Court Dismisses OverZealot Prosecution of Alleged Chandra Levy Killer

                                                                 



                                 

A judge dismissed the indictment Thursday against the man charged with killing intern Chandra Levy, after prosecutors asked to drop the case that drew national interest and embroiled a lawmaker in scandal.

Above those are the pictures of Ingmar just before he was arrested for as a suspect of Chandra’s death and now as he is being released. Imagine the bitterness against this nation he most have. At the end,  he is being deported for not killing her.

Ingmar Guandique, who lived in Washington, was found guilty in 2010 of killing Levy, who disappeared in 2001. Guandique, who has protested his innocence from the start, was granted a new trial last year based on questions about the credibility of a jailhouse informant. Prosecutors now say he will be deported.

Superior Court Judge Robert Morin ordered the case dismissed, based on the request from U.S. Attorney Channing Phillips.

"Mr. Guandique has maintained since the beginning, when he passed an FBI administered lie detector test, that he did not kill Ms. Levy. This dismissal vindicates Mr. Guandique," Lauren Hankins, general counsel for the public defender service that represented him, said in a statement. "Finally, the government has had to concede the flaws in its ill-gotten conviction."

The disappearance of Levy, 24, of Modesto, Calif., while she worked as an intern at the federal Bureau of Prisons, made headlines after she was linked romantically to then-Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif. Condit was later ruled out as a suspect.

A man walking his dog found Levy’s remains in Rock Creek Park in 2002. Police said she used to run through the park.

Prosecutors argued in an earlier trial that Levy's death fit a pattern of attacks Guandique committed on female runners. When he was charged, he already was in prison for attacks that occurred around the same time 

The illegal immigrant from El Salvador was convicted of first-degree murder in 2010 and sentenced to 60 years in prison, despite protesting his innocence. Guandique's lawyers pursued a retrial for the past two years, citing new evidence that a former cellmate and key witness, Fresno gang member Armando Morales, lied during the initial trial.

A new trial was scheduled for Oct. 16. But Phillips filed a motion Thursday asking Morin to dismiss the indictment based on new information received by the government within the last week. Those new details weren't provided in the filing.

“After investigating this information and reviewing all of the evidence in the case, the government now believes it is in the interests of justice for the court to dismiss the case without prejudice,” Phillips said in the filing.

Prosecutors determined they could no longer prove the murder case against Guandique beyond a reasonable doubt, the U.S. attorney's office said in a statement. One of Guandique's public defenders didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Guandique's request for a new trial focused on Morales, who testified at trial that Guandique confided in him that he was responsible for Levy's death. Because there was no physical evidence linking Guandique to Levy's death, Morales provided some of the trial's most powerful testimony.

However, Guandique's attorneys suggested in a court filing that Morales lied several times at trial, including testifying he had not asked for anything in exchange when he had asked to be put in a witness protection program, the lawyers said.

"In 2010 the trial prosecutors convinced a jury to convict by deliberately hiding evidence that would have exposed the false testimony of their star witness," said Hankins of the public defender service. "It is now clear that the jailhouse informant, who was central to the government’s case, was a perjurer who too easily manipulated the prosecutors."

Defense lawyers only learned of the informant's identity "just before trial" and it took years of investigation to uncover the extent of flaws in the case — and to force the government to reexamine its own case, she said.

"Justice would have been better and more timely served had the government provided open file discovery to the defense before the trial and if the government had fully investigated its own witnesses," Hankins said.

Guandique has been incarcerated while awaiting retrial. Prosecutors said after the judge’s dismissal Guandique would be released to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Chandra Levy, a 24-year-old intern who disappeared April 30, 2001 without leaving any hint as to her whereabouts. 

 Bart Jansen, USA TODAY