Prosecutors won’t retry man convicted of killing Chandra Levy

At the request of prosecutors, a judge has dismissed the case against the man convicted of killing Chandra Levy, the Washington intern whose disappearance touched off years of speculation and led to the downfall of a California congressman.

Superior Court Judge Robert E. Morin in Washington issued the order to “dismiss without prejudice” the case against Ingmar Guandique on Thursday.

The U.S. attorney’s office said that in light of new information about the case, they would not seek a retrial because they could “no longer prove the murder case against Mr. Guandique beyond a reasonable doubt.” Guandique’s conviction was based largely on the testimony of a witness whose veracity has seen been called into doubt.

At the time of his arrest, Guandique was living in the country illegally. He will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and faces deportation to El Salvador.

Levy was a 24-year-old intern for the Federal Bureau of Prisons when she disappeared in May 2001. She had finished graduate studies and was planning to return to her home in Modesto.

The case attracted widespread media attention when news broke that Levy was romantically linked with then-Rep. Gary Condit, a Democrat from the Central Valley who was married at the time. He denied any involvement with her.

Her remains were found in Rock Creek Park in 2002, about a year after her disappearance.

The circumstances surrounding Levy’s death remained unclear for eight years, until Washington authorities turned their attention to Guandique.

But the Levy case proved difficult from the start. Prosecutors lacked forensic evidence linking Guandique to the crime scene. They had no murder weapon, no eyewitnesses and no definitive ruling from the medical examiner on what killed Levy.

Despite the challenges, prosecutors presented a compelling argument of how Levy died. They gave the jury testimony from a former cellmate who said Guandique had confessed to two previous attacks on other women in the park.

The jury’s verdict came after three days of deliberation.

Guandique was sentenced to 60 years in prison on two counts of first-degree felony murder, one related to Levy’s kidnapping and the other to attempted robbery.

Guandique, who was already serving a 10-year sentence for attacking the two women, needed headphones to listen to a Spanish translation of the verdict.

Levy’s mother, Susan Levy, said at the time that the verdict brought little closure.

“The result of the verdict may be guilty, but I have a lifetime sentence of a lost limb missing from my family tree,” she said. “I’m not sure if it’s a sense of peace, but I can certainly tell you it ain’t closure.”

During one court hearing, Guandique addressed Levy’s parents, saying: “I’m very sorry for what happened to your daughter. But I had nothing to do with it. I am innocent.”

The case against Guandique eventually fell apart after authorities decided that the onetime cellmate who had testified gave false or misleading information.

During the murder trial, prosecutors called Condit to the stand. He refused to answer questions about his relationship with Levy, even as prosecutors said they’d found his DNA on clothes in her apartment. He was ruled out as a suspect.

After news of their affair broke out, Condit was ousted in a primary by a former office aide. He later moved to Arizona, where he operated a Baskin-Robbins for a time.

alexia.fernandez@latimes.com

Twitter: @alexiafedz

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