Briton accused of killing wife, baby returns to U.S.
Boston – A British man accused of killing his wife and infant daughter in their suburban Boston home before fleeing to England was brought back to Massachusetts on Wednesday to face murder charges.
Neil Entwistle was handcuffed and in leg shackles as state police escorted him, head bowed, from a small jet that landed at an Air Force base outside Boston.
Entwistle, 27, left London’s Gatwick Airport earlier Tuesday in the custody of U.S. marshals.
He is to be arraigned today in Framingham District Court on two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of his wife, Rachel, 27, and 9-month-old daughter, Lillian, on Jan. 20.
In court documents, law officers have described Entwistle as a secretive man who was sinking into debt. The documents say that in the days before the killings, he trolled the Internet looking for sexual partners and information on ways to kill people and commit suicide.
Entwistle flew to London the day after the shootings. He agreed to return to the U.S. during a court appearance Feb. 9.
Officers discovered the bodies Jan. 22 and found Entwistle’s white BMW sport utility vehicle parked at Logan International Airport in Boston.
Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley said authorities believe Entwistle used his father-in-law’s .22-caliber handgun in the shootings and may have planned to turn the weapon on himself because of his debts.
Instead, he drove the gun back to his father-in-law’s house, then fled to his native England, authorities allege.
HOUSTON
Police chief favors surveillance in homes
Houston’s police chief on Wednesday proposed placing surveillance cameras in apartment complexes, downtown streets, shopping malls and even private homes to fight crime during a shortage of police officers.
“I know a lot of people are concerned about Big Brother, but my response to that is, if you are not doing anything wrong, why should you worry about it?” Chief Harold Hurtt said Wednesday.
Houston is facing a severe police shortage because of too many retirements and too few recruits, and the city has absorbed 150,000 hurricane evacuees. The City Council is considering a public-safety tax to pay for more officers.
ALEXANDRIA, Va.
Moussaoui allowed in court, stays quiet
Unexpectedly allowed back in court, confessed al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui kept quiet Wednesday as two Muslims from South Asia and a Marine Corps lawyer whose boss’ Pentagon office blew up on Sept. 11, 2001, cleared preliminary hurdles to sit on his sentencing jury.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema had barred Moussaoui from jury selection Tuesday because he wouldn’t promise to stop giving insult-laden speeches.
Brinkema did not explain her change of mind in court, but she had said the day before that she might reconsider if Moussaoui decided to alter his behavior. Even Moussaoui’s court-appointed defense lawyers did not know why she changed her mind.
HUNTSVILLE, Texas
Killer of cabdriver executed by injection
Convicted killer Clyde Smith was executed Wednesday for fatally shooting a Houston cabdriver during a robbery in 1992.
“I want to thank you all for being here and for your love and support,” Smith, 32, told friends who watched from a window.
He was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m., seven minutes after lethal drugs were administered. His execution was the fourth this year in Texas.
DETROIT
Councilwoman won’t be charged in brawl
Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers acted in self-defense during a December bar brawl with another woman and will not be criminally charged, Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy said Wednesday.
Rebecca Mews, 34, of Walled Lake, Mich., had complained that Conyers, who is married to U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., punched her several times in the face without provocation during a Dec. 20 birthday party at Crossroads Lounge in Detroit.
But Worthy said Mews’ story didn’t check out and that witnesses – including Mews’ date – said Mews was the aggressor.
“We are satisfied that Ms. Conyers had the right to defend herself in this instance,” Worthy said.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip
Hamas to form Cabinet by March
The Islamic militant group Hamas said Wednesday it will put together the next Palestinian government by early March – timing that could help Israeli hawks in parliamentary elections.
Hamas officials said the group would stack top government positions with its own people, a move that could trigger an Israeli boycott of the Palestinian Authority.
With a solid majority in the incoming parliament, Hamas is poised to form a Cabinet in the coming weeks, severely impeding Abbas’ ability to pursue peace talks with Israel. The new parliament holds its first session Saturday.
SYDNEY, Australia
Parliament may shift RU-486 authority
Australia’s Parliament is expected to vote today on whether to strip regulatory control over an abortion drug from the health minister – a staunch Roman Catholic who once warned of an “epidemic” of abortion in Australia.
The Senate voted 45-28 last week to take regulatory authority over the abortion pill mifepristone – also known as RU-486 – away from Health Minister Tony Abbott and hand it to the country’s main drug regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
Most analysts expect a “yes” vote that will pave the way for the drug to be cleared for use in Australia.
BALI, Indonesia
3 Australians jailed for drug smuggling
Three young Australians were ordered imprisoned for life Wednesday for drug smuggling, the final verdicts in a series of trials in which two associates were sentenced to death.
Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, 23, Si Yi Chen, 20, and Matthew Norman, 19, showed no emotion as judges at the Denpasar District Court found them “legally and convincingly” guilty of attempting to smuggle 18 pounds of heroin from Bali to Australia last April.
The three, who were tried together, were the last members of the so-called “Bali Nine” to be sentenced. Four members of the group previously received life sentences.
