Waiting for the Entwistle verdict in Woburn
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff, and Franci R. Ellement, Globe Correspondent
WOBURN -- The verdict watch in Neil Entwistle's double-murder trial occurs outside Courtroom 430 on wood benches, where a dozen reporters and courthouse regulars are sprawled out with laptops, newspapers, library books, and takeout salads in plastic bowls.
It takes place sitting on freshly laid carpet on the fourth floor of this sterile office building that is the temporary home of Middlesex Superior Court. Or crammed elbow-to-keyboard-to-elbow in the overflow media room downstairs, where news organizations from the BBC to ABC to the Associated Press are fighting for space. The waiting is done outside in the shade of two temporary metal and canvas tents in the parking lot where 11 television cameras stand set for live shots once word spreads.
A vacant courtroom on the seventh floor is ready for the prosecution press conference. An empty podium adorned with the seal of Middlesex District Attorney Gerald T. Leone Jr. waits in front of six empty camera tripods and a microphone boom, leaning against a bench.
All that is needed is a verdict. The prosecution spent 12 meticulous days building a case that relied on testimony from more than 40 witnesses. The defense did not call a single witness to the stand but used its closing argument to try to convince the jury that Rachel Entwistle, 27, shot her 9-month-old daughter Lillian Rose and then turned the gun on herself. The jury of six women and six men began deliberating at 9:15 this morning.
The case has drawn international attention since the bodies were discovered in the Entwistles' rented Hopkinton home on Jan. 22, 2006. Shortly after the crime, the smiling faces of the young family were splashed on the cover of People magazine under the headline: "Who killed Rachel and her baby?"
The case has drawn some 20 members of the British press to cover Neil Entwistle, who grew up in Worksop, a few hours north of London. It has also attracted trial watchers closer to Woburn, such as a 91-year-old man from Reading who spent so much time in the courtroom that his wife teased him about having a crush on one of the anchors from CourtTV, which is now called In Session.
Nineteen-year-old Marissa Babin has not missed a day since jury selection began June 2, spending an hour each way commuting by subway and bus from her home in Melrose. The sophomore at Harvard is planning on attending law school and wanted to get a firsthand look at a real trial. She wore her hair tied in pigtails as she sat on a bench today reading the paperback "Gods and Generals," a fictional account of the Civil War by Jeff Shaara.
"I think it's just really cool to see," Babin said of the trial, moments after Neil Entwistle's mother passed by in the hall. "Obviously it's sad for the families, but it's just so interesting to see it live."
Outside the courthouse, Lorraine Koster keeps watch on the media scrum from her canteen truck, where she doles out steaming coffee, hotdogs, and fried haddock sandwiches, a favorite of the British press. She has been stationed out front since Middlesex Superior Court moved from Cambridge in March.
With a golden tan and wearing a coin changer on her hip, Koster talked today about getting to know the broadcast personalities by first name. She has heard dribs and drabs about the Entwistle trial, but not enough to keep score. This morning, the talk all turned to the same topic, Koster said as she gave change to a woman from ABC.
"They keep saying maybe we'll see a verdict today."
