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Skakel witness: Life went 'down the tubes'

Littleton says the investigation into Martha Moxley's murder ruined his life.

NORWALK, Connecticut (CNN) -- A one-time suspect in the Martha Moxley murder case told a rapt courtroom Monday that his life "went down the tubes" after the night she was killed and he became the focus of the police investigation.

"It was a tragedy for me," former Skakel family tutor Ken Littleton said under cross-examination by defense attorney Mickey Sherman.

Littleton testified in the trial of Michael Skakel, 41, who is charged with murdering his 15-year-old neighbor Martha Moxley with a golf club on October 30, 1975. Skakel is the nephew of Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert Kennedy.

Littleton, who takes a half-dozen psychiatric medications, spoke haltingly of how the murder case ruined his life.

"I was a bright, promising young teacher, graduated from one of the top schools in the country," Littleton said.

But after the murder, he was arrested for burglary in Nantucket and continuously pursued by authorities. "My life was a mess," he said.

Police went after him, he said, because "I was the only one who made myself available to questioning by the police."

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He also said he had never met Moxley. "I never saw Martha Moxley before the night of October 30, 1975, during the night of October 30, 1975, or after October 30, 1975."

Littleton acknowledged he had once called the victim's father, David Moxley, and offered to take a test with under sodium pentothal, the so-called "truth serum."

"I wanted to see if there was anything that possibly resided in my mind that would give a break in the case," Littleton said.

But as for what happened the night of the slaying, Littleton said: "That memory is crystal clear in my mind, in terms of my action that night."

Littleton said during testimony Thursday that he had moved into the Skakel house the night of the murder.

After taking the Skakel children to dinner at the Bell Haven Country Club, Littleton went home to unpack and watch the movie "The French Connection."

Around 9:30 p.m., the Skakels' nanny asked him to go outside and check on a fracas she had heard.

He said he went out, heard a rustling in the leaves, but saw no one. When he returned to watching the movie, Tommy Skakel joined him for about 15 minutes.

Littleton in 1975

Tommy Skakel, Michael's brother, also was a suspect by police in the months after the killing.

Sherman tried repeatedly to get Littleton to talk about his former drug use and any problems with his memory. State's Attorney Jonathan Benedict objected, saying the subject was "irrelevant."

Sherman did get Littleton to recount how, during an incident in 1982, he told Florida police his name was "Kenny Kennedy."

According to Sherman, the incident is evidence of Littleton's paranoia and/or obsession with the Skakel and Kennedy families.

He also had Littleton repeat a story from his 1998 grand jury testimony in which he said he thought the Skakel family may have arranged to "blow [his] heart out with an intravenous dosage of cocaine" during a party in Nantucket.

Judge John Kavanewsky has yet to rule on a defense motion to admit transcripts of 1992 wiretaps between Littleton and his ex-wife, Mary Baker, in which Baker tried to get Littleton to confess to the murder by telling him he had admitted it during an alcoholic blackout.

Baker said in court Friday she had lied to Littleton about his previous statements to her and that he had in fact never confessed.