Ingmar Guandique
Ingmar Guandique
Ingmar Guandique was born in San Miguel, El Salvador and is sexual offender related to the investigation of Chandra Levy's murder. He was a construction worker earning income without legal documentation in the United States of America when he immigrated to the region of Washington, DC.
He was 18 when he immigrated by crossing the U.S. / Mexican border in the year 2000 by paying a fee of $5000 to a "Coyote" to smuggle him across. He arrived with a 7th grade education and spoke little English. He met his half-brother, Huber and other members of his family in Washington, DC. Through his construction jobs he sent money to his family and his ex-girlfriend who was pregnant at the time in El Salvador. He started seeing a girl named, Iris Portrillo, whom he had domestic problems with.
Guandique developed a drinking problem and began to commit crimes against property and individuals.
He was arrested for burglary and later the attacks on woman in Rock Creek Park.
Sexual Assault
On July 1st, 2001, Guandique, 19 years old at the time, had been held in jail for attacking two women in DC’s Rock Creek Park on separate occasions, both in a similar fashion.
He pleaded guilty to the attacks and ultimately convicted and sentenced to serve 10 years in prison on February 8th, 2002.
Because he was convicted around the same time as Levy's investigation, Guandique reportedly passed a lie detector test administered by the FBI before his conviction that led investigators to believe he was not Chandra Levy’s killer.
The other suspect for the killing of Levy was in connection to United States House of Representative, Gary Condit.
Conviction
After the investigation of Chandra Levy going cold for several years, investigators turned their focus from Condit to Guandique. The following is a timeline that leads to the conviction of Guandique as the murderer of Levy.
September 2008– Police allegedly find a picture of Chandra Levy, cut from a magazine, in Guandique’s cell during a search.
November 2008- An interview with another witness, Armando Morales, apparently reveals Guandique had boasted about committing rapes against women and specifically about a crime against a woman that is similar to Chandra Levy.
He allegedly said he tied her up, raped her and cut her throat and stabbed her.
February 2009-**** Guandique allegedly tells another person (witness 11) that he committed the rape and murder of a woman (presumably Chandra Levy) with the help of two other males. Police search Guandique’s cell and find implements that could be used to carry out a planned escape attempt and attack on officers as described by witness 11. Witness 11 told officers Guandique was planning to escape and attack officers upon hearing the news that he was going to be indicted for Chandra’s murder.
3 March 2009- Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier and United States Attorney Jeffrey Taylor announce they have formally charged Ingmar Guandique with Chandra Levy’s murder.
An affidavit is filed with the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
Guandique pleads not guilty in April, 2009.
15 December 2009- Guandique pleads not guilty to new charges.
These include conspiracy to obstruct justice, obstruction of justice and threatening to injure a person.
These charges are in relation to alleged threats to a jailhouse informant known only as “J.G."
Guandique was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to 60 years in prison in 2010 - Guandique continued to protest his innocence.
Exoneration
On July 28th, 2016, prosecutors dropped the charges against Guandique.
The United States attorney in Washington, DC said the following:
"Today, in the interests of justice and based on recent unforeseen developments that were investigated over the past week, the office moved to dismiss the case charging Ingmar Guandique with the May 2001 murder of Chandra Levy.
The office has concluded that it can no longer prove the murder case against Mr. Guandique beyond a reasonable doubt"
Since 2013, Guandique’s D.C. Public Defender Service attorneys have argued that his conviction “was based on a lie” spun by a former cellmate, Armando Morales, who testified that Guandique confessed to killing Levy but withheld his own previous cooperation with law enforcement as a prison informant.
Guandique has remained in jail awaiting retrial, which had been scheduled for October.
With the approval of the dismissal order, the U.S. attorney's office said Guandique will be turned over to U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be deported back to his home country of El Salvador.