( plaintive theme plays )
Bailiff: All rise.
Thank you very much, Your Honor,
and a good afternoon to you.
The narrative of this case up to this point
has been very, very simple.
A group of, uh, 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 color of his skin.
Great TV,
great theater,
but ultimately it's not about tunnel vision,
rush to judgment,
the defendant's race.
It's about 30 minutes in Potsdam...
4:53 p.m. to 5:23 p.m.
on Monday, October 24th, 2011.
( rain falling )
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.
( piano theme playing )
Marissa Vogel: 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, uh, 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.
Sean Hall: 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.
Shannon Harris: 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 cozy, 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.
( rain falling )
Marissa: 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 5:00, everything got plated up,
and we went into our bedroom to eat and watch a TV show.
We watched Dexter. We're big fans.
Shannon: It was around 5:00, 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 chitchatting anymore,
so we were just listening to the show,
and that's when we heard the running and, um,
the crash.
( indistinct noises )
There was silence after the crash,
and a few seconds later,
uh, 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.
Marissa: 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, um, my name is Marissa Vogel, and...
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.
( indistinct police radio chatter )
Dispatcher: 17:16.
Rick: Hello?
Dispatcher: Hi, is this Rick Dumas?
Yes, it is.
- Dispatcher: Marissa? - 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... um...
Marissa: 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, um,
then they took Garrett down,
and...
it kind of seemed as though everything stopped.
Officer Wentworth: Yep.
Ed Tischler: Okay, yeah.
Dispatcher: Nobody.
To my knowledge, nobody.
Ed Tischler: Um, I mean, it's--
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, uh...
um... 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.
( distant sirens wail )
Patricia Phillips: 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.
Garbus: 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...
( deep sigh )
Every year, too, the boys bring up, like, a new soccer ball,
and 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.
Boy: Show off.
( indistinct voices in home video )
Boy: Why can't you do that over there?
'Cause that road's, like, wider.
( spectators cheering )
Murray: 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.
( phone ringing )
Murray: 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.
Police dispatch: Hi, Mark, it's Robin.
Looking for you or the chief to call me back.
Murray: Left immediately and got there as fast as I could.
Obviously it's-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.
Murray: 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.
Harris: It wasn't until later that evening
we had went downstairs,
I realized 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.
Heggelke: Hey, is the chief in? This is Scott Heggelke,
lieutenant with the state police.
Tischler: 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."
Murray: 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 tightknit 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,
a hundred percent, 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.
Recorded voice: Tuesday, October 25th, 2011.
The time, 6:44 a.m.
Potsdam Police, Dispatcher Robar.
Hi, good morning.
This is Janie Hobbes calling from the Potsdam Middle School.
Robar: Hello.
Hi. We had a student pass away last night,
6th grade student.
We're, um, 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, uh,
crossing this morning?
Man: 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.
Police dispatch: Yeah, I don't-- I don't have
any information that I can give out.
Murray: Dan, what's up?
Manor: Marky...
Radio male: This is news from North Country Public Radio.
Radio female: There's not much more to tell yet
about the death of a 12-year-old boy in Potsdam Monday.
Rumors 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.
Police dispatch: Potsdam Police, Dispatcher Robar.
Male: Is there something serious going on?
Robar: There is, but I'm not releasing anything at this point.
Eckert: 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, uh, suspect
and/or person of interest in Nick Hillary,
so all the other theories were pushed aside.
Murray: 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 rumors and just wild facts
that were either untrue or just misreported.
Um...
Murray: Hey Pat, it's Mark.
Brady: Hi, Mark.
Brady: Very good.
...and whoever else was with your son...
Murray: 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.
Tischler: And...
( Tandy Cyrus answers indistinctly )
Jones: 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.
Murray: 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.
Tischler: Um...
Murray: Later in the night, after the murder,
I remember being back at the station,
and, uh, my chief, Ed Tischler, poked his head in my office
and said we need to get ahold of,
um, Tandy's ex-boyfriend, uh, Nick Hillary.
Hillary: Hello?
Murray: Hello, is Mr. Hillary there, please?
Hillary: Mr. Hillary speaking.
Murray: Mark Murray of the Potsdam Police Department. How are you, sir?
Hillary: I'm doing well, and you?
Murray: 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.
Hillary: 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.
( spectators cheer )
( indistinct audio )
Hillary: 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.
Tafari: 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.
Hillary: As far as my soccer journey,
St. Lawrence was it.
Tafari: We lived in a house called the "House of Brotherhood,"
about five of us Jamaicans.
It was known as a soccer house.
Fairlie: 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.
Hillary: 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 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."
Hillary: 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. At the time, I had three.
( child laughing )
Hillary: We found a house that was big enough,
and that's how we end up moving in together.
( chatter )
Hillary: What do you have to say to the people, Mrs. Cyrus?
- Don't make me talk. ( laughs ) - What?
Is that what you have to say to the people?
Knock it off.
Come on, say something to the people.
Tandy: Hello, people.
( Tandy speaking )
Hillary: 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.
( Tischler, Tandy speaking )
They talked about going their separate ways, is what she had told me.
And I said, "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.
Hillary: 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.
Murray (on phone): Yes?
Hillary: Apartment E6.
Murray: E6? Sure.
Murray: 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 a porch with all windows...
We weren't there very long-- five, ten minutes.
Hillary: 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.
Tafari: 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...
( laughs ) 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.
Hillary: I reached out to Tandy,
and I never heard back from Tandy.
Recorded voice: To replay this message, press 4.
( continues, inaudible)
Recorded voice: End of message. To erase this message press 7.
Jones: 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 with in 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."
Recorded voice: The time: 11:43 a.m.
( phone line ringing )
- Rick Smith: Hi Ed. - Tischler: Hey Rick, how's it goin'.
- How you doin'? - Oh, we're hanging in there. Do what we can do.
( Tischler, Smith speaking )
Jesse McKinley: 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?
Female TV reporter: Neighbors 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,
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.
McKinley: Couple things 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 beautiful.
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.
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.
Eckert: There's a lot of drugs here.
There have been, in Massena,
had a real issue with heroin.
Ogdensburg had a problem with crack cocaine.
And then there are people just cooking meth all over the place,
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 color.
It's just something to keep in mind.
McKinley: But there's also four colleges
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 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-fold.
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.
Jones: 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,
um... local sheriff guy.
Um... someone who's well-known in the community as well.
I mean, born and raised here.
Um, he was Tandy's boyfriend
prior to Tandy and I hanging out.
They were living together
when Tandy and I was first socializing.
Jones: 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 at the right time
to see the two of 'em 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."
Hillary: Grant you, and, I mean,
this is not something that I'm explicitly proud of.
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.
Jones: Apparently, I enlightened Stacy one day to say,
"How's it going?" and she says, "Good," and I said,
"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.
Hillary: 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 out right.
So, you know, that's who John is.
He's right out of a movie.
Nick's dating the sheriff's, like, ex-girl (laughs).
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."
( no audible talking )
Murray: The buildup Tuesday night into Wednesday morning is,
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.
( no audible talking )
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,
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.
Hillary: 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.
( no audible talking )
Murray: 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 favoring his right leg.
Lisa Marcoccia: 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.
Both: 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.
Tafari: 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?
Murray: 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 favoring his right leg.
It's not like he had to amputate it.
McKinley: 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.
Hillary: They ordered me down to the station
the Wednesday morning.
Tafari: 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.
Hillary: You know, as...
a person of color,
oftentimes you're told...
"Don't talk to the police." Just because.
( no audible talking )
Hillary: 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.
( Murray speaking )
Hillary: So obviously, whatever I could do
to help you guys resolve this situation, I'm on board.
( Snell, Hillary, and Murray speaking )
Tafari: 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?"
( all continue )
Murray: Obviously, when you're dealing
with the death of a 12-year-old boy,
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.
( all continue )
Hillary: 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.
Investigator Peets: It wasn't like that.
( continues )
Peets: ...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...
( Peets continues )
Fairlie: 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..."
( Investigator Levinson and Fairlie speaking )
Fairlie: But as far as meeting girls or anything...
Same questions.
Nick's background, how I knew Nick,
how he knew Garrett, how I knew Garrett, how I knew Tandy, how--
Same questions, just kind of relationship-building,
what I knew about the relationships.
( Murray, Hillary speaking )
Murray: Okay.
Snell: You know that you can, uh...
( interview continues )
Hillary: See, again, Mark...
Murray: 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, "What time was practice that day for ya?"
and he's like, "No comment."
And it just struck me as odd.
( interview continues )
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.
( Levinson, Fairlie speaking )
Fairlie: 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.
( interview continues )
Fairlie: 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.
( Levinson, Fairlie speaking )
( Peets, Fairlie speaking )
Fairlie: 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?
Harris: 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.
Eckert: Where in this window of time does this person escape?
It's just remarkable. How does this happen?
How does this person get out this window and run off,
and not seen by anyone?
Harris: 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.
( Peets and Fairlie speaking )
( Hillary, Murray, Snell speaking )
Snell: Let's put it this way.
( overlapping speech )
Hillary: Mark. Mark. Mark--
Snell: This is not a time thing, Nick, where--
Hillary: Can you show me outside, please?
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.
( Snell, Hillary, Murray speaking )
Hillary: No, I'm not-- I'm not--
( overlapping speech )
Tafari: 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.
( Ames, Hillary speaking )
( Ray Planty, Hillary speaking )
Hillary: 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.
Planty: I'm serious, just sit.
Hillary: No. I've been sitting all morning.
- Planty: I understand. - Hillary: Your name is?
- I'm Ray. Yeah. - Ray?
( Hillary, Planty speaking )
( Hillary, Planty speaking, indistinct )
Hillary: Please allow me the opportunity.
( clock ticking )
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.
Tafari: 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.
Marcoccia: 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 nighttime glass of wine.
( laughs ) 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 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?
Being a lawyer I thought was the best way to make a change.
Murray: 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.
( Murray speaking on in-station video )
Murray: 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.
( indistinct chatter )
( Hillary, officer, indistinct )
( camera shutter clicking )
Ah, there it is.
The ankle injury.
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 furnitures 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 furnitures."
"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?"
( camera shutter clicks )
Male, over P.A.: All right, drop.
Murray: 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...
- Woman: Who else was photographed nude? - Garrett Phillips was.
Tafari: 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.
Hillary: Never arrested me,
and then told me I could leave, in a hazmat suit,
eight hours later.
( indistinct chatter )
Hillary: I mean, I literally came out
of the police station
as if my mom had just given birth to me as an adult.
Nothing.
Tafari: 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."
Hillary: Once he got here, I mean,
his knowledge base for being in this field kicked in,
and that's pretty much when I realized
what their plan is,
which was to ostracize me within the community quickly,
blame me for what had taken place without knowing the facts,
and then... bury me.
( Hillary sighs )
It's just one of those situations wherein which,
you know-- I mean, even now it's hard to put words to.
Yeah.
McKinley: 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,
um, while they were focusing on Nick?
Hillary: They never thought
for a minute
that the situation...
was over with after that initial run-in.
MAN: This is the People of the State of New York
against Nicholas Hillary.
LAWYER: Do you recall entering
the Potsdam High school parking lot?
Yes.
He just put himself in that parking lot at that time.
We were able to compile a case.
NICK HILLARY: The one thing that I know deep inside...
I have nothing to hide.
The police focused almost exclusively on Nick Hillary.
WOMAN: Nick's case is about our justice system as a whole.
There's absolutely no checks on prosecutors.
This must happen more than we know.
You kept hearing mixed stories.
They have a great case. They had nothing.
I pray that the correct decision will come down.
Mr. Hillary, please rise.