Entwistle seeks dismissal of murder charges

Lawyers ask for relocation of trial

Neil Entwistle is charged in his wife's and baby's deaths.

Lawyers for Neil Entwistle, the British man accused of killing his wife and baby daughter in their rented Hopkinton home, has asked that charges against him be dismissed or that the judge change the location of the trial that is scheduled to begin Monday in Middlesex Superior Court.

"I don't believe he can get a fair trial," defense lawyer Elliot Weinstein said yesterday, refusing specific comment on any of the 17 motions he filed Wednesday night. "I argued that at his arraignment two years ago."

The motions asked the judge to exclude from trial the evidence prosecutors have gathered against Entwistle, now 29, since his arrest in London Feb. 8, 2006.

The evidence they want barred includes statements Entwistle made after his arrest, DNA testing, lawyer-client correspondence, an obscene telephone call, a DVD recording, and a gunshot residue particle found on a kitchen knife, according to the court listing of motions.

The court did not make the motions public yesterday. A spokesman for the prosecution did not return repeated calls.

Entwistle told police that he returned from an errand on Jan. 20, 2006, and found his wife, Rachel, 27, and his 9-month-old daughter, Lillian Rose, shot to death lying in bed.

The next day, he boarded a plane to his native England, where he was ultimately arrested in the double killings and extradited to the United States to face the double-murder charges.

Lawyers will argue the motions today at 9 a.m.