Murder in
Greenwich
The Martha Moxley Murder
Timeline
JULY 4,
1974
The Moxley family moves to Greenwich from Piedmont California, as
Martha
Moxley's father, David, is appointed head of the New York office
of Touche
Ross & Co., an international accounting firm.
OCTOBER 30, 1975
Martha Moxley, 15, is killed.
OCTOBER 31, 1975
Moxley's body is found by neighborhood friend Sheila McGuire at
about 12:15
P.M. under a pine tree on the Moxley estate.
NOVEMBER 1, 1975
Dr. Elliot Gross, the state's chief medical examiner conducts an
autopsy in
Greenwich Hospital showing Martha was viciously beaten to death
with a golf
club found near her body.
NOVEMBER 3, 1975
Greenwich police issue a nationwide alarm for the grip and shaft
of a
stainless steel Toney Penna golf club, used in the murder
NOVEMBER 4, 1975
More than 500 People attend Moxleys funeral at First Lutheran
Church in
Greenwich. Friends eulogize that Martha once said she wanted
"everyone to be
happy and remember all the good time we had" at her funeral.
NOVEMBER 14, 1975
David Moxley tells Greenwich Time that he is confident the murder
will be
solved, is pleased with the Police Departments efforts, and had
not retained
a private investigator.
DECEMBER 4, 1975
Greenwich High School students launch a drive to raise funds for
the Martha
Moxley Memorial Scholorship fund.
MARCH 26, 1976
Donald Brown, state's attorney for the Judicial District of
Fairfield, says a
Greenwich family is refusing to cooperate with the investigation.
Browne's
statement is perceived to inply the Skakels, who up until then
had been
cooperating with police
APRIL 12, 1983
Chief State's Attorney Austin McGuigan and Police Chief Thomas
Keegan say
they are committed to pursuing Martha's murder
MAY 12, 1983
Keegan says he will comply with a ruling by the state Freedom of
Information
Commission that ordered him to examine the Moxley file and
determine what
parts of it could be made public without hurting the chances of
bringing the
suspect to trial. The documents were requested by the Greenwich
Time.
April 29, 1991
After years of following false and dead-end leads in the murder
case, State's
Attorney Donald Browne says new leads have developed in the case
as a result
from public interest in the Palm Beach, Florida rape
investigation of William
Kennedy Smith, a nephew of U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass
AUGUST 9, 1991
Browne Announces a reinvestigation into the Moxley case. He
assigns Greenwich
Detective Frank Garr and state inspector Jack Solomom to lead the
investigation. Brown also announces that the state police's top
forensics expert, Dr. Henry
Lee, has begun reviewing evidence in the case. The
reinvestigation followed
publication in June of a Greenwich Time story that revealed
details of the
police investigation of the murder.
DECEMBER 3, 1991
Investigators say they have "increasing hopes" of
identifying the killer
after obtaining "significant new information" through
scientific analysis and
physical evidence.
SEPTEMBER 1, 1994
Garr, the lead investigator in the Moxley case, retires from the
Police
Department and becomes an inspector with the states attorney's
office in
Bridgeport, CT. Police Chief Kenneth Moughty says information
concerning the
Moxley case will be forwarded to Garr
JUNE
28, 1995
Solomon, a former state trooper who was among the original case
investigators, is selected police chief in Easton, CT.
OCTOBER 30, 1995
Dorthy Moxley hosts a dinner at Belle Haven Club to commemorate
the murders
20th anniversary, inviting friends, police, journalists and
others involved in the
case.
DECEMBER 10, 1995
Greenwich Time reports that Michael Skakel is a third suspect in
the case. Up
until now, police have focused their investigation on Thomas
Skakel and
Kenneth Littleton, a tutor who moved into the Skakel home the day
of the murder.
DECEMBER 17, 1995
Journalist Leonard Levitt reports in Newsday that Thomas Skakel
admitted
lying to police about his rendezvous with Martha Moxley at the
time she was
murdered because he feared angering his father. Levitt reports
that investigators do
not believe Skakel and theorize that he was trying to set up a
defense for
himself after being told new DNA evidence could possibly link him
to the murder.
JUNE 7, 1995
An investigation says the Moxleys will double a $50,000 reward in
hopes of
persuading witnesses to come forward. The family already added $30,000
to the
$20,000 reward offered by the state.
JUNE 20, 1997
Dorthy Moxley rescinds the $80,000 her family had committed to
the $100,000
reward fund for her in her daughters killing.
JANUARY 23, 1998
A nationally prominent forensic pathologist, Dr. Michael Baden,
director of
the New York State Police Forensic Science Unit, concluded that
his independent
review of the murder case is incomplete because autopsy
photographs from the
official state files are missing.
APRIL 1998
Greenwich native, Timothy Dumas publishes "Greentown: Murder
and Mystery in
Greenwich, America's Wealthiest Community", a book detailing
the murder and
the Belle Haven Community.
APRIL 16, 1998
Donald Brown, the special state prosecutor assigned to the case,
unexpectedly
withdraws, citing a reference to him in Dumas' book that posted
for him a
"potential conflict". In the book, Dumas quoted unnamed
journalists as
wondering whether Brown could have been "paid off".
MAY 13, 1998
"Murder in Greenwich: Who Killed Martha Moxley?" - a
book written by former
Los Angeles Police Detective Mark Fuhrman - is published. The
book names Michael
Skakel as the murderer, saying he became jealous after seeing
Martha kissing
his older brother Thomas.
JUNE 1998
A three-judge panel sitting in New Haven approves a prosecutor's
application
for a one-judge investigative grand jury in the Moxley case.
JUNE 17, 1998
States Chief Court Administrator Aaron Ment appoints state
Superior Court
Judge George Thim, of Trumbull, as the one-man grand jury from a
pool of 160
Superior Court Judges. Said Dorthy Moxley, "I've been going
around pinching myself to
see if this is really happening, because this is what I've prayed
for all these
years"
JULY 10, 1998
Under a veil of secrecy, grand jury testimony begins at state
Superior Court
in Bridgeport as Martha's only surviving immediate family
members, mother Dorthy
and brother John Moxley, and retired Greenwich Police officer
Daniel Hickman,
one of the first police officers to arrive at the crime scene,
testify.
JULY 25, 1998
Stamford attorney Michael Sherman confirms that suspect Michael
Skakel hired
him earlier that week to represent him.
AUGUST 4, 1998
Kenneth Littleton, One of the three publicly identified suspects
in the
murder case receives immunity from prosecution for the crime in
return for his grand
jury testimony.
AUGUST 11, 1998
Mildred Ix, a close friend and neighbor of both the Moxleys and
suspects
Thomas and Michael Skakel at the time of the murder, testifies
before the Grand
Jury.
SEPTEMBER 21, 1998
Four members of the suspects' family - Sister, Julie Skakel,
brothers John
and Steben Skakel and Cousin Desneiges Terrien - appear before
the grand jury.
NOVEMBER 10, 1998
A Florida judge orders Rushton Skakel Sr., the father of the 2
suspects to
travel to Connecticut from Hobe Sound Florida, to give testimony
before the
Grand Jury.
NOVEMBER 13, 1998
Dr. Henry Lee, commissioner of the state Department of Public
Safety
testifies before the grand jury. Lee was director of the State
Police Forensic Science
Laboratory in Meriden when a reinvestigation of Martha Moxley's
murder began
in 1991.
DECEMBER 10, 1998
Superior Court Judge Edward Stodolink rules that the owner of a
drug
rehabilitation center, Joseph Ricci, must testify before the
grand jury, and
that Michael Skakels possible confession to the murder duringhis
stay there
can be considered as evidence.
DECEMBER 19, 1998
A manhattan judge orders a former lawyer for Michael Skakel,
Thomas Sheridan Jr., to testify before the grand Jury.
JANUARY 8, 1999
A New York Judge refuses to honor a Connecticut Subpeona ordering
James
Murphy, a former FBI agent who founded Jericho, New York based
Sutton Associates to
testify before the grand jury. The Skakels hired the firm in 1992
to gather
evidence to prove the boys' innocence. The Sutton report,
however, revealed
that both brothers had changed their stories about their
movements the night of
the murder.
JANUARY 29. 1999
Author Richard Joffman, who collaborated on a book proposal with
Michael
Skakel,
testifies before the Grand Jury.
FEBRUARY 19, 1999
The state Appellate Court denies Elan School owner Joseph Ricci's
appeal of a
judges order that he give grand jury testimony concerning his
alledged
knowledge of Michael Skakels "admissions" to the murder.
MARCH 12, 1999
Suffolk County (NY) Judge Michael Mullen rules that Willis Krebs,
a former
private investigator who interviewed both Skakel suspects must
appear before
the Grand Jury.
MARCH 24, 1999
Krebs testifies. Krebs is a former employee of Sutton Associates
private detective agency
hired to investigate the Moxley murder in 1992 by lawyers
representing the Skakel
brothers. Connecticut prosecutors allege that both brothers
significantly
changed their alibis they had given to police in 1975 when Krebs
interviewed
them.
JUNE 14, 1999
Prosecutors apply for a six month extension for the grand jury.
SEPTEMBER 9, 1999
After nearly a year of appealing a subpoena, Rushton Skakel Sr,
appears
before the grand jury. He spends more than an hour answering
questions about what he
might know concerning his sons' involvement in the murder.
NOVEMBER 4, 1999
Chuck Seigan, an Illinois man who underwent substance abuse
rehabilitation
with Michael Skakel, testified before judge Edward Stodolink that
a murder was
discussed during a special meeting about Skakels escape from Elan
School.
NOVEMBER 13, 1999
Public Safety Commissioner Henry Lee spends more than an hour
telling a grand
jury what he knows about the night Marth Moxley was killed. Lee
spent two
years (from 1992-1994) examining all the physical evidence in the
case and
reconstructing the crime scene after a full reinvestigation of
the case was
launched.
NOVEMBER 15, 1999
Superior Court Judge Edward Stodolink rules that the grand jury
cannot
contemplate testimony of employees at Elan School, but can
consider claims
made by other patients who were at the rehab center with Michael
Skakel.
DECEMBER 10, 1999
The grand jury, exhausting its limit of extensions, expires.
JANUARY 12, 2000
Thim submits his investigatory grand jury report, which says that
the state's
attorney's office "has available to him evidence that he may
use to prepare
and application for an arrest warrant.
JANUARY 19, 2000
With knowledge of the arrest warrant, Michael Skakel flies from
Hobe Sound,
Florida and arrives in Greenwich to surrender himself to the
charge of murder
at police headquarters at 2:49 P.M. Skakel is released on $500,000
bond and is
charged as a Juvenile at the time of the murder. Sherman, his
attorney, says
Skakel is not guilty and vows there will be no plea bargain.
March 10, 2000
Judge Maureen Dennis rules on a request from five newspapers and
The
Associated Press, which had asked to open the juvenile proceeding
to the public. The
judge agreed to allow press coverage and moved the arraignment to
Stamford Superior
Court, Tuesday March 14th.
March 14, 2000
Michael Skakel arraigned on charge of Murder after 25 years.
After the
arraignment, Michael Skakel walks up to Martha's Mother, Dorthy
and said,
matter of factly "You've got the wrong guy." Michael
Skakel, now 39, was arraigned
in state Superiour Court in Stamford as a juvenile in the 1975
murder of Martha
in Belle Haven. He was not asked to enter a plea durning the four-minute
proceeding, but he was informed of his rights as a criminal
defendant by
Juvenile Matters Judge Maureen Dennis, who then read the states
allegations
against him.
June 20, 2000
Michael Skakel arrives at Stamford Superior Court for the first day of his Preliminary hearings. Skakel sat and sobbed as John Higgens, an ex Elan classmate of Michaels said that Michael admitted to hiding a Golf club In the Skakel garage. Coleman was last seen fleeing from the back door of the courthouse, as to elude reporters. Court recessed so Michael could get himself together. Also, Shelia Maguire also testified about when she found Martha's body. Gregory coleman, a self-described crack cocaine abuser and convicted felon who is nearing the end of his latest sentence in a Rochester, N.Y., prison and a former classmate of Skakels at Elan also testified saying Micheal gave him detailed confession about "hitting on" martha and when she didnt go along with his advances, and he had to "drive her skull in." Coleman also testified that Michael said "I'm going to get away with Murder, I'm a Kennedy."
When asked about his reaction to Michaels emotions in the courtroom, John Moxley, Martha's brother replied "They weren't tears of Joy, I think Michael is finally realizing how serious this is"
Mrs. Moxley also attended with her Sister in Law, Mary Jo Rahatz.Walking toward the courthouse, an hour or so before hearing testimony alleging Skakel's admission to the murder of her daughter, Dorthy Moxley said she was anxious for the prosecution to begin presenting its case. "It's something I've waited for for a long, long time, so I'm eager and anxious," she said. "But I do have this feeling of confidence. Someone did something terribly wrong and there will be justice."
June 21 & 28, 2000
Gregory Coleman was back in court to undergo cross-examination by Skakel attorney, Mickey Sherman. Sherman attacked Coleman's credibility by asking the witness whether his memory might be faulty due to his admitted drug and alcohol abuse. Coleman answered by saying he had short-term memory lapses, but his long-term memory was fine. Referring to Coleman's testimony Tuesday that Skakel told him the murder weapon was a driver, which has a head made of wood, Sherman showed the witness the actual murder weapon - a 6-iron, which has a head made of metal. After having his recall questioned by Sherman, Coleman averted his eyes toward the ceiling, and then answered, "I would say my recall at times would be questionable." To that, Sherman responded, "Those 10 seconds (before Coleman answered) really bother the hell out of me."
Also...
A Childhood friend of Michael Skakel, Andrew Pugh also testified that he hadn't seen Michael since 1980 and had met up with him at an AA meeting in Greenwich in 1991 and discussed getting together and renewing their aquaintance, But Pugh said he changed his mind about a reunion when Skakel telephoned him less than a month later, because of concerns that Michael possibly had been involved in the Moxley murder. "I had some doubts as to his involvement," Pugh testified. Pugh said he was "addled" by information Skakel volunteered during the conversation, in which Michael placed himself at the crime scene the night of Oct. 30, 1975, when Moxley was bludgeoned and stabbed with the golf club, which was owned by the Skakel family. "Skakel said he was on Moxley's property that evening in that tree masturbating, but he had nothing to do with her death," Pugh said. Soon after his reaquaintance with Michael, Investigators from the Sutton Associates started to contact him. "They said they were attempting to do an investigation to finally answer all the questions that have been raised about the Skakel family and the death of Martha Moxley," Pugh said. He said the investigator called him nearly every day for about a month, seeking to arrange a meeting, but Pugh said he turned down the investigator each time.
August 17, 2000,
Judge Dennis finds reasonable cause to CHARGE Michael Skakel with murder in the death of Martha. The case is being handled for the time being in juvenile court because Skakel was 15 at the time of the killing. After a hearing held earlier this summer, Judge Maureen Dennis ruled Thursday that enough evidence exists to try Skakel But she also ordered that a juvenile probation officer conduct an investigation before she rules on a prosecution request to transfer the case to adult court. The decision on where Skakel should stand trial could make a big difference in the penalty he could face if found guilty. If Skakel is convicted as an adult, he could get life in prison.It is not clear what penalty Skakel could face as a juvenile, but some legal experts have said he could be spared any punishment at all. Under 1975 state law, juveniles convicted of murder were held in a juvenile facility and then freed when they became adults.
October 5, 2000
January 31, 2001
February 21, 2001
A probation report was filed with the
Hon. Maureen D. Dennis. Both counsel have been given copies of the report. The report is sealed. Counsel for Michael Skakel have asked for a hearing on the report. The hearing will be held
on October 20th. Specific time of the hearing will be
posted at a later date.
Dennis rules Skakel should be tried as an adult, in part because the state has no juvenile facility where it could send Skakel should he be convicted.
Even though his attorney is appealing Dennis' decision, Skakel's arraignment takes place in a Stamford, Conn., courthouse as planned.