“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’s public information officer, Bill Miller, said in a statement.
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“Because one day I’ll be with her”.
The U.S. Attorney’s office announced that once the legal process of dropping his charges is complete, he will be immediately released from jail into the custody of immigration agents because of his illegal immigration status from El Salvador. They say prosecutors relied on a jailhouse snitch who was willing to perjure himself to get out of prison.
Guandique always maintained his innocence.
Guandique has already completed a 10-year sentence he received for attacking two other women in Rock Creek Park in May and July of 2001. A jury found Guandique guilty the next year of first-degree murder and other charges, but his attorneys accused prosecutors on appeal of taking liberties with closing arguments that they likened to “narrating a horror movie”.
The disappearance of the 24-year-old Levy created a national sensation after the Modesto, California, native who was in Washington as an intern for the Bureau of Prisons was romantically linked with Condit.
The married Condit, a Democrat representing California, acknowledged having a “close relationship” with Levy but said he had nothing to do with her disappearance or death.
Former Calif. Rep. Gary Condit leaves District of Columbia Superior Court in Washington, Nov. 1, 2010, after testifying in the trial of Ingmar Guandique, the man charged with the murder of Chandra Levy. Due to the new evidence being introduced to the case, the United States attorney’s office made a decision to drop the charges, citing: “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”. He was found guilty in 2010 of Levy’s murder but granted a new trial previous year.
In May, defense lawyers sought to take depositions from several women who said they had sexual relationships with Condit. Some of the women expressed fear of the former congressman and said he instructed them to keep their relationships secret.
Condit’s attorney, Lin Wood, issued a statement Friday saying Condit remains in the clear despite the collapse of the case against Guandique. In May 2015, the then-convicted murderer was granted a retrial in the Chandra Levy murder case.
The grieving mom said Chandra Levy’s family is now back to searching for the truth after the U.S. Attorney’s Office admitted it has little evidence that the man imprisoned for 15 years actually committed the crime that transfixed the nation for months.
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Proller’s lawyer says in a statement to Inside Edition: “She did this because she believed then, and believes now, that it was the right thing to do”. The statement does not elaborate.
