GMA: Virgin Islands Murder Trial Opens

T O R T O L A, British Virgin Islands, April 2, 2001 -- It had the makings of a mystery novel: a beautiful young woman visiting an island paradise was murdered, and four privileged American men on vacation were charged in her death.

But it's no work of fiction. A trial starts today on the British Virgin Island of Tortola, where an American man stands charged with killing another tourist, Lois McMillen. And three of his friends are charged with trying to help him get away with it. National correspondent Don Dahler followed the twists and turns in a Good Morning America exclusive.

Barbara Labrador, the mother of accused killer William Labrador, has been paying brief visits to her son in the mountaintop prison where he has been awaiting trial for more than a year. Most recently she brought him the suit he will wear at his murder trial.

"I'm very proud of him," she said. "He's tall, dark, handsome and smart. He's the type of person that if I was not his mother and I met him somewhere, I would enjoy talking to."

Bad Things Don’t Happen Here

Labrador grew up in the Hamptons, a tony section of Long Island, but the 37-year-old financial adviser may never leave the vacation paradise where prosecutors say he became a murderer.

From his prison window, Labrador has a commanding view of Tortola, a quiet, relatively undeveloped island that is so picturesque it's almost a Caribbean cliché. Bad things generally don't happen here: on average there are only four homicides a year. Lois McMillen became one of them. She was beaten and drowned on a Tortola beach in January 2000. Labrador and three others are charged in her death.

Her family is devastated.

"No mother ever had a daughter that was more loving," said Josephine McMillen, her mother. Her daughter, who lived in Connecticut, was quite literally an all-American girl, a descendant of Robert Livingston, one of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence.

"Lois was a beautiful young woman. Thirty-four years old. Very much a part of our lives," said her father, Russell McMillen.

She was a women's rights activist, and a professional artist. Her mother, who says her daughter was a very spiritual person, still enjoys showing off her paintings.

Slain on the Beach

But 15 months ago, on a rocky stretch of beach, something happened that linked the two families: the Labradors and the McMillens. Lois McMillen's battered body was found draped along rocks in an inlet where she had drowned.

"Lois was murdered," her father says.

But Barbara Labrador says she does not believe her son had anything to do with it.

"Absolutely not," she says. But the McMillens disagree

"We think that the individual who has been accused of the actual murder is the one who actually did the murder and that the others were involved," Russell McMillen said.

The others are Labrador's friends: publisher Alexander Benedetto, 35, of Manhattan, construction worker Evan George, 23, of Washington, D.C., and Georgetown law student Michael Spicer, 37. They were staying with Labrador at the Spicer family vacation home, called the Zebra House. It is only 100 yards from the McMillens' house. Spicer, Benedetto and George are charged with accessory to murder and perverting justice.

Because Tortola is a British-governed islands, its court system is different than its American counterparts, and criminal prosecutors rarely share information with the public before trial.

A Drive to the Morgue

But the known facts are these:

During the day on January 14, 2000, Lois and her mother, both in Tortola on a family vacation, went shopping. Her daughter was happy and upbeat, Josephine McMillen said.

At around 9:30 p.m., Lois went alone to a local bar, the Jolly Roger, to listen to music.

Bar owner Lou Schwartz remembers seeing Lois McMillen that night.

"I just happened to be looking over the rail and I saw her drive out in her car by herself," Schwartz said. "And to the best of my knowledge even for another couple of minutes while I was gazing out, no one followed her. No car followed her."

Another eyewitness reports seeing her walking on the beach shortly after that, trailed by a group of men. Her parents started getting worried when they woke up in the middle of the night and she still wasn't home.

At 8:30 the next morning, about the time the McMillens' called police to report that their daughter was missing, her body was found on the rocks next to the shore. Her necklace and shoes reportedly were found across the highway as if they'd been thrown there, and her rental car with her handbag still inside was parked a half mile away.

"They drove us to the morgue, and we made an identification of Lois, which was not very pleasant as you can imagine — swollen face, beaten, bad, bad, very sad," said Russell McMillen.

"It was, so unbelievable ... I could hardly believe it," his wife said.

He pushed his wife away so she couldn't see, but Russell McMillen said he just had to look at his daughter.

"He did, he held her hand," Josephine McMillen said.

A few hours after Russell McMillen held the hand of his daughter one last time, police put handcuffs on Barbara Labrador's son.

In court affidavits, all four men deny being involved in the murder of Lois McMillen.

"There is no factual evidence connecting the guys and my son to Lois' death," Barbara Labrador said.

Was She at Quito’s?

Labrador admits the four men had been in the neighborhood of the Jolly Roger, getting cash from an ATM machine, but he says they returned to the other side of the island.

"They dropped William off because he was tired from hiking all day," Barbara Labrador said. "He did not want to go out. It was already probably 11:30 or so, so he walked home, and the cab driver took the other three to Quito's.

Quito's is a popular dance spot on the opposite side of the island from where Lois' body was eventually found. The accused men say they didn't see her there, but a witness reportedly claims he danced with her at Quito's that night.

In affidavits, two of the four men say they returned to the zebra house at 2:30 or 3 a.m., with Labrador already there and asleep. But in a hand-written addendum, Alexander Benedetto changed the return time to 5:30 a.m.

Testimony From a Cellmate

Perhaps the most damaging testimony comes from a former cellmate, Jeffrey Plante, who claims Labrador confessed to the murder, and that the other men were involved somehow.

"I asked Mr. Labrador specifically if he had anything to do with Ms. McMillen's death," Plante states in his deposition. "His answer was yes." But local reporter Todd Merriman of The Beacon, says Plante is a man with a criminal past and present.

"At the time [Plante] testified he had just recently had forgery charges against him dropped. Since then he has been arrested again here on fraud charges of about 30 different businesses," Merriman said.

Barbara Labrador says a prison sentence awaiting Plante in Texas made him strike a deal and tell a lie and that he simply did not want to get extradited back to the United States to face those charges.

"And in fact that is exactly what happened! They dismissed the charges against him; he was released on June 30th; he did not sign his statement until after he was released," she says.

There is physical evidence, including Spicer's shirt stained with either blood (as prosecutors claim), or barbecue sauce (as Spicer's family contends) that will come to light in the trial over the next few days. Meanwhile, two families wait.

Barbara Labrador hopes the trial will bring her son freedom. And the McMillens hope it will finally give their daughter justice.