Jury
decides: Labrador versus Plante in McMillen murder case
By Angela Burns Piper
Two
of the defendants freed last week, Thursday, with their lawyers: (l to
r) Michael Spicer, Attorney
Oscar Ramjeet (of the J.S. Archibald & Co. lawfirm), Evan George,
and Attorney Joseph S. Archibald, Q.C.
[Island Sun photo by Angela Burns Piper]
On day 480, Tuesday, defense attorney Richard Hector Q.C began closing
arguments on behalf of his client William Labrador from Southampton, New
York, who is charged with the murder of 34-year old Connecticut artist
Lois Livingston McMillen. The defendant, a 37-year old businessman, was
one of four American men arrested the same day Ms. McMillen's body was
found ashore the Drake's Highway in West End on January 15th, last year. The other three men, Virginian Michael Spicer, whose family
has a vacation home in Belmont, Tortola, Evan George of Washington and
Alexander Benedetto of New York, were set free last Thursday after the
judge ruled there was insufficient evidence against them. They had all
been in jail for the past 16 months.
Opting to take the stand as the case continued April 3rd, lead prosecutor Theodore Guerra Q.C of Trinidad and Tobago began his cross-examination of William Labrador. Last Friday morning, the other three men had to re-appear in court to answer a lesser charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice. In the instance of George, he was released unconditionally, however for Spicer and Benedetto, their matter was traversed to the next High Court Assizes in October and they were released on $10,000 bail with one surety. They have since left the BVI.
Continuing on Friday, Mr. Guerra grilled Labrador as to his career with several modeling agencies, the claims in Plante's testimony including that Labrador had confessed to murdering McMillen and that he had been bad-mouthing the BVI to the U.S press. Labrador denied most of Plante's testimony, refused to give details of his employment citing confidentiality agreements and said he has loved coming to the BVI since 1988 because of its scenic beauty and would not bad mouth the territory. He also denied entering into any loan arrangement with Benedetto's father and insisted that while he was with McMillen on January 13th, he was home alone at the time the prosecution is alleging that McMillen was murdered on January 14th. He denied having anything at all to do with her death.
There was another technicality that had to be dealt with before the defense was able to call its second witness - Tisha Neville, the former Texan Parole Officer for Jeffrey Plante. The crown objected saying Plante's evidence must be treated as final or it could lead to a further protracted trial. The defense contended, noting that Plante was in violation of his parole conditions while here, learnt of his possible extradition and therefore had a powerful motive to remain in the BVI.
Presiding judge Justice Kenneth Benjamin ruled that he was prepared to
allow the jury to hear Neville's evidence, but directed that no evidence
would be received of Plante's parole status or of similar past proceedings
in Hawaii.
On the stand, Ms. Neville testified that she would not believe anything
Plante has to say under oath. She also said he was a man who would do
anything to achieve his ends. In his closing argument, Mr. Hector thanked
the judge, congratulated the jury and said he was honoured to have played
an important role in the longest criminal trial in the history of the
BVI. He said this whole matter has disrupted many lives, but there's light
at the end of the tunnel.
I feel for the McMillen's, they have lost their daughter under tragic
circumstances. I am happy that they were here to hear all of the evidence,
because they will come to the conclusion that William Labrador had nothing
to do with it, Mr. Hector, a Q.C. from Bermuda stated.
He told the jury that it was their duty to prove, beyond reasonable doubt,
whether Labrador was guilty or not. You have to be satisfied so that you
feel sure.
The defense counsel advised the jury not to take into consideration the opinion of others, whether persons they are close to, rumours, press reports, radio or TV reports and they should try not to allow any prejudice or sympathetic feelings cloud their deliberations. No one who has given evidence in this case can tell you how and why Ms. McMillen died; it's a complete mystery...you will have to be guided by the evidence you heard.
He discounted the alleged confession of Labrador to Plante as pure fiction. Plante, who is the prosecution=92s star witness, remains in jail here charged with 32 counts of fraud. Members of the jury, if you can't trust this man to pay you for a loaf of bread, can you take his word in order to convict someone of murder?
A great injustice has been done to this young man, Hector said, pointing
to his client, You should tell Tortola and the world that a man like this
couldn't mislead you, quickly, by your verdict.
He reiterated that there was no scientific evidence between Labrador and
McMillen and nothing to connect Labrador to the crime scene.
Agree with me that her death is a mystery, let him go, let him return
to the bosom of his family because he hasn't done anything, except to
come here for vacation. It is time, it is now the 480th
day of his trial, let him go, Hector appealed to the jury.
In his closing argument, Mr. Guerra also urged the jury to act only on
the evidence heard from the witness and the exhibits. We do not know of
trial by the press!
He said the evidence against Labrador is now small, from police officer, Plante, the pathologist who performed the post mortem and from U.S Coast Guard Officer Jeffrey Simms. He attacked Labrador's testimony, uprooting several contradictions and accused him of being a stranger to the truth.
The prosecutor also discounted the evidence of Tisha Neville, saying she could be considered a biased witnessed, having been brought here by the defense, all expenses paid. She was part of the Labrador defense team.He noted that Ms. Neville obtained the transcript of a document tendered in evidence long after she was off Plante's case, she couldn't say when in September 2000 she retired and she did not pass on certain information to her successor, as she had too much interest in this matter.
He drew a lot of inferences between the American way and the West Indian way and told the jury this witness was trying to pull the wool over our eyes. Let us use good West Indian commonsense. Not because they come from large metropolitan countries, don't let them fool us, the Trinidadian Q.C. said. He said the reason why she came to give evidence against Plante is because Plante had asked for her to be removed as his Parole Officer.
Mr. Guerra said Plante would not have any benefit by lying. He noted
that despite his dilemma of finding himself in the Ghut (referring to
the prison at Balsam Ghut), Plante still came forward and stood up to
all the slings sent in his direction by that Greek warrior Hector.
He ended his closing argument by saying the crown has discharged the onerous
burden placed on it and proved the guilt of the accused.
So, after 25 days of this trial, the judge was expected to give his final
summation Thursday morning and then put the jury out to deliberate. A
verdict was expected by Thursday afternoon.
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