Skakel Loses in Effort to Gain a New Trial

STAMFORD, Conn., Oct. 25 — Michael C. Skakel, who was convicted five years ago of killing a neighbor, Martha Moxley, in 1975 when they were both teenagers in Greenwich, suffered a further setback on Thursday when a state judge denied his bid for a new trial.

Skip to next paragraph City Room Blog

The latest news and reader discussions from around the five boroughs and the region.

Go to City Room »

The judge, Edward R. Karazin Jr. of Stamford Superior Court, concluded that newly discovered evidence suggesting an alternate theory of the homicide would not have produced a different outcome at trial.

The lawyers for Mr. Skakel, 47, who is serving a term of 20 years to life, said they intended to appeal the decision and challenge his confinement on the ground that he had ineffective counsel at his trial. While that line of appeal is often considered a last resort, Judge Karazin’s ruling might make that argument easier because of his findings that Mr. Skakel’s trial lawyer, Mickey Sherman, could have discovered some of the evidence now in question if he had pursued it more diligently.

The evidence, developed with the help of Mr. Skakel’s prominent cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer, included videotaped testimony from Gitano Bryant, an acquaintance of Ms. Moxley, about how he accompanied two friends of his from the Bronx to Belle Haven, the gated community where the Moxleys and the Skakels lived, on the night she was bludgeoned to death with a golf club.

Mr. Bryant testified that his two friends boasted at the time of wanting to attack a girl “cave man style” and later gloated that they had. The threesome, according to Mr. Bryant, also handled golf clubs they found on the Skakel property.

The judge wrote that although Mr. Bryant’s account would meet the threshold to be admissible, “it lacks credibility, and therefore would not produce a different result in a new trial.”

Ms. Moxley’s brother, John Moxley, called the decision expected, and added: “But still it’s a relief. It’s official.”

Mr. Moxley said he never believed the theory that the two visitors from the Bronx were responsible for his sister’s death because Mr. Bryant “was a very well-known person, and he’s not the kind of person who could have been there that night with all those people running around and no one would have known who he was.”

He said the alternative account was “like a bad movie script,” and added: “This blames the three black guys coming in off the highway. It’s just too far-fetched.”

Mr. Sherman, for his part, said he expected an attack on his competence from Mr. Skakel’s new lawyers, Hope C. Seeley and Hubert J. Santos. “If Hope had not done it, she would have been accused of malpractice,” he said.

He added: “I said on the witness stand that if they lose that motion, I become the enemy and get thrown under the bus. It’s the nature of the beast.”

More Topics:
Lawyers.com
... lawyer, and law firm directory to find a lawyer, attorneys, and local law firms. Lawyers.com ... Insurance. Intellectual Property. Legal Malpractice ...

Pittsburgh Medical Malpractice Lawyers : Pennsylvania Medical ...
... thirty years experience in Pennsylvania medical malpractice law. ... When to Speak to a Medical Malpractice Lawyer. Visit Our Main Site. Do I Have a Case? ...

Medical Malpractice Attorneys - Medical Malpractice Lawyers
... experts, medical malpractice experts, medical malpractice lawyers and expert ... of professional malpractice, you want to find a lawyer with proven experience ...

Medical Malpractice Claims - Lawyers for Medical Malpractice Claims ...
... Malpractice Attorneys Handle Millions Of Dollars In Medical Malpractice ... presented by a defense lawyer in a medical malpractice lawsuit that few people ...