A judge ruled that the state must preserve evidence leading up to a new trial for Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel.

Michael Skakel, a nephew of Robert Kennedy's wife Ethel, is accused of murdering his neighbor, Martha Moxley, in Greenwich in 1975.

The judge ruled the state must preserve strands of hair found on the sheets used to wrap Moxley's body. Skakel's attorney, Stephan Seeger, says the hair strands are not Skakel's, but belong to two other men. Seeger says they have witness accounts to back up the claim that the two men killed Moxley.

Seeger also withdrew his request for the judge to suppress audio tapes he said were taken illegally. The tapes in question contained interviews Skakel conducted with a writer in the late 1990s for what was supposed to be his tell-all memoir. Seeger says a state investigator illegally seized them from the writer's house without a search warrant.

Seeger instead said at the hearing that today was not the right day to argue for the tapes to be thrown out.

"Our intention, certainly, is to make sure there's a suppression motion before the court at some time. It's just not right at this point," said Seeger. "So, we'll proceed and pick up on that motion in the future."