May 6, 2002 -- CNN --

NORWALK, Connecticut -- Testimony is scheduled to begin Tuesday in the murder trial of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel more than 26 years after Martha Moxley's body was found outside her Greenwich, Connecticut, home.

Two new twists are expected to highlight the trial. For the first time, a jury may hear Skakel's voice on tape describing his sexual attraction to the slain girl.

And Michael's brother, Tommy, once a chief suspect, may testify under oath for the first time about his actions the night of the slaying.

The body of Skakel's 15-year-old neighbor was found October 31, 1975, after she was bludgeoned to death with a golf club.

Michael Skakel, 15, and Tommy, 17, had gone to dinner the night before at the local country club and then returned home, where they met up with Martha and a group of friends. It was "Devil's Night," when many neighborhood teens play pranks and stay out late.

According to police reports, Tommy was the last person seen with Martha -- at about 9:30 p.m.

After the body was discovered around 12:30 p.m. the following day, police searched the neighborhood, including the Skakel house, where they found a set of rare Tony Penna golf clubs, the type used to beat Martha to death. The six-iron, which police now consider the murder weapon, was missing.

The grip in the set found in the Skakel house was monogrammed with the initials of Michael Skakel's late mother, Anne. But the grip was missing from the broken club found near the body.

No formal search of the Skakel home was ever conducted by the police, and the state medical examiner at the time, Elliott Gross, did not examine the body until November 1.

Critics of the way the Greenwich Police Department handled the case cite the delay for uncertainty about the time of death.

Steve Carroll, an original detective in the case who died this year, had said he believed the Greenwich police were intimidated by the Skakel family name. Michael Skakel's father, Rushton, is the brother of Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert Kennedy, the U.S. senator and former U.S. attorney general.

Tommy Skakel remained a suspect for years until Michael was charged in January 2000.

A key development came in November 1995 when a report commissioned by the Skakel family from a private detective firm was leaked to Newsday reporter Leonard Levitt.

The report said Michael, now 41, and Tommy Skakel admitted lying to police about their actions the night Moxley died. Michael also made revelations that put him at the crime scene.

Michael Skakel, who has pleaded innocent in the slaying, also may have complicated his own defense in 1997 by collaborating on a book proposal with ghostwriter Richard Hoffman called "Dead Man Talking: A Kennedy Cousin Comes Clean."

In the proposal, Skakel admitted to using alcohol and marijuana on the night Moxley was killed and said he was sexually attracted to her.

"I wanted to kiss her. I wanted her to be my girlfriend, but I was going slow, being careful," Skakel said in the draft proposal. "The truth is that with Martha I felt a little shy. I thought that maybe if we spent the evening together at my cousin's something romantic might develop between us."

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Filed Under: Murder