Chandra Levy: Prosecutors drop murder charges against Ingmar Guandique
Only suspect in 2001 murder of Washington intern will not face retrial
Prosecutors have dropped charges against the man convicted of the 2001 murder of Washington intern Chandra Levy.
Ingmar Guandique, convicted of the 24-year-old’s murder in 2010, had served five years in prison before being granted a retrial last year.
In the latest twist to a case that has fascinated American media and Washington’s political classes, the US attorney’s office said fresh information had come to light in the past week.
“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,” the prosecution said in a single-page motion presented to the court on Thursday.
Prosecutors did not elaborate on precisely what they found.
Twenty-four year old Bureau of Prisons intern Chandra Levy’s 1 May 2001 disappearance caused a media frenzy over her relationship to California Representative Gary Condit.
During the course of their investigation detectives learned Mr Condit was having an affair with Ms Levy. Mr Condit was never formally listed as a suspect during the investigation.
A man discovered Ms Levy’s skeletal remains while walking his dog in Rock Creek Park outside of Washington in 22 May 2002.
Mr Guandique had confessed to attacking two other women at knifepoint in the same 1,750-acre park around the time of Ms Levy’s disappearance.
Mr Guandique, an undocumented immigrant, was granted a retrial after defence attorneys argued that a former cellmate of Mr Guandique’s fabricated testimony about a supposed confession to the murder.
Upon his release, Mr Guandique will be taken into custody by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to await deportation hearings.