgment. Then, ABC News 20/20 will interview the accused ex-boyfriend of Phillips mother, Oral Nick Hillary, for the first time since he was acquitted two days ago. The new DA made the case her central mission and finally got a grand Jury to indict Nick Hillary. Soon afterwards, a neighbor in Garretts apartment building heard strange noises and called 911. Theyre calling for the state Attorney General to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the 12 year-old boys death. Tandy Cyrus, Garretts mom, was at her other sons basketball practice. 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