Thursday, Apr. 23, 2009

Chandra Levy suspect booked in D.C.

Guandique heads to courtroom today

WASHINGTON — Police on Wednesday afternoon formally arrested Ingmar Guandique in the 2001 murder of Modestan Chandra Levy.

In a brief appearance, the vividly tattooed Salvadoran immigrant was charged, booked, photographed and fingerprinted before being returned to a downtown Washington jail cell. He's to be presented with first-degree murder charges in D.C. Superior Court this afternoon, nearly eight years after Levy's disappearance crushed a Modesto family and captivated a nation.

No Levy family member or representative was present at Guandique's hourlong initial processing or at the subsequent booking.

"I don't really need to know every little detail," Dr. Robert Levy, Chandra Levy's father, said in a phone interview Wednesday.

Robert Levy added that he isn't sure if he or his wife, Susan, will travel from their home to observe Guandique in court.

Still, the enduring fascination with Levy's murder and the circumstances surrounding it was apparent Wednesday. More than a dozen TV camera people, still photographers and print reporters clustered outside police offices awaiting Guandique's arrival.

Monday night, the U.S. Marshals Service had quietly delivered Guandique from a federal prison in Oklahoma. He was transferred there from Southern California, where he's serving a 10-year sentence for attacking two women in Washington's Rock Creek Park. That is the same park where Levy's skeletal remains were found in May 2002.

The three Washington detectives who painstakingly built the circumstantial murder case against him — Anthony Brigidini, Todd Williams and Emilio Martinez — escorted Guandique in a black Chevy Impala from the D.C. jail to the department's remote Violent Crimes Branch headquarters.

Clad in an orange jumpsuit, white socks and blue slippers, and with his hands and legs shackled, the 27-year-old Guandique shuffled in the detectives' grip from the unmarked car to the police office door. His arms looked bare, but the gang-related words Mara Salvatrucha appeared to be tattooed around his neck.

Also known as MS-13, Mara Salvatrucha is a violent gang that began in Los Angeles. Guandique did not have known gang tattoos when he was sentenced to prison in early 2002.

Now, Guandique has a short beard, and a police detective said his hair had grown out, obscuring a portrait of a devil said to be tattooed on top of his head. He glared briefly at reporters Wednesday but mostly kept his head down, and did not respond to several questions asked in Spanish.

An illegal immigrant, Guandique is not known to be conversant in English. On Wednesday, during his initial processing, he had his Miranda rights read to him in Spanish.

Prosecutors say Guandique attacked Levy in Rock Creek Park on May 1, 2001. A former federal Bureau of Prisons intern, Levy apparently had gone to the park for a jog. At the time, as subsequent developments revealed, she was involved in a relationship with then-Rep. Gary Condit of Ceres. Police never considered Condit a suspect, but the relationship, once it became public, drew notoriety to Levy's disappearance and brought an end to Condit's political career.

Although police lack DNA evidence, they have several witnesses who say Guandique confessed while incarcerated.

"As early as 2002, Guandique had discussed the murder of Chandra Levy with a witness," one police affidavit states.

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