After 9 years and Gary Condit's fall, Chandra Levy trial begins

[celeb_2006]

After 9 years and Condit's fall, Levy trial begins - Yahoo! News




FILE - In this April 22, 2009 file photo, Ingmar Guandique, 27, is seen in Washington. The defendant in one of America's more famous murder mysteries, Guandique goes on trial Monday for the 2001 murder of Washington intern Chandra Levy. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin/File)
WASHINGTON – If one person is associated with the mysterious slaying of Washington intern Chandra Levy, it isn't the man who will soon be tried on charges he murdered her. It's former California congressman Gary Condit, whose political career imploded after he was romantically linked to the woman and became the No. 1 suspect.

Ingmar Guandique, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, goes on trial Monday for Levy's 2001 killing. However, he's not even a blip on the national consciousness of the case, which dominated news coverage until the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks rendered it an afterthought.

While police no longer believe Condit had anything to do with Levy's death, his presence will continue to hang over the trial. Condit's spokesman, Bert Fields, said Condit expects to be called as a witness at Guandique's trial, though he has not been subpoenaed.

Fields said Condit will cooperate fully with authorities. But the ex-congressman, who is writing a book about his experience, will not comment on the trial until it ends.

Bill Miller, a spokesman for the prosecutors' office, declined comment on the case and whether Condit will be called as a witness, citing a gag order issued earlier this month.

Defense attorneys are also subject to the gag order. But when Guandique was charged in 2009 with Levy's murder, they criticized what they saw as a botched investigation. Guandique escaped scrutiny in large part because of the frenzy around Condit. The former congressman never admitted an affair but said he was friends with Levy, though the intern had told family members the two had a romantic relationship.

"This flawed investigation, characterized by the many mistakes and missteps of the Metropolitan Police Department and every federal agency that has attempted to solve this case, will not end with the simple issuance of an arrest warrant against Mr. Guandique," said the attorneys, Santha Sonenberg and Maria Hawilo.

At a pretrial hearing Thursday, Sonenberg said police were so desperate to get a confession from Guandique to bolster their case that in 2004 and 2005, police tried to establish a phony penpal relationship with Guandique while he was in prison serving a 10-year sentence, using the pseudonym "Maria Lopez." The ruse did not work.

"It goes to the sort of antics, the sort of shenanigans, the lengths to which they've gone to prosecute Mr. Guandique," Sonenberg said.

Then-U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor has acknowledged the case lacked DNA or physical evidence linking Guandique to Levy. And Guandique never confessed to police — in fact, he passed a lie-detector test denying involvement in Levy's disappearance, though prosecutors now question the validity of that test.

But Taylor cited significant circumstantial evidence, including numerous confessions that Guandique purportedly made to other inmates. And Levy's body was found in a wooded section of the city's Rock Creek Park, where Guandique was convicted of assaulting two other young women in 2001.

At a pretrial hearing last month, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Haines said Guandique has a "signature confession style." She said he has discussed killing Levy with many people, giving each person starkly different details.

Whether jurors believe those confessions will be key. The defense wants to present expert testimony from a university professor on the pitfalls of accounts from jailhouse snitches. However, prosecutors say jurors should be allowed to judge the credibility of witnesses for themselves. Superior Court Judge Gerald I. Fisher has indicated he will not allow the vast majority of the professor's proposed testimony.

As for Condit, exactly what role he will play in the trial is unclear. Defense attorneys could be tempted to remind jurors that police were suspicious of Condit for so long, said attorney George Jackson, a Chicago-based lawyer with the Polsinelli Shughart law firm and a former federal prosecutor.

Jackson said the defense will have to tread lightly because jurors will be put off if they sense attorneys are trying to make an innocent man into a scapegoat. And the government will surely be ready to counter suggestions that Condit was involved. But because Condit is so closely linked to the case in the public's eye, the defense has some leeway to approach the issue with subtlety.

"If it's feasible to suggest that this guy may have been involved, you put it out there" to help create reasonable doubt in a jury's mind, Jackson said. "But it's a dangerous thing to do because you don't know if there will be a backlash."

[visitor42]

This was the big story right before 9/11. Condit got lucky.

[cmmdee]

^ Yes he really did. Have to admit, I thought he looked very good for this crime.

[sputnik]

he didn't get lucky though since it essentially cost him his career.

[Mel1973]

he didn't get lucky though since it essentially cost him his career.

Exactly! how is that "lucky"? He committed no crime, was basically put on trial in the public opinion - and convicted apparently, his entire life was disrupted, his family tormented by the media because he was "romantically linked" with an intern... what a lucky fucker!

[AliceInWonderland]

karmatic

[baked_tater]

Cant stand Condit.

[NoNoRehab]

I have no sympathy for Condit. Even if he wasn't involved in her murder, he fucked up the investigation by denying for so long that he was ever involved with Chandra and hiding information from the police. He showed that he didn't give a shit about her or catching her murderer, he just tried to protect himself. If he was a true man, he would've just owned up to the affair, made himself available to the police and answered straight questions. Instead, tons of time was wasted trying to get the truth out of him. And ever since then, he's tried to play the victim as if Chandra Levy wasn't the one who died and her family aren't suffering.

[visitor42]

Exactly! how is that "lucky"? He committed no crime, was basically put on trial in the public opinion - and convicted apparently, his entire life was disrupted, his family tormented by the media because he was "romantically linked" with an intern... what a lucky fucker!

He's lucky in the sense that 9-11 took away attention from the murder. Even if he wasn't involved, he acted with great stupidity and with a lack of human decency.

[AliceInWonderland]

He's lucky in the sense that 9-11 took away attention from the murder. Even if he wasn't involved, he acted with great stupidity and with a lack of human decency.

agreed.

[Mel1973]

He's lucky in the sense that 9-11 took away attention from the murder. Even if he wasn't involved, he acted with great stupidity and with a lack of human decency.

Oh, I agree it was stupid and showed a lack of empathy... but at that time, I would hazard a guess that he didn't "KNOW" she was dead and was operating in self-preservation mode. Not that there is any excuse that makes what he did ok - especially given that she WAS dead.

[sputnik]

^^^
this.

[fgg]

Guilty Verdict Issued in Chandra Levy Murder Trial

By Sara Hammel
Update Monday November 22, 2010 02:40 PM EST Originally posted Monday November 22, 2010 01:45 PM EST
Ingmar Guandique and Chandra Levy

Nine years after Chandra Levy's death, a jury has convicted Salvadoran immigrant Ingmar Guandique of murdering her.

Guandique, 29, was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for attacking Levy while she was jogging alone in Rock Creek Park in May 2001. Her body was discovered a year later.

Guandique could get a minimum of 30 years and a maximum of life in prison. His sentencing hearing has been set for Feb. 11.

The Levy case destroyed the political career of former Democratic Rep. Gary Condit, 62, who testified in the trial that he and Levy, 24, were on good terms at the time she went missing. He declined to respond to questions about whether the two were romantically involved.

Though Condit was never an official suspect in the case – authorities questioned and cleared him after Levy's disappearance – the congressman's reported relationship with the Washington intern caused a firestorm of sensational headlines around the globe.

After the verdict was announced Monday, Condit's attorney Bert Fields told PEOPLE, "Finally Gary Condit can get some closure and vindication, but the vindication comes a little late. Who gives him his career back?"

[Novice]

CHANDRA LEVY CONVICTION: WAS JUSTICE SERVED?





A jury on has found Ingmar Guandique guilty of first-degree murder in the slaying of DC intern CHANDRA LEVY.

The verdict was a major victory for the U.S. attorney's office in the District. The Levy case was challenging for the prosecution from the start.

There was no forensic evidence; no murder weapon; no eyewitness; and no definitive ruling from the medical examiner on what killed Levy.

The Levy case made nationwide headlines when it was first revealed the Washington, DC intern was linked to Calif. Rep-Gary Condit.

Police have never considered Condit a suspect in the sensational murder.

Condit, who testified in the blockbuster case neither confirmed nor denied an affair with Levy citing lack of relevancy issues, The Enquirer reported previously.

Guandique had been previously incarcerated on similar crimes that prosecutors charged occurred in the same area as the Levy slaying.

Sentencing is forthcoming.

Case closed?

CHANDRA LEVY: JUSTICE SERVED? - Celebrity News | Gossip - National Enquirer


So.... did this guy do it or is he a scapegoat for Condit?

[LynnieD]

I dunno on this one....sounds a bit too forced for my liking. I just don't like it. Feel very bad for the family though. I'm sure this has been an agonizing few months.