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Skakel defense points finger at former suspect

Skakel

NORWALK, Connecticut (CNN) -- The attorney for Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel has asked a Connecticut judge to allow jurors to see a videotape which he says shows a former suspect confessing to the murder of Martha Moxley.

Superior court Judge John Kavanewsky reserved ruling on the matter until after the case is under way and the former suspect, Kenneth Littleton, testifies for the prosecution.

His decision came during the final court hearing on defense and prosecution motions prior to the start of testimony May 7.

At issue is the videotape of a 1992 interview with Littleton, Skakel's former tutor, in which he discusses his confusion over former statements he may have made about the case.

In the tape, a portion of which defense attorney Mickey Sherman played in court Friday, psychiatrist Kathy Morall -- hired by Greenwich police to conduct the interview -- asks Littleton about what he may have told his ex-wife, Mary Baker, about the night of the murder.

Littleton said he was drinking and may have blacked out during a trip from Florida to New York in 1984 when he told his wife he wasn't sure what exactly happened on that night.

"I ... had been drinking heavily, was psychotic," Littleton said. "It's kind of frightening, but I know what happened. This is when I said I did it ... I said to her what I said to myself ... I'd investigated this and I'd look at this from all sorts of different angles whether I could've possibly done it."

But state's attorney Jonathan Benedict said Littleton never admitted to any crime -- and that he was an alcoholic and suffered mental illness at the time of the interview, a condition not diagnosed until nine years later.

As Sherman appealed to the judge to allow the Littleton videotape as evidence, Skakel threw up his arms for emphasis.

In another twist to the 26-year-old case, Benedict said he would call Littleton's ex-wife as a witness for the prosecution. Sherman added Baker to the defense's witness list Tuesday.

Littleton was hospitalized several times since the murder for mental illness. According to prosecutors and his lawyer, Littleton is now a recovering alcoholic who is also on psychiatric medication.

Benedict, however, acknowledged that investigators may have erred in their handling of Littleton when they asked his ex-wife to prod him into confession while recording their telephone conversations.

"It's the most bizarre piece of investigative work I have ever encountered," Benedict told the judge.

Sherman would also like transcripts of those conversations to be admitted as evidence in the trial.

Excerpts from the transcripts released Tuesday show Baker unsuccessfully trying to get Littleton to admit to the murder.

Moxley was 15 years old when she was bludgeoned to death with a golf club outside her home the night of October 30, 1975. Police traced the club to a set owned by the her neighbors, the Skakels.

That night was also Littleton's first night on the job for the Skakels. During the years police considered him a suspect, Littleton insisted he had nothing to do with the murder and had never even met Moxley.

Littleton's lawyer, Gene Riccio, told reporters outside court he was not surprised by the defense tactics.

"This is not unexpected," he said, adding, "It's kind of hard to defend yourself in the vacuum that he's in right now."

Sherman said prosecutors had an obligation to turn over the entire, six-hour psychiatric interview with Littleton, not just a part of it that they gave him two days ago.

Sherman denied he was trying to put Littleton, instead of Skakel, on trial.

"That was a fairly telling tape that we heard," he said. "Whether it's a genuine confession is something for a jury to decide."

The judge also put off until the trial a decision on a defense motion to block transcripts of prior testimony by prosecution witness Gregory Coleman, who died of a heroin overdose last year. Coleman had testified Skakel admitted to beating Moxley with a golf club and said he would "get away with murder" because he is a Kennedy.

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

Sherman said the prosecution "will very possibly get the benefit of what he said without being cross-examined, without the scrutiny by me, by the jury, by the public at large, by no fresh cross-examination, by no one judging how he said it."