An arrest warrant has been issued for a New Yorker suspected of being involved in the death of a Connecticut artist on the Caribbean island of Tortola after he failed to return to the island to answer a charge he conspired to obstruct justice.

Alexander Benedetto, 36, was already subject to arrest if he returned for Friday's scheduled appearance in Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court. Last month, prosecutors obtained a new indictment charging Benedetto with Lois McMillen's murder.

Benedetto was acquitted of murder in the slaying of McMillen last May, but an appeals court in January ruled that the trial judge erred when he found there was insufficient evidence against Benedetto and directed a nine-member jury to enter a verdict of not guilty at the end of the prosecution's case.

Benedetto's longtime friend, 38-year-old New York businessman William Labrador, was sentenced to life in prison immediately after his May 11 conviction. The main evidence against Labrador and Benedetto was the testimony of a prison snitch, convicted Texas con man Jeffrey Plante, about statements allegedly overhead in prison.

William Labrador is serving a life sentence after his May 2001 murder conviction.

Labrador, according to his former cell mate, confessed that he drowned McMillen, 34, during an argument over money. The appeals court upheld Labrador's conviction but ordered a new murder trial for Benedetto, the son of New York book publisher Victor Benedetto.

According to several people who were there, Benedetto's lawyer, Paul Dennis, offered no explanation for his client's absence. "My client's not here, my Lord," Dennis informed the judge.

Bob Drury, whose 5,300-word report on the case appeared in GQ magazine this week, said Friday that he spoke with Benedetto late Thursday by phone and the defendant said, "I'm not going."

Benedetto told Drury, according to the GQ piece, that McMillen hit Benedetto with a bombshell two nights before her death on Jan. 14, 2000. McMillen, Benedetto told the writer, said she figured out who was responsible for the 1999 killing of a Tortolan man that remains unsolved today.

"Lois blurted that she figured out who killed Jason Bally," Benedetto is quoted by the men's monthly magazine as saying.

"Alex is counting on the Privy Council [in England] and American lawyers to convince a judge here that it is double jeopardy" for him to be re-tried for McMillen's murder, Drury told Courttv.com. "I don't blame him. I won't step foot back on that island if I was him, even if my told me to go."

Benedetto did not return calls and e-mail messages this week.

Michael Spicer was acquitted of involvement in McMillen's slaying.

Michael Spicer, who was also acquitted of involvement in McMillen's murder, did appear in court Friday to answer an outstanding lesser charge of "conspiracy to prevert the course of justice." There was very little testimony during the trial, covered extensively by Courttv.com that would even hint at a prosecution theory about what Spicer's role could have been.

He denies any involvement in McMillen's death. Spicer, a 38-year-old law school graduate from Virginia, was told Friday to return to Tortola in October to answer the conspiracy charge.

Spicer said Thursday that when he entered Tortola via a ferry from St. Thomas, a U.S. Virgin Island, a customs official held him up briefly while he made some calls. The official asked Spicer if he intended to appear in court in the morning and Spicer assured him he would.

"It was nice to becoming back and putting this all to rest eventually," said Spicer, who skipped his February plan to take the bar exam in New York but plans to try again to become a lawyer in July. "It felt weird to come back under the circumstances, having come here so many times in the past and then to return under different circumstances."