Defense: Skakel evidence falls short

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Posted 8:22AM on Wednesday, May 8, 2002

NORWALK, CONNECTICUTT - On the first day of Michael Skakel's murder trial, prosecutors juxtaposed pictures of a smiling Martha Moxley with images of her battered and partially nude corpse after she was allegedly bludgeoned by the Kennedy cousin nearly 30 years ago. The defense objected to the images, fearing jurors might be swayed by emotion rather than evidence in deciding whether Skakel killed Moxley when they were both 15 years old. A few jurors appeared to be fighting back tears when looking at some of the photos. ``A beautiful young girl was savagely beaten to death and you are going to see some very disturbing photos,'' Michael Sherman said Tuesday in his opening statement. ``What I am asking you to do is not allow the emotional rage you are going to feel - and we all will feel - to interfere with your deliberative processes." Skakel, 41, is accused of beating Moxley to death with a golf club in the wealthy town of Greenwich in October 1975. Skakel is the nephew of Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy. Moxley's murder went unsolved for years, giving rise to suspicions that wealth, privilege and the Kennedy connection had somehow protected Skakel. The slaying regained attention after several books were written about it. Prosecutor Jonathan Benedict told jurors that they will hear evidence that the Skakel family made a ``concerted effort'' to hide Skakel's guilt from police. Sherman rejected any suggestion of a cover-up, saying Skakel's father opened his home to the police. The case took a long and twisting path to the courtroom, with Skakel arrested two years ago after an investigation by a judge acting as a one-man grand jury. If convicted, Skakel could get life in prison. In his opening statement, Benedict said Skakel talked to several people about the killing on Mischief Night, the night before Halloween. ``Sometimes some people simply cannot keep a secret. As it turns out he's been talking about his night of mischief since at least the spring of 1978,'' Benedict said. But Sherman insisted that the physical evidence against Skakel amounted to ``zilch.'' ``You'll see they have a lot of pieces of a jigsaw puzzle,'' he said. ``But the problem is, the jigsaw puzzle pieces don't fit.'' Dorthy Moxley, the victim's mother, was the first witness called Tuesday. She described her frantic efforts to find her daughter. She said she went to the Skakel house Halloween morning looking for Martha, and Skakel, who answered the door, appeared ``hung over.'' Also on Tuesday, Sherman objected unsuccessfully to the admission of excerpts from Moxley's diary that refer to time she spent with Michael and Thomas Skakel, an earlier suspect in the murder. In one excerpt, Moxley writes that Michael Skakel had accused her of leading Thomas on when she liked him only as a friend. In the diary, Moxley describes a night at the Skakel house when Skakel was ``out of it.'' ``I really have to stop going over there,'' she wrote. Prosecutors said they wanted to show the nature of her relationship with the Skakel brothers, but Sherman called the diary excerpts irrelevant. The trial was scheduled to resume on Wednesday.