Who Killed Garrett Phillips? (2019) s01e01 Episode Script
Episode 1
1
All rise.
Thank you very much, Your Honour,
and a good afternoon to you.
The narrative of this case
up to this point
has been very, very simple.
A group of bungling,
incompetent cops from a small town
in upstate New York
on a razor-thin amount of evidence
brought a case against a man
perhaps insidiously motivated
by the colour of his skin.
Great TV,
great theatre,
but ultimately
it's not about tunnel vision,
rush to judgment,
the defendant's race.
It's about 30 minutes in Potsdam
4.53pm to 5.23pm
on Monday, October 24th, 2011.
The death of a child
is always tragic.
There is pain and grief
and there is sorrow.
And with that pain and sorrow,
there is naturally a cry for justice,
a cry for someone
to be held accountable,
but it must be the right person.
My boyfriend and I went to Potsdam
to both attend college,
and I felt right at home, right away,
the first year.
It was very homey.
It was very simple.
That small-town feel
where everybody knows everybody,
and you just live your daily life.
We found our apartment
at 100 Market Street
at the beginning
of the summer of 2010.
It was not like
your typical college apartment.
It was clean, it looked
like you could live in it,
and it was homey,
and the whole building was well-kept,
and it felt very safe.
You're sharing a wall with somebody,
so we could hear the muffled noises,
but I didn't really know a lot
about what was going on
on the other side.
And I knew that there was
two young boys.
Definitely could hear a skateboard
going down the hallway sometimes,
some footsteps, some, you know,
you could hear them
talking back and forth.
We knew we really didn't have much
in common with them.
Two boys that were 12 and younger,
and a single mother.
Us two college kids, we didn't really
have too much to talk about.
I'd seen Garrett, and I believe
it was his little brother with him,
on their little scooters
in the front
parking lot, driving all around.
Andrew and I started dating.
He lived with his parents
at 100 Market Street apartments,
in the back building.
It's cosy, quiet,
and everybody knows everybody.
I feel like now we have
a connection with this family
that we don't even know,
and we'll always have that.
It was just a normal day.
I actually came home earlier
than I was normally
coming home at that time.
I arrived home around 4.15, 4.20,
and we started to cook dinner.
Actually, Sean cooked dinner.
The whole process took
about half an hour,
so, about five o'clock,
everything got plated up,
and we went into our bedroom
to eat and watch a TV show.
We watched Dexter. We're big fans.
It was around five o'clock,
right before dinnertime.
We were outside of the back building,
changing Andrew's tire.
He was down on the ground.
We were standing there.
He was underneath the car
with a jack, lifting it up.
While Andrew was underneath the car,
I kept hearing multiple noises,
could not figure out what it was.
I kept looking up there.
Couldn't see anything.
While we were watching
the show and eating,
we weren't really
chit-chatting anymore,
so we were just
listening to the show,
and that's when we heard
the running and the crash.
There was silence after the crash,
and a few seconds later,
we heard a moan for help,
and it sounded like
either "ow" or "no."
It was definitely a child's voice,
but it sounded scared
and it sounded, you know,
muffled through the wall,
but I could hear that word "help,"
and I will never forget that word.
Just it sounded scared.
This isn't really the time
to ignore it
and just think nothing happened.
When I knocked on the door
of the other apartment
Sorry.
When I knocked on the other door,
I heard a slight noise
behind the door.
I couldn't tell you what it was,
but then I heard a click,
and it was one of those things
where my mind
instantly knew that
it was a lock clicking.
She turned around immediately,
and I could see in her eyes
that she was not comfortable
with whatever it was
she heard or felt.
Potsdam Police, Dispatcher Snyder.
Hi, my name is Marissa Vogel
Where do you live?
Sorry, 100 Market Street,
North Country Manor Apartments.
Okay, I'll have somebody check on it.
- Thank you so much.
- Thank you, bye-bye.
Bye.
Within a few minutes,
a police officer
had arrived on the scene.
We heard him walk up the stairs,
knock on the door
to the other apartment.
17.16.
- Hello?
- Hi, is this Rick Dumas?
Yes, it is.
Okay.
- Marissa?
- Yes?
They do have an emergency
in that location.
Could you assist me by going down
and waving down
the rescue squad when they arrive?
- Yes, I could do that.
- Thank you very much.
I believe they left the door open
because I could hear their voices.
I couldn't hear
what they were saying,
but I could hear that they started
to sound a little
I couldn't tell you
how long the rest of it took.
It seemed like a whirlwind.
It was just,
once everybody was there,
there was people running
up and down the stairs,
and the gurney went up, and
then they took Garrett down,
and
it kind of seemed as though
everything stopped.
I mean
Hi, this is Nancy Rutledge,
I'm the supervisor at the hospital.
- Yeah.
- We
We're working on it.
I think I got a phone call
from Tandy about 6.08
stating, "Could you run over
to the hospital?"
She goes, "I'm headed there now."
Some parents, I guess,
apparently told her,
"Where have you been?
Something's happened to Garrett.
You need to get to the hospital."
And then she immediately
thought of me first,
and called me because
you know, I've always been
dependable with Tandy.
She can count on me.
I was out back,
and I heard my aunt scream,
and you knew something wasn't right.
And she said, "Get to the hospital.
Something's wrong with Garrett."
So, I think my mother, Tandy,
and myself went into the room.
And when I got in there,
I see him layin' there.
They had him on a breathing machine,
and I took his hand,
and I give him a kiss
on the forehead,
and I said, "Come on, bud,
for Grandma."
And he coded.
We went in
hugged him, kissed him
I had to leave.
We didn't know what had happened.
Nobody concluded that, you know,
a person had done this.
We just didn't know
what had happened.
Just it's pretty unfair,
I guess
that somebody could do that to him.
How often do you come here?
I used to come every single day.
Now I come up usually once a week,
till it gets nice weather,
and then I come up
and have coffee with him
in the morning,
just thinking and drinking my coffee.
Oh, it's just like
it happened yesterday, and
Every year, too, the boys bring up,
like, a new soccer ball,
they all sign it, his classmates,
and they bring that up
and put it up there.
Garrett stayed with us a lot.
We know so much.
I miss Garrett.
It kills me.
I felt that I wasn't going
to be the father to him,
but try to be
the best uncle I can be.
The last Tuesday that he was alive
I always would go up,
see him before he'd go to sleep,
give him a kiss.
Well, my kids and Garrett
were cuddled right up.
I was gonna grab my phone,
take a picture. I never did.
We weren't thinking
it's the last time
- that you're gonna see him alive.
- Sure, sure.
But I've still got the memories.
You can't ever take that away.
Show off.
Why can't you do that over there?
'Cause that road's, like, wider.
I have a younger brother,
he was a senior in high school,
and I was helping coach
his varsity soccer game.
It was senior night,
so my parents were there.
And it was inclement weather,
it was rain off and on.
I checked my phone
near the end of the game,
and I had a voicemail
and a missed call from work.
Hi, you've reached Mark Murray.
I can't answer your call right now.
Please leave me a detailed message,
and I'll get back to you.
Hi, Mark, it's Robin.
Looking for you
or the chief to call me back.
Left immediately and got there
as fast as I could.
Obviously,
it's immediately suspicious,
so there's a lot of questions
in your mind, like, why does
a 12-year-old just
just doesn't die.
We had the state police
were called immediately.
Notifications were made.
We had no idea what we had.
They knew somebody
had jumped out that window
before Garrett died.
They were sure somebody
exited that window.
The scene was handled
as a potential crime scene,
so there were a lot of things
already in play.
I remember a lot of other members
of the state police had responded.
It wasn't until later that evening
we had went downstairs,
I realised the area
was taped off with caution tape
and there was cops there.
And I was, like, "Andrew,
that's where we heard the noise,
so maybe we should tell somebody."
And that's when we figured out
it was actually a murder.
Hey, is the chief in?
This is Scott Heggelke,
lieutenant with the state police.
Yeah.
I think we were just all in shock,
and and, uh, didn't know
how to take it.
And I believe it was
three or four hours later
that I, I had called
my girlfriend and I said,
"I'm gonna stay with Tandy
and assist her
through this difficult time."
Overnight there came to be
Gary Snell from the state police
had stopped on his way home
'cause he resides in the
Parishville community as well.
It's a tight-knit community.
I think he had stopped
at the family's house.
They had their suspicions.
They said, "The only person"
they can't think of anyone
who would want to hurt
Garrett, number one.
There was some things
about Tandy's ex-boyfriend,
Nick Hillary,
that really concerned them,
and so they shared
those concerns with him.
Hundred percent,
Hillary is responsible
for Garrett's death.
The day I die, I will go to my grave,
100 per cent, Hillary was the killer.
Garrett didn't like him.
Those two butted heads.
I know Garrett
had difficulties in school,
but there's more to life
during the week
than go to school, come home,
be in your room, no TV,
no outside play.
Bull crap. I think
that's excessive discipline.
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011.
The time, 6.44am.
- Potsdam Police, Dispatcher Robar.
- Hi, good morning.
This is Janie Hobbes calling
from the Potsdam Middle School.
- Hello.
- Hi.
We had a student
pass away last night,
6th grade student.
We're wondering if you could
someone on the PD
could possibly get messages
to the crossing guards,
to at least let them know
that that has happened,
keep an extra close eye
on the children
crossing this morning?
I'm just calling I just keep
getting all these tip calls,
and I'm not sure
what to tell the viewers
about something
on Market Street there.
Yeah, I don't I don't have
any information that I can give out.
- Dan, what's up?
- Marky
This is news from
North Country Public Radio.
There's not much more to tell yet
about the death of a 12-year-old boy
in Potsdam Monday.
Rumours that his death was the result
of an assault have circulated,
but this morning a spokesman
at the Potsdam Police Department
could neither confirm
nor deny those reports.
The department plans
a press conference at ten.
Potsdam Police, Dispatcher Robar.
Is there something serious going on?
There is, but I'm not releasing
anything at this point.
There have been theories
that he had been horsing around
with some friends,
that some friends were
at the house with him,
and that this resulted in his death.
There had been another theory
that's a step beyond that,
said that this might've
been some kind of
where they were playing a game
called "knockout," I think it was,
and this could've ended up with,
you know, an accidental death.
Autoerotic asphyxiation,
someone had said at one point,
because they said there had
and if you look at the list
of evidence that was found,
there was a bra on the floor.
And what ended up happening,
we learned,
is that all of those things
are being pushed aside
and that they did have one person
that they were interested in,
and they thought that it was
the most feasible suspect
and/or person of interest
in Nick Hillary,
so all the other theories
were pushed aside.
The next morning,
the local radio station,
the commentator reported
that there was basically a case of,
you know, peer-on-peer
violence that resulted in his death,
like, a bull almost like
a bullying situation.
And that's how many things
were out there
as far as these rumours
and just wild facts
that were either untrue
or just misreported.
- Hey Pat, it's Mark.
- Hi, Mark.
and whoever else
was with your son
Basically just
officially notified her
that this was looking
like a homicide,
and just gathered as much
information that we could.
I know that I, I sat and took notes
while she answered
all the questions we could think of.
They asked if Tandy would come down,
and I said,
"You want me to come with you?"
"Absolutely." I asked them
if they had any problems
with me coming down.
"Absolutely not."
So I went down with Tandy
that morning.
She wanted that,
and that was accommodated.
To do it over again, probably
would've done it differently,
but it definitely didn't affect
the investigation, in my opinion.
Later in the night,
after the murder,
I remember being back at the station,
and my chief, Ed Tischler,
poked his head in my office
and said we need to get a hold
of Tandy's ex-boyfriend,
Nick Hillary.
Hello?
Hello, is Mr Hillary there, please?
Mr Hillary speaking.
Mark Murray of the Potsdam
Police Department.
- How are you, sir?
- I'm doing well, and you?
Not too bad.
I knew who he was
at that point in time,
but I didn't know him personally.
He was the soccer coach
for Clarkson University,
for the varsity men's team.
As a coach, you know,
everybody knew who I was.
Wherever you go,
people would identify
people would say,
"Hey, Coach, what's going on?
How's the season?
What do you expect?"
You know, small talks
and stuff like that.
You know, there's an old phrase
that everybody likes a winner.
Nobody likes a loser.
So, you know, when I was
on the winning side,
it was unbelievable.
I was very successful
as a soccer player
at the collegiate level.
And I think those accomplishments,
I will always be forever grateful
to the guys who I've played with,
the guys who have laid
the foundation before myself.
Well, I first met Nick back in 1996.
I was a senior in high school,
and he came to Brooklyn
and started talking to me
about St. Lawrence.
As far as my soccer journey,
St. Lawrence was it.
We lived in a house called
the "House of Brotherhood,"
about five of us Jamaicans.
It was known as a soccer house.
You know, everyone knew who they
were
because it was a bunch of
really good Jamaican guys
from the City up in Canton, New York,
like, just beating everybody up
on the soccer field.
I think he lost two games
or three games
his entire four years there.
They won the national championship.
Obviously, he got hired at Clarkson
because he was familiar
with the area,
he was familiar with the recruiting,
familiar with the teams
you'd be playing,
his outstanding history in the area.
So, yeah,
in the small soccer community
that was Potsdam and Canton,
yeah, they knew who he was.
You know, I, I met Tandy in 2010.
I would normally hang out
with the coaches from the college,
you know, after work or after a game.
I'll sit at the bar
where she was a bartender.
She would admire what I was doing,
and she would ask questions.
And you know, she played soccer,
so she understood
you know, the language
and what I was doing.
So that's how my meeting
of Tandy all came about,
was during that time period.
There was a little bit
of mixed opinions, I guess,
gossip, small town,
"I can't believe they're dating,"
or "That's weird."
I think one of the key reasons
why we became so found
of each other so quickly
was because she was very open-
minded,
she was very caring.
She's a mother of two, you know.
At the time, I had three.
We found a house
that was big enough,
and that's how we end up
moving in together.
What do you have to
say to the people, Mrs Cyrus?
- Don't make me talk.
- What?
Is that what you have
to say to the people?
- Knock it off.
- Come on.
- Say something to the people.
- Hello, people.
And obviously, I would
not like that for my child,
and I don't think it was fair
for her and her son
to have to experience that.
And I think that was
one of the root cause
as to why we made
the decision that, you know,
it would be best
if she has her own abode,
and I have my own abode.
They talked about
going their separate ways,
is what she had told me.
And I said, you know,
"Well, why don't you start
looking for your own place?
I know some people
that own apartments."
So I gave a call and they said,
"Yeah, we got a place
at 100 Market Street."
I looked at it as the convenience of,
not being close to me,
it was the convenience for the boys.
I guess I always put the boys first.
Here's an opportunity for them
to start a new life.
As far as I knew,
that her and Nick
were not seeing each other,
but I was enlightened that, you know,
they were kind of hanging out
once in a while, occasionally.
Obviously, it's a small community,
so now everybody would be saying,
"Okay, all right,
so she's living with her two sons
and he's living with his daughter."
That would have taken
the pressure off the kids.
I mean, no one would have to know
that we have a relationship going.
But, you know, with every
separation comes reassessment,
and we figured that in the best
interests of the kids and everyone,
you know, we'll just be friends.
And that's how it actually ended.
He was the last
her ex-boyfriend, and there
were issues about their breakup
that specifically were cited
to be about Garrett.
And I guess that's when
your suspicion
starts building at that point.
Yes?
- Apartment E6.
- E6?
- Yeah.
- Sure.
Sat on the couch across from Nick,
looks like he was freshly showered,
wearing socks, sandals,
like, some athletic pants
and a long-sleeved shirt.
Ian Fairlie, his assistant coach,
went outside,
there's like a porch
with all windows
We weren't there very long
five, ten minutes.
That was the first time
I learned that
he had passed that night
when the cops came to my apartment
and told me that he had passed away.
We were sitting on his outdoor porch,
and that's when he said
Garrett had died.
There was just silence,
neither of us spoke for a while.
It was just kind of sinking in,
like, "Whoa."
And that was just
a very numbing feeling,
knowing that, you know,
it's not like he was sick.
And to have learned
that he just passed away
and there was no reasons given
or anything like that
yeah, I mean,
I was at a loss for words.
And I frantically
started figuring out,
you know, reaching out to Tandy,
reaching out to the family members,
trying to find out what was going on.
So I was making phone calls.
Nick called me late that night.
The sound in his voice, it was weird.
You know, he just sounded
down and depressed.
And, you know, he told me,
you know, Garrett died.
And
And then he told me, you know,
the cops came and told him.
And right there, that was when
you know,
the lawyer in me kicked off,
and I thought there was something
very strange about that.
I would not say it's normal
to give an ex a death notification.
I reached out to Tandy,
and I never heard back from Tandy.
To replay this message, press 4.
End of message.
To erase this message press 7.
No doubt in my mind he did it.
And I don't base that strictly on
wanting to say it's him.
I base it on the knowledge
of many of the guys
I work within law enforcement
that investigated this
and put 20-hours-plus a day
into trying to find the right person
to put to this.
And each one of 'em told me,
"Nick's the guy."
The time, 11.43am
- Hi Ed.
- Hey Rick, how's it goin'.
- How you doin'?
- Oh, we're hanging in there.
- Yeah?
- Do what we can do.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- It doesn't matter.
Okay, we've got a dead 12-year-old.
And the first 48 hours
of this are critical.
And we have a killer on the run.
And we have to find out who did this,
so you can understand
the police's viewpoint.
And yet you do also
have to raise questions
as to why they chose Nick Hillary,
why he was the guy,
what sort of evidence
they were working with,
what sort of tips
they were working with,
were they following other tips,
were there other suspects,
were there other people that,
as they were focusing
so heavily on Nick,
they could've gotten away?
Neighbours say they heard loud noises
coming from the apartment
where Phillips was found dead.
We were changing his tire,
and we kept hearing
this ripping noise.
And 30 minutes after coming inside,
we come to find out
that the police were here.
It was kind of depressing
knowing that maybe
if we stayed down there
five more minutes,
the person would've been caught.
I do believe whoever
murdered Garrett Phillips
left the scene after 5.20.
I heard maybe Garrett
didn't get along with a few kids
and that it could've been
one of them,
but it was very brief
and nobody mentions it to this day.
There's not a lot to do in the town,
so they go to the park,
they hang out,
you know, they do things
they shouldn't be doing.
They get in big groups
because there's nothing else to do.
I don't know where they came up
with the name Nick Hillary.
I don't know if it was because
he was African American,
or if they actually
had a lead on him,
but I think he was
the easiest target.
I think the media
makes it seem that we're racist,
but I don't think we necessarily are.
There's just not a lot
of African Americans
compared to a city.
Couple things that always strike me
about this part of the world.
One is that there's
no easy way to get here.
It is almost impossible
to get here quickly.
Which I think for some people
that live here is the appeal.
You know, you have a place
that is removed.
You have a place that has
a great deal of natural beauty.
If you like farmland,
this is a nice place to live.
You can pick up a house here
pretty cheap.
For a long time, there were
pretty decent jobs, you know.
There was sandstoning
and kind of light manufacturing.
What's happened, however,
in the last few decades,
is that those types of jobs
have dried up,
and a kind of real economic
depression has set in here.
And with some of that you've had,
for lack of a better word,
more cosmopolitan problems
coming to town.
You've got heroin
in some of the larger towns.
You've got high unemployment
in a lot of these towns.
You've got people
that are struggling.
There's a lot of drugs here.
There have been, in Massena,
had a real issue with heroin.
We had Ogdensburg had a problem
with crack cocaine.
And then there are people just
cooking meth all over the place,
you know, like these little
one-stop shops
where people are doing it
in their homes and things like that.
We talk about the North Country
as being really white
and remote, but also that Potsdam
is situated in New York's
prison country.
It's a community
and an area that kind of, like,
its lifeblood is corrections.
And we think about racial dynamics,
how a lot of white people's
only interactions with black people
are when they're in a uniform
as a corrections officer
guarding
inmates of colour.
It's just something to keep in mind.
But there's also four colleges,
you know, within 10 miles of here.
So you've got this really
interesting dynamic
where you do have a certain
conservative rural bent to it.
Driving up here, you'll see
a Confederate flag here and there.
But then you also have,
you know, college bars,
and college activities,
and more kind of liberal-seeming
functions going on around you.
See, for me it's like two-folds.
The first experience was when
I was a student at St. Lawrence.
As a student you had the luxury
of the campus community.
Then, once I came back,
after graduating St. Lawrence,
in a faculty-slash-coaching position
wherein which now you're
mentoring young adults
and preparing them
for the real world,
you start to interact
a lot more with the community.
Nick and I were friends
prior to Tandy and Nick dating.
I don't want to say
we were close friends.
We were acquaintances.
If we saw each other,
we wouldn't have a problem
saying hi to each other
and what have you.
John John Jones,
local sheriff guy.
Someone who's well-known
in the community as well.
I mean, born and raised here.
He was Tandy's boyfriend
prior to Tandy and I hanging out.
They were living together
when Tandy and I
was first socialising.
You know, there was no doubts
that she got a lot of attention
when she was out there,
and I enjoyed that aspect
of having a woman
that people were like,
"Wow, she's good-looking."
So I enjoyed you know,
it didn't bother me.
When Tandy and I started having
real difficulties toward the end,
I was trying to figure out,
you know, what's goin' on,
what's happening.
And Nick's name
was brought up a couple times.
And I just happened to be
at the right place,
I guess at the right time
to see the two of them
drive by one early morning.
And so I felt the need
to find out for myself
if they were dating each other,
then I can move on in my life
and start dating myself.
And so I confronted Nick
at his residence
Knocked on my door,
which at the moment
I was living here,
at this point in time
I had not separated from Stacia.
So this was, like,
real early in our relationship.
I don't think, I mean,
I wouldn't even classify
my interactions with Tandy
at that time as a relationship.
We were just friends talking.
"Nick, can we be
just men here for a minute,
and just man up and tell me
whether or not you two
are seeing each other?"
And he told me, "Absolutely not,"
that they weren't seeing each other,
but that I should talk to Tandy.
You know, if he knew
that I was dating her,
what he would have done,
you know, kicked my door in,
call me names, you know,
just real threatening.
Doesn't take someone
of much intelligence to figure out
that obviously
there's something going on there.
So I text Tandy soon after
and said, you know, "This is it."
Grant you, and, I mean,
this is not something that
I'm explicitly proud of.
I mean, obviously,
I was still living here
with the mother of my kids.
I guess word got to the kids' mom
that I was hanging out with Tandy.
Apparently, I enlightened Stacy
one day to say,
"How's it going?" and she says,
"Good," and I said,
you know, "Are you doing okay
with the situation
with Nick and Tandy?"
And she was like, "What do you mean?"
So Tandy and Stacia were not cordial.
There's some domestic incidents
that happened in the interim.
One in which Stacia was arrested for,
for cutting up his clothes
and dropping them off
on the lawn of his apartment.
There was an open case,
Nick had his car keyed,
and he wasn't sure if
it was John Jones that did it,
or if it was Stacia that did it.
And ultimately, I'm not sure
who keyed his car.
It didn't look very well
on him in the community,
and obviously,
him losing his girlfriend
to an African American,
it just was not playing outright.
So, you know, that's who John is.
He's right out of a movie.
Nick's dating the sheriff's,
like, ex-girl.
Oh, that's fun.
And he's not being quiet about it.
He's not just letting it happen.
And then once Garrett passed,
it was, like, instantly,
you know, it was, like,
"All right, here we go."
The build-up Tuesday night
into Wednesday morning is,
you know,
we gotta talk to Nick again,
there's too much stuff here.
We're clearing everybody else
as either alibied
or precluded for a number of reasons.
We've got to find out what's
there's more to this
with Nick's involvement.
I never thought for a second
that she would
even fathom the idea
to want to go along
with such a theory,
knowing who I am.
You spend time with people
and obviously, we knew
each other for 12 months.
It would be a difference if,
you know,
we lived apart,
saw each other on occasions,
never spent any time
in her environment.
This is a young lady who has traveled
to different countries with me.
She's been around me 24/7, 365,
you know, and I would hope
that the person that she has
been around that entire time,
even to the point
wherein which we had broken off
the relationship,
we still maintained civil dialogue.
But, you know, people
can be manipulated.
When she is someone who
is born and raised in the town,
and obviously if
she has to decide with a group
not to be an island in the situation,
then obviously I could see
why she would want to side
with the law enforcement up there.
The command post knew
that there was a soccer game
going on that night,
went to the game just to observe.
My observations of him directly,
he did have some sort
of injury or something.
He was favouring his right leg.
Officer Murray had put
in his sworn affidavit
to get a search warrant, right,
so it's sworn to,
that he observed Mr Hillary
with a significant limp.
- The day after the murder.
- The day after the murder.
While he was coaching a soccer game.
And I guess to him, this shows
that he could've jumped out
the window and injured himself.
And years later,
we discovered the video.
Hillary is walking very well,
and he beats a bunch
of 19 and 20-year-olds
to the locker room at halftime.
So why would a police officer,
in the middle of a murder case,
only the day after,
make up a story
about a significant limp,
when he knows that there's none?
There's points in time
where he looks like
he's walking perfectly fine,
and there's points in time
where you wonder if he's trying
to conceal or he's got a sore leg.
It's significant to me, like,
that looks like he's favouring
his right leg.
It's not like he had to amputate it.
I was contacted by a lawyer
who basically said that
there was a case that he viewed
as a railroading of a black man
in northern New York.
And the essential idea there
was that this guy had
kind of a spotless record,
he was a military veteran,
he was a member of the community,
he was a star athlete,
he had a promising career as a coach,
and that there was
no indication that this guy
would be capable
of this type of crime,
and yet things were
moving forward fairly rapidly.
They ordered me down to the station
the Wednesday morning.
I get a call from Nick saying,
"The police are at my door."
Right away, it wasn't alarm bells
as much as, you know,
an explosion that
went off in my brain.
And I knew right then, right there,
that they were about to frame
Nick Hillary for murder.
You know, as a person of colour,
oftentimes you're told
"Don't talk to the police."
Just because.
But not having
anything to worry about,
I want to be as helpful as possible
because this is a young man
that has lived with me,
lived around my kids,
definitely has a part of my history.
He's inside there.
So obviously, you know,
whatever I could do
to help you guys resolve
this situation, I'm on board.
I think
a lot of these cops who were involved
felt as though,
"If Nick could steal
our friend's woman
then what about ours?"
Obviously, when you're dealing
with the death of a 12-year-old boy,
you know,
we gotta talk about this stuff.
We can't just throw it out the window
and pretend it doesn't exist.
All bets are off.
It's not one of those relationships
where people break up
and there's hostility.
You know, it was never like that.
Quite the opposite, you know?
So it was very surprising to me
to have learned all these
stories
as to what was going on
with our relationship.
It wasn't like that.
or at least in this area
of the world,
that you wouldn't know that.
And if we're getting
the wrong impression
from these other people, then
Went down to the police station.
I actually noticed
Nick's SUV in there,
so I was, like, "All right
just asking,"
you know, "Nick's down here"
But as far as meeting
girls or anything, like
It's like having any relationship,
so
Same questions.
Nick's background, how I knew Nick,
how he knew Garrett,
how I knew Garrett,
how I knew Tandy, how
that same questions,
just kind of relationship-building,
what I knew about the relationships.
Okay.
You know that you can
No, you've already been eliminated.
See, again, Mark
It's pretty clear into the interview
that he is only there
to talk about his students,
he's not gonna answer
any other questions.
I think I asked him, you know,
"What time was practice
that day for you?"
and he's like, "No comment."
And it just struck me as odd.
Okay, cool. I appreciate it.
Nick was a former soldier
in his thirties,
he was a teacher, he was a coach,
he was a graduate
of a very good university.
So you're not dealing
with the Central Park Five
or a bunch of 16-year-olds,
or 13-year-olds,
who you can put words in their mouth
and try to convince them
that something is what it's not.
I keep gettin' asked,
"How do you know he didn't do it?"
Well, if he did do it,
then I saw him a minute later
and he was the same person
I've always met, just walked in,
it was like, "Hey, goin'
to the office. Got this meeting.
You're gonna be right behind me?"
"Yeah, be right there."
Just every other day. No big deal.
So I'm his alibi,
I'm why he can't be there,
'cause he was here at 5.21,
which is something
they grilled me on,
you know, a lot,
throughout the whole process.
That shit happened on Monday.
And the police said
they were at the apartment
at 5.24, and he's hearing footsteps,
you know, he hears people
in the apartment.
So that's right around the time
that Nick's at my place.
I mean, I don't question that.
That's a pretty good
To have him have a phone call,
the time is good.
But what is Mark Wentworth hearing?
I mean, this poor guy
has tormented over this
for the last five years into
current day saying, you know,
"Did I hear the blinds
in the wind? Did I hear"
Is he hearing Sean Hall
pace back and forth
up this rickety hallway
while, you know, we're waiting
for a keyholder to get there?
Andrew's car was directly
below the window
in the corner of the building.
There's a little divot,
and it goes in
we are right there by the Dumpsters
with a great view of the window.
We were downstairs
around 4.50 to 5.20.
Where in this window of time
does this person escape?
It's just remarkable.
It's like, how does this happen?
How does this person get
out this window and run off,
and not seen by anyone?
I think whoever it was
was terrified that
we weren't gonna leave,
and they did get very lucky
that we did leave
and they were able to escape
without being seen.
The text messages
said we were downstairs
around 4.50 to 5.20.
Let's put it this way.
Mark. Mark. Mark
I know Tandy
I mean, this is not a time thing,
Nick, where
I think we're done.
Can you show me outside, please?
Yes or no?
Okay.
Knowing my right
that I could walk out of there,
and being barred
and blocked physically,
you, you leave me one choice,
which is to either put my hand
on you to ask you to leave,
or bull my way through the door,
which those two options provide
me nothing good in return.
So obviously I have to succumb
to what you guys are doing,
and knowing intentionally
what you're doing
and just sit there.
No, I'm not I'm not
And then
I receive a call, he's saying,
"They won't let me leave."
I wasn't sure what was going on,
but I knew whatever was going on
could not be legal or good.
I guess they were
workin' behind the scenes.
Now that I know a little bit
more about that particular day,
they were working
behind the scenes and
just trying to keep me there
for the whole time.
- I'm serious, just sit.
- No. I've been sitting all morning.
- I understand.
- Your name is?
- I'm Ray. Yeah.
- Ray?
Please. Ray, please.
Please allow me the opportunity.
Please allow me the opportunity.
You know, Mani decided
to haul tail from
New York City all the way up here
to be of assistance
to me as a friend.
So I got in the car,
I started driving.
I called my wife.
I explained to her
that I'm taking a drive upstate.
So she also was
a bit shocked and astonished.
From that moment on, I mean,
there has not been a day
that has passed
that Nick Hillary has not been
discussed over our morning coffee
or our night-time glass of wine.
I mean, it's been
When it consumes you,
it's in for a penny, in for a pound.
It's nothing that we planned on
getting this much involved in,
but you know, we had to act and we
had to move in order to help Nick.
I mean, I wanted to fight injustice.
I was working in a bank
right after St. Lawrence, and,
you know, you always talk to people,
you always give your views on things.
And after a while it's like,
you can talk all you want,
but why don't you
try to change things?
You know, being a lawyer I thought
was the best way to make a change.
Once he invokes his rights
and we call an attorney for him,
she came and sat with him
inside our station.
I wrote a search warrant.
A judge issued the search warrant,
and we lawfully executed
the search warrant,
the New York State FIU,
it's all on video in my office.
The decision was made
that there's potentially
probative evidence
on his body, of his person,
because we know the person
that killed Garrett Phillips
jumped out that window
and would potentially have
either an injury that we can document
or a marking that we would be
able to help link to the crime,
or something like that.
There it is.
The ankle injury. I mean,
at first he tells me he has
no ankle injury, there's no issue.
Then he has one, and then he comes up
with an excuse
that he was moving furniture
around his apartment.
Last time I sprained my ankle
or lacerated a part of my body
with a piece of furniture,
I remember where
that piece of furniture is.
I'm, like, "It was the goddamn desk"
or "It was the table behind me,"
or "What was it?
What kind of furniture?"
"Like I said, it was furniture."
"Do you want to elaborate
at all on that? Was it a bed?"
I'll ask him to this day.
If I ran into Nick I'd say,
"Nick what kind of furniture was it?"
All right, drop.
I don't normally do strip-search.
This was New York State FIU,
who normally do searches
of people's persons,
and this was normal procedure.
Try to document injuries
pursuant to the murder
of a 12-year-old boy.
There were other people that
were photographed nude as well,
and I pointed that out
in the deposition. But
Garrett Phillips was.
When I got to St. Lawrence County,
the news that I started getting
was just totally unbelievable.
All they wanted him to do
is to flinch,
to refuse to take his clothes off,
because then he would've
gotten a real beatdown
and been charged
with resisting arrest.
So in that spot,
in that position, he handled it
as best as he could.
He took his clothes off.
Never arrested me,
and then told me I could leave,
in a hazmat suit,
eight hours later.
Yeah, I have to go to the bathroom.
I mean, I literally came out
of the police station
as if my mom had just given birth
to me as an adult.
Nothing.
You don't strip-search someone
totally naked for,
ever, for anything.
I mean, unless
you have a rape victim saying,
"I bit his penis." I mean, there
What really would be the use?
If you're getting his DNA,
you could get his DNA.
This is to break him down mentally,
to let him know when he walked in
that "You're done."
Like, "Your life will never be
the same. We're gonna get you.
This is what we can do to you.
And there's nothing
that you can do about it."
Once he got here, I mean,
his knowledge base for being
in this field kicked in,
and that's pretty much
when I realised
what their plan is,
which was to ostracise me
within the community quickly,
blame me for what had taken
place without knowing the facts,
and then bury me.
It's just one of those
situations wherein which,
you know, I mean, even now
it's hard to put words to.
Yeah.
Early on, because law enforcement
seemed convinced,
because people in the community
seemed convinced,
because members
of the family seemed convinced,
there may have been a rush
towards focusing so singly
on Nick Hillary.
That's what might keep you up
at night a little bit, is that,
if he didn't do it, then who did?
And where did he go, or she go,
while they were focusing on Nick?
They never thought for a minute
that the situation
was over with
after that initial run-in.
All rise.
Thank you very much, Your Honour,
and a good afternoon to you.
The narrative of this case
up to this point
has been very, very simple.
A group of bungling,
incompetent cops from a small town
in upstate New York
on a razor-thin amount of evidence
brought a case against a man
perhaps insidiously motivated
by the colour of his skin.
Great TV,
great theatre,
but ultimately
it's not about tunnel vision,
rush to judgment,
the defendant's race.
It's about 30 minutes in Potsdam
4.53pm to 5.23pm
on Monday, October 24th, 2011.
The death of a child
is always tragic.
There is pain and grief
and there is sorrow.
And with that pain and sorrow,
there is naturally a cry for justice,
a cry for someone
to be held accountable,
but it must be the right person.
My boyfriend and I went to Potsdam
to both attend college,
and I felt right at home, right away,
the first year.
It was very homey.
It was very simple.
That small-town feel
where everybody knows everybody,
and you just live your daily life.
We found our apartment
at 100 Market Street
at the beginning
of the summer of 2010.
It was not like
your typical college apartment.
It was clean, it looked
like you could live in it,
and it was homey,
and the whole building was well-kept,
and it felt very safe.
You're sharing a wall with somebody,
so we could hear the muffled noises,
but I didn't really know a lot
about what was going on
on the other side.
And I knew that there was
two young boys.
Definitely could hear a skateboard
going down the hallway sometimes,
some footsteps, some, you know,
you could hear them
talking back and forth.
We knew we really didn't have much
in common with them.
Two boys that were 12 and younger,
and a single mother.
Us two college kids, we didn't really
have too much to talk about.
I'd seen Garrett, and I believe
it was his little brother with him,
on their little scooters
in the front
parking lot, driving all around.
Andrew and I started dating.
He lived with his parents
at 100 Market Street apartments,
in the back building.
It's cosy, quiet,
and everybody knows everybody.
I feel like now we have
a connection with this family
that we don't even know,
and we'll always have that.
It was just a normal day.
I actually came home earlier
than I was normally
coming home at that time.
I arrived home around 4.15, 4.20,
and we started to cook dinner.
Actually, Sean cooked dinner.
The whole process took
about half an hour,
so, about five o'clock,
everything got plated up,
and we went into our bedroom
to eat and watch a TV show.
We watched Dexter. We're big fans.
It was around five o'clock,
right before dinnertime.
We were outside of the back building,
changing Andrew's tire.
He was down on the ground.
We were standing there.
He was underneath the car
with a jack, lifting it up.
While Andrew was underneath the car,
I kept hearing multiple noises,
could not figure out what it was.
I kept looking up there.
Couldn't see anything.
While we were watching
the show and eating,
we weren't really
chit-chatting anymore,
so we were just
listening to the show,
and that's when we heard
the running and the crash.
There was silence after the crash,
and a few seconds later,
we heard a moan for help,
and it sounded like
either "ow" or "no."
It was definitely a child's voice,
but it sounded scared
and it sounded, you know,
muffled through the wall,
but I could hear that word "help,"
and I will never forget that word.
Just it sounded scared.
This isn't really the time
to ignore it
and just think nothing happened.
When I knocked on the door
of the other apartment
Sorry.
When I knocked on the other door,
I heard a slight noise
behind the door.
I couldn't tell you what it was,
but then I heard a click,
and it was one of those things
where my mind
instantly knew that
it was a lock clicking.
She turned around immediately,
and I could see in her eyes
that she was not comfortable
with whatever it was
she heard or felt.
Potsdam Police, Dispatcher Snyder.
Hi, my name is Marissa Vogel
Where do you live?
Sorry, 100 Market Street,
North Country Manor Apartments.
Okay, I'll have somebody check on it.
- Thank you so much.
- Thank you, bye-bye.
Bye.
Within a few minutes,
a police officer
had arrived on the scene.
We heard him walk up the stairs,
knock on the door
to the other apartment.
17.16.
- Hello?
- Hi, is this Rick Dumas?
Yes, it is.
Okay.
- Marissa?
- Yes?
They do have an emergency
in that location.
Could you assist me by going down
and waving down
the rescue squad when they arrive?
- Yes, I could do that.
- Thank you very much.
I believe they left the door open
because I could hear their voices.
I couldn't hear
what they were saying,
but I could hear that they started
to sound a little
I couldn't tell you
how long the rest of it took.
It seemed like a whirlwind.
It was just,
once everybody was there,
there was people running
up and down the stairs,
and the gurney went up, and
then they took Garrett down,
and
it kind of seemed as though
everything stopped.
I mean
Hi, this is Nancy Rutledge,
I'm the supervisor at the hospital.
- Yeah.
- We
We're working on it.
I think I got a phone call
from Tandy about 6.08
stating, "Could you run over
to the hospital?"
She goes, "I'm headed there now."
Some parents, I guess,
apparently told her,
"Where have you been?
Something's happened to Garrett.
You need to get to the hospital."
And then she immediately
thought of me first,
and called me because
you know, I've always been
dependable with Tandy.
She can count on me.
I was out back,
and I heard my aunt scream,
and you knew something wasn't right.
And she said, "Get to the hospital.
Something's wrong with Garrett."
So, I think my mother, Tandy,
and myself went into the room.
And when I got in there,
I see him layin' there.
They had him on a breathing machine,
and I took his hand,
and I give him a kiss
on the forehead,
and I said, "Come on, bud,
for Grandma."
And he coded.
We went in
hugged him, kissed him
I had to leave.
We didn't know what had happened.
Nobody concluded that, you know,
a person had done this.
We just didn't know
what had happened.
Just it's pretty unfair,
I guess
that somebody could do that to him.
How often do you come here?
I used to come every single day.
Now I come up usually once a week,
till it gets nice weather,
and then I come up
and have coffee with him
in the morning,
just thinking and drinking my coffee.
Oh, it's just like
it happened yesterday, and
Every year, too, the boys bring up,
like, a new soccer ball,
they all sign it, his classmates,
and they bring that up
and put it up there.
Garrett stayed with us a lot.
We know so much.
I miss Garrett.
It kills me.
I felt that I wasn't going
to be the father to him,
but try to be
the best uncle I can be.
The last Tuesday that he was alive
I always would go up,
see him before he'd go to sleep,
give him a kiss.
Well, my kids and Garrett
were cuddled right up.
I was gonna grab my phone,
take a picture. I never did.
We weren't thinking
it's the last time
- that you're gonna see him alive.
- Sure, sure.
But I've still got the memories.
You can't ever take that away.
Show off.
Why can't you do that over there?
'Cause that road's, like, wider.
I have a younger brother,
he was a senior in high school,
and I was helping coach
his varsity soccer game.
It was senior night,
so my parents were there.
And it was inclement weather,
it was rain off and on.
I checked my phone
near the end of the game,
and I had a voicemail
and a missed call from work.
Hi, you've reached Mark Murray.
I can't answer your call right now.
Please leave me a detailed message,
and I'll get back to you.
Hi, Mark, it's Robin.
Looking for you
or the chief to call me back.
Left immediately and got there
as fast as I could.
Obviously,
it's immediately suspicious,
so there's a lot of questions
in your mind, like, why does
a 12-year-old just
just doesn't die.
We had the state police
were called immediately.
Notifications were made.
We had no idea what we had.
They knew somebody
had jumped out that window
before Garrett died.
They were sure somebody
exited that window.
The scene was handled
as a potential crime scene,
so there were a lot of things
already in play.
I remember a lot of other members
of the state police had responded.
It wasn't until later that evening
we had went downstairs,
I realised the area
was taped off with caution tape
and there was cops there.
And I was, like, "Andrew,
that's where we heard the noise,
so maybe we should tell somebody."
And that's when we figured out
it was actually a murder.
Hey, is the chief in?
This is Scott Heggelke,
lieutenant with the state police.
Yeah.
I think we were just all in shock,
and and, uh, didn't know
how to take it.
And I believe it was
three or four hours later
that I, I had called
my girlfriend and I said,
"I'm gonna stay with Tandy
and assist her
through this difficult time."
Overnight there came to be
Gary Snell from the state police
had stopped on his way home
'cause he resides in the
Parishville community as well.
It's a tight-knit community.
I think he had stopped
at the family's house.
They had their suspicions.
They said, "The only person"
they can't think of anyone
who would want to hurt
Garrett, number one.
There was some things
about Tandy's ex-boyfriend,
Nick Hillary,
that really concerned them,
and so they shared
those concerns with him.
Hundred percent,
Hillary is responsible
for Garrett's death.
The day I die, I will go to my grave,
100 per cent, Hillary was the killer.
Garrett didn't like him.
Those two butted heads.
I know Garrett
had difficulties in school,
but there's more to life
during the week
than go to school, come home,
be in your room, no TV,
no outside play.
Bull crap. I think
that's excessive discipline.
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011.
The time, 6.44am.
- Potsdam Police, Dispatcher Robar.
- Hi, good morning.
This is Janie Hobbes calling
from the Potsdam Middle School.
- Hello.
- Hi.
We had a student
pass away last night,
6th grade student.
We're wondering if you could
someone on the PD
could possibly get messages
to the crossing guards,
to at least let them know
that that has happened,
keep an extra close eye
on the children
crossing this morning?
I'm just calling I just keep
getting all these tip calls,
and I'm not sure
what to tell the viewers
about something
on Market Street there.
Yeah, I don't I don't have
any information that I can give out.
- Dan, what's up?
- Marky
This is news from
North Country Public Radio.
There's not much more to tell yet
about the death of a 12-year-old boy
in Potsdam Monday.
Rumours that his death was the result
of an assault have circulated,
but this morning a spokesman
at the Potsdam Police Department
could neither confirm
nor deny those reports.
The department plans
a press conference at ten.
Potsdam Police, Dispatcher Robar.
Is there something serious going on?
There is, but I'm not releasing
anything at this point.
There have been theories
that he had been horsing around
with some friends,
that some friends were
at the house with him,
and that this resulted in his death.
There had been another theory
that's a step beyond that,
said that this might've
been some kind of
where they were playing a game
called "knockout," I think it was,
and this could've ended up with,
you know, an accidental death.
Autoerotic asphyxiation,
someone had said at one point,
because they said there had
and if you look at the list
of evidence that was found,
there was a bra on the floor.
And what ended up happening,
we learned,
is that all of those things
are being pushed aside
and that they did have one person
that they were interested in,
and they thought that it was
the most feasible suspect
and/or person of interest
in Nick Hillary,
so all the other theories
were pushed aside.
The next morning,
the local radio station,
the commentator reported
that there was basically a case of,
you know, peer-on-peer
violence that resulted in his death,
like, a bull almost like
a bullying situation.
And that's how many things
were out there
as far as these rumours
and just wild facts
that were either untrue
or just misreported.
- Hey Pat, it's Mark.
- Hi, Mark.
and whoever else
was with your son
Basically just
officially notified her
that this was looking
like a homicide,
and just gathered as much
information that we could.
I know that I, I sat and took notes
while she answered
all the questions we could think of.
They asked if Tandy would come down,
and I said,
"You want me to come with you?"
"Absolutely." I asked them
if they had any problems
with me coming down.
"Absolutely not."
So I went down with Tandy
that morning.
She wanted that,
and that was accommodated.
To do it over again, probably
would've done it differently,
but it definitely didn't affect
the investigation, in my opinion.
Later in the night,
after the murder,
I remember being back at the station,
and my chief, Ed Tischler,
poked his head in my office
and said we need to get a hold
of Tandy's ex-boyfriend,
Nick Hillary.
Hello?
Hello, is Mr Hillary there, please?
Mr Hillary speaking.
Mark Murray of the Potsdam
Police Department.
- How are you, sir?
- I'm doing well, and you?
Not too bad.
I knew who he was
at that point in time,
but I didn't know him personally.
He was the soccer coach
for Clarkson University,
for the varsity men's team.
As a coach, you know,
everybody knew who I was.
Wherever you go,
people would identify
people would say,
"Hey, Coach, what's going on?
How's the season?
What do you expect?"
You know, small talks
and stuff like that.
You know, there's an old phrase
that everybody likes a winner.
Nobody likes a loser.
So, you know, when I was
on the winning side,
it was unbelievable.
I was very successful
as a soccer player
at the collegiate level.
And I think those accomplishments,
I will always be forever grateful
to the guys who I've played with,
the guys who have laid
the foundation before myself.
Well, I first met Nick back in 1996.
I was a senior in high school,
and he came to Brooklyn
and started talking to me
about St. Lawrence.
As far as my soccer journey,
St. Lawrence was it.
We lived in a house called
the "House of Brotherhood,"
about five of us Jamaicans.
It was known as a soccer house.
You know, everyone knew who they
were
because it was a bunch of
really good Jamaican guys
from the City up in Canton, New York,
like, just beating everybody up
on the soccer field.
I think he lost two games
or three games
his entire four years there.
They won the national championship.
Obviously, he got hired at Clarkson
because he was familiar
with the area,
he was familiar with the recruiting,
familiar with the teams
you'd be playing,
his outstanding history in the area.
So, yeah,
in the small soccer community
that was Potsdam and Canton,
yeah, they knew who he was.
You know, I, I met Tandy in 2010.
I would normally hang out
with the coaches from the college,
you know, after work or after a game.
I'll sit at the bar
where she was a bartender.
She would admire what I was doing,
and she would ask questions.
And you know, she played soccer,
so she understood
you know, the language
and what I was doing.
So that's how my meeting
of Tandy all came about,
was during that time period.
There was a little bit
of mixed opinions, I guess,
gossip, small town,
"I can't believe they're dating,"
or "That's weird."
I think one of the key reasons
why we became so found
of each other so quickly
was because she was very open-
minded,
she was very caring.
She's a mother of two, you know.
At the time, I had three.
We found a house
that was big enough,
and that's how we end up
moving in together.
What do you have to
say to the people, Mrs Cyrus?
- Don't make me talk.
- What?
Is that what you have
to say to the people?
- Knock it off.
- Come on.
- Say something to the people.
- Hello, people.
And obviously, I would
not like that for my child,
and I don't think it was fair
for her and her son
to have to experience that.
And I think that was
one of the root cause
as to why we made
the decision that, you know,
it would be best
if she has her own abode,
and I have my own abode.
They talked about
going their separate ways,
is what she had told me.
And I said, you know,
"Well, why don't you start
looking for your own place?
I know some people
that own apartments."
So I gave a call and they said,
"Yeah, we got a place
at 100 Market Street."
I looked at it as the convenience of,
not being close to me,
it was the convenience for the boys.
I guess I always put the boys first.
Here's an opportunity for them
to start a new life.
As far as I knew,
that her and Nick
were not seeing each other,
but I was enlightened that, you know,
they were kind of hanging out
once in a while, occasionally.
Obviously, it's a small community,
so now everybody would be saying,
"Okay, all right,
so she's living with her two sons
and he's living with his daughter."
That would have taken
the pressure off the kids.
I mean, no one would have to know
that we have a relationship going.
But, you know, with every
separation comes reassessment,
and we figured that in the best
interests of the kids and everyone,
you know, we'll just be friends.
And that's how it actually ended.
He was the last
her ex-boyfriend, and there
were issues about their breakup
that specifically were cited
to be about Garrett.
And I guess that's when
your suspicion
starts building at that point.
Yes?
- Apartment E6.
- E6?
- Yeah.
- Sure.
Sat on the couch across from Nick,
looks like he was freshly showered,
wearing socks, sandals,
like, some athletic pants
and a long-sleeved shirt.
Ian Fairlie, his assistant coach,
went outside,
there's like a porch
with all windows
We weren't there very long
five, ten minutes.
That was the first time
I learned that
he had passed that night
when the cops came to my apartment
and told me that he had passed away.
We were sitting on his outdoor porch,
and that's when he said
Garrett had died.
There was just silence,
neither of us spoke for a while.
It was just kind of sinking in,
like, "Whoa."
And that was just
a very numbing feeling,
knowing that, you know,
it's not like he was sick.
And to have learned
that he just passed away
and there was no reasons given
or anything like that
yeah, I mean,
I was at a loss for words.
And I frantically
started figuring out,
you know, reaching out to Tandy,
reaching out to the family members,
trying to find out what was going on.
So I was making phone calls.
Nick called me late that night.
The sound in his voice, it was weird.
You know, he just sounded
down and depressed.
And, you know, he told me,
you know, Garrett died.
And
And then he told me, you know,
the cops came and told him.
And right there, that was when
you know,
the lawyer in me kicked off,
and I thought there was something
very strange about that.
I would not say it's normal
to give an ex a death notification.
I reached out to Tandy,
and I never heard back from Tandy.
To replay this message, press 4.
End of message.
To erase this message press 7.
No doubt in my mind he did it.
And I don't base that strictly on
wanting to say it's him.
I base it on the knowledge
of many of the guys
I work within law enforcement
that investigated this
and put 20-hours-plus a day
into trying to find the right person
to put to this.
And each one of 'em told me,
"Nick's the guy."
The time, 11.43am
- Hi Ed.
- Hey Rick, how's it goin'.
- How you doin'?
- Oh, we're hanging in there.
- Yeah?
- Do what we can do.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- It doesn't matter.
Okay, we've got a dead 12-year-old.
And the first 48 hours
of this are critical.
And we have a killer on the run.
And we have to find out who did this,
so you can understand
the police's viewpoint.
And yet you do also
have to raise questions
as to why they chose Nick Hillary,
why he was the guy,
what sort of evidence
they were working with,
what sort of tips
they were working with,
were they following other tips,
were there other suspects,
were there other people that,
as they were focusing
so heavily on Nick,
they could've gotten away?
Neighbours say they heard loud noises
coming from the apartment
where Phillips was found dead.
We were changing his tire,
and we kept hearing
this ripping noise.
And 30 minutes after coming inside,
we come to find out
that the police were here.
It was kind of depressing
knowing that maybe
if we stayed down there
five more minutes,
the person would've been caught.
I do believe whoever
murdered Garrett Phillips
left the scene after 5.20.
I heard maybe Garrett
didn't get along with a few kids
and that it could've been
one of them,
but it was very brief
and nobody mentions it to this day.
There's not a lot to do in the town,
so they go to the park,
they hang out,
you know, they do things
they shouldn't be doing.
They get in big groups
because there's nothing else to do.
I don't know where they came up
with the name Nick Hillary.
I don't know if it was because
he was African American,
or if they actually
had a lead on him,
but I think he was
the easiest target.
I think the media
makes it seem that we're racist,
but I don't think we necessarily are.
There's just not a lot
of African Americans
compared to a city.
Couple things that always strike me
about this part of the world.
One is that there's
no easy way to get here.
It is almost impossible
to get here quickly.
Which I think for some people
that live here is the appeal.
You know, you have a place
that is removed.
You have a place that has
a great deal of natural beauty.
If you like farmland,
this is a nice place to live.
You can pick up a house here
pretty cheap.
For a long time, there were
pretty decent jobs, you know.
There was sandstoning
and kind of light manufacturing.
What's happened, however,
in the last few decades,
is that those types of jobs
have dried up,
and a kind of real economic
depression has set in here.
And with some of that you've had,
for lack of a better word,
more cosmopolitan problems
coming to town.
You've got heroin
in some of the larger towns.
You've got high unemployment
in a lot of these towns.
You've got people
that are struggling.
There's a lot of drugs here.
There have been, in Massena,
had a real issue with heroin.
We had Ogdensburg had a problem
with crack cocaine.
And then there are people just
cooking meth all over the place,
you know, like these little
one-stop shops
where people are doing it
in their homes and things like that.
We talk about the North Country
as being really white
and remote, but also that Potsdam
is situated in New York's
prison country.
It's a community
and an area that kind of, like,
its lifeblood is corrections.
And we think about racial dynamics,
how a lot of white people's
only interactions with black people
are when they're in a uniform
as a corrections officer
guarding
inmates of colour.
It's just something to keep in mind.
But there's also four colleges,
you know, within 10 miles of here.
So you've got this really
interesting dynamic
where you do have a certain
conservative rural bent to it.
Driving up here, you'll see
a Confederate flag here and there.
But then you also have,
you know, college bars,
and college activities,
and more kind of liberal-seeming
functions going on around you.
See, for me it's like two-folds.
The first experience was when
I was a student at St. Lawrence.
As a student you had the luxury
of the campus community.
Then, once I came back,
after graduating St. Lawrence,
in a faculty-slash-coaching position
wherein which now you're
mentoring young adults
and preparing them
for the real world,
you start to interact
a lot more with the community.
Nick and I were friends
prior to Tandy and Nick dating.
I don't want to say
we were close friends.
We were acquaintances.
If we saw each other,
we wouldn't have a problem
saying hi to each other
and what have you.
John John Jones,
local sheriff guy.
Someone who's well-known
in the community as well.
I mean, born and raised here.
He was Tandy's boyfriend
prior to Tandy and I hanging out.
They were living together
when Tandy and I
was first socialising.
You know, there was no doubts
that she got a lot of attention
when she was out there,
and I enjoyed that aspect
of having a woman
that people were like,
"Wow, she's good-looking."
So I enjoyed you know,
it didn't bother me.
When Tandy and I started having
real difficulties toward the end,
I was trying to figure out,
you know, what's goin' on,
what's happening.
And Nick's name
was brought up a couple times.
And I just happened to be
at the right place,
I guess at the right time
to see the two of them
drive by one early morning.
And so I felt the need
to find out for myself
if they were dating each other,
then I can move on in my life
and start dating myself.
And so I confronted Nick
at his residence
Knocked on my door,
which at the moment
I was living here,
at this point in time
I had not separated from Stacia.
So this was, like,
real early in our relationship.
I don't think, I mean,
I wouldn't even classify
my interactions with Tandy
at that time as a relationship.
We were just friends talking.
"Nick, can we be
just men here for a minute,
and just man up and tell me
whether or not you two
are seeing each other?"
And he told me, "Absolutely not,"
that they weren't seeing each other,
but that I should talk to Tandy.
You know, if he knew
that I was dating her,
what he would have done,
you know, kicked my door in,
call me names, you know,
just real threatening.
Doesn't take someone
of much intelligence to figure out
that obviously
there's something going on there.
So I text Tandy soon after
and said, you know, "This is it."
Grant you, and, I mean,
this is not something that
I'm explicitly proud of.
I mean, obviously,
I was still living here
with the mother of my kids.
I guess word got to the kids' mom
that I was hanging out with Tandy.
Apparently, I enlightened Stacy
one day to say,
"How's it going?" and she says,
"Good," and I said,
you know, "Are you doing okay
with the situation
with Nick and Tandy?"
And she was like, "What do you mean?"
So Tandy and Stacia were not cordial.
There's some domestic incidents
that happened in the interim.
One in which Stacia was arrested for,
for cutting up his clothes
and dropping them off
on the lawn of his apartment.
There was an open case,
Nick had his car keyed,
and he wasn't sure if
it was John Jones that did it,
or if it was Stacia that did it.
And ultimately, I'm not sure
who keyed his car.
It didn't look very well
on him in the community,
and obviously,
him losing his girlfriend
to an African American,
it just was not playing outright.
So, you know, that's who John is.
He's right out of a movie.
Nick's dating the sheriff's,
like, ex-girl.
Oh, that's fun.
And he's not being quiet about it.
He's not just letting it happen.
And then once Garrett passed,
it was, like, instantly,
you know, it was, like,
"All right, here we go."
The build-up Tuesday night
into Wednesday morning is,
you know,
we gotta talk to Nick again,
there's too much stuff here.
We're clearing everybody else
as either alibied
or precluded for a number of reasons.
We've got to find out what's
there's more to this
with Nick's involvement.
I never thought for a second
that she would
even fathom the idea
to want to go along
with such a theory,
knowing who I am.
You spend time with people
and obviously, we knew
each other for 12 months.
It would be a difference if,
you know,
we lived apart,
saw each other on occasions,
never spent any time
in her environment.
This is a young lady who has traveled
to different countries with me.
She's been around me 24/7, 365,
you know, and I would hope
that the person that she has
been around that entire time,
even to the point
wherein which we had broken off
the relationship,
we still maintained civil dialogue.
But, you know, people
can be manipulated.
When she is someone who
is born and raised in the town,
and obviously if
she has to decide with a group
not to be an island in the situation,
then obviously I could see
why she would want to side
with the law enforcement up there.
The command post knew
that there was a soccer game
going on that night,
went to the game just to observe.
My observations of him directly,
he did have some sort
of injury or something.
He was favouring his right leg.
Officer Murray had put
in his sworn affidavit
to get a search warrant, right,
so it's sworn to,
that he observed Mr Hillary
with a significant limp.
- The day after the murder.
- The day after the murder.
While he was coaching a soccer game.
And I guess to him, this shows
that he could've jumped out
the window and injured himself.
And years later,
we discovered the video.
Hillary is walking very well,
and he beats a bunch
of 19 and 20-year-olds
to the locker room at halftime.
So why would a police officer,
in the middle of a murder case,
only the day after,
make up a story
about a significant limp,
when he knows that there's none?
There's points in time
where he looks like
he's walking perfectly fine,
and there's points in time
where you wonder if he's trying
to conceal or he's got a sore leg.
It's significant to me, like,
that looks like he's favouring
his right leg.
It's not like he had to amputate it.
I was contacted by a lawyer
who basically said that
there was a case that he viewed
as a railroading of a black man
in northern New York.
And the essential idea there
was that this guy had
kind of a spotless record,
he was a military veteran,
he was a member of the community,
he was a star athlete,
he had a promising career as a coach,
and that there was
no indication that this guy
would be capable
of this type of crime,
and yet things were
moving forward fairly rapidly.
They ordered me down to the station
the Wednesday morning.
I get a call from Nick saying,
"The police are at my door."
Right away, it wasn't alarm bells
as much as, you know,
an explosion that
went off in my brain.
And I knew right then, right there,
that they were about to frame
Nick Hillary for murder.
You know, as a person of colour,
oftentimes you're told
"Don't talk to the police."
Just because.
But not having
anything to worry about,
I want to be as helpful as possible
because this is a young man
that has lived with me,
lived around my kids,
definitely has a part of my history.
He's inside there.
So obviously, you know,
whatever I could do
to help you guys resolve
this situation, I'm on board.
I think
a lot of these cops who were involved
felt as though,
"If Nick could steal
our friend's woman
then what about ours?"
Obviously, when you're dealing
with the death of a 12-year-old boy,
you know,
we gotta talk about this stuff.
We can't just throw it out the window
and pretend it doesn't exist.
All bets are off.
It's not one of those relationships
where people break up
and there's hostility.
You know, it was never like that.
Quite the opposite, you know?
So it was very surprising to me
to have learned all these
stories
as to what was going on
with our relationship.
It wasn't like that.
or at least in this area
of the world,
that you wouldn't know that.
And if we're getting
the wrong impression
from these other people, then
Went down to the police station.
I actually noticed
Nick's SUV in there,
so I was, like, "All right
just asking,"
you know, "Nick's down here"
But as far as meeting
girls or anything, like
It's like having any relationship,
so
Same questions.
Nick's background, how I knew Nick,
how he knew Garrett,
how I knew Garrett,
how I knew Tandy, how
that same questions,
just kind of relationship-building,
what I knew about the relationships.
Okay.
You know that you can
No, you've already been eliminated.
See, again, Mark
It's pretty clear into the interview
that he is only there
to talk about his students,
he's not gonna answer
any other questions.
I think I asked him, you know,
"What time was practice
that day for you?"
and he's like, "No comment."
And it just struck me as odd.
Okay, cool. I appreciate it.
Nick was a former soldier
in his thirties,
he was a teacher, he was a coach,
he was a graduate
of a very good university.
So you're not dealing
with the Central Park Five
or a bunch of 16-year-olds,
or 13-year-olds,
who you can put words in their mouth
and try to convince them
that something is what it's not.
I keep gettin' asked,
"How do you know he didn't do it?"
Well, if he did do it,
then I saw him a minute later
and he was the same person
I've always met, just walked in,
it was like, "Hey, goin'
to the office. Got this meeting.
You're gonna be right behind me?"
"Yeah, be right there."
Just every other day. No big deal.
So I'm his alibi,
I'm why he can't be there,
'cause he was here at 5.21,
which is something
they grilled me on,
you know, a lot,
throughout the whole process.
That shit happened on Monday.
And the police said
they were at the apartment
at 5.24, and he's hearing footsteps,
you know, he hears people
in the apartment.
So that's right around the time
that Nick's at my place.
I mean, I don't question that.
That's a pretty good
To have him have a phone call,
the time is good.
But what is Mark Wentworth hearing?
I mean, this poor guy
has tormented over this
for the last five years into
current day saying, you know,
"Did I hear the blinds
in the wind? Did I hear"
Is he hearing Sean Hall
pace back and forth
up this rickety hallway
while, you know, we're waiting
for a keyholder to get there?
Andrew's car was directly
below the window
in the corner of the building.
There's a little divot,
and it goes in
we are right there by the Dumpsters
with a great view of the window.
We were downstairs
around 4.50 to 5.20.
Where in this window of time
does this person escape?
It's just remarkable.
It's like, how does this happen?
How does this person get
out this window and run off,
and not seen by anyone?
I think whoever it was
was terrified that
we weren't gonna leave,
and they did get very lucky
that we did leave
and they were able to escape
without being seen.
The text messages
said we were downstairs
around 4.50 to 5.20.
Let's put it this way.
Mark. Mark. Mark
I know Tandy
I mean, this is not a time thing,
Nick, where
I think we're done.
Can you show me outside, please?
Yes or no?
Okay.
Knowing my right
that I could walk out of there,
and being barred
and blocked physically,
you, you leave me one choice,
which is to either put my hand
on you to ask you to leave,
or bull my way through the door,
which those two options provide
me nothing good in return.
So obviously I have to succumb
to what you guys are doing,
and knowing intentionally
what you're doing
and just sit there.
No, I'm not I'm not
And then
I receive a call, he's saying,
"They won't let me leave."
I wasn't sure what was going on,
but I knew whatever was going on
could not be legal or good.
I guess they were
workin' behind the scenes.
Now that I know a little bit
more about that particular day,
they were working
behind the scenes and
just trying to keep me there
for the whole time.
- I'm serious, just sit.
- No. I've been sitting all morning.
- I understand.
- Your name is?
- I'm Ray. Yeah.
- Ray?
Please. Ray, please.
Please allow me the opportunity.
Please allow me the opportunity.
You know, Mani decided
to haul tail from
New York City all the way up here
to be of assistance
to me as a friend.
So I got in the car,
I started driving.
I called my wife.
I explained to her
that I'm taking a drive upstate.
So she also was
a bit shocked and astonished.
From that moment on, I mean,
there has not been a day
that has passed
that Nick Hillary has not been
discussed over our morning coffee
or our night-time glass of wine.
I mean, it's been
When it consumes you,
it's in for a penny, in for a pound.
It's nothing that we planned on
getting this much involved in,
but you know, we had to act and we
had to move in order to help Nick.
I mean, I wanted to fight injustice.
I was working in a bank
right after St. Lawrence, and,
you know, you always talk to people,
you always give your views on things.
And after a while it's like,
you can talk all you want,
but why don't you
try to change things?
You know, being a lawyer I thought
was the best way to make a change.
Once he invokes his rights
and we call an attorney for him,
she came and sat with him
inside our station.
I wrote a search warrant.
A judge issued the search warrant,
and we lawfully executed
the search warrant,
the New York State FIU,
it's all on video in my office.
The decision was made
that there's potentially
probative evidence
on his body, of his person,
because we know the person
that killed Garrett Phillips
jumped out that window
and would potentially have
either an injury that we can document
or a marking that we would be
able to help link to the crime,
or something like that.
There it is.
The ankle injury. I mean,
at first he tells me he has
no ankle injury, there's no issue.
Then he has one, and then he comes up
with an excuse
that he was moving furniture
around his apartment.
Last time I sprained my ankle
or lacerated a part of my body
with a piece of furniture,
I remember where
that piece of furniture is.
I'm, like, "It was the goddamn desk"
or "It was the table behind me,"
or "What was it?
What kind of furniture?"
"Like I said, it was furniture."
"Do you want to elaborate
at all on that? Was it a bed?"
I'll ask him to this day.
If I ran into Nick I'd say,
"Nick what kind of furniture was it?"
All right, drop.
I don't normally do strip-search.
This was New York State FIU,
who normally do searches
of people's persons,
and this was normal procedure.
Try to document injuries
pursuant to the murder
of a 12-year-old boy.
There were other people that
were photographed nude as well,
and I pointed that out
in the deposition. But
Garrett Phillips was.
When I got to St. Lawrence County,
the news that I started getting
was just totally unbelievable.
All they wanted him to do
is to flinch,
to refuse to take his clothes off,
because then he would've
gotten a real beatdown
and been charged
with resisting arrest.
So in that spot,
in that position, he handled it
as best as he could.
He took his clothes off.
Never arrested me,
and then told me I could leave,
in a hazmat suit,
eight hours later.
Yeah, I have to go to the bathroom.
I mean, I literally came out
of the police station
as if my mom had just given birth
to me as an adult.
Nothing.
You don't strip-search someone
totally naked for,
ever, for anything.
I mean, unless
you have a rape victim saying,
"I bit his penis." I mean, there
What really would be the use?
If you're getting his DNA,
you could get his DNA.
This is to break him down mentally,
to let him know when he walked in
that "You're done."
Like, "Your life will never be
the same. We're gonna get you.
This is what we can do to you.
And there's nothing
that you can do about it."
Once he got here, I mean,
his knowledge base for being
in this field kicked in,
and that's pretty much
when I realised
what their plan is,
which was to ostracise me
within the community quickly,
blame me for what had taken
place without knowing the facts,
and then bury me.
It's just one of those
situations wherein which,
you know, I mean, even now
it's hard to put words to.
Yeah.
Early on, because law enforcement
seemed convinced,
because people in the community
seemed convinced,
because members
of the family seemed convinced,
there may have been a rush
towards focusing so singly
on Nick Hillary.
That's what might keep you up
at night a little bit, is that,
if he didn't do it, then who did?
And where did he go, or she go,
while they were focusing on Nick?
They never thought for a minute
that the situation
was over with
after that initial run-in.