Condit lawyer: Client not a suspect in Levy case

On Thursday, federal prosecutors dropped the murder charges against Ingmar Guandique, who was accused of murdering the federal government intern Chandra Levy in 2001.

At the time of his arrest Guandique had already been imprisoned for attacking women in the same area where Levy went missing.

Last year, though, Guandique was granted a new trial after doubts emerged about a jailhouse informant who was the key witness at Guandique’s initial trial.

On Thursday, prosecutors announced they won’t retry Ingmar Guandique for the tragic murder of Chandra.

The Washington Post reports that she supplied the bombshell information that led prosecutors to drop all charges against the man serving a 60-year sentence for the murder of Washington intern Chandra Levy. Accordingly, the Office will not proceed with the retrial of Mr. Guandique, who was found guilty in 2010 of first-degree felony murder and other charges.

In a statement obtained by The Washington Post, Condit’s attorney said the former congressman was disappointed the case had been dropped.

Within hours of prosecutors’ motion, a judge officially dismissed the case. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia said that he could not confirm or deny specifics of any investigation.

He is a five-time convicted felon who was the star witness in the Chandra Levy murder trial.

The intern’s disappearance and killing captured national attention when it was revealed that she had an affair with then-Rep. With Condit’s help, Levy landed an internship in 2001 at the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and settled into an apartment near D.C.’s Dupont Circle.

By the weekend, the woman, Babs Proller, had told prosecutors and defense attorneys about her secret recordings of Morales.

According to Proller, Morales told her that he had lied about Guandique’s confession to improve his prison conditions and that he struck a deal with prosecutors in exchange for his testimony.

Guandique – an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador – is now being held on an immigration detainer, according to the US attorney’s office. I want to make sure we find out the truth. Condit was not charged in the case.

“It is now clear that the jailhouse informant, who was central to the government’s case, was a perjurer who too easily manipulated the prosecutors”, Laura E. Hankins, a spokeswoman for Guandique’s attorneys, said in a statement. The lawyers had said in court that they had been seeking testimony about Condit’s sexual habits from other women with whom he had had relationships. Her remains were found in Washington’s Rock Creek Park in 2002 by a man walking his dog.

Eugene Ohm, Guandique’s lawyer, claimed that notes from a police interview Condit gave conflicted with his 2010 testimony.

“It’s weird, all of a sudden it’s no longer there and he’s released”, Levy said. Efforts to reach Levy’s parents were not immediately successful Thursday. Prosecutors said that the El Salvador native would be deported on his release.

In this May 28, 2002, photo taken at the Modesto Centre Plaza in Modesto, Calif., photos of Chandra Levy are on display as musicians, right, stand by at her memorial service. “The office has concluded that it can no longer prove the murder case against Mr. Guandique beyond a reasonable doubt”, the USA attorney’s office said in a statement, according to The New York Times. According to the statement, prosecutors concluded they could not convict Guandique “based on recent unforeseen developments that were investigated over the past week”.