NORWALK, Conn. — Testifying for the prosecution Wednesday, Michael Skakel's sister appeared to further confuse the issue of where Michael was the night in 1975 his neighbor Martha Moxley was murdered.

The prosecution called Julie Skakel, 44, as their first rebuttal witness to counter Michael Skakel's alibi that he was across town at his cousin's house for much of the evening of Oct. 30, 1975. But she was not clear on all the details of that night.

She said she could not recall seeing her father's Lincoln parked in the driveway when she left Greenwich to take a friend home. The defense has said that Michael Skakel left in the Lincoln with others at about 9:30 p.m., so could not have been in the area when Martha was killed.  

The prosecution has been trying to prove that Michael Skakel, two brothers and cousin Jim Dowdle lied when they told police that Michael left the Belle Haven neighborhood to watch a TV program at Dowdle's house. A prosecution witness, Andrea Shakespeare Renna, testified that Michael Skakel was home when she and Julie Skakel left the Skakel home at about 9:45 p.m.

Julie Skakel's testimony Wednesday, however, may serve only to confuse jurors further.  

For example, Julie Skakel testified that she saw someone running through the front yard of the Skakel home at about 9, 9:30 and 10 p.m. on the night of the killing. Although she yelled out "Michael come back!" on one of those occasions, Julie Skakel insisted that the unidentifiable figure was not her brother.  

Julie Skakel also testified, apparently for the first time ever, that the Skakel children's live-in tutor at the time of the killing, Kenneth Littleton, changed clothes between the time the family returned home from dinner and when she saw him in the kitchen again at about 10:30 p.m.  

Littleton and Thomas Skakel, another of Rushton Skakel's seven children, were prime suspects in Martha's murder before police focused their efforts on Michael Skakel during the 1990s. Several witnesses have testified that Michael Skakel confessed to killing Martha with a golf club because he was jealous of her relationship with Thomas Skakel, the last person seen with Martha when she was alive.  

According to Julie Skakel's testimony, she and Renna left the Skakel home at about 9:30 p.m. so that Julie Skakel could drive Renna home. Julie Skakel's stationwagon was parked in front of the house, but she had to send Renna back inside to retrieve forgotten keys. Littleton and Thomas Skakel emerged in the doorway when Renna rang the bell for the keys, Julie Skakel said.  

Like Renna, Julie Skakel testified that she could not remembering seeing the Lincoln in the Skakel's driveway and also did not see any vehicle leave. The prosecution is apparently trying to use Julie Skakel's testimony to support Renna's testimony that Michael Skakel did not leave in the Lincoln with others at 9:30 p.m. to head across town to watch TV at his cousin's house.  

Although the prosecution bears the burden of proof, Skakel's alibi defense has forced prosecutors to try to disprove Skakel's claim that he was at his cousin's house at 10 p.m. on the night of the killing. In any event, prosecutors believe Martha was killed later in the evening. The defendant himself said in a 1997 tape recording, which jurors heard, that he returned home from his cousin's house and ended up in a tree at the crime scene masturbating.  

Prosecutors are expected to argue that Julie Skakel's testimony supports their belief that Michael Skakel never went to his cousin's house. The defense, however, has argued that three witnesses placed Skakel at his cousin's house and that Julie Skakel and Renna were not in a position to know when the Lincoln left the Skakel house or whether Michael Skakel was a passenger.

Skakel, the 41-year-old nephew of Ethel Kennedy, faces life in prison if convicted of killing Martha. Both were 15-year-old high school sophomores when her body was discovered lying face down beneath a tree on her family's estate near the Skakel home in the Belle Haven section of Greenwich on Oct. 31, 1975.

Backing up a dead witness

The prosecution's second rebuttal witness was unknown to the prosecution until last Tuesday when she called to report that a deceased witness, Gregory Coleman, had told her in 1979 that Michael Skakel had confessed to killing a girl with a golf club. The witness, 36-year-old Jennifer Pease of Portland, Maine, said she assumed that the information she had was "he said, he said" hearsay until she read that Coleman's widow was permitted to testify.

Pease, now an assistant manager for Maine's motor vehicle bureau, said Colemen was assigned to keep an eye on her because she was a flight risk from Maine's Elan school during the summer of 1979. She testified that Coleman cautioned her about running away because she might end up like Michael Skakel and be put in the boxing ring.

Previous witnesses have testified that Skakel was pummeled by six or seven fellow Elan residents after he ran away from the facility when he was 18 years old in 1978. Pease said she did not know who Michael Skakel was at the time and never reported it to authorities until last week.

She said she was motivated to call the prosecution because she did not like what she was reading online about the testimony of prosecution witness Alice Dunn. Dunn had expressed outrage that Elan students were treated badly, but Pease insisted that Dunn was as much responsible for abuse at Elan as anyone else.

Judge John Kavanewsky denied a defense request for time to research statements Pease posted on a case-related message board at CrimeNews2000.com. The judge said that Pease's feelings about Dunn and anything she may have posted on the Web site was collateral and irrelevant.

The defense noted that before he died, Coleman insisted in testimony that he never told anyone else at Elan that Michael Skakel had confessed to killing Martha Moxley.

The judge surprised the courtroom somewhat when he announced Wednesday afternoon that the trial was being suspended until Monday. Prosecutors may call one more rebuttal witness then before closing arguments. Kavanewsky will meet with the lawyers Thursday in chambers to formulate the instructions he will give to jurors before they begin deliberations, possibly Monday afternoon.

Although they are getting a long weekend, jurors did not look pleased as they left the courtroom Wednesday. Kavanewsky rejected without comment a written request from the jury that they be allowed to bring a barbecue grill for their use outside the courthouse during lunch breaks. The note was signed simply "The Jury."