There when he finally gives up? yes. they can t bring him back. no. how awful for you. garrett phillips, unstoppable in life, was dead at age 12. what happens in the next few hours, tandy? it was kind of a blur. we were at the hospital for a while. we got sent home. and i slept in aaron s room with him. at the hospital tandy had been joined by some of the men in her life, her ex-husband casey collins and john jones, the sheriff s deputy. but no one notified nick hillary. turns out, he and tandy had split up the month before and he was no longer in her loop. so lieutenant mark murray of the potsdam pd called nick. mr. hillary speaking. it s mark murray of the potsdam police department. we had an incident occur this evening and we d like to speak with you in regards to it. minutes later, lt. murray and two other investigators were at nick s door, a courtesy
The soccer field, where his respectful teammates gave him a nickname. nick was the general. he was a leader. the general. so that was a tip of the hat both to his career as a vet yeah, absolutely. but also his traits as a person. yeah, his leadership traits for sure. i mean it fit him to a tee. in 1999 nick led st. lawrence to an undefeated season and a national championship, cementing bonds of friendship that remain tight today. just great person on and off the field. a great role model. yeah, he was our brother. he was our big brother. he was the glue that kept us all together. he brought us together. he arranged dinners at his house. he cooked for the whole team. is that the rasta pasta nights? the rasta pasta. absolutely. i mean, it was a staple of who we were as a group. after the championship season and graduation, nick kept leading. he became a coach and, in 2009, landed a plum job, head soccer coach at clarkson, just minutes from his alma mater. life was good. it got even better when nick, a
Deposition, safe to say, was very important. extremely important. we couldn t have put him in the places where he put himself. on may 15th nick hillary was indicted and arrested. 100% innocent. charged with second-degree murder, he was led away in handcuffs by lead investigator mark murray. no ruckus? no to-do? no ruckus, no to-do. just us walking nick into the station. nothing, however, has been ordinary in this extraordinary case. five months later, a judge threw out that indictment on the grounds of prosecutorial misconduct. the judge in the case decides that mary rain acted inappropriately. that she injected opinion. that she obviously was not pursuing justice, per se, but was pursuing nick. the judge read transcripts of the proceedings and determined that the d.a. bullied nick s daughter, an alibi witness, asking her the same question 13 times. it s cross-examination. there was no bullying. he s not there. he doesn t know my tone of voice. so he s surmising something
Her saying that this happened. investigators started knocking on doors all over potsdam to get the lowdown on nick. tandy s side didn t pull any punches. attorney for the potsdam p.d., tom mortati family, friends, relatives. they all immediately thought, well, there s only one person that we can think of that might do something to garrett, and that was nick hillary. that he has reason to have a grudge against garrett, what, for breaking up this relationship? essentially, yeah. still wants to be with the mom? yep. tandy s parents gave statements to police. her mother wrote he kept telling me it was tandy s fault they broke up and that garrett was a factor. nick had gone to her parents to basically lobby them to help help me get back in tandy s good graces. i m good for garrett. i m good for her. you know, help them see the light. as investigators continued targeting nick, they say they still had the other ex-boyfriend, fellow cop john jones, on their radar. he provided a dna swab, fingerprints, let us photograph
Relevance. yes. can you tell me the circumstances under which that occurred? i was moving furniture around in my new apartment. approximately when did that occur? objection. relevance. i cannot recall. what kind of piece of furniture was it? objection. relevance. i cannot recall. did you trip over the piece of furniture or drop something on you or something else? objection. relevance. asked and answered. i cannot recall. mani tafari maintains nick s ankle injury had no connection to the crime or the crime scene. if there were abrasions, we should have some dna that s linking mr. hillary to this. and we do not. as in the first deposition, tom asked nick to describe his route home on the day of garrett s murder. but this time, nick suggested that if he turned left, it would have been to visit his assistant coach. typically if i make a left out the parking lot, i would be checking in with my assistant coach who lived on garden street, which is what i would normally do.