About his hitch in the U.S. Army. By the time Liz Garbus's two-part documentary "Who Killed Garrett Phillips?" debuts on HBO, there could be a new public lead in the case of the murdered titular 12-year-old. The new DA made the case her central mission and finally got a grand Jury to indict Nick Hillary. 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. The university soccer coach had previously dated the victims mother, Tandy Cyrus, but was reported to have split with the grieving mum as he didnt get on with her children. 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. Cookie Notice 24. On the morning of October 26, 2011, Hillary, then a soccer coach in Potsdam, was summoned to the Potsdam police station. The judge dismissed most of the claims, but some are still ongoing. 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. He said: Its important to note I think that the cops may have been somewhat intellectually challenged, but the district attorney that prosecuted this case has been a district attorney for three decades, thats thirty years in New York. They deserve justice and so does Garrett, but I think its also a good thing that an innocent man isnt sitting in prison. 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. Garretts mother, Tandy Cyrus, has said that her son was a gregarious boy who had absolutely no fear. Edward F. Narrow, the Canton attorney who represented Oral "Nick" Hillary, the former Clarkson University men's soccer coach acquitted of the boy's murder, said that leads involving inconsistent statements . The filmmaker interviewed Mark Murray, who headed the police investigation, Mary Rain, the former St. Lawrence County district attorney, and William Fitzpatrick, the Onondaga County district attorney who headed the trial team. 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. It doesnt say what his relationship was like. We did hear these rumors, and we wanted, as much as we could, to go out and explore them and accompany local journalists, Garbus says, but there really was so little [to go on]. He has maintained his innocence since day one telling Elizabeth Vargas, I have absolutely nothing to do with what has happened to Garrett. https://www.nny360.com/news/new-leads-surface-in-phillips-murder/article_129462bd-bed2-53ab-b550-39d06dfacc74.html. civil actions filed against DA Rain and Jones, circumstantial evidence against him and Hillary. Photo: Lauren Rosenthal, Over 50 people gathered to release balloons in memory of Garrett Phillips in 2016. They also heard someone saying no and crying out for help. 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. Soon afterwards, a neighbor in Garretts apartment building heard strange noises and called 911. Bastuk admits theyre just familiarizing the AGs office with the details of the case. Phillips died soon after at a hospital. he was with his girlfriend til 11pm (his girlfriends mom confirmed this). Murray and another officer, Gary Snell (who Garbus notes declined to be interviewed for the doc), interrogated Hillary after conducting a joint interview with Phillips mother Tandy and John Jones, who was not only her ex-boyfriend but also a sheriffs deputy at the time of the crime, and later briefly brought under suspicion because he was seen on tape by Phillips just before the murder. Tonight, ABC News' and Dateline will both. What 12-year-old kid just isnt right full of life? Part 2 premieres on HBO on . And Nick doesnt have any of that right now. Back in the hospital, Garrett Phillips was pronounced dead at 7:18pm. In April 2012, Nick filed a suit against the police department for how he was treated. No prints or hairs from the scene matched the police's suspect, Hillary. After 22 witnesses testified and after a two week trial, Nick was found not guilty. Garrett and his family lived on the second floor, so the police determined that the killer would have had to jump on the landing and then down to the ground. Residents of upstate New York, where Phillips was killed, are reportedly split between those who believe in Hillarys guilt and those who believe in his innocence. Per The Daily Beast, Jones was involved in the immediate aftermath of Phillips' death; he went with Phillips' mother to police interviews and called dispatchers to get information on what was going on. Oct. 24 marked the ninth anniversary of the murder of 12-year-old Garrett Phillips. The Murder of Garrett Phillips: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know, Copyright 2023 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. You've got inclement weather, it's near dusk -- if not dark.". ", 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. ", 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. Though the crime happened almost five years ago, the whodunit of it all has consumed this quiet area. But where was the evidence to put before a jury? (Courtesy of HBO ), There was systemic racism and police tunnel vision but when both are linked it becomes really problematic, Garbus explained. The accused was Nick Hillary, 37 years old at the time of the boy's death. On October 24, 2011, the neighbors of Garretts heard noises coming from next door. Hillary, after years in the bulls-eye of public opinion, also broke down in tears, a free man once more. This case is currently still unsolved after a not guilty verdict. "Theoretically, the person making this jump is waiting," he said. After Hillary was cleared, Rain claimed the case was closed because she still believed he was guilty, which is crazy, according to Garbus. Today, Garrett's mother's ex-boyfriend, Nick Hillary, was found not guilty in the boy's murder. HE HAD A KEY!!! The window is approximately 20 feet above the ground, Murray said. "It became very clear that the only place to get in or out, other than the front door that hadn't been utilized, was this window," he said. They were biased right away. All of other window screens in the home were intact, Murray said. The chief of police is now Mark Murray, who was the lead detective on the case. The DNA was ruled immiscible, and the case was based on circumstantial evidence. They knew that Garrett and his brother lived there and had heard noises before, but never this loud. ", North County Public Radio - NPR for the Adirondack North Country, For years, there were no formal charges in Garrett Phillips' murder. In 2011, Garrett Phillips, who was just 12-years-old, was killed in his upstate New York home. It wasnt until later that Cyrus was finally informed that her son was strangled to death. Nick soon asked for a lawyer, food and cigarettes. Ive probably seen every show on this case, but for my research I watched Deadline Crime with Tamron Hall. Jones held Cyrus' hand and comforted her as she was interviewed by the police. He is also a Jamaican immigrant, who was living in a community that was 94 % white a fact crucial to understanding how the justice system failed Garrett, Brooklyn-based director Liz Garbus told the Daily News. Rain said she was "100% certain" she'd prosecuted the right person. When the police arrived on the scene, Phillips was still breathing. His mothers ex-boyfriend, Nick Hillary, was found not guilty of the murder just over two years ago in a trial that captivated the region. At least one of them had talked to police back in 2011, and their story did not add up. All Rights Reserved. Despite the fact that the circumstantial evidence against him and Hillary was so similar, he didn't suffer nearly so many consequences as Hillary did. Advocates for the wrongfully accused are trying to draw new attention to the murder of Garrett Phillips in Potsdam nine years ago. The original DA did not feel that she could mount a case, and Mary Rain mounting the case put them through an enormous amount of hope, and then disappointment.. Hillary claims Potsdam and St. Lawrence County law enforcement violated his civil rights, in part because hes Black. The night that her son died, she had no idea what had happened. aired on HBO on Jul. According to Grantland, Officer Mark Wentworth investigated the apartment at 100 Market Street. Photo: David Sommerstein, Oral "Nick" Hillary was found not guilty on Wednesday in the 2011 murder of twelve-year-old Garrett Phillips. After all, she notes, the Justice for Garrett campaign became Get Nick Hillary. They were always, always intertwined. Nick Hillary's defense had elected to waive a jury trial and argue directly to the judge. In a complaint filed to the county attorney's office, Hillary claimed that Jones "trailed [him] home in his truck" in September 2010, then knocked on his door to ask him about his "romantic relationship with a certain individual." Murray said the window screen was forced out, with just enough space to fit a body through. Again, this doesnt really prove anything. On September 21, Hillarys daughter, Shanna-Kay, took the stand to defend her father. And then there was the potential witness about whom prosecutors never told the defense a revelation that nearly led to the trials dismissal. #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. Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. By the time Liz Garbus 's two-part documentary " Who Killed Garrett Phillips ?" debuts on HBO, there could be a new public lead in the case of the murdered titular 12-year-old. This case is about a murdered 12 year old and the polices tunnel vision against one suspect. with hopes to shed more light on the devastating case. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? Garrett Phillips was strangled in his family's second-floor apartment in upstate Potsdam in October 2011. He argues he was treated differently than another suspect in the case, a deputy sheriff named John Jones. The police soon zeroed in on Nick Hillary, the ex-boyfriend of Tandy. 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. Tonight, ABC News' 20/20 will investigate the death of 12-year-old Garrett Phillips. Now, it looks like as if the case is not over after all not since new information made its way to police. The coachs daughter Shanna-Kay Hillary testified for her father and said he was in their house at the time of Garretts murder. 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?". "It's very frustrating," he told "20/20." Movie Info. The police also noticed Nicks ankle was swollen and he had an abrasion on his ankle. We need to start a true dialogue about how can we bring forth changes, he explained. In the wake of the shocking murder of the boy -- in the very early hours of the investigation -- Tandy and her family believed that Nick Hillary was the likely killer. The first part of the documentary Who Killed Garrett Phillips? The police photographed the window, took fingerprints and took the blinds as evidence. No one else has ever been named a suspect. Phillips was the 12-year-old boy who was fatally attacked at his home in Potsdam in 2011. Variety is a part of Penske Media Corporation. Brian Phillips helped produce hundreds of yard signs that read "Justice for Garrett," with a picture of the boy, smiling. Knowing where John Jones is now shows how differently he was treated by police after Phillips' murder. From the polices point of view, they thought they had the best suspect the most they could put together on someone, says Garbus. 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. The current district attorney, Gary Pasqua, has given Potsdam Police, now headed by Murray, new information pointing to a different suspect. 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. He loved sports, being with his friends and ripsticking (kind of like skateboarding, but your back leg always moves). "Im here because justice is due for Garrett and justice is due for Nick Hillary, too," Baxtron said on Friday. And we talked of his passion: Soccer. His mother was rushed to the hospital. Oral "Nick" Hillary still coaches soccer. Prosecutors have also said they will not reopen the investigation. Garrett lived at the apartment at 100 Market St. with his mother, Tandy Cyrus, and younger brother, Aaron. Tandy's 12-year-old, Garrett, bristled at his mom's new boyfriend, said Tandy. The case does present a thicket of overlapping roles. The duo were joined by lawyer Mani Tafari, who also shared his view on the case. People want to be heroes. The two-part HBO documentary "Who Killed. The neighbors knocked on the door, and heard what sounded like the door being locked and latched. Lauren Rosenthal (Investigative Reporter and Producer), A phone call from inside the investigation, Gumball machine serves up free poetry in the Adirondacks, Not in Old Forge's backyard? Director of the documentary Liz Garbus, added: And what you dont know if you havent seen the documentary yet is Nick was an all American soccer champion and a graduate from Saint Lawrence University and became a coach at Clarkson, coaching a great soccer team and a military veteran. North County Public Radio - NPR for the Adirondack North Country, Jennifer Baxtron (front center) of Black Lives Matter in Potsdam and William Bastuk (front right) of It Could Happen To You called on the state Attorney General's office to launch a special investigation into the unsolved Garret Phillips murder from 2011. Dismiss. "We weren't thinking it was a homicide immediately, but something had happened. The two-part HBO documentary Who Killed Garrett Phillips? doesnt solve the mystery but looks at the case through a critical lens. July 24, 2019. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. A roller coaster of emotions. He thought Nick [Hillary] was the guy, so I think the likelihood of this being pursued by the police and the DA needs the police to do the pursuing is pretty low. New York, 2011: Garrett Phillips, 12, is found strangled. Jobs People Learning Dismiss Dismiss. I thought this was interesting, but I dont see it as anything other than he didnt want them to have his DNA. A Brandon D. Murphy from nearby Norfolk was arrested in 2013 for sexual contact with a minor under 14. Tandy and Aaron have since moved out. The police found Garrett laying motionless. Hillary was confused, especially because Jones was not in his deputy uniform and he wasn't sure if Jones was there in an official capacity or not. HBO's new two-part documentary "Who Killed Garrett Phillips?," premiering on July 23 and 24, is a stunningand enragingexamination of race and the U.S. criminal justice system. Related: Nick Hillary Found Not Guilty in Murder of 12-Year-Old Garrett Phillips. Heres what you need to know about the case. On Oct. 24, 2011, a dispatcher in Potsdam, N.Y., got a 911 call from a person reporting suspicious sounds in a neighboring apartment. Hillary is now a free man, and he cannot be retried. But his involvement with Hillary's case isn't over, even though Hillary was acquitted in 2016, according to The New York Times. When asked if it was under investigation, Pasqua responded: "I think that's safe to say, yes.". Since moving to New York, I've associated Kips Bay with decent curry and a cheap pint. Hillary has since moved back to the city, where he coaches soccer and wishes the film will put pressure on cops to solve the murder. It doesn't appear as though his daily life has been drastically altered following the case: without reports to the contrary, one can assume that he still resides in Potsdam, New York. proceeds with the case. On May 14, 2014, Nick was arrested and charged with second degree murder. with hopes to shed more light on the devastating case. Dateline's been covering the case of Garrett Phillips for over a year. The only real signs of struggle was his sweatshirt laying in the hallway and his physical body.". 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. Also the Mom of Brandon's girlfriend also overheard Brandon talking about this unidentified male. Garbus and her crew interviewed him many times, filmed him with his kids and in his home, and included footage of his 2016 trial. He was 12. "There will be no further investigation," Rain saidat a press conference, "because Im 100 percent certain, as are police, they got the right man.". Sky Crime launched the documentary Who Killed Garrett Phillips? Apparently, the town of Potsdam is split about if Nick is guilty or innocent. Nick told the police that he was with his assistant coach, a man named Ian at the time of the murder. It was a dramatic tableau in an ornate courtroom. In an unusual case, there was another twist. At that point "we weren't sure what we had," Murray told "20/20." "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.". After it ended in an acquittal, Phillips said he had to draw back. and our His backpack was taken off. Jones essentially told the players . That's a remarkable jump from the window.". After Nick was done smoking, he kept the butts in his pocket and even put one in the drain. 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. Rain credited the "Justice for Garrett" movement Brian Phillips, Garrett's uncle, sold and distributed thousands of posters bearing the slogan and raised $40,000 for a reward fund . Garrett Cunningham Expand search. 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. The police also made Nick strip down in the nude, so they could take photographs. On the same courthouse steps in Canton where Hillary walked away a free man after being cleared in Garrett Phillips death almost four years ago, a couple dozen people held a press conference Friday afternoon. "Even the appearance of impropriety is as devastating in its consequences to the judicial system as the actual impropriety itself," said Downs. He wore a T-shirt and blue-and-white checkered shorts. I mean this is something that like is stated in the documentary, he explained: For 20 years I spent building my entire legacy up until that point and within 20 minutes they destroyed., Hillary added: Up to a point now Im trying to clear the rubble in the process of hoping to rebuild.. In the gallery, Tandy slumped and cried. Dateline's been covering the case of Garrett Phillips for over a year. In March 2019, North Country Public Radio reported that Hillary had filed a lawsuit against the New York State Police, St. Lawrence prosecutors, local police, St. Lawrence County District Attorney Mary Rain, and Jones, who was a Sheriff's Deputy in St. Lawrence County. She was raising two boys, he had three kids from a past relationship. POTSDAM Nearly nine years after Garrett J. Phillips was strangled to death in his Potsdam home, the case remains open and no one has been convicted in connection to the 12-year-old's murder. Mar 8, 2019. Police collected fingerprints from the window; they are not Hillary's and have never been identified, Murray said. "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. But Hillary was black and Jones was white, and Hillary was focused on as a suspect with much more intensity. A lot of people discredit The Choke Out Theory, but after digging in to find something else other than tips called into the Potsdam Police Department I have tracked down this article that the DA's office has been looking into. They called 911 around 5:08pm. Just to say, I tried. He added: "It was definitely frustrating. The medical examiner also collected DNA from under Garretts nails. Director Liz Garbus is pictured in an undated photo. 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. A deputy sheriff as a suspect who also helps the investigation. The sentiment in the town echoes Rains idea that the killer got off, so theres not a lot of public pressure to investigate a killer who might be on the loose, Garbus said. The police asked him why he turned the opposite way. Hillary was the ex-boyfriend of Phillips' mother Tandy Cyrus, but another of her exes, John Jones, proved to be a key figure in the case as well. So we had intelligent people, people with a lot of power working to deny him of his freedom, knowing that hes innocent., Teacher who misgendered trans pupil 'was acting like a preacher', Teacher sacked for restraining 'out of control pupil' wins unfair dismissal claim, Emergency assemblies and extra staff: how schools are tackling Andrew Tate, He added: District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, he knew there was no evidence, and he said quote after Nick was acquitted: I have locked people up with much less evidence than this.. Theyre Aug 17, 2020 Advocates for the wrongfully accused are trying to draw new attention to the murder of Garrett Phillips in Potsdam nine years ago. July 18, 2019 2:39 pm ET. "Sees the people down there or hears them changing the tire, and waits until the coast is clear to make the jump.". They are the only reason that Nick is not in prison, she says. miaomy 3 yr. ago. When Hillary was acquitted this week, the judge said that his case was mostly circumstantial and didnt prove he was guilty without a doubt. When we met Hillary before his trial, we talked about his early years growing up in a large family in Jamaica. 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. 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. 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. Sky Crime launched the documentary Who Killed Garrett Phillips? New pieces complicate Garrett Phillips murder storyPeople in St. Lawrence County know his face: the smiling, golden-haired 12-year-old boy, Garrett Phillips. There is only one door to the apartment. I was in complete shock, she told ABC News. Despite housing crisis, there's pushback against development, Rochester man dies in snowmobile crash on the Tug Hill, Hochul wants to tie the minimum wage to inflation. The apartment that Jones helped Cyrus find was the same spot where Phillips was found gravely hurt. He loved sports, being with his friends and ripsticking (kind of like skateboarding, but your back leg always moves). And, once I started working on the film, I realized that another major issue was the lack of oversight and the free reign given to the district attorneys..