GUILTY: Jurors convict immigrant of killing Chandra Levy
mdoyle@mcclatchydc.com
Photo Courtesy: usspost.com
WASHINGTON — A Washington, D.C. jury on Monday convicted Salvadoran immigrant Ingmar Guandique of killing former Modesto resident Chandra Levy in 2001.
The jury of three men and nine women deliberated for a little more than three days before announcing their verdict, which caps one of the nation's longest-running and most relentlessly chronicled murder mysteries.
Speaking outside the courthouse, Levy’s mother said she’ll never be free from the pain of losing her daughter.“I have a lifetime sentence of a lost limb missing from our family tree,” Susan Levy said after the hearing. “It’s a lifetime of a broken heart.”
The two first-degree felony murder convictions subjects Guandique to a potential sentence of 30 years to life in prison, as Washington, D.C. does not have the death penalty.
Guandique's sentencing will come later, following additional court proceedings. The fearsomely tattooed 29-year-old is already serving a prison sentence for attacking two other women in Washington's Rock Creek Park.
Rock Creek Park is where, jurors agreed, Guandique killed Levy on May 1, 2001 during an attempted robbery. Two women who survived their own 2001 attacks by Guandique helped convict him, with their compelling testimony during the trial that began Oct. 25.
"He grabbed me from behind and held a knife to my face," recounted Christy Wiegand, now a 35-year-old attorney with two children. "He brutally attacked me, and dragged me to an isolated area."
Guandique's other known surviving victim, Halle Shilling, likewise recalled how she "felt an incredible thud" when Guandique jumped her from behind while she was jogging. Shilling, now a mother of three living in Southern California, and Wiegand were both able to fight Guandique off.
Wiegand and Shilling were both also considerably bigger than the 24-year-old Levy.
In addition to the testimony by Wiegand and Shilling, prosecutors benefited from the firmly spoken recollections of prison inmate Armando Morales. A former gang member, who is still serving time on drug charges, Morales testified that Guandique confessed to him in 2006 that he had killed Levy.
"He told me he spotted her over there at the park," recalled Morales, who shared a prison cell with Guandique for six weeks. "She was alone, and she had on one of those waist pouches. He decided to rob her. He said he hid in the bushes … he ran up behind her and grabbed her from behind. He said he dragged her into the bushes.
"He said by the time he had dragged her into the bushes, she had stopped struggling," Morales added. "He said he never meant to kill her."
Susan Levy attended most of the trial. She was present Monday morning when the verdict was read.
Levy had finished graduate studies and a federal Bureau of Prisons internship when she disappeared. She was planning to take a May 5 Amtrak train back home to California's San Joaquin Valley, trial testimony revealed.
The 10 days of testimonyl shed considerable light on Levy's life and times. Witnesses told of Levy's physical fitness habits, the color of her clothing and the traces of her final Internet browsing that ended shortly before 1 p.m. on May 1, 2001.
Most intimately, Levy's semen-spotted underwear examined by the FBI confirmed that she had had a sexual relationship with then-California congressman Gary Condit. Some of Levy's final Internet searches focused on Condit and his family members, according to trial testimony.
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