The defense in the Chandra Levy murder trial went on the attack Monday, cutting into the credibility of the only witness who could directly link Ingmar Guandique to the killing.
Defense attorneys rested their case just six hours after they had begun. The two witnesses they called to the stand were designed to raise reasonable doubt surrounding the testimony of prosecutors’ key witness, a jailhouse snitch who claimed Guandique had confessed while they were housed together in a federal prison in 2006 that he had killed Levy. The federal intern went missing on May 1, 2001, while she was jogging in Rock Creek Park. Her bones were found there a year later.
When the jury begins deliberations after closing arguments on Tuesday, it will only be considering two felony murder charges, down from six charges when the trial started. Before Monday, prosecutors had already dropped a sex assault and felony murder charge after they elected not to call a witness. On Monday, the government also dropped kidnapping and robbery charges because the statute of limitations had run out on both.
The key defense witness was the third resident of the 12-foot by 8-foot cell where Armando Morales said Guandique had confessed to the crime. Jose Alaniz testified from a Missouri penitentiary via video conference on Monday. Alaniz and Guandique are members of the same gang.
The three men were on 24-hour segregation from the rest of the inmates, and were rarely more than three feet apart.
Alaniz said Guandique and Morales spoke in Spanish, but he never saw them speak privately.
When asked by defense attorney Maria Hawilo whether Alaniz heard Guandique say “Levy” or “Chandra Levy,” he said “No, not while I was there.”
But Alaniz wasn’t always listening, prosecutor Amanda Haines confirmed during her cross-examination.
Alaniz slept often as he tried to recover from a gunshot wound in his abdomen. At times he listened to headphones and he wasn’t fluent in Spanish.
Defense attorneys Monday also questioned Public Defender Service investigator Brianna Bond. During his testimony, Morales had said he had refused to meet with Bond because she was wearing inappropriate clothing.
Bonds, however, testified that she never understood why Morales wouldn’t speak with her. When she went to visit him at a prison in Hanover, Va., she was wearing gray slacks, a loose short-sleeve cotton top and sweater.
In previous testimony, FBI experts said there is no physical evidence associating Guandique with the crime, making Morales the only link between Guandique and Levy’s murder.
Monday marked the end of testimony during the four-week trial during which Guandique never took the stand.
