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Special Reports - Levy Coverage

Wednesday, Mar. 04, 2009

Warrant moves Levy case ahead

Affidavit quotes suspect admitting responsibility for Modestan's murder

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WASHINGTON — Police obtained an arrest warrant Tuesday for El Salvador immigrant Ingmar A. Guandique in the 2001 killing of former Modestan Chandra Levy, opening another dramatic chapter in one of the nation's most enduring murder mysteries.

Federal prosecutors say that a combination of circumstantial evidence and witness testimony enables them to charge the 27-year-old Guandique. He's been eyed periodically as a possible suspect since 2002.

"We believe Ms. Levy was a random victim of Guandique, who attacked and killed her as she walked through Rock Creek Park," U.S. Attorney Jeff Taylor told reporters.

Guandique told another inmate that he'd been smoking marijuana laced with cocaine in the park when he saw Levy jog past on May 1, 2001, according to a police affidavit.

Guandique told the inmate that he and two other men followed Levy, grabbed her and took her into the bushes, according to the affidavit.

"Guandique said that they 'had her down' and (she) started screaming and fighting back," the inmate said, according to the affidavit. "It was then, according to Guandique, that he grabbed her by the neck and choked her to death."

Police didn't identify or charge any other men Tuesday with murdering Levy. Guandique's accounts of the killing vary, according to witnesses cited in the affidavit. By one account, Guandique said he'd raped Levy.

If a Washington jury convicts Guandique of first- degree murder, he faces a sentence of 30 to 60 years. The District of Columbia doesn't impose the death penalty.

Guandique will be taken from the high-security U.S. penitentiary in Victorville, in the Southern California desert, and flown to Washington within six to eight weeks, Taylor said. Guandique is serving a 10-year sentence for attacking two other women in Rock Creek Park, where Levy's skeletal remains were found in May 2002.

Case still high profile

Nearly seven years after that gruesome discovery, Tuesday's crowded news conference showed how the Levy case retains its grip on the public imagination. At least eight camera crews lit up the room, uniformed officers stood against the back walls and Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty joined police and prosecutors in making the announcement.

Fenty said the arrest warrant shows that District of Columbia police solve cases no matter how long it takes. He, along with other top city officials, called Levy's parents in Modesto to advise them of the latest developments.

"There's very little we can offer the Levys, except for justice," Police Chief Cathy La-nier said, "and we hope this offering brings them peace."

Bob and Susan Levy said in a statement given to The Associated Press on Tuesday that they "take solace in the fact that the search for the person responsible is ended."

They say that the break means that the person responsible for the crime "will finally be held accountable for his actions and hopefully unable to hurt anyone else ever again."

Earlier Tuesday, Superior Court Judge Ronald Wert-heim authorized the arrest warrant after reviewing a seven-page affidavit signed by Washington police Detective Todd Williams. Williams was one of three detectives whom police Capt. Michael Farish assigned to the Levy killing and several other cold cases in October 2007.

"Sometimes, on open homicide cases that are very complicated, it's very important to have a fresh set of eyes and the passage of time," Lanier said.

'They got me now'

The detectives' affidavit cites the testimony of 12 unidentified witnesses, including one woman who said that Guandique stalked her in Rock Creek Park on or about May 1, 2001. The affidavit also quotes an unnamed inmate who said that Guandique had confessed committing the crime to him. The inmate, whom detectives interviewed last month, further said that Guandique became "very anxious" after hearing news reports that he was a suspect.