The case of the missing Washington intern devastated a family, destroyed a congressman's career and sparked a media frenzy, but the question of who killed Chandra Levy went unanswered for nearly a decade until a jury on Monday convicted a Salvadoran illegal immigrant of first-degree murder.
The jury of nine women and three men deliberated for 3½ days before convicting 29-year-old Ingmar Guandique of attempting to rob and kidnap the 24-year-old Levy before killing her on May 1, 2001, in Rock Creek Park, where she had gone for a run. Guandique, who already is imprisoned for attacking two other female joggers in the park, faces life in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 11.
"The verdict may have been guilty, but I have a life sentence of a lost limb missing from our family tree," Levy's mother, Susan Levy, told reporters outside D.C. Superior Court. "It's a lifetime of heartbreak."
Guandique's conviction is, in some ways, an improbable end to the case as he had largely escaped the notice of investigators who were fixated on Rep. Gary A. Condit, a congressman at the time who was married but was romantically linked to Levy. For months, police and the media hounded the California Democrat.
Mr. Condit testified during the 11-day trial, but refused to answer questions about whether he had engaged in a romantic relationship with Levy.
Chandra LevyWhile law enforcement officials long ago acknowledged they no longer thought Mr. Condit had anything to do with the crime, it wasn't until last year that investigators charged Guandique.
Still, authorities had no physical evidence implicating Guandique because investigators did not find Levy's remains until nearly a year after she went missing. Instead, prosecutors built a circumstantial case relying on testimony from a jailhouse informant who said Guandique confessed to killing Levy and from the two women Guandique attacked about the time Levy went missing.
In the end, the jury decided that was enough.
"There was a lot of evidence," juror Linda Norton told reporters, but said the jury agreed not to discuss any specifics about their deliberations. "We went through it in a very deliberate manner."
The U.S. attorney's office in Washington, which prosecuted the case, and the Metropolitan Police Department said the verdict brought to the Levy family long-awaited justice.
© Copyright 2010 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
