Kennedy Kin Seeks New Murder Trial
A lawyer for Michael Skakel, convicted last year in the 1975 beating death of Martha Moxley, plans to seek a new trial based on information in the case from Gitano “Tony” Bryant, a former classmate.
Defense lawyer Hope Seeley said Saturday that Tony Bryant implicated two friends in the case. Bryant is the cousin of Los Angeles Laker basketball star Kobe Bryant.
Skakel, 42, a nephew of Ethel Kennedy, the widow of New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison in the slaying. Skakel and Moxley were both 15 when she was bludgeoned to death in their wealthy Greenwich neighborhood.
The Hartford Courant reported Saturday that Tony Bryant said two friends were the killers. They were not identified.
Seeley told Associated Press that attorneys were led to Bryant through Tres Mills, who had been a private school classmate of Tony Bryant and Skakel.
Mills told the Courant that he came forward in 2000 or 2001, but that prosecutors and Skakel’s former lawyer expressed little interest.
In a videotaped account made to defense investigators in August, Tony Bryant said two friends picked up golf clubs in Skakel’s yard and discussed attacking a girl, The Courant reported. He said it was clear to him the pair were talking about Moxley, whose death he heard about the following day.
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