Chandra Levy murder trial opens with admission by prosecutors

WASHINGTON – The investigation into the murder of Washington intern Chandra Levy was bungled from the start because the wrong person – U.S. congressman Gary Condit – was initially suspected, prosecutors said Monday as they opened the trial of an illegal immigrant from El Salvador they said is the real killer.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Haines blamed the bungling in part on the “secrets of a man named Gary Condit,” whose alleged affair with Levy, 24, was brought to light after Levy vanished in May 1, 2001. The media frenzy surrounding the affair had distracted police from finding the real killer, Haines said.

“He was having an affair with Chandra Levy,” Haines told the jurors in a packed courtroom Monday morning, “but it has nothing to do with the murder of Chandra Levy.”

Condit is expected to testify in the trial.

The defense also highlighted errors in the police investigation that led eventually to Ingmar Guandique, whom police focused on while he was serving time in jail for attacking two other women in the same Washington park where Levy’s remains were found nearly 13 months after her disappearance.

“Ingmar Guandique is not guilty, and nothing that happens in this trial will prove that he is,” defense attorney Maria Hawilo said. “From the beginning, the police failed and fumbled in this investigation.”

Guandique, 29, allegedly talked about the murder to fellow inmates. The prosecution is expected to make Guandique’s prior encounters with women in Rock Creek Park a central theme in their case, as they have no eyewitnesses to Levy’s death or forensic evidence.