Skakel pins hope for new trial on startling claim

STAMFORD, Conn. – As Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel braced for his 2002 murder trial, two classmates began discussing a fictional screenplay one wrote about the case. They began to collaborate, but then the other dropped a bombshell – forget the script, he knew the true killers.

Skakel now is hoping that account will win him a new trial. But prosecutors say the story is still fiction and are trying to show it’s the latest example of a fame-seeker drawn to the high-profile case.

Skakel is serving 20 years to life in prison for killing Martha Moxley in 1975 in wealthy Greenwich when they were 15. The 46-year-old nephew of Ethel Kennedy is trying to win a new trial based on Gitano “Tony” Bryant’s claim that his two friends told him they got Moxley “caveman style,” a violent attack.

The nonjury hearing will continue Monday after four days of testimony last week by Skakel’s cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and others. To win, Skakel’s attorneys must prove that evidence not available at the time of his trial likely would have changed the verdict.

Crawford Mills, who attended a private school in Greenwich with Skakel and Bryant, said he discussed his fictional screenplay, “Little Martha,” in late 2001 with Bryant. Mills had worked for years on the screenplay, which implicated Skakel, his brother and others. Bryant offered to help Mills, saying he was an entertainment lawyer who had written some screenplays, including for the TV show “Walker, Texas Ranger.”

Mills called Bryant at the end of 2001 to discuss the screenplay again.

“He told me that none of the Skakels could have been involved in Martha’s killing because he knew who it was,” Mills testified last week.

Bryant said he was with the two men in Moxley’s neighborhood the night she was killed, but left before his friends. Bryant said one friend 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 said Bryant told him to keep quiet about his account, or at least not to reveal his name. Mills says he told Bryant’s story before Skakel’s trial to defense attorney Michael Sherman and prosecutor Jonathan Benedict, but did not tell them Bryant’s name.