Man accused of killing Chandra Levy to remain in jail until his new trial

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/man-accused-of-killing-chandra-levy-argues-for-release-pending-new-trial/2015/07/13/24b2980e-299a-11e5-a5ea-cf74396e59ec_story.html?wprss=rss_homepage

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A D.C. Superior Court judge Tuesday ordered the man accused of the 2001 killing of Washington intern Chandra Levy to remain in jail until trial after the judge told attorneys there was “probable cause” that Ingmar Guandique committed first-degree murder in Levy’s death.

In 2010, Guandique, 33, was convicted and sentenced to 60 years in prison for Levy’s killing. But in June, after a two-year effort by Guandique’s public defenders, a judge granted a retrial after his attorneys argued that a key witness who testified against him had lied.

Levy was a 24-year-old intern with the Federal Bureau of Prisons when she disappeared May 1, 2001. The case gained national attention because police investigators at first suspected — but then cleared — Gary A. Condit, a married California congressman who was 30 years her senior and with whom Levy was having an affair. Levy’s remains were found a year later in Rock Creek Park.

Since his arrest in Levy’s death, Guandique and his attorney maintained he was innocent. No eyewitness, forensic evidence or medical cause of death linked Guandique to Levy’s death.

Three years after Guandique’s trial, his attorneys petitioned the court saying that their client’s conviction “was based on a lie” spun by a former cellmate, Armando Morales, who testified that Guandique confessed to killing Levy. Morales withheld his own previous cooperation with law enforcement as a prison informant.

[D.C. judge grants retrial in 2001 killing of intern Chandra Levy]

At Tuesday’s 90-minute hearing, prosecutors noted that aside from Morales’s testimony, Guandique pleaded guilty to attacking two women at knifepoint in Rock Creek Park in 2002 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Deborah Sines said those attacks, along with testimony that Guandique had scratches on his face at the time Levy disappeared, were evidence of his involvement in Levy’s death. Prosecutors also said they were concerned that if Guandique was released, he might flee the jurisdiction because immigration officials had placed a detainer on him. Guandique is an illegal immigrant from El Salvador.

Judge Robert E. Morin agreed with prosecutors, citing the “evidence of the other crimes and the unexplained injuries” on Guandique’s face as enough reason to order him to remain in jail until his March trial.