Skakel seeking new trial in Moxley slaying

STAMFORD, Conn. – Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel, convicted three years ago of bludgeoning his neighbor to death with a golf club in 1975, will seek a new trial based on a claim by a cousin of basketball star Kobe Bryant that implicates two other people in Martha Moxley’s murder.

Skakel’s attorneys plan to file the petition for a new trial Monday. The Associated Press on Friday obtained a copy of the legal papers, which have been served on state officials.

Gitano “Tony” Bryant’s allegation surfaced in 2003 after Skakel, a nephew of Ethel Kennedy, was convicted of killing Moxley in their gated neighborhood in wealthy Greenwich when they were both 15. Skakel, now 44, is serving a term of 20 years to life in prison.

Prosecutors declined to comment on the petition.

Bryant, who attended the private Brunswick School with Skakel, said he was with two friends from New York in the Belle Haven neighborhood of Greenwich the night Moxley was killed, according to Skakel’s attorneys. Bryant was not with Skakel that night, the attorneys said, and the two friends are not identified in the petition.

Bryant declined comment late Friday.

The petition for a new trial, filed in Stamford Superior Court, is separate from an appeal by Skakel that is pending before the Connecticut Supreme Court.