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Jun 26, 2008 1:20 pm US/Eastern
Entwistle Sent To Prison For Life
WOBURN (WBZ) ―
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Neil Entwistle waves to his attorney Stephanie Page after he was sentenced Thursday.
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Neil Entwistle showed no emotion as he was sentenced to life in prison.
WBZ
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Rachel Entwistle's mother, Priscilla Matterazzo, read a victim impact statement as her husband Joseph Matterazzo looked on.
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Rachel's brother, Jerome Souza, also delivered a statement before Entwistle was sentenced.
WBZ
Neil Entwistle showed no reaction Thursday as he was sentenced to two life prison terms without the opportunity for parole.
Entwistle, 29, was found guilty Wednesday of two counts of first-degree murder in the 2006 deaths of his wife Rachel and their baby, Lillian Rose, in their rented home in Hopkinton. He fled to his native England the day after the killings.
In the final days of his trial, his defense lawyers claimed his wife killed the baby and then committed suicide.
Prosecutors said he was despondent over mounting debt and dissatisfied with his sex life when he shot his wife and daughter.
During the brief sentencing hearing, Rachel's mother, Priscilla Matterazzo, called Entwistle's claim of a murder-suicide "low and despicable."
"Suffering does not begin to describe what we have been enduring without our beloved Rachel and Lillian," Matterazzo said. "I have lost two generations of my family."
Matterazzo asked that the life sentences be consecutive, to represent the two generations. But Middlesex Superior Court Judge Diane Kottmyer said that would be only symbolic since there is no chance he'll be released, and imposed two concurrent life sentences.
Entwistle's family continued to support him.
"There is no way our innocent son Neil is guilty," his father, Clifford Entwistle, said before the sentencing. He refused comment afterward.
Entwistle, who was also convicted of two weapons charges for using his father-in-law, Joseph Matterazzo's .22-caliber gun in the killings, was given 10 years of probation on those charges with the condition that he not profit in any way from the sale of his story, either through a book or to a media outlet.
"Neil, you have been judged today by a jury of your peers on earth, but one day you will face the ultimate judgment for your horrific deeds and betrayals," Joseph Matterazzo said in court Thursday.
Kottmyer gave Entwistle the chance to speak, but he did not say a word.
The judge called his crimes "incomprehensible."
"They defy comprehension because they involve the planned and deliberate murders of the defendant's wife and 9-month-old child in violation of bonds that we recognize as central to our identity as human beings -- those of husband and wife, and parent and child," she said.
Jerome Souza, Rachel's older brother, said the family will never get to see Lillian take her first step or hear her say her first words.
"Each and every day we have to live with the heartache that Neil's betrayal brought to our family," he said.
The judge said Entwistle would serve his sentence at MCI Cedar Junction. But the Department of Corrections confirms to WBZ that he will actually serve his time at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Facility in Shirley, a maximum-security prison. By state law, first-degree murder charges carry an automatic appeal.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
