ROAD TOWN, British Virgin Islands — The prosecution rested and the defense began motions to dismiss all charges for lack of evidence in the trial of four American men charged with killing a Connecticut woman here last year.

Senior Counsel Theodore Guerra rose from his seat at 9:45 Tuesday morning to announce that the Crown had concluded its case — a reference to the fact that this tiny eastern Caribbean island east of Puerto Rico is under British rule.

Guerra, and Senior Crown Counsel Counsel Terrence Williams, called 24 witnesses during 20 days of testimony in an effort to prove that defendant William Labrador, a 37-year-old former modeling agency executive from New York, drowned 34-year-old Lois McMillen in shallow water after a violent argument over money.

The prosecution never fully developed the motive and produced limited physical evidence — specks of sand found in co-defendant Michael Spicer's "K Swiss" brand sneakers that could have come from the rocky shoreline where the body of McMillen, a former artist and model, was found on Jan. 15, 2000.

Labrador, Spicer and co-defendants Alexander Benedetto and Evan George all pleaded not guilty and insist they were not involved in the killing. Benedetto, 35, is the son of a New York book publisher. Spicer, 37, is a law school graduate who lives off investments and a family trust. George, 23, has been described in court as Spicer's lover and lives in a Washington, D.C., apartment Spicer owns.

After the prosecution rested, Labrador's lawyer, Richard Hector of Bermuda, began hammering away at the testimony of Jeffrey Plante, a 59-year-old Texan with a long criminal record. Plante testified last week that Labrador made incriminating statements to him when they shared a prison cell last year. Plante's fraud-related charges were dismissed after he made a statement to police alleging that Labrador had confessed to killing McMillen.

Plante said on the stand that Labrador got religious a few days before Good Friday of last year and asked Plante if God would forgive him if he had anything to do with killing someone.

Plante said he told Labrador that a priest in Road Town would be a better person to ask. Labrador at the point, according to Plante, admitted to getting into a violent argument with McMillen as she drove, forced her to pull over, dragged her to the water and pressed his foot on the back of her neck to drown her.

With the courtroom silent and the nine-member jury not present, Hector argued for more than two hours that with no physical evidence to connect Labrador to the killing, Justice Kenneth Benjamin should bar the jury from deliberating the murder charge against his client based solely on Plante's testimony.

'This man is a slippery customer. How could you accept the word of a man whose mother might not accept it?'

Hector pointed out that Plante, a convicted swindler, faces extradition to Texas to possibly serve 33 years left on a 45-year sentence he received in 1987 for theft. Plante's criminal record, allegations he passed 32 bad checks after being released last year, and conflicts between his testimony and other evidence make him worthless as a credible witness, Hector argued.

"My Lord, this man has a prodigious record of criminal [convictions], a record so offensive that he had to be given 45 years [for theft] in 1987," said Hector, addressing Justice Kenneth Benjamin as a swift-moving rainstorm drenched Tortola's downtown district.

"He's cold-blooded, calculating and somebody I would characterize as a piece of work," Hector continued. "This man is a slippery customer. How could you accept the word of a man whose mother might not accept it?"

Hector lobbed a barb at the prosecution Tuesday morning, arguing that the government had no evidence at all until Plante surfaced with his story just before a probable cause hearing began in Magistrate's Court here last summer.

"[Plante] had a motive to implicate my client. Without his evidence at the magistrate's hearing, the Crown would have had nothing. They would not have been able to hold these men any longer," Hector said. "His evidence came at the nick of time and standing alone ... He is a thief and clearly a liar."

The wind picked up outside and it began to rain heavy when Hector honed in on Plante's testimony. Russell McMillen and Josephine McMillen, who have been having difficulty hearing the proceedings, remained stone faced.

The prosecutors whispered among themselves. Police officers who investigated the killing leaned forward in their chairs in the back of the courtroom to hear better. The defendants listened closely but showed no emotion.

Before finishing his arguments on the motion, Hector told the judge he thought the prosecution's case was not only weak but too disjointed for the jury to deliberate.

"It is my submission that the case presented by the prosecution is so fragmented, so confusing that no jury should be faced with the task of sorting out the prosecution's inept endeavor," Hector said.

Spicer's lead attorney, Joseph Archibald, spent the next 90 minutes citing case law of the prosecution's duty to prove the case it presents during opening statements. He also reminded the judge of his power of discretion to throw out circumstantial cases based on testimony by unreliable witnesses.

Archibald is to continue his arguments Wednesday morning.

It is unclear whether the judge will decide immediately to allow the case to proceed. The judge could rule that there is insufficient evidence to convict any or all of the defendants, and order those released. He could also find that there is enough for the jury to deliberate and attempt to reach verdicts of guilt or innocence.

A murder conviction in the British Virgin Islands carries a sentence of life in prison.