NORWALK, Conn., May 22 (UPI) -- Kennedy kin Michael Skakel's defense hoped Wednesday to establish reasonable doubt in the minds of jurors that he killed neighbor Martha Moxley more than a quarter century ago.
The defense took over Wednesday after prosecutors wrapped up their case on Tuesday by presenting an audio tape recording on which Skakel placed himself at the scene the night of Oct. 30, 1975, when Moxley was slain outside her home in Greenwich, Conn.
He does not admit on the recording, however, that he killed Moxley.
Skakel, 41, is charged with bludgeoning the girl to death with a golf club from a set belonging to his late mother. Both were 15 at the time.
John Moxley, the victim's brother, told reporters outside the Superior Courthouse in Norwalk, Conn., that on the tape recording Skakel placed himself at the scene, and created alibis to explain his actions.
"That's as close to a confession as we're going to get from Michael Skakel," Moxley said. "In his own words, he put himself at the wrong place at the wrong time. In his own words, he says he's done it."
The tape recording was made in 1998 by Richard Hoffman, a ghostwriter working with Skakel on a proposed book called: "Dead Man Talking -- A Kennedy Cousin Comes Clean."
The book project was eventually terminated, according to Hoffman, who testified Tuesday as the prosecution's final witness.
On the tape Ethel Kennedy's nephew expresses his romantic desires for Moxley. "Martha likes me. I'll go get a kiss from Martha. I'll be bold tonight," he is heard saying.
He said that after Moxley declined his invitation to take part in some mischief the night before Halloween, he and some brothers and friends drove to a cousin's home.
Later, when he returned home, he said he was drunk and feeling sexually frustrated, so he went to find Moxley, according to the recording. Not finding her, he climbed a tree outside what he thought was her bedroom window.
"I was like spying in her window, and hoping to see her naked," he said. He said that after masturbating, he headed home.
Expressing a fear of the dark, Skakel said that on the way he threw rocks into bushes because he was afraid someone might be hiding there.
John Moxley said that was Skakel's way of establishing false alibis for his actions.
Skakel told Hoffman that he was concerned someone might have seen him outside at the time she was slain. Moxley's body was discovered the next day under a tree on her family's lawn.
"Oh, my God, if I tell anybody that I was out that night, they're going to say that I did it."
Defense attorney Michael Sherman said the tape did not hurt Skakel's case.
"We were not unhappy with that tape," Sherman said. "It was Michael telling his story in his own words."
Asked whether Skakel would testify in his own defense, Sherman referred to the tape recording and said, "He just did."
Sherman was expected to call some of Skakel's siblings and relatives to bolster his alibi that he was elsewhere at a cousin's house at the time of Moxley's slaying.
Earlier Tuesday, part-time model Gerrane Ridge testified that Skakel attended a party at her Boston home in 1997, and she overheard him talking about the Moxley slaying.
"I don't know the whole statement he said," Ridge testified, "but as I walked in the room, I recall him saying in jest, 'Ask me why I killed my neighbor.'"
