Alleged Chandra Levy killer won’t be retried
Charges dropped in 2001 slaying
WASHINGTON — In another stunning reversal, federal prosecutors abruptly dropped murder charges yesterday against the Salvadoran immigrant previously convicted of killing former intern and Modesto, Calif., resident Chandra Levy.
The unexpected decision casts back into mystery the question of what really happened to Levy more than 15 years ago when she disappeared while apparently jogging through the capital’s Rock Creek Park. It follows years of defense lawyers’ investigation into the prosecutors’ chief witness, who claimed Ingmar Guandique confessed to the crime while the two shared a jail cell.
Citing the “interests of justice” and “recent unforeseen developments that were investigated over the past week,” the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia said Guandique would now be turned over to immigration authorities for deportation proceedings.
“The office has concluded that it can no longer prove the murder case against Mr. Guandique beyond a reasonable doubt,” U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman William Miller said in a statement.
Guandique was convicted of Levy’s murder in 2010, eight years after her skeletal remains were found along a jogging trail in the park. He was sentenced to 60 years in prison, but his defense team appealed and won a new trial, which was set to start in October.
Prosecutors did not elaborate on the exact nature of the “unforeseen developments” that prompted them to ask D.C. Superior Court Judge Robert E. Morin to dismiss Guandique’s indictment “without prejudice.” This means prosecutors could, in theory, seek to revive the case later, although that seems highly unlikely.
Morin quickly granted the motion and dismissed the indictment without prejudice yesterday.
“This dismissal vindicates Mr. Guandique,” Laura E. Hankins, general counsel of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, said in a statement. “Finally, the government has had to concede the flaws in its ill-gotten conviction.”
Guandique has already completed a 10-year sentence he received for attacking two other women in Rock Creek Park in May and July of 2001. Levy disappeared May 1, 2001.