STAMFORD, Conn. — When they were kids, Andrew Pugh and Michael Skakel would climb an enormous pine tree across the street from the Skakel family estate in the posh Greenwich enclave of Belle Haven.
The tree stood outside the home of 15-year-old Martha Moxley, a friend of Skakel. It was the same pine tree where Moxley's bludgeoned body was found Halloween morning 1975.
The tree was revisited Wednesday during a hearing to decide whether there is enough evidence to try Skakel, now 39, in Moxley's killing and whether the case should be transferred to adult court.
Pugh testified that Skakel told him years after Moxley's death that he had been in the pine tree late on Oct. 30, the night Moxley was killed, "but that he had nothing to do with her death."
That account is similar to what Skakel told a private investigative firm hired by his family in the early 1990s. It was a change from the story he originally gave to police: that he was at his cousin's house at the time investigators believe Moxley was killed.
On cross-examination, Skakel's defense attorney, Michael Sherman, grilled Pugh on why he waited until 1998 to tell police about Skakel's story about being at the scene of the crime.
"At that time, there really was no evidence that Michael was involved," Pugh said. "Perhaps I should have done that. Perhaps it was an error on my part."
Sherman also suggested repeatedly that Skakel never told Pugh that the pine tree they climbed as kids was the same tree Skakel told him he climbed the night of Moxley's killing. Pugh acknowledged that Skakel didn't actually say it was the same tree.
Skakel, a nephew of the late Robert F. Kennedy, was arrested in January after a grand jury consisting of a single judge found there was enough evidence to charge him in the case. He was 15 at the time of the slaying.
On Tuesday, former classmate Gregory Coleman testified that Skakel told him he beat Moxley's skull in with a golf club after she rejected his romantic advances. He said Skakel told him: "I'm going to get away with murder. I'm a Kennedy."
Coleman said Skakel made the statements in the late 1970s, while they both were students at a residential substance abuse treatment center in Maine.
During cross-examination Wednesday, Coleman admitted that he had told the grand jury that Skakel confessed to him five times, although he said on the stand Tuesday that Skakel confessed to him twice.
Coleman said he sometimes has trouble with his ability to recall. But he adamantly stood by his testimony that Skakel told him he killed Moxley.
"I am sure of that — not 99.9 percent but 100 percent," Coleman said.
Under the law in effect in 1975, Skakel could face a maximum of four years if he is convicted as a juvenile. If he is convicted as an adult, he could get 25 years to life.
The hearing was scheduled to resume June 28, when the defense will begin presenting its case. Sherman said he plans to call several former students at Elan.