Detective in Levy case honored

WASHINGTON — Detective Kenneth "Todd" Williams really racked up the frequent-flier miles in his pursuit of former Modestan Chandra Levy's killer.

Now, the 44-year-old police veteran has a plaque and $1,000 to go along with his mileage and memories.

On Thursday, Williams was honored as the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department's Detective of the Year, largely for his work in resurrecting the dormant Levy investigation. Williams carried the investigation from the cold-case stack in 2007 to the November 2010 murder conviction of Ingmar Guandique.

"We were going to different prisons, we were going East Coast, West Coast, down to Florida," Williams recalled in an interview Thursday. "We were going all over the place."

In one prison, for instance, Williams met former Fresno Bulldogs gang member Armando Morales, who became perhaps the most important single witness against Guandique. Morales vividly recounted that his former cellmate Guandique had confessed to killing Levy.

Other interviews could be like pulling string, never quite knowing what was connected at the other end.

"She led us to another guy, who led us to another guy," Williams said at one point, describing another important witness, who was living in Florida.

Guandique is now serving out a 60-year prison sentence at Talladega Federal Correctional Institution in Alabama, according to federal Bureau of Prisons records. Talladega includes both a medium-security facility and a facility to house "disciplinary cases from other institutions," according to federal documents.

Guandique killed Levy on May 1, 2001, while she was jogging or hiking in Washington's Rock Creek Park, jurors agreed.

At the time, Levy had finished graduate studies and a Bureau of Prisons internship and was preparing to return to California. Her parents still live in Modesto.

Levy had also recently been engaged in an affair with then-Congressman Gary Condit, prosecutors eventually revealed publicly. The Condit relationship drew massive media attention to Levy's disappearance, and it complicated Williams' work. He noted Thursday, for instance, that he had to spend an unusual amount of energy maneuvering certain witnesses through the courthouse to avoid the media scrum.

"We had a lot more of you guys to deal with," Williams genially told a reporter.

Williams has a trimmed beard, short gray hair and a stocky build. He has served half his life on the D.C. Police Department, much of it as a homicide detective. He and his cold-case partner, Detective Anthony Brigidini, specialize in reviving lost causes.

High-profile cold cases

In some high-profile cold cases, Wil- liams, Brigidini and Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Haines have secured convictions even when police were never able to find the victim's body.

In Levy's case, they had a body; her skeletal remains had been found in Rock Creek Park roughly a year after her disappearance. They also had files stuffed with red herrings, false leads and previously missed opportunities.

"We took the same approach to reinvestigating the case that we've taken with others; you start interviewing people and follow the leads that hadn't been followed before," Williams said.

The Washington D.C. Police Foundation presented the awards to Williams and other winning officers at a ceremony that included the presentation of the colors, the singing of the national anthem and high praise from top officials.

"This particular case, it was an achievement for Todd," Assistant Police Chief Pete Newsham said, in a videotaped tribute, "and for the agency, it was huge."

Bee Washington Bureau reporter Michael Doyle can be reached at mdoyle@mcclatchydc.com or (202) 383-0006.