Key Skakel Witness Dies of Overdose

By Stephen M. Silverman

08/09/2001 at 12:10 PM EDT

Gregory Coleman, a key but troubled prosecution witness in the murder trial of Kennedy family relative Michael Skakel (accused in the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley), has died of a drug overdose, police said on Wednesday. In a preliminary hearing in the murder case, Coleman had testified that he heard Skakel twice confess to killing his teen-age neighbor Moxley, with Skakel allegedly saying "I am going to get away with murder. I am a Kennedy." Coleman's death was from a dose of bad heroin, police told The New York Times. Responding to the news of Coleman's death, Skakel's attorney, Mickey Sherman, told Reuters, "I wasn't shocked, but I was certainly surprised. He was a very nice young man who obviously had a drug problem going back very many years." Prosecutors in the case could not be reached for comment. A Connecticut judge ruled in April that there was enough evidence for Skakel to stand trial for allegedly killing Moxley. A hearing on pretrial motions is scheduled for Wednesday.