Norwalk, Conn. ? Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel was convicted Friday of beating Greenwich neighbor Martha Moxley to death in 1975 when they were 15 a crime that went unsolved for nearly a generation and raised suspicions his family connections had protected him.

Prosecutors offered no eyewitnesses and no direct physical evidence connecting Skakel to the slaying. Instead, the case was based almost entirely on testimony from people who said they had heard him confess over the years.

Skakel

The 41-year-old Skakel, a nephew of Robert F. Kennedy’s widow, Ethel, was handcuffed and led off immediately to jail. He faces from 10 years to life in prison at sentencing July 19.

Skakel’s lawyer promised a quick appeal of the murder conviction.

“This is certainly the most upsetting verdict I’ve ever had or will ever have in my life,” defense attorney Michael Sherman said. “But I will tell you, as long as there’s a breath in my body, this case is not over.”

The Moxley family wept at what her mother called “Martha’s day,” which finally came more than a quarter-century after her death.

Martha’s battered body was discovered under a tree on her family’s estate in the wealthy community of Greenwich. She had been bludgeoned and stabbed with a golf club, later traced to a set owned by Skakel’s mother.

Prosecutors contended Skakel had a crush on Martha and was upset because she seemed more interested in his older brother, Thomas.

The prosecution’s case rested almost entirely on about a dozen people who said they had heard Skakel confess or make incriminating statements over the years. Several were former classmates from the Elan School, a Maine drug and alcohol rehab center frequented by children of privilege.

The defense argued that the Elan School witnesses were of dubious credibility. And family members all backed up Skakel’s alibi: that he was at a cousin’s home around the time of the slaying.

Skakel did not take the stand. In a tape-recorded 1997 interview with an author that was played for the jury, Skakel said he went to the Moxley home, threw rocks at Martha’s window to try to get her attention, then masturbated in a tree and ran home.

The jury deliberated for more than three days.

“We worked very, very hard to find something that would acquit Michael Skakel,” juror Cathy Lazansky said. “We just couldn’t.”

One of the alternates, Anne Layton, said prosecutor Jonathan Benedict’s closing argument was powerfully persuasive. “He really connected the dots and I think he did an incredible job,” Layton said.

“It’s nice to say, once in a while, that justice delayed doesn’t have to be justice denied,” the prosecutor said after the verdict.

Martha’s mother, Dorthy Moxley, said she had been praying for justice for her daughter for more than a quarter-century. “I just feel so blessed and so overwhelmed,” she said. “This is Martha’s day. This is truly Martha’s day.”

Skakel slumped slightly upon hearing the verdict, then looked with surprise at the jury and the courtroom audience. He appeared on the verge of tears.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., the longtime spokesman for the Kennedy family, had no comment.

Over the years, the lack of an arrest in the case gave rise to speculation that wealth and influence had protected Skakel. Interest in the case was renewed in the 1990s, particularly after Dominick Dunne and former Los Angeles Detective Mark Fuhrman wrote books about the case.