Skakel to Be Tried as Adult

ByABC News
January 31, 2001, 4:14 PM

Jan. 31 -- Kennedy relative Michael Skakel will be tried as an adult in the slaying of a teenage neighbor more than 25 years ago, a Connecticut judge ruled today.

Judge Maureen Dennis, a Juvenile Court judge in Stamford, Conn., issued her written ruling more than five months after finding there is enough evidence to put Skakel on trial for the 1975 slaying of Martha Moxley. At the time of that ruling, in August, Dennis ordered an investigation into whether Skakel should be tried as an adult.

Skakel's case was in Juvenile Court because he was 15 at the time of Moxley's death. In her ruling, Dennis said adult court was the proper venuefor the trial, in part because the state has no juvenile facilitywhere it could send Skakel, now 40, if convicted.

"The court further finds that the facilities of the adultcriminal division of the Superior Court afford and provide a moreeffective setting for the disposition of this case," Dennis wrote.

State's Attorney Jonathan Benedict had considereddropping the case unless it was transferred to adult court. He saidSkakel would have faced such a small penalty in juvenile court that itwould not be worth putting him on trial.

If convicted as a juvenile, Skakel would have faced a maximum of four years in prison. If convicted of murder as an adult, he would face 25 years to life in prison.

24 Years Without an Arrest

Moxley, 15, was found beaten to death on her family's Greenwich, Conn., estate on Oct. 30, 1975. Authorities believe Skakel, her neighbor, bludgeoned the girl with a golf club belonging to his family.

The son of Rushton Skakel Sr., a brother of Robert F. Kennedy's widow Ethel, Michael Skakel was long suspected of Moxley's killing. The night before her death, Moxley had been at the Skakel household with a group of friends, including Michael and his older brother Thomas. Police originally suspected Thomas in the killing but turned their attention to Michael after he changed his story about his whereabouts during the slaying.