Bastuk said local law enforcement is too compromised and an independent prosecutor needs to take over. He said he had gotten it a week ago from moving furniture. They struck up an easy conversation that, in short order, became a live-in relationship with a blended family. Bastuk says now is the time to draw national attention to a murder case thats been unsolved for too long. Potsdam's chief of police is now Mark Murray, who was lead detective on the Garrett Phillips investigation. The murder trial began in the county seat, Canton, New York this month. He was just all about control.". At least one of them had talked to police back in 2011, and their story did not add up. They realized that the killer could have had an injury since the jump was pretty far. But Murray said, "even if we had collected hairs and fibers [matching Hillary], he had been in the apartment -- he moved [Garrett's mother] Tandy in, he was in the apartment in the middle of the night on a number of occasions. HBO. 3. I believe John Jones committed the murder. His brilliant field leadership at St. Lawrence, next door to Potsdam, had made him a college All-American. "Mr. Jones went on to say that if I was sleeping with his ex-girlfriend he would have 'kicked in my door,'" Hillary said. 0. But you cant take race out of the picture the way in which white Americans are just more likely to look at Black people as capable of committing crimes. Garrett Phillips was strangled in his family's second-floor apartment in upstate Potsdam in October 2011. Shanna testified that Hillary was home with her at the . After medics rushed the boy to the hospital two blocks away, Wentworth noticed that one of the window blinds in another bedroom had been damaged. Nick was the head soccer coach at Clarkston University, and had played there himself. She told ABC, I just remember him looking down at me over the tops of his glasses, telling me that there was nothing else that they could do., Cyrus was initially told that Garrett fell. There are no clues as to who killed Garrett. After all, she notes, the Justice for Garrett campaign became Get Nick Hillary. They were always, always intertwined. 1. His mother's ex-boyfriend, Nick Hillary, was found not guilty of the murder just over two years ago in a. Meanwhile Garretts autopsy was done. The police photographed the window, took fingerprints and took the blinds as evidence. Nick was interviewed for 9 hours that day. Back at the crime scene, the police realized there was no forced entry, but there was an open window, with the screen cut out. In 2006, Hillary was acquitted of murder after a trial before a judge without a jury, The jury pool came from the same individuals who had elected the district attorney, Hillary, 45, told The News. But where was the evidence to put before a jury? But I hope Im wrong about that, Garbus tells Variety. And Nick doesnt have any of that right now. Again, I saw an abrasion, but it ankle didnt look swollen to me. Whatever has come to light or will come in the years ahead Phillips said hes tried to focus on the good. I was in complete shock, she told ABC News. For years, no one was named in Phillips death. Garbus shares that she was in contact with Tandy while in production on the project, and she expressed the possibility of sitting down for an interview once the trial was over. On October 24, 2011, the neighbors of Garretts heard noises coming from next door. "The head person, the most dominant person everybody is gonna follow their lead," said James Trainum, a nationally-recognized police consultant. Jones held Cyrus' hand and comforted her as she was interviewed by the police. The cops checked out the alibis of the significant men in Tandy's life, including a sheriff's deputy, but they seemed to always have their sights on Hillary. "There is obviously no resolution to Garrett Phillips murder," Pasqua said at the time. He was asked many questions about where he was the day of the murder. A lot of people discredit The Choke Out Theory, but after digging in to find something else other than tips called into the Potsdam Police Department I have tracked down this article that the DA's office has been looking into. Easily explained." For years, no one was named in Phillips' death. -- It was Oct. 24, 2011, when 12-year-old Garrett Phillips was found strangled to death inside his home in Potsdam, New York, a small town near the Canadian border. And the focus right now is to start puttin this in the rearview mirror.. Director: Liz Garbus. The inside of the house where Garrett Phillips' body was found, is pictured on Sept. 27, 2016. It wasnt until later that Cyrus was finally informed that her son was strangled to death. But at around 5 p.m., when the murder is estimated to have occurred, no one saw anyone jump or flee from the building. "The Garrett Phillips case is just full of the appearance of impropriety.". Despite the fact that the circumstantial evidence against him and Hillary was so similar, he didn't suffer nearly so many consequences as Hillary did. Garbus questioned them about their missteps and lack of physical or DNA evidence tying Hillary to the crime. So we had intelligent people, people with a lot of power working to deny him of his freedom, knowing that hes innocent., Teacher who misgendered trans pupil 'was acting like a preacher', Teacher sacked for restraining 'out of control pupil' wins unfair dismissal claim, Emergency assemblies and extra staff: how schools are tackling Andrew Tate, He added: District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, he knew there was no evidence, and he said quote after Nick was acquitted: I have locked people up with much less evidence than this.. Soon afterwards, a neighbor in Garretts apartment building heard strange noises and called 911. Clearly, the film won't be . After the schoolboys body was found suffocated and strangled, all fingers pointed to Nick as the murderer. The altercation made him fearful for himself and his family, NNY 360 reported. HBO's new two-part documentary "Who Killed Garrett Phillips?," premiering on July 23 and 24, is a stunningand enragingexamination of race and the U.S. criminal justice system. New information has come to light and is being investigated in the 2011 murder of 12-year-old Garrett J. Phillips. By the time Liz Garbus's two-part documentary "Who Killed Garrett Phillips?" debuts on HBO, there could be a new public lead in the case of the murdered titular 12-year-old. "He was a kid he was a 12-year-old kid. In March 2019, North Country Public Radio reported that Hillary had filed a lawsuit against the New York State Police, St. Lawrence prosecutors, local police, St. Lawrence County District Attorney Mary Rain, and Jones, who was a Sheriff's Deputy in St. Lawrence County. Dismiss. The judge dismissed most of the claims, but some are still ongoing. After the trial ended in 2016, Murray told NCPR, were confident we prosecuted the right person.. First, why the actual eff was he allowed to be in the interrogation room with Tandy? The Murder of Garrett Phillips: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know, Copyright 2023 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. The apartment that Jones helped Cyrus find was the same spot where Phillips was found gravely hurt. They tried to revive him, but he was pronounced dead at the hospital around 7pm. Tandy and Aaron have since moved out. Related stories:Nick Hillary's civil rights case, and how it links to a broader moment of reckoningJoining It Could Happen To You, the wrongful convictions groups, were local Black Lives Matter activists. After first reading about the case in a New York Times article, Garbus recalls being struck by the thematic issues and concerns that, I think, are ones that spoke to larger systemic problems. Specifically what caught her attention was that the local polices focus was on one of Phillips mothers ex-boyfriends, a Jamaican American man who was well-known around town as a soccer coach, despite the fact that he had an alibi and that there had been rumblings of other possible suspects early on. Then, at the hospital, she found out he was in cardiac arrest. His mother's ex-boyfriend, Nick Hillary, was found not guilty of the murder just over two years ago in a. Dec 18, 2020. Her name is Tandy Cyrus. A 'Justice for Garrett' sign is pictured in an undated photo. The university soccer coach had previously dated the victims mother, Tandy Cyrus, but was reported to have split with the grieving mum as he didnt get on with her children. The prosecution, he ruled, had not made its circumstantial case "beyond a reasonable doubt." Garrett was described as always being a happy kid, who always had a smile on his face. When it comes to investigating new tips, Trainum said, it matters whos in charge. You've got inclement weather, it's near dusk -- if not dark.". "When someone is wrongfully convicted or wrongfully prosecuted, the true perpetrator remains on the streets to commit another crime," Bastuk said, referring to the Phillips case, which remains unsolved. "Im here because justice is due for Garrett and justice is due for Nick Hillary, too," Baxtron said on Friday. Police said they tested every person with access to the apartment, including residents and maintenance staff. The new documentary Who Killed Garrett Phillips?, airing on HBO July 23 and 24, looks into the unsolved 2011 death of a 12-year-old boy by that name. "We weren't thinking it was a homicide immediately, but something had happened. Then, ABC News 20/20 will interview the accused ex-boyfriend of Phillips mother, Oral Nick Hillary, for the first time since he was acquitted two days ago. Heres what you need to know about the case. They were very much in his personal space as he was standing there naked with several cops around. #AD - Use this link for a 7-day free trial - http://bit.ly/23sh00652In today's video I discuss the case of Garrett Phillips as well as the documentary 'Who k. But despite being a free man, it seems Hillary is still struggling to clear his name in his community. When the former live-in boyfriend of the mother, a black Jamaican-born soccer coach, became an almost immediate suspect in the murder, a cry went out from his camp that he was being railroaded. 2023 Variety Media, LLC. (Hillary has denied visiting the apartment without Cyrus' permission. "In [the Garrett Phillips] case, the head person is a chief of police who ran the investigation originally, is convinced that they got the right person, and is not going to want to devote a lot of time and resources of his personnel into something that hethinks is useless," Trainum said. What 12-year-old kid just isnt right full of life? The first afternoon, of many, spent rebuilding his life. Oral Nick Hillary exhales as he leaves the St. Lawrence County Courthouse in Canton Wednesday after being found not guilty of murdering Garrett Phillips. Advocates for the wrongfully accused are trying to draw new attention to the murder of Garrett Phillips in Potsdam nine years ago. That there'd been a rush to judgment. Garrett didnt ever want to be alone with Nick, even though Nick said he never had any problems with Garrett. "You could see that Garrett had neatly set his sneakers by the closet. Chronicling the five years after the murder, the film is an eye-opening look at how justice is delivered and delayed. Oral "Nick" Hillary still coaches soccer. The police had a theory about the motivation, a story about obsessive love gone wrong. The boy in the security video was 12-year-old Garrett Phillips. The current district attorney, Gary Pasqua, has given Potsdam Police, now headed by Murray, new information pointing to a different suspect. This led to Hillarys arrest, which satisfied Brian Phillips, who still passionately professes his belief that Hillary is guilty in Garbus doc. Tandy Cyrus, Garretts mom, was at her other sons basketball practice. On the same courthouse steps in Canton where Hillary walked away a free man after being cleared in Garrett Phillips death almost four years ago, a couple dozen people held a press conference Friday afternoon. Prosecutors also referenced two interviews Shanna-Kay gave in 2014 and 2015 in both interviews, she said she ate dinner at 6pm. The last time Phillips was seen alive was on school surveillance footage, in which he's seen making his way home on a Riptide skateboard. Despite housing crisis, there's pushback against development, Rochester man dies in snowmobile crash on the Tug Hill, Hochul wants to tie the minimum wage to inflation. 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