ROAD TOWN, British Virgin Islands — Prosecutors usually learn early in their training that one of the worst trial blunders they can make is promising the jury more than they can deliver.

A lawyer for one of four American men charged with killing Lois McMillen suggested Wednesday that Senior Crown Counsel Terrence Williams did just that with his opening statement on April 2.

Attorney Joseph Archibald read portions of the opening statement made by Williams as he attempted to persuade Justice Kenneth Benjamin that prosecutors had not proven their case.

"Who killed Miss McMillen?" asked Archibald, who represents defendants Michael Spicer and Evan George. "Is it Mr. Spicer? … the evidence is tenuous. It is a speck of sand. It is speculation."

Prosecution Rests

The prosecution rested its case against the four men — Spicer, George, William Labrador and Alexander Benedetto — after the last of 24 witnesses left the stand Tuesday. Prosecutors allege that Labrador, 37, a former New York modeling agency executive, drowned McMillen, a 34-year-old artist, after the two had an argument over money.

Outside the presence of the jury, defense lawyers for the four defendants continued to press their case, arguing the charges should be dismissed because of a lack of evidence.

In his opening statement, Williams promised to rely on circumstantial evidence to prove the defendants had opportunity to commit the murder. He told the jury of seven women and two men that he would also present physical evidence to show that sand from Spicer's sneakers matched the crime scene.

"These men were in the area about the same time, about the time this woman was last alive," Williams is quoted in the transcript as saying in his opening.

Witness for the Prosecution

The battered body of the attractive 34-year-old artist from affluent Middlebury, Conn. was found the morning of Jan. 15, 2000, laying face up on the rocky shoreline here.

The four men, who were charged with the killing days later, were staying at a villa near the vacation home of McMillen's parents, Russell and Josephine, on the night Lois McMillen disappeared. One of the men, Spicer, 37, knew McMillen for about 20 years because their families own vacation homes in the same neighborhood.

During the trial, a prison informant named Jeffrey Plante, 59, testified that Labrador allegedly confessed in prison to drowning McMillen on Jan. 14, the night before her body was found.

Other than Plante's testimony, however, no other prosecution witness has testified about the motive for the killing. And in his opening, Williams conceded that Plante is less than an ideal witness.

"We don't hide that he had a bad history ... but in the long run you are going to have to ask yourself [if you] can believe him, what he says," Williams said, according to the transcript.

Fraud-related charges against Plante were dropped after he gave his statement about Labrador to the police.

Specks of Evidence

In presenting physical evidence, a prosecution expert testified that there was a "high probability" that 15 percent of .2 grams of sand from Spicer's white "K Swiss" sneakers came from the general vicinity where McMillen's fully clothed body was discovered.

The expert could not, however, say that it was a scientific certainty that the specks of sand came from the crime scene or how long they were in Spicer's well-worn sneakers.

The testimony of the sediment expert, University of London environmental geologist Kenneth Pye, is crucial to Spicer's defense because the prosecution told the jury that they would hear from an expert that the sand from the Georgetown University Law School graduate's sneakers linked him to the crime scene.

"You shall hear that the sand under one of these [defendants'] pairs of shoes matches the sand at the place where the body of Miss McMillen was found," Williams continued. "... from Mr. Spicer's shoes was found the sand from the scene where the crime was committed."

Prosecutors presented no other evidence that conclusively links the suspects to the crime scene.

Judge to Rule on Future of Case

The defense, relying heavily on stacks of transcripts that litter the defense table, is expected to continue motion to dismiss arguments for most of the day. After the prosecution counters the arguments, Benjamin must rule whether the case will go forward against any or all of the defendants.

There has been very little testimony from prosecution witnesses about two of the defendants: Benedetto, a 35-year-old New Yorker who dated McMillen for three months in 1997; and George, 23, who lives in a Washington, D.C., apartment owned by Spicer.

The trial, now in its sixteenth day, is on its way toward becoming the longest criminal trial in the history of this eastern Caribbean island since the first English settlers arrived in 1666.