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Jury selection begins in Skakel trial

Michael Skakel is charged with the murder of Martha Moxley, who was 15 when she was found slain in October 1975.

NORWALK, Connecticut (CNN) -- Jury selection began Tuesday in the trial of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel, charged with the murder of his teen-age neighbor 26 years ago.

Martha Moxley, Skakel's 15-year-old neighbor, was found bludgeoned to death with a golf club outside her home in affluent Greenwich, Connecticut, on October 31, 1975.

Skakel, now 41, was charged with the crime in January 2000, largely on the strength of witnesses who said he either admitted to killing Moxley or said he could have killed her in an alcohol-induced blackout. Skakel has pleaded not guilty to the crime.

Clad in a dark blue suit, Skakel arrived at Norwalk Superior Court shortly after 9:30 a.m. and walked inside without saying anything to reporters. Jury selection is expected to take about a month.

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Skakel is the nephew of Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert Kennedy.

"My client's mindset? I don't think he's the most relaxed guy in the world coming here, but I think he's doing pretty darn well, and he's looking forward to this case finally being over," said defense attorney Mickey Sherman.

As 24 prospective jurors entered the courtroom, Skakel stood, with a small smile on his face, before taking his seat at the defense table.

Half of the prospective jurors were dismissed after the morning session, claiming the expected five-week trial would be too difficult because of work or family obligations. One of the those dismissed was TV financial analyst Louis Rukeyser. He told the judge his lawyers were preparing a lawsuit against the Public Broadcasting Service after dismissing him after 32 years.

No members of the Kennedy family were present in the courtroom, but Sherman said he expected some "to show up" through the course of the trial.

"They are just family members who are wishing him well, which is nice," Sherman said, adding that cousin Bobby Kennedy had called Tuesday morning "to wish Michael well."

Both the prosecution and the defense released lists of potential witnesses.

The prosecution's list of 40 included: Dorthy and John Moxley, the victim's mother and brother; a onetime baby-sitter for the late Michael Kennedy, who, sources said, had been close to Skakel before a falling out; and Thomas Skakel, the defendant's brother and the last person to see Moxley alive.

The defense list of 20 included other Skakel family members.

Two new twists are expected to highlight the trial: For the first time, a jury may hear Skakel's voice on tape describing his sexual attraction to the slain girl, and Thomas Skakel, once a chief suspect, may testify about his actions the night of the murder.

The unsolved case languished for more than two decades until a judge was named in June 1998 to act as a one-man investigative grand jury. He concluded there was enough evidence to charge Skakel, now a Florida resident, with murder.

The night before the murder, Michael, then 15, and Thomas, then 17, had gone to dinner at a country club and then returned home, where they met up with Martha and a group of friends. It was "Devil's Night," when many neighborhood teens play pranks and stay out late.

According to police reports, Thomas was the last person seen with Martha, about 9:30 p.m. October 30, 1975.

After the body was discovered the next day, police searched the neighborhood, including the Skakel house, where they found a set of rare Tony Penna golf clubs, the type used to beat Martha to death. The six-iron, which police now consider the murder weapon, was missing.

Though pieces of a six-iron, including the head, were found in the vicinity of the body, a key part of the handle -- which in the set found in the Skakel house was monogrammed with the initials of Michael Skakel's late mother, Anne -- has never been found.

Thomas Skakel remained a suspect for years, until Michael was charged.

At the heart of the prosecution's case are the alleged confessions Michael made in the years immediately after the murder at the Elan rehabilitation center in Poland Springs, Maine, where Michael was sent in 1978 after a drunk-driving conviction.

But prosecutors face a challenge because one key witness from Elan will not be able to testify: former resident Gregory Coleman, who said Skakel once boasted that he was "going to get away with murder." He died of a heroin overdose shortly after grand jury testimony in the case last year.

-- CNN Correspondent Deborah Feyerick contributed to this report.