GARRETT PHILLIPS - 12 yo (10/11) - / Oral (Nick) Hillary - Potsdam, NY

College soccer coach arrested for murder of upstate New York boy,12

Oral (Nick) Hillary, 39 — the men's soccer coach at Clarkson University — was arrested for killing 12-year-old Garrett Phillips, who died after he was strangled in his Potsdam home on Oct. 24, 2011.


St. Lawrence County Sheriff Department Oral (Nick) Hillary was charged with second-degree murder for the killing of 12-year-old Garrett Phillips.


A college soccer coach was arrested for strangling a 12-year-old boy in upstate New York almost three years ago, authorities said.

Oral (Nick) Hillary, 39 — the men’s soccer coach at Clarkson University — was collared Thursday at his home in the village of Potsdam, located just about 15 miles south of the Canada border, authorities said.

He was charged with second-degree murder for the killing of Garrett Phillips, who died in a hospital after he was found unconscious in his home on Oct. 24, 2011.

Investigators said the child — who was strangled and suffocated with a pillow — was found after neighbors heard his screams and cries for help.

Hillary — who, according to his profile on the university's website, is a Jamaica-native who graduated from Samuel J. Tilden High School in Brooklyn — pleaded not guilty after a sealed indictment was delivered to a St. Lawrence County court.

He was ordered held in the county jail without bail.

Julie Grant/north country public radio Oral (Nick) Hillary, a men’s soccer coach for Clarkson University, was arrested for the killing of Garrett Phillips, nearly three years after the 12-year-old was found dead in his Potsdam home.

Hillary was questioned soon after Garrett died, but was never charged.

The soccer coach sued the village of Potsdam and its police department for defamation, North Country Public Radio reported. The disposition of the lawsuit was not immediately clear.

Officials at Clarkson University, a Division III school, said the coach was on administrative leave.