ROAD TOWN, British Virgin Islands — A former parole officer from Texas told jurors that the prosecution's star witness in the murder of artist Lois McMillen is a liar who would do anything to get out of a jam.

"I believe he is a habitual liar and a criminal with a long history," Tisha Neville testified about prison informant Jeffrey Plante, 59. "Mr. Plante will do or say anything to get what he wants ... Whatever it takes, as long as it will benefit him."

The defense hopes that her comments will ring in the ears of jurors as they consider whether New York businessman William Labrador killed McMillen, a former model from Connecticut who was staying in her family's vacation villa. McMillen's body was found, bruised and drowned, on the shoreline of this eastern Caribbean island Jan. 15, 2000.

After presenting only two witnesses — Labrador and Neville— the defense rested Monday afternoon. Closing arguments in the now six-week-long trial are scheduled to begin Tuesday morning.

Neville almost didn't make it onto the stand at all. Her damning testimony came after a long day of legal wrangling over whether Neville, who had supervised Plante while he was on parole in Texas, could testify against him.

At 3:30 p.m. ET, the thin, neatly dressed blonde woman began her testimony, telling the jury about a previous case in which Plante, a convicted swindler, had also served as an informant. That situation, she said, bears striking resemblance to the current case.

According to a trial transcript that was read aloud in court Monday, Plante testified in 1995 that a fellow inmate admitted involvement in a killing in Hawaii and that the murder was over "drugs and money."

In the Hawaii case, Plante testified that the defendant asked him to borrow $10,000 and confessed when Plante asked him "point blank" if the man was involved in the murder.

During the McMillen trial, Plante testified that Labrador asked him for a loan of $25,000 and that Labrador confessed to drowning McMillen after Plante asked him "directly" if he was involved in the woman's death. Plante alleged that Labrador admitted to killing her after an argument over money and because she was "no good."

Neville said the similarities between the cases illustrate a pattern, a position the defense has argued at several points since the trial began April 2.

"Would you believe him on oath?" defense lawyer Richard Hector asked.

"I would not believe him on oath or not under oath," Neville responded.

Neville, who is no longer a parole officer, supervised Plante's parole for less than a year beginning in August 1998. In 1999, while he was living on the island of Tortola with his 10th wife, Plante was declared a "parole absconder" by Texas and Neville applied for a warrant for his re-arrest.

If Plante is extradited to Texas after answering 32 outstanding bad-check charges here, he faces the 33 years remaining on his 1987 sentence for theft. The defense has argued that Plante's fear of extradition presented a powerful motive for him to cook up a confession by Labrador, his cellmate, last May.

On cross-examination, prosecutor Terrence Williams tried to show that Neville was acting as an agent for Labrador's defense when she used unofficial channels to obtain the transcript of the Hawaii murder trial. Neville, in response to questions from Williams, said her travel costs are being paid by the defense but denied that she was being compensated for her testimony.

"Your interest in getting this transcript was to assist the defense in this case?" Williams asked.

"Partly," Neville answered.

When asked by the jury forewoman why she does not believe anything Plante says, Neville answered that Plante lied to her numerous times about employment, property ownership, business dealings and other issues while under her parole supervision.

The jury also asked Neville why getting the transcript was so important to her.

"To me it established a pattern," she said, referring to the similar testimony in the two unrelated murder trials. "If he did it once, he'd do it again."

When Neville's testimony was complete, Hector stood up and announced simply, "My Lord, that is the case for the defense."

Hector, who did not get to deliver an opening statement under the rules, will deliver his closing argument first when the case resumes at 9 a.m.

Last Thursday, Judge Kenneth Benjamin ordered the release of three co-defendants — two friends and an acquaintance of Labrador's from the East Coast — after ruling that the prosecution presented insufficient evidence. Benjamin said at the time that the jury could find Labrador guilty if they believe Plante's version of what was said inside Her Majesty's Prison and reject expert testimony that contradicted the alleged confession.

The released defendants, who all pleaded not guilty October 3, had been held without bail since McMillen's body was found. They all left the island last week.

Labrador testified Thursday and Friday that he was home sleeping alone at the time of the murder. He refuted all of Plante's allegations and denied ever confessing to the crime.

A spokesperson for the Royal Virgin Islands Police Department said Plante's bad-check charges are still pending. Police also continue to hold Plante's ex-wife, Channon Lytton of Alabama, who was arrested as she tried to leave her hotel Sunday to return home.

Witnesses said police told Lytton that she was being detained for suspicion of obtaining property by fraud. Lytton was headed back to the U.S. after learning that the defense would not be needing her to testify against Plante as planned.

"The matter is under investigation. She hasn't been charged, but she is in police custody; that's a fact," said Sgt. Patrick Harewood, the police spokesman. "I'm not free to go into the details of the investigation."