TORTOLA, British Virgin Islands — A chief detective in the investigation of Lois McMillen's beating and drowning death took the stand for a second day Friday, answering "Yes, my Lord" and "No, my Lord" as he continued to defend the police probe of the slaying of the 34-year-old artist and former model from Connecticut.

Under a barrage of defense questions, Sgt. Julian Harley, who is in charge of the crime scene and forensics department for the Royal Virgin Islands Police Department, contradicted the previous testimony of an earlier prosecution witness.

Harley told the nine-member jury that defendant Michael Spicer's sneakers were neither sand-covered nor wet — a claim made by Chief Inspector Jacob George on Tuesday to support his reasons for holding Spicer on suspicion of murder for five days without charging him.

Spicer, a 37-year-old resident of Charlottesville, Va., and three house guests were formally charged Jan. 19, 2000, with killing McMillen five days earlier. McMillen had had a casual relationship with Spicer for about 20 years.

In the days before her body was discovered lying face up on the shoreline here, McMillen had spent time with Spicer and his three co-defendants, who now face life in prison if they are convicted at the end of the sensational murder trial that started Monday.

Also charged are: William Labrador, a 37-year-old talent and model agent from New York; Alexander Benedetto, 36, who worked for his father's New York book publishing company; and Evan George, 23, who lived in a Washington, D.C., apartment owned by Spicer.

The defense is attempting to persuade the jury that the police or labs working for the police mishandled or lost evidence. Witnesses Harley and Jacob George — no relation to defendant Evan George — testified they both remembered seeing a multicolored sheet draped over McMillen's body. The sheet is now missing, and none of the dozen prosecution witnesses to testify so far have said they knew who put the sheet over McMillen's body or what became of it.

Harley testified Thursday that a lab in Barbados lost a wet and sandy floor mat taken from McMillen's rental car. Also missing is a sample of sand Harley collected from the beach at Cane Garden Bay, where Spicer, George and Benedetto claim they were at about the time McMillen was killed on the opposite side of the island.

Labrador's defense lawyer — Richard Hector, a former prosecutor and judge from Guyana — asked the witness if he was not concerned about the "shabby" treatment of important evidence by police and the forensic laboratory in Barbados.

"There is nothing I can do about it now," Harley answered.

"Maybe after this case there will be," Hector, taking his seat, offered matter-of-factly.

When cross-examination concluded, jurors asked Harley — as they are allowed to do under the English system — whether any fingerprints found in McMillen's rental car came from the defendants. Harley answered that they did not. The panel also asked whether unused tampons found in a waste bin in Benedetto's room matched a tampon recovered from McMillen's body. Harley said he did not know.

By establishing that the detective and police work was sloppy, the defense believes that it can establish that the physical evidence analyzed by prosecution experts will prove that there were no direct links between the crime scene and the men, or between McMillen and the house the defendants stayed in. Lawyers have said as much in open court, and the prosecution has not challenged the statement.

But the government lawyers say they are not ready to rest their case. The jury has yet to hear the much-anticipated testimony of Jeffrey Plante, the 59-year-old Texas man being held separately from the defendants on bad-check charges. Plante, a convicted swindler wanted by Texas for alleged parole violations, told police that Labrador got religious before Easter last year and confessed to drowning McMillen during an argument over money and because she was "no good."

Plante is expected to testify that Labrador confessed to drowning McMillen by holding her neck down by his foot. Last Friday, Dr. Francisco Landron, a pathologist called back to the stand after stepping down Wednesday, testified that a bruise on McMillen's neck could have been caused by a shoe, but he found no shoe pattern and could not say with any degree of medical certainty whether a shoe or foot was used to hold McMillen under water. He also said the marks could have been caused by a chain being pulled from her neck.

Plante is expected to testify next week as the prosecution winds down its case. The defense, it now appears, will begin calling witnesses — including their own sand expert and pathologist — on April 17. There will be no testimony on Good Friday or April 16, official holidays here.

Testimony concluded at 2 p.m. Friday because of an islandwide disruption of power.

As she left the courthouse, Josephine McMillen appeared upset about suggestions from the defense that her daughter could have accidentally drowned or committed suicide. Landron, in response, repeated his opinion that her drowning was at the hands of someone else.

"I'm offended. That's rubbish," Josephine McMillen said of that line of questioning.