No retrial in ’ 01 killing
Prosecutors toss case; suspect in death of intern to be deported.
Prosecutors announced Thursday that they will not retry a man convicted of killing Washington intern Chandra Levy, saying they can “no longer prove the murder case” in the 15- year- old slaying.
The U. S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia issued a statement saying it has moved to dismiss the case charging Ingmar Guandique, now 36, with Levy’s 2001 slaying.
According to the statement, prosecutors concluded they can no longer prove the murder case against Guandique beyond a reasonable doubt, “based on recent unforeseen developments that were investigated over the past week.” The statement does not elaborate, and Bill Miller, a spokesman for the U. S. attorney, declined comment.
“After investigating this information and reviewing all of the evidence in this case, the government now believes it is in the interests of justice for the court to dismiss the case without prejudice,” prosecutors wrote in a one- page motion.
Chief Judge Robert Morin approved the dismissal of the charges Thursday and Guandique, who is from El Salvador, will be handed over to U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation.
Guandique’s lawyers in the public defender’s office issued a statement Thursday saying their client has been vindicated.
“Finally, the government has had to concede the flaws in its ill- gotten conviction,” the lawyers said, noting that Guandique had passed an FBI- administered lie detector test regarding his involvement. They accused prosecutors of hiding information that undermined their star witness at Guandique’s 2010 trial.
The 2001 disappearance of Levy, 24, an intern at the Federal Bureau of Prisons, created a national sensation after the Modesto, Calif., native was found to have been romantically linked with then- Rep. Gary Condit.
The California Democrat was at one point a suspect in the investigation, police acknowledged. Condit was defeated for re- election the next year, but authorities said he had been cleared of any involvement in the slaying.
Guandique’s lawyers, however, had indicated before charges were dropped that they might have pressed the theory that Condit was the real killer. The lawyers had said in court that they had been seeking testimony about Condit’s sexual habits from other women with whom he had had relationships.
Bertram Fields, a lawyer for Condit, 68, could not immediately be reached for comment; neither could lawyers for Guandique.
Extensive searches failed to locate Levy. Her remains were found in Washington’s Rock Creek Park in 2002 by a man walking his dog. Prosecutors argued her death fit a pattern of assaults Guandique committed on two female joggers in the Rock Creek Park. Prosecutors did not charge him until 2009. He was found guilty in 2010 and sentenced to 60 years in prison.
But Guandique was granted a new trial last year after doubts were raised about a jailhouse snitch, Armando Morales, who was the key witness at Guandique’s trial. Morales testified that Guandique confessed to the killing.
Defense lawyers have argued, though, that Morales lied during the trial and that prosecutors knew or should have known the testimony was problematic.
In recent months, Guandique’s attorneys have raised questions about Condit. At a January hearing, one of Guandique’s attorneys told a judge that Condit misled the jury with his testimony at the 2010 trial, but he did not elaborate.
In May, defense lawyers sought to take depositions from several women who said they had sexual relationships with Condit. Defense lawyers said two of the women said they feared Condit. And the defense lawyers said Condit had “obvious motive to kill Ms. Levy in order to keep the relationship secret.”
Abbe Lowell, a lawyer who has represented Condit, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday. Efforts to reach Levy’s parents by phone were not immediately successful Thursday.