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 he thought the minimum sentence of 30 years was too short, and a sentence of life without parole — the maximim penalty — would mean concluding Guandique was “the worst of the worst.”
“I think I come close to that conclusion, but I don’t quite reach it,” Fisher said. He said Guandique’s sentence is a life sentence “in all likelihood.” The judge said that under D.C.’s sentencing guidelines, Guandique must serve 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 sought a new trial, arguing that jurors shared notes during deliberations and prosecutors’ closing arguments appealed to emotions, not evidence. On Friday, Fisher denied the defense motion for a new trial.
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.).
Chandra Levy’s mother, Susan Levy, spoke in court before the sentence was handed down. She told Guandique he was “lower than a cockroach” and told him to “rot in hell.”
Guandique also spoke, through a translator: “I’m very sorry for what happened to your daughter, but I had nothing to do with it. I am innocent.”
