Thread: Murder charge awaits transferred illegal alien prisoner

Murder charge awaits transferred prisoner
2:00 a.m. April 11, 2009

A Salvadoran immigrant (illegal alien) facing charges in the slaying of Washington intern Chandra Levy has been moved from a federal prison in California, officials said yesterday.

Ingmar Guandique, 27, was transferred Thursday from the Adelanto prison where he was serving a 10-year sentence for an assault conviction, Federal Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Felicia Ponce said. He was taken to the bureau's federal transfer center in Oklahoma City.

District of Columbia police issued an arrest warrant March 3 for Guandique, accusing him of sexually assaulting and killing Levy on a trail in Rock Creek Park in May 2001. Guandique faces a first-degree murder charge in the death of the Modesto native. Authorities have said Guandique was expected to be brought to Washington within 30 to 60 days of the arrest warrant.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/ ... ?uniontrib

This case makes me so mad I could scream. Not that the death of Chandra Levy is any worse than any of the other tens of thousands of deaths caused by illegal aliens in our country, but if you recall, the DC police took the outrageous tactic that this girl had run away, in a disguise, and posted her picture made up in 6 or 7 different scenarios of wigs and make up and hair colors and clothing to make a fool out of her, while that poor dear lay dying or rotting a few feet off a bike path in Rock Creek Park. Then the media tries to accuse a Congressman, for having an affair with her, suggesting she might be pregnant with his baby, destroying his career and humiliating his family, all while this poor girl lay decomposing a few feet from joggers on a bike path. All the while this poor girl and her reputation and that of her Congressman friend are being destroyed by the DC Police and the media, the illegal alien who killed her is roaming our streets free as a bird stalking other women on the same bike path in the same park.

All the while, the friends and family of this poor girl worry and grieve, hope and cry, wondering where is Chandra, what happened to her, where is she, the President of the United States, George W Bush and his co-traitors in Congress are trying to force Immigration Reform and Guest Worker Programs down our throats so they can LEGALIZE her murderer and give him a "pathway to citizenship".

There is no greater betrayal of a group of citizens by their government in recorded history than the betrayal of US Citizens by the US Government than this, and if we should ever believe this is the only act of betrayal this government has committed against us, then we are the fools who deserve no loyalty at all.

Wake Up People. This government would just as soon spit on us as look at us and if there was ever a poster child for this travesty, it is Chandra Levy, brutally murdered in a park in broad daylight in our nation's capital not 15 minutes away from the Houses and Chambers of the Traitors who allowed her murderer access to our country and with it the keys to end her life.

Sunday, April 12, 2009
Prosecutors: Evidence 'thin' in Chandra Levy slaying
Nafeesa Syeed ASSOCIATED PRESS

There are plenty of witnesses in the case against an imprisoned Salvadoran immigrant accused of killing former D.C. intern Chandra Levy - the ex-girlfriend who says she was beaten, other women he's convicted of attacking and a man believed to be a fellow inmate of the accused.

But none of the dozen prosecution witnesses outlined in a March 3 affidavit actually saw the attack on the young woman in Rock Creek Park about eight years ago. Only two directly link Ingmar A. Guandique, who is expected to arrive in Washington in the next few weeks, to Miss Levy's death.

Prosecutors have nailed convictions in other cases with no physical evidence and only secondhand or circumstantial witness accounts. New evidence could also emerge in the Levy case.

But without forensic evidence linking Miss Levy and Mr. Guandique or an eyewitness account, the Levy case offers weaknesses the defense could pounce on, say several attorneys not connected to the case.

"It's long on witnesses and short on direct evidence that Guandique had anything to do with this," said David Benowitz, a criminal defense attorney who once worked as a public defender in the District of Columbia.

The same team of prosecutors and detectives working on the Levy case last year solved the 1996 D.C. slaying of Shaquita Bell, even though her body has never been found and no one saw the killing take place.

Michael Dickerson, Miss Bell's ex-boyfriend and a convicted felon, pleaded guilty in October to killing her after authorities lined up evidence from ballistics, past domestic violence and witnesses who saw the couple argue.

Thomas A. "Tad" DiBiase, a former federal prosecutor in the District who now runs the Web site nobodymurdercases.com, recalled many other cases in which suspects were convicted even though a body was never found and no witnesses actually saw the killing.

"You line all these things up and that ends up being quite powerful and difficult for the defense to deal with," Mr. DiBiase said.

The Levy investigation has been problematic since it began. Critics have long pointed to early missteps such as the police department's failure to find Miss Levy's body until a year after the Modesto, Calif., resident disappeared.

Some former investigators also say police remained too focused on former U.S. Rep. Gary Condit, the California Democrat who conceded to being romantically involved with Miss Levy. Mr. Condit lost his bid for re-election in 2002.

Mr. Guandique is accused of sexually assaulting and killing Miss Levy on a trail in Rock Creek Park on May 1, 2001. By the time her remains were found, they were so decomposed that valuable evidence was essentially lost.

The March 3 arrest warrant and affidavit make no mention of DNA or other forensic evidence pointing to Mr. Guandique. U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor said that there was no physical evidence linking Mr. Guandique to the crime, but that the "cumulative weight" of circumstantial evidence led investigators to him.

Mr. Guandique has been serving a 10-year federal prison term in California for two other attacks in Rock Creek Park, where authorities say he attacked Miss Levy. Federal Bureau of Prisons officials said he was moved to a federal transfer center in Oklahoma City on Thursday.

Authorities have said they can't give a date for Mr. Guandique's arrival in Washington, but they expected the U.S. Marshals Service to transfer him to the District within 30 to 60 days of the arrest warrant date.

Channing Phillips, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said a grand jury will convene to consider indicting Mr. Guandique, but he could not say when. In the District, suspects must be indicted within nine months of being charged.

Santha Sonenberg and Maria Hawilo, Mr. Guandique's public defenders, have called the investigation "flawed."

Some criminal defense attorneys say prosecutors, lacking forensic evidence and eyewitnesses, are relying too heavily on secondhand witnesses.

None of the witnesses is named, but police have described some of them. There's an ex-girlfriend who says they argued and that Mr. Guandique occasionally hit, grabbed and bit her. Then there are the two women he is convicted of attacking, along with another woman who was walking in the park and believes he followed her around the time Miss Levy went missing. Another witness is merely the dog-walker who discovered Miss Levy's remains a year after her disappearance.

www.washingtontimes.com