Charges dropped against man in Chandra Levy case

Ingmar Guandique's trial was scheduled for Oct.

 

Charges against a man who had been accused in the murder of Chandra Levy have been dropped, The Washington Post, ABC News and Fox News reported Thursday.

Because of new information received in the past week, prosecutors have concluded they can "no longer prove the murder case" against Ingmar Guandique, the Post said.

Guandique had been scheduled to stand trial in October.

Their decision was "based on recent unforeseen developments that were investigated over the past week," ABC reported.

A judge granted Guandique a new trial in 2015.

Guandique was sentenced to 60 years in prison after being convicted in 2010 of killing and robbing Levy, a Washington intern whose disappearance in 2001 drew national headlines.

Guandique's lawyers had appealed the conviction and questioned the credibility of a prosecution witness, Armando Morales, a convicted felon and former gang member. He testified that Guandique confessed to him that he killed Levy.

Levy, a 24-year-old California native, was in Washington working as an intern for the Bureau of Prisons when she was last seen on May 1, 2001. Her skull was found over a year later, on May 22, 2002, in Washington's Rock Creek Park.

Levy's disappearance gained national attention after her parents discovered a connection with Gary Condit, who was then a congressman for Levy's California district. Condit was never a suspect in the case, but he and Levy were romantically linked and Condit was questioned intensively about Levy's whereabouts.

Police arrested Guandique in February 2009. He was then serving a 10-year sentence for attacking two other women in the park.