UPDATE: A jury has just convicted Salvadoran immigrant, Ingmar Guandique on two counts of first-degree murder for the attack and killing of Chandra Levy back in 2001. The Washington D.C. jury was out four days before returning the verdict.
Guandique, who entered the country illegally though qualified for “temporary protected status”, faces 30 years to life in prison when he is sentenced.
There was no direct evidence linking Guandique to the crime, no eyewitnesses and no DNA evidence but rather the fact that Guandique was implicated in two attacks of women in the same Washington D.C. park. The DNA found on Levy’s running tights has never been identified and is not tied to Guandique or former Congressman Gary Condit, who Levy was romantically involved with.
ORIGINAL STORY: An illegal immigrant from El Salvador, Ingmar Guandique, is on trial beginning this week for the murder of Washington D.C. intern Chandra Levy. The trial will be drawing a lot of attention not only because Levy was involved with a former married Congressman but because of Guandique’s criminal alien status. That very status and his alleged involvement with a Latino gang in D.C. is expected to cause outrage and put more fuel on the debate fires of immigration reform.
Guandique entered the country illegally but was eligible for ‘temporary protected status’ coming from war-torn El Salvador. Guandique was in the midst of applying for the protected immigrant status but never completed the process.
Levy disappeared in 2001 while jogging in a park where Guandique had assaulted two other women, crimes he is currently in prison for. Her body was not found until a year later but not before her illicit relationship with Congressman Gary Condit became public forcing his departure from Congress. There is no evidence tying Guandique to the crime except for several confessions that he says were forced and were the result of not speaking English.
The case has already caught the attention and ire of conservative bloggers like Michelle Malkin and Stop the Invasion who brought President Obama to task as “pro-illegal”.
