STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) – The trial attorney for Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel testified Thursday that he was not told before Skakel was convicted of murder about a claim implicating two other men in the killing.
The testimony of attorney Michael Sherman contradicted that of Skakel’s classmate, Crawford Mills, who testified Wednesday that he told Sherman of the account before the trial.
Skakel, 46, is trying to win a new trial based on former classmate Gitano “Tony” Bryant’s claim implicating two other men in the 1975 murder of 15-year-old Martha Moxley in the exclusive Belle Haven section of Greenwich.
Skakel was convicted in 2002 of the killing and is serving 20 years to life in prison. Bryant’s account surfaced in 2003.
To win a new trial, Skakel must show that Bryant’s statement is evidence not available at the time of his trial and that it likely would have changed the verdict.
Bryant has said he was with the two men he implicated, Adolph Hasbrouck and Burt Tinsley, in Moxley’s neighborhood the night she was killed. He said he went home to New York while they stayed at the home of a neighborhood youth.
Bryant said that one of the men had met Moxley and “wanted to go caveman on her,” and that the two later told him: “We did what we had to do” and “We got her caveman style.”
Mills testified that he told Sherman and prosecutor Jonathan Benedict about Bryant’s claim before the trial. He said he did not reveal Bryant’s name at the time, but told Sherman he was a student at a private school with Skakel and told Benedict he was one of the few black students at the school.
Sherman said he never heard Bryant’s name or his claim until after the verdict. He said Mills did try to contact him, but it was about a screen play he was writing about the case.
“It wasn’t something I was interested in,” Sherman said.
Sherman also testified that before the trial prosecutors did not turn over reports written by investigators about earlier suspects in the case, including Skakel’s brother Thomas and the family tutor, Kenneth Littleton. He said those reports supported Skakel’s alibi that he was at his cousin’s house at the time of the killing and showed how heavily investigators focused on Littleton.
“This would have been significantly helpful at the time,” Sherman said. “That would have been invaluable.”
But under cross-examination, Sherman said he had asked to see the reports during the trial and the judge replied “not now.” Sherman said he could not recall if he renewed his request for the documents.
Prosecutors say the state Supreme Court rejected the issue during a separate appeal. They say the substance of the reports was disclosed in numerous police reports and other records turned over to Sherman.
Earlier in the day, prosecutors played up inconsistencies and uncorroborated details in Bryant’s account. They grilled investigator Vito Colucci Jr., who videotaped Bryant’s statement. Bryant has invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and will not testify.
Colucci and an associate also talked with Hasbrouck and Tinsley, both of whom have taken the Fifth.
Among the inconsistencies prosecutors pointed to Thursday:
• Bryant claimed that Hasbrouck talked to classmates about wanting to have sex with Moxley. But Colucci acknowledged that one of those classmates, Neal Walker, said he never heard Hasbrouck say anything like that.
• Bryant said Mills heard Hasbrouck make the comments about wanting to “go caveman” on Moxley, but Colucci said Mills never heard Hasbrouck say that.
• Bryant said that he saw Skakel and his brother, Thomas, the night Moxley was killed, but Colucci said he never asked the Skakels if they saw Bryant.
• Bryant told Skakel’s cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., that he left Greenwich before the murder and came back sometime afterward, but he never mentioned that in his interview with Colucci. Kennedy is trying to help Skakel win a new trial.
• Prosecutors also questioned Colucci about whether Bryant’s accounts were consistent with the crime. Moxley was bludgeoned and also stabbed with a broken golf club, but Colucci said Bryant never said the men he implicated had boasted about stabbing Moxley.
Under cross-examination, Colucci said Bryant’s account was consistent with the crime because he said he and the others had touched golf clubs. Moxley was bludgeoned with a golf club.
• Prosecutors say Bryant implied that the men he implicated had some type of sexual fantasy involving Moxley, but there was no evidence that she was sexually assaulted.
“I’m not really sure if they were talking about having sexual intercourse,” Colucci said.
The non-jury hearing before Superior Court Judge Edward R. Karazin Jr. could last as long as two weeks.
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