Trial of Kennedy Cousin Begins Tuesday

By Stephen M. Silverman

05/07/2002 at 01:02 PM EDT

The murder trial of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel begins in Connecticut Tuesday morning, with local New York TV stations reporting that Kennedy kin Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Ma.) and Ethel Kennedy may show up in court to lend support to their relative. Skakel, 41, the nephew of Ethel Kennedy (widow of late Sen. Robert Kennedy), stands accused of murdering neighbor Martha Moxley, who was bludgeoned to death with a golf club in 1975, when both she and Skakel were 15. (The club belonged to a set owned by Skakel's mother.) Skakel has pleaded innocent to the murder. Martha's mother, Dorothy Moxley, who has been crusading for nearly 27 years to find Martha's killer, is expected to be the first prosecution witness to testify Tuesday. Her son, John, is expected to follow, the AP reports. Sheila McGuire, who was also a teen at the time of the murder and found the body, is also expected to be among the more than 40 witnesses in the prosecution's case.