DNA evidence found on the leggings worn by intern Chandra Levy when she was slain in Rock Creek Park did not come from Levy, her lover or defendant Ingmar Guadique, prosecutors said during opening arguments Monday morning.
But, prosecutors said, Guandique’s atttacks on two women in the same park and his jailhouse confessions should be enough to convict the 29-year-old illegal immigrant from El Salvador of murder.
Guandique is on trial in D.C. Superior Court for Levy’s May 2001 slaying in Rock Creek Park. Prosecutors allege that Guandique raped and killed Levy, a 24-year-old Federal of Prisions intern, while she was jogging in the park. Her remains were found there a year later.
Defense attorney Maria Hawilo told jurors Monday that police botched the case from the beginning, and now the government’s trying to make Guandique an easy scapegoat. She said prosecutors wouldn’t be asking the jurors to dismiss the DNA evidence if it pointed to her client being guilty.
“And you shouldn’t dismiss it,” Hawilo said, “if it points to innocence.”
Former Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., with whom Levy had an affair, might be called later in the trial as a witness. Fueled by Levy’s affair with Condit, who represented her hometown of Modesto, Calif., her disappearance dominated national headlines until the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
