By ANDY GARDNER

CANTON -- Oral “Nick” Hillary’s daughter testified as an alibi witness for her father at the time Garrett Phillips died, but the prosecution tore into her credibility and implied that she had been coached.

Meanwhile, the defense is trying to portray the Phillips murder investigation as unfairly focusing on Hillary. They also put a deputy sheriff on the stand who testified a K9 found a track on the night of Garrett Phillips’s death that led away from Hillary’s residence at the time.

Shanna-Kay Hillary testified that she arrived home from school around 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 24, 2011 and saw her father in their apartment.

She said he left around 4:40 and she took a shower. She said she was in about 20 minutes washing her hair and when she got out at 5 p.m., she heard her father in the dwelling. She testified that at 5:15 p.m., her father left again.

The prosecution presented evidence that the killer was in the apartment where Phillips died around 5:15 p.m. when neighbors reported to police that they heard a disturbance.

Shanna-Kay Hillary testified that she made dinner after her father left and ate around 6 p.m., a claim the prosecution attacked.

Prosector William Fitzpatrick brought up a text message she sent at 6:24 p.m.

“Can you explain if you had dinner at 6 and it was good, why you texted your father at 6:24 ‘What’s for dinner?’” Fitzpatrick asked.

“I do not remember what time I had dinner that night,” Shanna-Kay Hillary answered.

“I’m not sure that’s answering my question … you’re suggesting you haven’t eaten and you want your father to create something or make something or bring something home,” Fitzpatrick asked.

“Yes sir,” she answered.

She said she did not remember many specific times from Oct. 24, 2011, the day Phillips died, except for when she returned home, got in the shower, heard her father moving around and saw him leave again.

“Over the time of this whole entire incident, every time I’ve been questioned it boils down to that period of time … so you remember it,” she later said under cross-examination.

Fitzpatrick asked if she had practiced the testimony she gave on Wednesday, which she confirmed.

“Have you gone over testimony with your father’s lawyers … did you practice it … did someone cross-examine you like I am now?” Fitzpatrick asked.

“Yes sir,” she replied to all of the questions, later adding that “They informed me I sent a text that night,” but doesn’t remember sending it.

Part of the prosecution’s case has centered on Hillary’s being in his car in the Potsdam High School parking lot at the same time Phillips passed through it minutes before the boy was slain. Video evidence showed him making a left out of the lot when they say he should have turned right to take the quickest route home to 118 Leroy Street.

“If you’re leaving Potsdam High School and your father’s driving his car, and coming home to 118 Leroy Street, isn’t it true that he would turn right,” Fitzpatrick asked, drawing an objection from Dumas that the judge ruled against. “Each and every time you were going straight home, he would take a right out of that parking lot?”

“Yes sir,” Shanna-Kay Hillary answered.

Fitzpatrick read from testimony she gave to the grand jury where she said it doesn’t make sense for Nick Hillary to turn left if he was going home.

“That’s true today, isn’t it? It wouldn’t make any sense,” Fitzpatrick said Wednesday in court.

“Yes sir,” Shanna-Kay Hillary answered. Under re-direct questioning, she later said it would make sense for her father to have turned left if he were going to Ian Fairlie’s house. Fairlie was an assistant coach on the Clarkson soccer team where Nick Hillary at the time was head coach.

Dep. Andrew Ashley, a K9 officer with the St. Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office, said his K9 Hershey picked up a scent behind 100 Market St. Prosecutors said during their arguments that the perpetrator jumped out of a second-story window at the rear of the building, although it wasn’t specifically stated during Ashley’s testimony that this was where the trail began.

He said the dog, which he testified was a reliable tracker, picked up a ground scent behind the building and followed it to Market Street.

“After we went out to the sidewalk and stopped, I encouraged him to pick up some sort of a track. He continued to air scent and we continued to walk down Walnut Street,” Ashley said.

He said it had lost the ground scent but picked up the air scent and headed to Walnut Street on his own, with Ashley’s encouragement to continue looking for a trail.

He said Hershey continued to a set of railroad tracks and lost the scent near Walnut Street.

“It became apparent he wasn’t picking up the scent so we terminated the track,” Ashley testified.

Under cross-examination, he said he was concerned about the accuracy of the trail since it was raining that day and many police officers had been in the area where the dog was trying to track.

“The scene was not sufficient to track. It was raining and had been contaminated,” District Attorney Mary Rain asked.

“Correct,” Ashley answered.

Under re-directed questioning by defense attorney Peter Dumas, Ashley said he wasn’t sure of the track’s source, but he didn’t think Hershey was tracking any police on the first try.

The defense called acting Potsdam Police Chief Mark Murray to the stand and was questioning how the department handled the Phillips murder probe in the initial stages. Murray was a lieutenant at the time and was named Potsdam police’s lead investigator on the case.

The defense played a tape of a conversation between Murray and District Attorney’s Office Investigator Dan Manor on Oct. 25, 2011 at 7:26 a.m. In the tape, they say Hillary’s involvement in the murder at that point is “just a rumor” and say an investigating officer from the state police has “strong ties” to the Phillips family.

“Do you have all the suspects that are involved or is there just one?” Manor says on the tape.

“I don’t know Dan, state police have been phenomenally great … (BCI Inv.) Gary Snell and his brother are here, they both have strong ties to Parishville and the Phillips family,” Murray answered.

“Does the mother have a boyfriend?” Manor later asks.

“Well she did,” Murray replies.

“Last night my granddaughter got a call … one of my sister-in-laws in married to a Phillips … she said this 12-year-old boy had been killed by the mother’s boyfriend,” Manor says back.

“That’s the rumor,” Murray says.

“I don’t know where it’s coming from, it’s coming from the Phillips,” Manor says in response.

Murray also said in the course of the conversation that they hadn’t yet seen an autopsy report.

The defense also played a video that they said shows Inv. Snell blocking Hillary’s exit from an interview at the Potsdam police station, but the audio was muted. Hillary was not under arrest at the time, Murray said.

Murray said without hearing the audio, he was unsure if Snell was physically blocking Hillary’s exit or just trying to keep the conversation going as long as possible.

“Was he blocking Mr. Hillary from leaving?” Ward asked.

“I don’t know what Mr. Snell’s intentions were,” Murray testified.

The defense also probed the initial canvassing in the neighborhood around the murder scene.

Murray testified that two people said they saw someone in that area around when the murder happened.

One of them was Sally Rando, who Ward said reported seeing “a younger male with dark clothing walking down Waverly” Street.

“Her recollection was not to be able to say if it was a male or female, white or black,” Murray said.

“Did you see any leads, paperwork that someone had gone back and spoke to her?” Ward asked.

“I have not seen any leads that indicate that,” Murray said.