A D.C. judge has sentenced the man convicted of killing D.C. intern Chandra Levy in Rock Creek Park in May 2001 to 60 years in prison for her death.
Judge Gerald Fisher sentenced Ingmar Guandique, a 29-year-old illegal immigrant from El Salvador, in D.C. Superior Court on Friday.
Fisher said that under the District’s sentencing guidelines, Guandique must serve at least 85 percent — or 51 years — of the sentence.
A jury convicted Guandique of first-degree murder in November. No physical evidence linked Guandique to Levy’s slaying. The prosecution’s case was built in large part on testimony from one of his former cellmates, who testified that Guandique admitted to killing Levy, and from two other women who were attacked by Guandique around the time of Levy’s death.
Guandique’s attorneys are seeking a new trial, arguing that jurors shared notes during deliberations and prosecutors’ closing arguments appealed to emotions, not evidence.
A man walking his dog in the park found Levy’s remains a year after the 24-year-old Federal Bureau of Prisons intern disappeared. Her disappearance made national headlines because she was romantically linked to then-U.S. Rep. Gary Condit (D-Calif.).
