Entwistle is returned to Mass.
Faces arraignment in shooting deaths of wife, daughter
Nearly a month after the slayings of his wife and baby, Neil Entwistle returned in handcuffs to Massachusetts from England yesterday to stand trial, as his newly appointed defense lawyer argued that the intense media coverage of the case has ensured that the Briton cannot get a fair trial anywhere in the world.
At around 5:30 p.m., Entwistle, wearing a bulletproof vest, his ankles shackled, and his face downcast, stepped onto the tarmac at Hanscom Air Force Base, where two uniformed State Police troopers quickly put him in a cruiser within a five-car motorcade.
''Mr. Entwistle was polite and courteous," said Acting US Marshal William Fallon, who escorted Entwistle from England with two deputy marshals. ''He was not confrontational at any point."
Fallon would not disclose any conversations with Entwistle, the only prisoner on the plane, during the 6 1/2-hour flight across the Atlantic, but said there was no reason to believe that Entwistle was suicidal.
With television news helicopters in pursuit from Hanscom, the convoy drove to Hopkinton, where police booked and fingerprinted him on charges of fatally shooting his 27-year-old wife, Rachel, and their 9-month-old daughter, Lillian Rose.
News crews assembled there caught only a fleeting glimpse of Entwistle, whom the troopers drove straight into the police station garage.
He was to be held overnight at the police station. He is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon in Framingham District Court, setting up a legal battle between prosecutors led by a Middlesex district attorney with ambitions for higher office against a seasoned Boston defense lawyer who cut his teeth defending accused mobsters and drug traffickers.
After meeting briefly with Entwistle last night, the defense lawyer, Elliot M. Weinstein, said his client will plead not guilty today to charges in what he called ''a very serious tragedy."
''I've had the briefest of conversations with him, and that was my decision," Weinstein told reporters, saying that he did not consider the police station the best place to talk.
In an earlier interview, Weinstein, said that he would seek to have all the charges against his client dismissed because no court can grant him a fair trial.
''I am certain that based on massive and prejudicial publicity to date that we will be filing a motion to dismiss the charges because of the publicity, which has resulted in Mr. Entwistle's inability to receive a fair trial by jurors who have not already formed an opinion about his guilt," Weinstein said.
''Given that the publicity is both national and international, a change of venue would not change the harm that has already been done," he said.
The Entwistle case has generated coverage of an intensity not seen locally since the 1997 murder trial of au pair Louise Woodward, who was also from Britain.
Entwistle flew to his parents' home in England Jan. 21, the day after prosecutors say he killed his wife and daughter. Prosecutors have theorized that Entwistle planned a murder-suicide after growing despondent over his financial failings and family situation, but decided against killing himself.
Prosecutors say they have forensic evidence linking him to the alleged murder weapon, a .22-caliber revolver owned by Rachel Entwistle's stepfather.
Entwistle, 27, an unemployed electrical engineer, was arrested at a London subway station Feb. 9 and agreed not to fight extradition to Massachusetts.
Yesterday, at 2:25 p.m. London time, British authorities handed him over to US marshals at Gatwick Airport outside London. They boarded a US government Gulfstream G-IV jet, named ''Spirit of America."
The plane stopped in Bangor for refueling and then touched down at Hanscom.
Entwistle is to appear today in Framingham District Court, which yesterday was bracing for an onslaught of reporters.
Clerk-magistrate Thomas Begley, who worked in the Middlesex courts when Woodward was tried, said the ongoing media coverage reminded him of that case.
''It's not quite as big as that, but this could blow into that sized situation," Begley said.
Weinstein, 57, will be at his client's side today when District Judge Robert V. Greco asks Entwistle to enter a plea. The state public defender agency selected Weinstein after hearing from Entwistle's parents that he could not afford an attorney.
Other than seeking to have the charges dismissed due to pretrial publicity, Weinstein said he had not yet formed any defense strategy for Entwistle because he has not been provided with any information on the case from prosecutors.
''I don't know anything about the true facts of the case," he said.
Weinstein said he had requested that prosecutors refrain from questioning Entwistle yesterday, adding that he would try to meet with his client by day's end.
The prosecution will be run by Coakley, who is running for state attorney general.
The day-to-day prosecution will be led by Michael Fabbri, a US Air Force veteran who has handled numerous homicides, drug cases, and violent felonies.
Robert Sheketoff, a veteran Boston defense attorney who taught Fabbri at Northeastern Law School, called him a ''good person and an intelligent lawyer."
Entwistle's parents are not expected to be at the arraignment, but his slain wife's mother and stepfather are expected to be in the courtroom to face their son-in-law for the first time since the slayings.
''They are trying to be very private people, trying to keep their emotions to themselves," said the Rev. William MacKenzie, a Catholic priest who has been counseling the family and who officiated at the funeral of Rachel and Lillian.
Kathleen Burge, John R. Ellement, Lisa Kocian, Jonathan Saltzman, and Lisa Wangsness of the Globe staff contributed to this report. 