Skakel Defense Points to Tutor

Attorneys for Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel played videotaped interviews Monday they said implicated his childhood tutor in the 1975 slaying of Skakel’s 15-year-old neighbor.

The jury in Skakel’s murder trial saw a 1992 interview of the tutor, Kenneth Littleton, that was conducted by a state-retained psychologist for the murder inquiry.

The psychologist asked Littleton about statements he may have made to his ex-wife during an alcohol-induced blackout in 1984. Skakel’s defense lawyer, Michael Sherman, then asked Littleton what he told the doctor.

“I did it,” Littleton replied.

“And, when you say I did it, you are talking about that you committed the murder of Martha Moxley?” Sherman asked.

“Correct,” Littleton replied.

But under questioning by prosecutors, the tutor denied actually committing the crime.

“Did you kill Martha Moxley?” prosecutor Jonathan Benedict asked Littleton.

“No, I did not,” Littleton said.

Skakel, now 41, and Moxley were 15-year-old neighbors in a wealthy, gated Greenwich community when Moxley was beaten to death with a golf club. Skakel, a nephew of Robert F. Kennedy’s widow, Ethel, could face life in prison if convicted.

Sherman also asked about taped conversations between Littleton and his ex-wife, Mary Baker.

“Did you ever tell Mary that you stabbed Martha Moxley through the neck?” Sherman asked.

“Yes,” Littleton said.

But prosecutors called Baker, who testified that she was lying when she told Littleton he had confessed during the blackout. At the time, Littleton was a suspect and Baker was working with police.

Sherman pressed Baker on why she had lied to Littleton if she thought he was innocent. Baker said she thought cooperating with police was the right thing to do.

Littleton has immunity from prosecution because he was compelled to testify to a grand jury that investigated the murder and recommended Skakel be charged.

Last week, Littleton testified he was told to take Michael, several other Skakel children and a cousin out of Greenwich the day after Moxley was killed. On Monday, Sherman played a tape in which Littleton suggested that it was his idea to make that trip.