In the college town of Potsdam, New York, a far-up state, less than 20 miles from the Canadian

border, oral Nick Hillary was an Army veteran who enrolled at St. Lawrence University in

1996.

He excelled in math, and he was a star on the men's soccer team, a captain who led the undefeated

St. Lawrence Saints to win the 1999 National Soccer Championship.

Nick was a regional defensive player of the year, all American, a decorated veteran, and

a Potsdam sports hero.

By 2011, he was head men's coach at Clarkson University in Potsdam.

He advised students in the University's athletic department.

He volunteered and mentored students in Potsdam.

He had kids who went to local public schools too, so he attended their activities and sporting

events.

According to friends, he was the kind of guy who spoke the same way to the president

of the university as he would do a janitor.

Nick is also black, but Jamaican immigrant who emigrated to the United States at 16 with

his family.

In Potsdam, where the black population is less than 6 percent, even when it swells by

thousands during the school year, that's a rarity.

Nick was, by any measure, a pillar of the Potsdam community.

He was also a very recognizable person locally.

So when police identified Nick in 2011 as a possible suspect in the murder of a 12-year-old

boy named Garrett Phillips, it caused a whirlwind in Potsdam, of gossip, suspicion, fear, and

...