Conn. High Court Denies Bid by Skakel for Juvenile Court Trial
The state Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal by Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel, clearing the way for his murder trial in the 1975 beating death of a Greenwich neighbor when both were teenagers.
In a unanimous decision, the justices dismissed Skakel’s bid to have his case transferred to juvenile court. No trial date has been set.
Skakel, a nephew of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, is charged with the murder of 15-year-old Martha Moxley, who was killed with a golf club.
No arrests were made for more than 24 years after the killing. Skakel was charged in January 2000 and later arraigned as a juvenile because he was 15 when his neighbor died.
Juvenile Court Judge Maureen Dennis ruled adult court was the proper venue, in part because the state has no juvenile facility where it could send Skakel, 41, if he is convicted.
As a juvenile, the maximum penalty Skakel could have received was four years. As an adult, he could be sentenced to 10 years to life in prison.
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