Victim's stepfather takes the stand

Ten witnesses testified today in the trial of Neil Entwistle, the most prominent being Joe Matterazzo, the stepfather or Neil's slain wife, Rachel. Today's testimony began with the cross-examination of Lloyde Cooke, Rachel's uncle, who had been target shooting with Neil at Old Colony Sportsmen's Club in Pembroke and helped to show him how to handle the guns. While making the point that shooting accurately is a "natural talent," defense lawyer Elliot Weinstein began questioning Cooke about professional basketball and how some players are naturally good at making foul shots and others are not. This drew an objection from prosecutor Michael Fabbri, who said that the questions were irrelevant. Additionally, the defense continued to depict Entwistle as a polite, quiet man, showing that his withdrawn behavior before the alleged murders was not out of character. Cooke admitted that Entwistle and his parents were "decent" people and "even a little reserved."

Michael Matterazzo, Joe's son from a previous marriage, and George Wilson, an instructor at the shooting range, testified that Joe's demeanor was normal on January 21, 2006, when he unknowingly went shooting with the .22 pistol that is alleged to be the murder weapon. The next day, Joe and Priscilla Matterazzo were "very upset" to receive the news that Rachel and her baby Lillian were dead.

Next, Joe Matterazzo took the stand, describing how he welcomed Neil into his family and took him shooting, how he heard the news of his daughter's and granddaughter's deaths, and the version of events that Neil gave when he called from England shortly after the murders. "I liked Neil a lot," Matterazzo said. "He was part of the family." While Neil didn't seem particularly interested in building cars, one of Matterazzo 's hobbies, he was more interested in guns and went target shooting twice. "He did quite well," Matterazzo testified. Additionally, Matterazzo described Neil's mysterious business, Embedded Technologies, which involved manufacturing some sort of connector to be used with computers. Matterazzo said that Neil declined his offer to help him set up and legalize his business, and that according to Rachel he had a contract that would pay him $10,000 a month. Matterazzo also described how on January 22 he met with Hopkinton police officers, filed a missing persons report for Neil, Rachel, and Lillian after friends and family were unable to enter their Hopkinton house or make contact with them, and heard the terrible news that the bodies of a young woman and infant were found in the house. Neil called Matterazzo from England a few times after the murders, saying that he had gone to Staples and attempted to go to Wal-Mart from 9:00 to 11:00 on January 20 and returned to find his wife and baby shot to death. "It was just a big mess," Matterazzo quoted Entwistle as saying. Next, Entwistle said he went to the Matterazzos' house to obtain a gun to kill himself, but was unable to get in. The prosecution says the keys to the Matterazzo home were found in Entwistle's BMW at Logan Airport. Matterazzo asked Entwistle, "did you do this, or do you know who did this?" He replied that he did not. Entwistle repeatedly mentioned Matterazzo's firearms and would not answer when asked why he was so concerned with the guns. He also expressed concern about the growing publicity of the case and the fact that "everyone was pointing the finger at him." Additionally, Entwistle made a possible slip-up when he said that he wanted Rachel and Lillian to be buried together "because that's the way I left them, I mean that's the way I found them." Finally, he relinquished control of Rachel and Lillian's funeral arrangements and did not show up for the funeral.

On cross examination, Weinstein joked with Matterazzo about the family's two dogs and four cats. "I'm curious, how did the dogs and the cats gets along?" he asked. Weinstein also pointed out that according to Matterazzo, Entwistle sounded "shaky, a little nervous and whimpering, a little emotional" in the phone calls. Then he called attention to the fact that neither of Rachel's parents was able to co-sign on a loan for her and Neil's new BMW, which Matterazzo admitted she was disappointed about.

After Matterazzo's testimony, four witnesses briefly took the stand to establish his alibi for the morning of January 20. All had seen him at various times during that day, showing that he had no opportunity to commit the murders, and they all said his demeanor was normal. Matterazzo's DNA, in addition to Neil Entwistle's, was found on the grip of the alleged murder weapon.

Toward the end of the day, Maureen Renaud, the wife of Rachel's cousin, described how she often saw Rachel at family functions and at a parenting group to which they both belonged. Rachel's friend, Michelle Vigneux, told the court that she knew Rachel since kindergarten and became close to her again after they graduated from college. Both said that the Entwistles seemed to have a good relationship and that Rachel was happy to be a mother and to return to the United States.

Testimony was interrupted in the afternoon when the entire courthouse had to be evacuated for about 10 minutes due to a malfunction with the fire alarm system. The prosecution will continue to call witnesses tomorrow.