In 2010, Ingmar Guandique was convicted of killing Chandra Levy, a D.C intern that went missing in 2001. Years after the indictment of Guandique, a judge has dismissed the case as of Thursday. The case was known to have drawn national interest and put some serious heat on a lawmaker.
In the case of Chandra Levy, Guandique had protested his innocence from the very beginning of the case. He finally received a new trial last year based on questions of the credibility of a jailhouse informant involved in the case. At present, prosecutors are saying the man will be deported.
Superior Court Judge Robert Morin ordered the case dismissed per the request from U.S Attorney Channing Phillips, according to numerous sources.
The general counsel for the public defender service that represented Mr. Guandique, Lauren Hankins, stated that he had passed an FBI-administered lie detector test before his indictment. “The dismissal vindicates Mr. Guandique,” she stated.
Chandra Levy, who was then 24, disappeared while she worked as an intern at the federal Bureau of Prisons. It came to light that she was romantically involved with then Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., who was later ruled out as a suspect.
The remains of Chandra Levy were found in Rock Creek Park in 2002 by a man walking his dog. Officials had stated that she used to run through the park. While Guandique had committed a series of attacks on other female runners, prosecutors argued that the modus operandi of Levy’s murder did not fit Guandiques‘.
An illegal immigrant from El Salvador, Guandique had been convicted of first-degree murder in 2010 and sentenced to 60 years in prison, despite his protests of innocence. His lawyers pursued new trials on the evidence of a former cellmate and key witness, Armando Morales, having lied during the initial trial.
While the new trial was scheduled for October 2016, Phillips had filed a motion on Thursday asking Morin to dismiss the indictment based on new information received by the government within the last week. The new details were not provided, but they certainly proved effective.
At present, it seems like Guandique’s fate is deportation. Not much else is known about Chandra Levy and her mysterious death for now.
