Openings offer opposite views in Entwistle trial

June 6, 2008 10:55 AM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Franci R. Ellement, Globe Correspondent, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

WOBURN -- The prosecution began its case against a British man accused of shooting his wife and daughter to death in 2006 with a simple refrain: "These are the words of Neil Entwistle that you will hear."

Neil Entwistle

Prosecutor Michael Fabbri's opening statement was laced with quotes from Entwistle, who told police he found his wife, Rachel, and their 9-month-old baby, Lillian Rose, shot to death in their bed in their Hopkinton home.

"It was obvious what had happened, I could see the hole in Lillian," Fabbri said, quoting the defendant's statement to police after his arrest. "I didn't even call 911 or call for help."

"I didn't even think about funeral arrangements for them."

Instead, Entwistle drove to Logan International Airport without even bothering to tell his in-laws, Joseph and Priscilla Matterazzo. "I hadn't even told Priscilla and Joe before I left for England."

Fabbri repeated: "These are the words of Neil Entwistle that you will hear."

Rachel Entwistle, 27, and Lillian Rose

The prosecution contends that Entwistle was a despondent, broke, sex-obsessed man unsatisfied with his marriage. They alleged that he shot and killed Rachel and Lillian, and fled the country.

Defense attorney Elliot Weinstein presented a different perspective in his opening statement, saying that the evidence in the case is not what it seems.

"Neil loved his wife, and Neil loved his daughter," Weinstein said. "On Jan. 20, he lost them both."

Weinstein prepared the jury for a parade of prosecution witnesses, investigators, and experts, but he cautioned that they could "learn much more from the things they didn't do, from the steps that they didn't take."

"The evidence will show you that Neil is not responsible for killing Rachel or for killing Lillian," Weinstein concluded. "Neil Entwistle is not guilty."

The opening statements came 2 1/2 years after Rachel, 27, and Lillian Rose were found shot to death in their rented Hopkinton home. The courtroom was crowded, but it was not the media circus that officials had feared in a case that has made headlines on both sides of the Atlantic.

There were more than a dozen members of the Matterazzo family on behalf of Rachel and Lillian Rose. Entwistle's mother, father, and brother came from England. Others in the courtroom included two high school girls from Billerica who have no connection to the case but wanted to watch the trial unfold. Then there is the media: ABC, BBC, local newspapers and radio, and the Worksop Guardian, Entwistle's hometown daily. A media overflow room set up on the first floor of the courthouse was barely being used.

Jury selection lasted four days as the judge screened almost 190 people, many of whom were dismissed because they said they had already decided whether Entwistle was guilty. One potential juror described Entwistle as the "guy who killed his family." A Medford woman said she heard other potential jurors saying that he should "fry" and that they should "send him away."

The comments prompted Weinstein to reiterate a plea to dismiss the case or change the location of the trial. Kottmyer rejected the request and jury selection continued. The final 16-member panel includes eight men and eight women for a jury of 12 with four alternates in a trial that is expected to last three weeks, ending just before July 4.

This morning, Fabbri walked the jury through the couple's relationship: meeting when Rachel studied abroad in England; a marriage in which the bride was given away by her step-father, Joseph Matterazzo; and newlyweds living for a time with their in-laws in Carver.

Shortly before the killings, the young family had just set out on their own, renting a house on a cul-de-sac at the end of Cubs Path in Hopkinton. To outside appearances, Rachel and Neil Entwistle seemed like a happy couple, Fabbri said. Privately they were in turmoil. Around the time they moved to Hopkinton, he began doing computer searches about bankruptcy, female escorts, and spent time corresponding with women on the website Adult Friend Finder.

The days before the crime, Fabbri said the computer searches became increasingly dire: how to "kill with a knife" and "quick suicide methods," according to documents filed by the Middlesex district attorney's office.

The bodies of Rachel and Lillian Rose were discovered in the couple's bed Jan. 22, 2006, by police conducting a wellness check after relatives did not hear from them for several days. An autopsy found that Lillian Rose was shot in the abdomen and Rachel was shot in the head.