BOSTON -- The British man convicted of killing his young wife and baby as they snuggled in bed in the couple's Hopkinton home will be sentenced Thursday in a Middlesex County courtroom.

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Neil Entwistle, 29, was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder Wednesday in the shooting deaths of his wife Rachel, 27, and his 9-month-old daughter, Lily.

Under Massachusetts law, Entwistle faces an automatic life sentence in prison with no eligibility for parole, but the judge will hear victim impact statements in court before the sentence, which will automatically be appealed to the state's Supreme Judicial Court.

Prosecutors alleged that Entwistle, despondent over desperate financial straights and disatisfied with his sex life, shot his wife and daughter with his father-in-law's gun, then boarded a plane and fled back to England.

The jury rejected the defense's claim that Rachel Entwistle was depressed, killed her daughter and then committed suicide.

While Rachel's stepfather thanked friends and family for their support, a family spokesman said Entwistle would have to "live with his evil deeds for the rest of his natural life."

Entwistle's parents decried the verdict and clung to the defense theory that their daughter-in-law took her own life.

"We know that our son Neil is innocent, and we are devastated to learn that the evidence points to Rachel murdering our grandchild and then committing suicide," his mother, Yvonne Entwistle, said outside Middlesex Superior Court.

"I knew Rachel was depressed. Our son will now go to jail for loving, honoring and protecting his wife's memory," she said.

"We will continue to fight for our innocent son with the hope that one day justice will prevail and our little granddaughter, Lillian, will rest in peace," Entwistle's father, Clifford, said.

Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone, standing with Rachel's family, including her mother and stepfather, Priscilla and Joseph Matterazzo, denounced Entwistle for blaming his wife for the killings.

"I condemn Neil Entwistle for compounding the unspeakable nature of what he has done by disparaging the memory of his wife and vilifying the entire Matterazzo family by his decisions during the course of this trial," Leone said.

Jurors deliberated just a day and a half before reaching their verdicts. Several refused comment, saying they'd agreed as a group not to discuss their deliberations with the media. Entwistle also was convicted on two weapons charges.

Prosecutors said Entwistle had been in a downward spiral since moving to the United States four months before the killings. He had been unable to find a job, had had several Internet businesses fail and had just moved into a $2,700-per- month rented home in Hopkinton.

During the trial, jurors heard Entwistle discuss the killings in his own voice on three hours of recorded phone conversations he had with a state trooper in the week after the murders. He sobbed as a grisly crime scene video depicting the bodies of his wife and daughter was shown to the jury.

Entwistle told police he returned home from running errands on the morning of Jan. 20, 2006, and found his wife and daughter cuddled together in bed, dead of apparent gunshot wounds.

He stammered after Sgt. Robert Manning asked him repeatedly if he had done something "out of character" the day his wife and daughter were killed.

"No, no, no," he said.

"Of course, no, I couldn't do that. Why would I do that?"

He struggled to explain why he never called police or sought medical help for his wife and daughter before flying back to England the day after the killings.

Entwistle told Manning he was distraught and wanted to be consoled by his parents in Worksop, England. "Looking back on it, I don't know why I did things in the way that I did," he said.

Entwistle never mentioned the defense murder-suicide theory during his statements to police.

People who knew the couple testified that they appeared to have a happy marriage and were both thrilled with their daughter.

But a police detective testified about computer records that showed Entwistle trolled the Internet for local escort services and joined an online swingers' site, where he posted a profile saying he was an Englishman who was looking to meet "American women of all ages" for sex.

Rachel and Neil met at the University of York, England, in 1999, while Rachel, who grew up in Kingston, Mass., spent a year studying abroad. They lived in England for several years before returning to the United States so they could raise their daughter near Rachel's family.

Entwistle's attorney, Elliot Weinstein, told the jury that police failed to consider suicide because they immediately focused on Entwistle as a suspect. He said there were "very significant issues of constitutional law" on which to base an appeal.

Weinstein maintained Entwistle returned the .22-caliber handgun used to kill them to the Matterazzos' home in Carver to protect his wife's honor.

"Everything that Neil did after finding Rachel and Lillian in that bedroom, he did because he loved them," Weinstein