Seven Minutes
Retired Detective
Solves the
Garrett Phillips
Case
Solves the
Garrett Phillips
Case
Calvin Luther Martin, PhD
January 27, 2026
Nobody killed him. According to John Fountain, NYS State Police detective (retired), Garrett died from what turned out to be a catastrophic head injury while riding home lickety-split on his caster board (manufactured by Ripstik) from playing basketball at an outdoor playground in Potsdam NY late in the afternoon of October 24, 2011.
Garrett’s mom had called him from her workplace, discovered to her dismay that he was goofing off playing basketball, and told him to get his 12-year-old butt home, pronto, and do his homework!
Chastened, the boy hopped on his caster board — he was an expert rider! — and sped home — and had a disastrous fall on the way, concludes Det. Fountain.
Sometime in the 7 minutes it took Garrett to get home, the cranial timebomb that would kill him began ticking.
Meanwhile, it was no secret around town that Clarkson University Coach, Nick Hillary, a handsome, athletic black Jamaican NCAA soccer star, had been dating Garrett’s mother off and on. This was not a crime.
That evening, things got surreal and, to anyone with an ounce of knowledge of American history, they became scary. Half a dozen cops knocked on Mr. Hillary’s apartment door and let him know that he was their prime suspect in the boy’s — murder.
Murder! Full stop. Savor that word. Roll it around in your mind for awhile. The next morning, the media was filming Nick Hillary in handcuffs on his way before a judge.
The troubling issue is not the boy’s death, tragic as it was. It is, of course, how a group of cops, DA’s, reporters, EMT’s, and clinicians were not able to easily identify the smoking gun — a traumatic head wound — and, instead, turned a black man into a smoking gun.
Within 24 hours, an accident had morphed into a sensational murder. The parallels to the lynching of black males in the American Deep South in the early twentieth century are striking and chilling.
This story should go down in the history books. (I write these words as a retired Rutgers University professor of American history.) Det. John Fountain has produced a report that gives us the fine-grained data showing how the zombie of African-American lynching can resurface in a charming little college town in upstate New York a century after we all thought this bullshit had been laid to rest.
This is the vital story, here. A story brilliantly dissected and re-assembled by a rumpled Mohawk cop about a scapegoated black man. Placed within the larger context of our nation’s past, the accidental death of a sweet, lovable and charming 12-year-old boy (who I wish could’ve been my grandson) becomes a sad footnote.
Det. Fountain has gathered an enormous amount of evidence, including forensic data from the so-called crime scene, autopsy reports, interviews with EMTs and cops and neighbors, and background checks on all the above individuals.
Det. Fountain has showed the pathology reports to at least one physician (an MD, PhD former clinical professor of Pediatrics at Columbia University’s College of Physicians & Surgeons), who noted that there are two likely causes of the boy’s death, again, based solely on the autopsy reports: (1) seizure after a concussion, or, more plausibly, (2) a second concussion within a prior 2-week period, causing acute brain swelling. Cause #2 would be confirmed were there evidence he had sustained a recent concussion, which may not, of course, have been recognized or diagnosed as a concussion at the time.
As many of you know, the case turned into a nationwide sensation and enduring crime thriller (click here and here). Which means it turned into a 3-ring circus.
- The St. Lawrence County DA got herself fired and (temporarily) lost her license over it.
- There were charges of racism toward the black soccer coach, Oral “Nick” Hillary (Clarkson University), who was in handcuffs and perp-walked the next day. He would soon be fired by Clarkson.
- The controversial, media-grandstanding DA from Onondaga County, brought in to replace DA Mary Rain, subsequently came under scrutiny for his prosecution of the case and, most pointedly, the DNA issue.
- The presiding judge, clearly angry over the way the state and cops handled the case, dismissed the charges against Hillary and sealed the court record.
Although Hillary walked free, he was socially lynched by the university and community and remains socially tarred and feathered as the killer. (Reminds one of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Scarlet Letter,” where Hester Prynne is condemned for adultery by wearing an “A” around her neck.)
Who Killed Garrett Phillips?
Here's Det. Fountain's full report.
Read it and decide.
Click on the image, below
13 thoughts on “Seven Minutes: Retired Detective Solves the Garrett Phillips Case”
It is intriguing to learn about this new information. However, I have a question. If the boy’s death was caused by head trauma resulting from a fall from his skateboard and not by a brutal murder, why was the back window screen found damaged outside on the floor?
Perhaps the child fell into it or he swung something against it. Kids break things all the time.
0 proof anyone went out a window. Also 0 proof the outside floor was not damaged prior to that day. (Floor could have been damaged day before, month before, or year before.)
Don’t assume. Don’t believe narrative from police who investigated.
Look at facts, as the detective did.
It is of incredible importance to note that the 10 point outline introducing this report above is not accurate at all in numbers 5 and 6 of how this played out. Nick Hillary was not immediately told he was being accused of murder. I highly recommend watching the HBO documentary “Who Killed Garrett Phillips?” to see the course of events and the nature of the police detainment of Nick Hillary for which he accused them of violating his civil rights.
In fact, the sitting D.A. at the time had refused to indict Mr. Hillary for a complete lack of evidence. We had to wait two years before the real poop show began. That is when Republican Mary Rain came in to run for D.A. on the primary platform of bringing Nick Hillary up for murder, using the bereaved mother of Garrett Phillips as a campaign prop. She won. Because St Lawrence County is a rural racist backwater.
That Nick Hillary chose a bench trial rather than a jury of his not-peers, who were selected from the same electorate that voted Mary Rain into office on the platform of bringing him up on charges of murder, is best explained understanding this accurate history of these events.
I have tried over the years with limited success to get letters to the editor published in the North Country Now concerning the skewed and inaccurate reporting of this case. Thanks to John Fountain’s excellent work, I finally have a pointed one that is supposed to be published this week (4-2-26) encapsulating this madness. The politics of death investigations in St Lawrence County and the implicit bias of this community are, unfortunately, not unique. When there are no consequences for being terrible at one’s job, actually rewards, terrible work is rampant.
So true. By way of example, there is a man in the Franklin County jail charged with burglary and robbery. At his arraignment there was no evidence to implicate him in the crime, yet he was sent to jail with a hefty bail!
If they want you locked up, you’ll be locked up! That’s how these small communities operate. If you have the right connections, you’re free to do whatever.
I’ve seen officers snort cocaine lines outside of bars; officers carried to their vehicles becouse they could barely walk.
Look at our community: drugs are floading our streets, but all you ever read of is the addicts being arrested. That’s because they are county revenue.
Go to any court. You won’t see anybody entitled.
Ever notice that the vehicles targeted for traffic stops are older, worn out vehicles?
We’ve all seen the fancy members of the community drive through town doing 40-50 mph with ease, almost like they have a free pass hanging from their mirror.
All of our constitutional rights have been manipulated in such a way that we are no longer free!
My name is Jennifer Baxtron. I organized and led Black Lives Matter Potsdam NY in June 2020. I fought for Garrett Phillips and Nick Hillary’s justice in 2020.
My Son Terron Evans Jr moved to Potsdam in June 2020. On 1/8/21 my son was dead in the home of 2 police informants, who claimed Terron died by suicide.
My Son was targeted, set up with a police informant who pretended to be his girlfriend, and was murdered to silence us from the Black Lives Matter movement throughout St Lawrence County, and to silence me from continuing to seek truth and justice for Garrett and Nick.
Please Google Terron Evans Jr, Jennifer Baxtron Potsdam Police Reform, Jennifer Baxtron Garrett Phillips, Jennifer Baxtron Black Lives Matter.
Editor’s reply: This is a terrible story! To lose one’s son is beyond comprehension. I am sorry. (I realize my saying this sounds hollow. But what else can one say?)
Have you considered contacting Mani Tafari, Esq., who was Nick Hillary’s attorney?
They used the face of an angel as a mask, instead of their usual white hood.
How tragic it would have been had an innocent man’s life been taken, accused of killing an innocent boy by guilty men who thought they could get away with a frame job.
The evil of this prosecution is missed by many, but those with intelligence see the cowards for who they are.
I never believed for one moment that Nick Hillary killed this child. It is such a relief to me to read this and learn that in all probability he died a “natural” but still incredibly unfortunate death.
I drive by that building often and think of him every time. My spirit will now be lighter, though. Having been a part of the aneurysm family history story, that, too, fits into this as a tragic missing piece.
Now, a big question…what can be done to remedy the damage done to Nick Hillary by all of this incompetency, conspiring, and downright meanness?
I never believed for one moment that Nick Hillary killed this child. It is such a relief to me to read this and learn that in all probability he died a “natural” but still incredibly unfortunate death.
I drive by that building often and think of him every time. My spirit will now be lighter, though. Having been a part of the aneurysm family history story, that, too, fits into this as a tragic missing piece.
Now, a big question…what can be done to remedy the damage done to Nick Hillary by all of this incompetency, conspiring, and downright meanness?
Editor’s response: Good question! I believe he sued the Potsdam Police Department some years ago, and lost. Based on Detective Fountain’s research, he may want to sue again — this time including Clarkson University, which unceremoniously dumped him; the Potsdam PD; and St. Lawrence County for its incompetent DA at the time.
Dr. Sikirica is one of the leading forensic pathologists in New York State. Anyone who knows him or has been to one of his autopsies will tell you he is very knowledgeable and of high morals. See, below, the following paragraph, which appeared in the Times Union on 10/2/2021.
“Sikirica is probably the Capitol Region’s best-known pathologists: He is relied upon by area district attorneys as an expert witness at murder trials to describe how homicide victims were killed. In the past, he has performed autopsies in Albany, Schenectady, Saratoga, Warren and Washington counties.”
My questions would be, if there were doubts with the autopsy, was another forensic pathologist asked to look over the autopsy report and, if yes, who was it?
Was a second independent autopsy conducted?
Medical professionals who are not forensic pathologists are not used to determining the cause of a suspicious or sudden death.
If I had doubts about a homicide case, there are individuals, like retired NYPD Detective Rob Mooney, who has handled hundreds of murder cases in New York City and would be a good resource.
We all have our opinions on this case, but I am not going to doubt a report by a leading forensic pathologist.
Editor: Chris Premo was Chief of the Malone Police Dept. for many years.
There was nobody to doubt the autopsy, question it or ask for a second opinion. That is part of the point of John Fountain’s excellent analysis. This case was driven by suspectology, a faulty approach to truth anchored in the cognitive failure of confirmation bias. Forensic pathologists are as human as any other expert in their field and easily make perfectly honest mistakes based on the social dynamics of the fellow humans around them.
The police involved with this from the very beginning in this tiny village, knew who Garrett’s mother was and knew who her ex-boyfriend was. If you watch the HBO Documentary, which contains an unevidenced assumption right in it’s title “Who Killed Garrett Phillips?” you will see there is one thing, and one thing only, that led the “ear” witness neighbor to believe there was someone else in the apartment with Garrett when she knocked on the door after hearing the strange noises.
That thing is what she describes as a “click”, which she interpreted as the sound of someone locking the door. That is all. I, too, until reading Fountain’s breathtakingly smart and objective investigation, had always been under the impression that there was no question of some sort of choking type event causing his death. An injury to the throat, very likely homicide due to another person in the apartment, though no evidence of murder, as murder is based in motive and intention.
A forensic pathologist who was not present at the scene of the incident, is reliant upon what those who were at the scene relays to them. That information is going to be utterly tainted by implicit, cognitive, perceptual and memory biases of the observer. And the human that hears them has absolutely no idea what they can be. An honest person can do their honest best and still come up failingly wrong because of the unknown and the unknowable. If what you see fits with what you were told by people who are being perfectly honest (if wrong) themselves, it doesn’t occur to anyone to look for something else.
Sadly, this gets back to Jennifer Baxtron’s story described in these comments on February 5. I have the entire case file of her son, Terron Evans Jr, and his cause and manner of death are negligently and incompetently undemonstrated. Different forensic pathologist, perhaps of more dubious personal integrity. Terron’s listed cause of death is very different than Garrett’s. And in his case, it is belied by empirical evidence. Perhaps not too curiously, the same County Coroner, June Wood, signed Terron’s cert. And there are some overlapping characters in Law Enforcement that seem to think that whatever they believe is all that is required to determine what happened. No need to ask questions or conduct a victimology approach. Suspectology in the case of an alleged suicide is the same thing … or is it?
Sadly, trial by media has become the norm.
Great investigation! The state should have had Det. Fountain do the investigation when they accused Hillary of murder.
Det. Fountain was one of the best investigators in the state. He solved a lot of homicides and arrested a lot of narcotic dealers back in his day.
Great job, John Fountain!
I personally know two of the New York State Troopers brought in after the death, who were conducting door to door interviews along my street becuase I live between the apartment where Garrett died and the then home of Nick’s rock solid alibi, assistant soccer coach Ian Farley.
They weren’t looking to “solve” a murder. Or even to look for another possible explanation, involuntary manslaughter or otherwise. Their thin blue line guy was State Trooper Gary Snell, who was part of the mob that “knew” Nick did it because he already held animosity toward him. My kids were terrified that a murderer was out on the loose and these Troopers assured us not to worry, that they knew who did it and they got the guy.
Only the law enforcement individuals involved accused Nick Hillary at this time. The sitting D.A. declined to, in the absence of any evidence. It would be several years for the full foul stupid of this case to fully play itself out. I will comment on that separately next.