A New York man acquitted of taking part in the murder of a Connecticut woman on a tiny Caribbean island must stand trial for the killing again, an appeals court ruled Monday.

The ruling by the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeals in Tortola was delivered two years to the day that 34-year-old artist Lois Livingston McMillen was last seen alive.

A retrial of McMillen's onetime lover, 36-year-old Alexander Benedetto of Manhattan, creates an interesting legal dilemma since it would constitute "double jeopardy" under the American legal system but is permitted in the British Virgin Islands.

Alexander Benedetto could face a new trial in Tortola.

Benedetto's attorney, Paul Dennis, said that if prosecutors obtain a re-arrest warrant and pursue extradition, a U.S. judge may be put in the position of having to decide whether to send an American citizen to a foreign jurisdiction that does not recognize a basic right he enjoys at home.

"In order for him to be retried, he basically has to be back in the territory," Dennis, reached in his office on the island of Tortola, told Courttv.com. "The double jeopardy rule is such a hallowed part of U.S. criminal jurisprudence that I rather suspect that the U.S. courts would not yield to a jurisdiction where they are practicing afoul of this fundamental rule."

Benedetto, who returned to New York after a judge directed a nine-member jury to enter a verdict of not guilty in May, could not be reached. He and three friends had been held on Tortola without bail since Jan. 15, 2000, the day McMillen's body was discovered laying face up on the rocky shores of Sir Francis Drake Channel.

Michael Spicer, acquitted last May, will not be re-tried for the killing of Lois McMillen.

There were no signs of robbery or sexual assault, but investigators quickly focused on four vacationing Americans — Benedetto, William Labrador, Michael Spicer and Evan George. Although there was no conclusive physical evidence or statements linking any of the men to the killing, they were held without bail for four months awaiting a probable cause hearing.

Labrador was convicted of the murder and sentenced to life in prison after a prison informant testified that Labrador admitted to drowning McMillen after an argument over money.

On Monday, the three-judge appeals court also upheld Labrador's conviction. The panel ruled that the trial testimony of the convicted swindler from Texas, Jeffrey Plante, was sufficient underpinning for the murder conviction. Labrador and his mother, Barbara Labrador of Long Island, N.Y. appeared disappointed but otherwise showed no emotion as the ruling was delivered Monday, according to several lawyers who were in the courtroom.

Labrador's appellate argument that Plante's testimony was vague and not credible was rejected by the judges.

"Plante's vivid and unequivocal admission of guilt by Labrador" was supported with circumstantial evidence presented by other witnesses, wrote Justice Satrohan Signh of Guyana. "The jury heard all the evidence, saw the witnesses and came to their conclusion, obviously accepting the testimony of Plante."

Reached by telephone at the seaside villa on Tortola where Lois McMillen spent her final days, Josephine McMillen said she was confident all along that the conviction of her daughter's killer would stand. She and her husband, retired business executive Russell McMillen of Middlebury, Conn., attended the trial every day but were not in the courtroom for the rulings Monday.

"I heard the good news at 10 minutes of 11," she said. "I am very happy. I feel that justice has been served."

William Labrador's mother, Barbara, reached at her hotel by phone Monday night, said it isn't over. After the ruling, she visited her son in Her Majesty's Prison at Balsam Ghut and urged him to remain hopeful.

"We were shocked, but not surprised," she said. "The initial assessment is that this is incredible, but he's okay."

Court says trial judge erred

Regarding Benedetto, the judges concluded that the trial judge was wrong not to allow the jury to decide whether a prison statement attributed by Plante to Benedetto implicated him in the murder. Plante testified that Benedetto and Labrador fought frequently in prison. During one of the arguments, Benedetto yelled that Labrador was "more guilty" than Benedetto.

Although Benedetto may face re-trial, Spicer will not. The judges "disallowed" a prosecution motion that sought to overturn Spicer's directed verdict of acquittal by High Court Justice Kenneth Benjamin. Spicer, a 38-year-old Virginia resident and Georgetown University Law School graduate, also will not have to return to the territory to face a related charge of accessory to murder after the fact.

"I am relieved. I have been trying to put this behind me," said Spicer, who plans to take the New York bar examination next month. "It's two years to the day since this whole ordeal began. It all comes down to these accusations of Mr. Plante ... Two years later, we are no further along to learning the truth than we were that morning when her body was found."

Spicer's attorney, Oscar Ramjeet, welcomed the ruling.

"I am very happy that he is completely acquitted," said Ramjeet, who argued the appeal in October. "Spicer is totally free."

Plante, a parole violator has since been returned to Texas to serve out 33 years remaining on a larceny conviction, shared a cell with Labrador during the spring of 2000. Plante, now 60, testified that Labrador got religious around Easter and asked him if "God would forgive" him if he took part in a killing. Labrador went onto to say that he killed McMillen during a violent argument over money, Plante testified.

Victim Lois McMillen

Labrador took the witness stand during the trial and denied killing McMillen or telling Plante that he did. The defense tried to paint Plante as a scheming, pathological liar who would say or do anything to suit his needs. Among other things, lawyers noted that Plante's testimony was vague and was remarkably similar to testimony he gave in 1995 against a fellow prisoner charged with murder in Hawaii.

"[Plante's] a con artist and we all know he's been ripping people off," Josephine McMillen said Monday. "He's not a murderer and he did not lie about this particular case. There was stuff in his statement that he couldn't have made up."

Labrador's London-based appeals counsel could not be reached. Michael Griffith, a New York lawyer advising the defense, said he was very disappointed that the appeals court would allow a conviction based almost entirely on the testimony of a convicted swindler to stand.

"It is very distressing. I know that this will be held to the highest court in England, the Privy Council," Griffith said. "He is totally innocent. This makes no sense."

Prosecutor Terrence Williams said that he was not authorized to comment about the rulings. Asked about the ramifications of the re-trial ordered for Benedetto on the murder charge, Williams noted that there is already an existing indictment charging Benedetto with accessory to murder after the fact.

Basically, if Benedetto failed to return to Tortola on his own when summoned, the prosecution could seek his extradition on the accessory charge, the murder charge or both.

"The legal point may be academic," Williams said, referring to the double jeopardy implications a U.S. court might be asked to decide. (Williams did not appeal the trial judge's decision directing the jury to enter a not guilty verdict against Evan George, 24, whose name surfaced only in passing during testimony.)

Experts: Extradition contestable

Two experts on extradition law who followed the McMillen case in the media said that the double jeopardy issue might become obstacles for the re-prosecution of Benedetto after his acquittal.

"It's unlikely they'd ever get him back," said attorney Richard Atkins of Philadelphia. "I can't even possibly imagine how a court here could rule that he should be made to go back, especially when you show the anti-American feeling there."

Bruce Zagaris, a Washington, D.C., extradition lawyer who has handled cases in the West Indies, said that generally federal judges are prohibited from getting into the facts of a case but may when a violation of civil rights is alleged.

"Double jeopardy or any other issue of human rights violation can be raised to deny extradition. Off the top of my head, though, I can't think of a case like this on all points," said Zagaris, editor-in-chief of the monthly journal International Enforcement Law Reporter.