Attorney who helped overturn Moxley murder conviction dies
Hubert J. Santos, a Hartford criminal defense attorney who helped overturn the conviction of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel in the 1975 killing of Martha Moxley, has died. He was 76.
Santos’ law firm said he died Monday after a brief hospitalization.
Santos’ legal career in Connecticut spanned more than five decades, but he came to national prominence for his work overturning Skakel’s conviction in Moxley’s slaying. Moxley was bludgeoned and stabbed with a golf club in the Belle Haven neighborhood of Greenwich the night before Halloween in 1975.
Skakel was convicted of the murder in 2002 and spent 11 years in prison; a lengthy legal drama unfolded as attorneys sought to overturn the conviction on Skakel’s behalf.
Santos was the lead defense lawyer for Skakel in 2013, when he successfully argued that Skakel’s previous defense lawyer, Mickey Sherman, had not provided a competent defense at his trial. That decision, by Connecticut Appellate Judge Thomas Bishop, was then overturned by the Supreme Court in 2016. The state Supreme Court negated Skakel’s 2002 murder conviction in 2018, agreeing defense counsel was inadequate. Last year, state prosecutors said they would not retry Skakel in the case.
Santos handled a number of high-profile murder cases through the years
and took on public corruption legal defenses.
One such case: He defended the former mayor of Hartford, Eddie Perez, accused of corruption charges. Perez in 2017 pleaded guilty to receiving a bribe and attempted larceny by extortion and avoided jail time.
Santos began his Connecticut private practice legal career in 1974, according to his law firm, after serving as a federal public defender. He graduated from the University of Connecticut School of Law in 1969. From 1986 through 1993, Santos served on the Judicial Selection Commission, one of the original members of that body.
His legal partner, Trent LaLima, said Tuesday, “Hubert Santos was a legend in the legal profession, and this is an enormous loss. In his 50 years as an attorney, he left a great legacy through his many legal victories, his dedication to defending his client's rights and in the countless legal professionals who he met and generously helped along the way.”
On Tuesday, tributes to Santos came pouring in as news of his death broke. Norm Pattis, a prominent criminal defense attorney, wrote on Twitter that Santos’s death was “a great loss to the defense bar and to people of goodwill everywhere.”
Santos served as a lecturer and a member of the adjunct faculty of the University of Connecticut Law School.
He was inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers as a Fellow in 1986 and was a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates. Since its inception in 1983, the publication Best Lawyers In America recognized him as one of the outstanding criminal defense and personal injury lawyers in the State.
In 1990, Santos was named by Connecticut Magazine as one of the five Best Lawyers in Connecticut, and again, in 2006, he was listed as one of the top 10 lawyers in the state by the same magazine. In 1993, the University of Connecticut School of Law Alumni Association awarded him with the "Distinguished Graduate Award." In 2005, the Connecticut Criminal Defense Lawyers Association awarded its highest honor to Santos by presenting him with the “Champion Of Liberty” Award.
Memorial arrangements were incomplete. Santos is survived by a son, a daughter and his wife, Superior Court Judge Thelma Santos, according to the Hartford Courant.