US judge rules Entwistle must give DNA sample

A British man accused of killing his wife and infant daughter lost two legal challenges this week when a judge ruled he must submit to a DNA test and denied a defence motion to dismiss the murder indictment against him.

Neil Entwistle’s lawyers had argued prosecutors have used unreliable DNA evidence to link him to the .22-calibre handgun believed to be the murder weapon in the January 20 shooting deaths of Rachel, 27, and Lillian, nine months.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Fabbri has said the state crime lab initially matched his DNA to the gun by extrapolating Entwistle’s DNA from a sample taken from the infant.

They then obtained DNA from a water bottle Neil Entwistle had in his BMW, which he allegedly drove to Boston’s Logan Airport to leave the country after the killings.

Fabbri said the first DNA match is reliable, but he said prosecutors filed a motion seeking a direct sample from Entwistle (aged 28) to present to a jury during trial.

Judge Peter Lauriat, in a ruling dated Monday, said prosecutors are entitled to a direct sample and to conduct extensive testing on it, according to a spokeswoman for the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office. The judge said it should be done within 30 days.

Entwistle’s lawyer, Elliot Weinstein, did not immediately return a call for comment.

Rachel and Lillian Entwistle were found fatally shot together in a bed at their rented home in Hopkinton.

Police said Entwistle secretly took the gun used in the slayings from his father-in-law’s home in Carver and returned it there after the killings.

The trial is expected to begin in April.