Updated 10:11 a.m. Sept. 16

By ANDY GARDNER

CANTON -- Garrett Phillips’ mother Tandy Cyrus Collins took the witness stand and testified that her children didn’t get along with Oral “Nick” Hillary and that he appeared in her apartment uninvited on two occasions in the weeks before her son’s death.

She also testfied that Hillary showed up univited more than once in the apartment she shared with Garret after her breakup with the college soccer coach.

Hillary is on trial for second-degree murder, accused of killing 12-year-old Phillips in Potsdam five years ago.

Collins said she and her children moved in with Hillary and his daughter in 2010, but Hillary’s regimented lifestyle wore down on her kids.

“No more watching TV on school nights, Garrett never went out and played after school. Much different than what Garrett was used to … he was not happy, he was not an inside kid,” Collins said.

“Garrett generally did not have a lot of conversation with Nick. As time went on, I could see a physical change in his behavior in his demeanor. He was not the same outgoing happy kid when he was at my house,” Collins testified today.

She said sometime in September 2011 after they broke up, Hillary wanted to visit her. She said she told him she wanted to be alone and went to bed.

“I woke up around midnight and he was standing in my bedroom,” Collins said. “He had a key … He said he was just coming there to sleep. I wasn’t going to argue so he stayed.”

She said she demanded the key back, which she received three days later.

A short time after that, on Sept. 24, 2011, Collins said she found him in her apartment uninvited again.

She said they had been drinking at Ton’s Sports Bar the night before, and she left with a friend.

Collins said she woke up the following morning to him in her apartment, but she wasn’t sure if he had a key or if she forgot to lock the door.

“I was still sleeping … I woke up to the sound of my apartment door opening. Nick was walking into my apartment,” Collins testified.

After questioning by prosecutor William Fitzpatrick, Collins said she believes Hillary knew her son’s school and after-school activities schedule at the time of the murder.

She said the day her son died started normally. Phillips went to school then played with friends afterward, and his brother, Aaron, went to daycare after school.

Collins said she picked her younger son up from daycare and got a call that Garrett was at Canton-Potsdam Hospital.

“I went in to the emergency room and the doctor came out to talk to me”,” Collins said, beginning to tear up. “He asked me if Garrett would have tried to hurt himself because he had marks on his neck. He had bruises. He told me Garrett was in full cardiac arrest.”

Later that evening, she said Hillary called and texted her but she never responded.

She said she didn’t learn it was a homicide until the next day.

She went on to testify that Garrett got along well with family, friends and schoolmates.

The prosecution ended their questioning of Collins by showing a video of Hillary parked at Potsdam Central School shortly before Phillips’ death, and then Phillips riding by on his ripstick, which is similar to a skateboard.

“It’s Garrett,” said Collins, choking up when Fitzpatrick asked her to identify the youth in the video.

The trial began today after Judge Felix Catena Thursday ruled in favor of a defense motion to have the trial decided by the judge and not a jury. The jury pool was dismissed and the judge set today as the start of opening statements and witness testimony.

NorthCountryThis Week will have continuing updates from the St. Lawrence County Courthouse and throughout the trial.

To view the story on today’s opening arguments, click here.