NORWALK, Conn. - A jury convicted Michael C. Skakel yesterday of murder in the 1975 bludgeoning death of Martha Moxley, using more than a quarter-century of circumstantial evidence, incriminating statements and erratic behavior by Skakel to conclude that he killed Moxley, his friend and neighbor, when they were both 15.
Yesterday's verdict, after a 3 1/2 -week trial in which there was no direct physical evidence, brought a stunning conclusion to the nearly 27-year saga of the Moxley killing, which has been one of the most sensational murder mysteries in the Northeast, surrounded by a swirl of wealth and celebrity.
Skakel, 41, who is a nephew of Ethel Kennedy, faces a sentence of up to life in prison.
The jury, in state Superior Court here, announced it had reached a verdict just after 10:30 a.m., shortly after starting its fourth day of deliberations.
Skakel appeared stunned as the foreman pronounced the verdict in the packed, silent courtroom.
He stood at the defense table, his face flushed, his lips pursed. His lawyer, Michael Sherman, put a hand on Skakel's shoulder.
As the clerk polled each juror individually, the victim's mother, Dorthy Moxley, and her son, John, clutched each other in their front-row seats and cried, tears streaming past their astonished smiles.
Moments later, Judge John F. Kavanewsky Jr., who presided over the trial, ordered Skakel handcuffed. A brother, David Skakel, reached for him but was pushed back by a court marshal.
Sentencing was set for July 16. Skakel, whose bail was revoked, was taken to the Bridgeport Correctional Center.
Outside the courthouse, Dorthy Moxley faced a huge encampment of reporters and television crews. Through tears, Moxley said she had prayed before court.
"My prayer started out, 'Dear Lord, again today like I have been doing for 27 years, I'm praying that I can find justice for Martha. You know this whole thing was about Martha.'" She added: "This is Martha's day. This is truly Martha's day."
Behind her, on a courthouse wall, someone had posted a sign: "Justice at last."
John Moxley, Martha's brother, said: "Victory doesn't go with this. This is hollow. It doesn't bring Martha back." Regarding what sentence he hoped Skakel would receive, Moxley said, "We've been through this for 27 years, so I'd like to build on that and go up."
He also said of Skakel: "His life has been hell for 27 years. It's clear that the consciousness of guilt has followed him wherever he went. Perhaps now maybe he can start to find the other side of that."
Sherman said he was deeply disappointed and would appeal the verdict. "I will only tell you that this is not over," he said. "I'm not bitter. I'm determined. I believe in Michael Skakel. I believe Michael Skakel. Like I said earlier, he didn't do it. He doesn't have a clue who did."
Skakel's brother David said: "Martha's short life and the manner of her death should never be forgotten. For our family, grieving has coincided with accusation. Michael is innocent. I know this because I know Michael like only a brother does.
"Our family has been under great scrutiny for over 27 years. We all know each other so very well, and we all stand behind our brother Michael. Not out of loyalty but stemming from intimate understanding. You may want finality to this tragedy, and our family wants the same as much as anyone. But truth is more important than closure."
The case set a number of legal precedents in Connecticut and raised some exceedingly complex questions about juvenile justice: how to try and potentially punish a 41-year-old man for a crime committed when he was a boy.
Skakel was initially charged as a juvenile but the case was transferred to Superior Court, where he was tried as an adult. Conviction in Juvenile Court would have meant little or no jail time. Although Skakel's lawyers protested the move, the state Supreme Court ruled that they could not appeal until there was a trial and conviction.
The jurors were forced to weigh the prosecution's load of circumstantial evidence, including numerous reported confessions by Skakel, against the constant reminders by the defense that there was no physical evidence against him and that investigators had long focused on two former suspects: Thomas Skakel, an older brother of the defendant, and Kenneth W. Littleton, then a live-in tutor for the Skakel family.
Ultimately, however, prosecutors pieced together enough of the puzzle for jurors to place Skakel at the crime scene and give him both motive and opportunity. The evidence showed he had unrequited feelings for Moxley and ready access to the golf club that was used as a murder weapon. That investigators found no bloody fingerprints or traces of semen did not stand in the way of jurors declaring him guilty.
By far the most damaging evidence against Skakel came from his own mouth: a taped conversation in 1997 with the ghost writer of an autobiography that Skakel hoped to write. On the tape, he described himself as drunk, high on marijuana and sexually aroused on the night of the murder, and said he climbed a tree in the Moxley yard where he masturbated trying to peep into Martha Moxley's bedroom.
The next morning, Dorthy Moxley's knock on the door of the Skakel home was answered by Michael Skakel. In the taped conversation with the ghost writer, Richard Hoffman, Skakel said he panicked: "I woke up to Moxley saying, 'Michael, have you seen Martha?'" Skakel said on the tape.
"And I was like still high from the night before, a little drunk," he said. "I was like, 'Oh my God, did they see me last night?'"
Although Skakel never confessed in the taped conversation, prosecutors insisted it was clear evidence of his guilt, that his panic was not over whether someone saw him masturbating but whether someone saw him swinging the golf club, killing his friend.