STAMFORD, Conn. — Nearly five years after a jury rejected claims by Michael Skakel that any of a number of other suspects killed 15-year-old Martha Moxley in 1975, Skakel's cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., testified that he believes two other men were involved in the brutal murder.

Kennedy, an environmental lawyer in Westchester County, N.Y., was on the witness stand most of the day Tuesday answering questions about an independent investigation he initiated in February 2003 based on leads generated by the publication of a 15,000-word article published by Atlantic Monthly magazine.

Lawyers for Skakel, 46, say Kennedy's investigation led to the discovery of a witness named Gitano "Tony" Bryant, whose story could bring Skakel a new trial. The Connecticut Supreme Court has already denied Skakel's direct appeal, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear it.

"What Tony Bryant told Mr. Kennedy shattered what was then a closed case," Skakel's appellate attorney, Hubert Santos of Hartford said Tuesday.

Bryant, a cousin of NBA star Kobe Bryant, told Kennedy that he was in the exclusive Greenwich neighborhood of Belle Haven the night Martha was murdered with two other African-American friends from New York, Adolph Hasbrouck and Burton "Burr" Tinsley.

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Tony Bryant is now exercising his right not to testify, but he told Kennedy in recorded phone calls that Hasbrouck and Tinsley were talking about going "caveman" on Martha before they and Bryant parted company on Oct. 30, 1975.

The following day, Martha's partially clad body was found under a tree along with pieces of a broken golf club used to bludgeon and stab her to death. The discovery led to a 25-year investigation that generated a half-dozen suspects, inspired author Dominick Dunne's novel "A Season in Purgatory" and a subsequent TV movie, and led to nonfiction books by former O.J. Simpson detective Mark Fuhrman and two newspaper reporters.

Bryant, who lives in Florida, described the alleged statements by his former friends in a videotaped interview in August 2003. Superior Court Judge Edward Karazin Jr. will hear the tape later this week over the objections of prosecutor Jonathan Benedict, whose closing arguments in 2002 were widely credited with connecting the dots for the jurors who convicted Skakel of murder based on circumstantial evidence and his statements to others over the years.

"It is simply not competent evidence. It is hearsay," Benedict said during his opening statement, adding that jurors would have found it unreliable if the defense had brought them Bryant's story at the 2002 trial.

Skakel, who is serving 20 years in prison for the murder of the pretty blond girl he admitted he had a crush on, appeared leaner when he entered Karazin's courtroom Tuesday morning. His mostly gray hair shorter and neater than during the trial, Skakel smiled as he made eye contact with four of his seven siblings who attended the first day of what is expected to be a 10-day hearing.

Martha's mother and brother, Dorthy Moxley and John Moxley, greeted reporters who covered the month-long trial in 2002 warmly. Both said they still believe that Skakel killed Martha but felt it was important to continue with their 31-year pursuit of justice until Skakel runs out of options and motions.