Kennedy cousin convicted in 1975 murder

NORWALK, Conn. -- Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel was convicted Friday of beating Greenwich neighbor Martha Moxley to death in 1975 when they were 15 -- a crime that went unsolved for nearly a generation and raised suspicions his family connections had protected him.

Prosecutors offered no eyewitnesses and no direct physical evidence connecting Skakel to the slaying. Instead, the case was based almost entirely on testimony from people who said they had heard him confess over the years.

The 41-year-old Skakel, a nephew of Robert F. Kennedy's widow, Ethel, was handcuffed and led off immediately to jail. He faces from 10 years to life in prison at sentencing July 19.

Skakel's lawyer promised a quick appeal of the murder conviction.

"This is certainly the most upsetting verdict I've ever had -- or will ever have -- in my life," defense attorney Michael Sherman said. "But I will tell you, as long as there's a breath in my body, this case is not over."

The Moxley family wept at what her mother called "Martha's day," which finally came more than a quarter-century after her death.

Martha's battered body was discovered under a tree on her family's estate in the wealthy community of Greenwich. She had been bludgeoned and stabbed with a golf club, later traced to a set owned by Skakel's mother.

Prosecutors contended Skakel had a crush on Martha and was upset because she seemed more interested in his older brother, Thomas.

Years of statements

The prosecution's case rested almost entirely on about a dozen people who said they had heard Skakel confess or make incriminating statements over the years. Several were former classmates from the Elan School, a drug and alcohol rehab center in Maine.

The defense argued that the Elan School witnesses were of dubious credibility. And family members all backed up Skakel's alibi: that he was at a cousin's home around the time of the slaying. His lawyers also sought to cast suspicion on a former family tutor, and pointed out that the tutor and Thomas Skakel were both early suspects in the investigation.

Skakel did not take the stand. In a tape-recorded 1997 interview with an author that was played for the jury, Skakel said he went to the Moxley home, threw rocks at Martha's window to try to get her attention, then masturbated in a tree and ran home.

The jury deliberated for more than three days.

"We worked very, very hard to find something that would acquit Michael Skakel," juror Cathy Lazansky said. "We just couldn't."

One of the alternates, Anne Layton, said prosecutor Jonathan Benedict's closing argument was powerfully persuasive. "He really connected the dots and I think he did an incredible job," Layton said.

In fact, the jury made the unusual request of asking to rehear part of the argument on Thursday, but the judge refused.

In his closing argument, Benedict played the taped interview, using Skakel's own words to put him at the scene. As he spoke, a picture of a smiling teen-age Martha was projected onto a courtroom screen. The portrait dissolved into a grim crime-scene photo.

"It's nice to say, once in a while, that justice delayed doesn't have to be justice denied," the prosecutor said after the verdict.