Husband Found Guilty of Killing Wife, Daughter

June 25, 2008— -- Neil Entwistle was found guilty Wednesday of murdering his wife and infant daughter in Massachusetts in 2006.

Entwistle looked down but otherwise showed little emotion as the jury foreman read the verdict. Entwistle, who's British, faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced Thursday morning.

The verdict caps a dramatic trial, during which the defense used a common but risky tactic, resting its case Monday without calling any witnesses.

Instead, during closing arguments, Entwistle's defense team claimed that 27-year-old Rachel Entwistle killed her baby, then committed suicide, on the morning of Jan. 20, 2006, at their house on a quiet cul-de-sac in Hopkinton, Mass.

Her suicide, defense attorney Elliot Weinstein argued, explained Entwistle's odd behavior after finding the two dead bodies. He did not call 911, nor did he get in touch with his wife's family. Instead, he fled to England to be with his own family.

"Neil didn't attend Rachel and Lillian's funeral, as if he should have," Weinstein said. "He needed to be away so he could best protect Rachel and Lillian's memory."

Weinstein described the Entwistles as a loving couple, and, during his closing argument, he brandished a photo of Lillian that Neil used as a screensaver on his computer.

"You know, no one could look at this picture for any length of time if he had just killed his whole family," Weinstein said.

Weinstein told the jury that Rachel Entwistle may have been suffering from postpartum depression and decided to shoot her baby daughter through the chest and then turn the gun on herself, killing herself with a single gunshot to the head.

In his closing arguments, Weinstein repeatedly referred to the gunshot residue found on Rachel Entwistle's hands as evidence that she could have fired the gun.

"Why is there no motive in these killings? You know the answer to these questions," Weinstein said. "Neil did not do it."

But when Assistant District Attorney Michael Fabbri took his turn in front of the jury, he painted a very different picture of Neil Entwistle. In testimony during the trial, prosecutors have tried to prove that Entwistle killed his wife and daughter because he was unhappy with his sex life and upset about his increasingly precarious financial situation.

Far from being a grieving husband, Entwistle was trolling for escorts just days after the murders, Fabbri told the jury. And a notebook found on Entwistle when he was arrested contained a plan to "sell his story to the highest bidder."

Fabbri asked the jurors to consider what that plan said about the relationship Entwistle had with his wife and daughter, Lillian.