Skakel’s Sister Wavers on Eyewitness Account

NORWALK, Conn. —  The older sister of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel testified Wednesday that she saw a figure run across the family property the night Martha Moxley was killed but does not believe it was her brother.

Julie Skakel said that, although she at first thought it was Michael and called out his name, the figure did not respond and she now doesn’t believe it was him.

The testimony came as the trial nears an end. The jury was excused until Monday, when closing arguments are scheduled. Attorneys will meet today to discuss jury instructions.

Skakel, 41, is charged with beating Moxley with a golf club almost 27 years ago, when they were 15-year-old neighbors in Greenwich. Skakel is a nephew of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s widow, Ethel.

Skakel’s attorneys argue that he left with a group of other teens to take a cousin home about the time Moxley was killed, which a medical expert for the defense estimated at 10 p.m. Oct. 30, 1975--a time that conforms with Skakel’s alibi. The state medical examiner has said that the time of death could have been anywhere between 9:30 p.m. and 5 a.m. the next day.

Julie Skakel said she was standing in her driveway about 9:30 p.m. that night when she saw a figure run past. She said she wasn’t sure who it was, but said, “I think I yelled out, ‘Michael!’”

Prosecutors reminded her of statements she made to police in 1975 and her testimony before a grand jury in 1998. In the police interview, she said she thought the running figure was her brother.

Julie Skakel, who was 18 in 1975, said she first thought the person might have been Michael because he was always out with friends on “mischief night,” the night before Halloween. But even at that time, she was uncertain who she saw, she said.

She also reported seeing a figure run in front of her house later that night after she returned from taking a friend home. “As I was walking to the front door, someone ran in front of me,” she said. “It looked like it was holding something, maybe a bundle.”

She told defense attorney Michael Sherman that she was sure the figure was not her brother “because of the size.”

During cross-examination, Sherman established that many neighborhood teenagers were outside playing pranks on “mischief night.”

Prosecutors also called to the stand a former classmate of Skakel at a substance abuse treatment center in Maine. Jennifer Pease, 36, backed up earlier testimony that Skakel had confessed to killing Moxley while at the Elan School in the late 1970s.

Pease said fellow student Gregory Coleman, who died last year after using heroin, told her that Skakel had talked about killing a girl.

“He said that he had beaten some girl’s head in with a golf club and killed her,” Pease said.