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One would hope that, after nearly ten years, the focus on Chandra Levy would involve the fact that her alleged killer, illegal immigrant Ingmar Guandique from El Salvador, is finally going on trial rather than a rehashing of her affair with former California congressman Gary Condit. Uh … not in this country.
Nope, murder is secondary to risqué, Hollywood-esque plotlines, which Levy’s disappearance featured in abundance. Who cares, really, how this young woman died …
… when you can instead wallow in the salacious details of her screwing aroundwith a married politician?
And for a long time, Condit was considered the prime suspect, a fact which destroyed his political career. I’m not saying, by the way, that Condit was faultless—I think anybody who cheats on a spouse is pretty disgusting, and Levy was certainly not blameless in that she knew Condit was married, yet got involved with him anyway.
With that said, though, I think it’s pretty sad that the name “Chandra Levy” has an automatic brain synapse to “screwed Gary Condit, who probably killed her” instead of considering the tragedy of her murder … and the fact that most people don’t even know the name of her probable killer.
And Condit’s not exactly getting a lot of sympathy from me, by the way, for obvious reasons but also because he—in true American style—is currently writing a book about the debacle.
When Guandique was charged in 2009 with Levy’s murder, [defense attorneys] criticized what they saw as a botched investigation. Guandique escaped scrutiny in large part because of the frenzy around Condit. The former congressman never admitted an affair but said he was friends with Levy, though the intern had told family members the two had a romantic relationship.
“This flawed investigation, characterized by the many mistakes and missteps of the Metropolitan Police Department and every federal agency that has attempted to solve this case, will not end with the simple issuance of an arrest warrant against Mr. Guandique,” said the attorneys, Santha Sonenberg and Maria Hawilo.
It’s true that the evidence against Guandique is fairly circumstantial, although I believe that the concept of coincidence only goes so far.
Then-U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor has acknowledged the case lacked DNA or physical evidence linking Guandique to Levy. And Guandique never confessed to police — in fact, he passed a lie-detector test denying involvement in Levy’s disappearance, though prosecutors now question the validity of that test.
But Taylor cited significant circumstantial evidence, including numerous confessions that Guandique purportedly made to other inmates. And Levy’s body was found in a wooded section of the city’s Rock Creek Park, where Guandique was convicted of assaulting two other young women in 2001.
At a pretrial hearing last month, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Haines said Guandique has a “signature confession style.” She said he has discussed killing Levy with many people, giving each person starkly different details.
So yeah, I think it’s pretty clear that Ingmar Guandique is responsible for the death of Chandra Levy. We’ll have to see how the trial plays out, of course, but I suspect he’ll be found guilty. The spree of violence he seemed to be on in 2001, the location of Levy’s body, and his supposed boasting about it all support this.
But what role will Condit have in the case?
Defense attorneys could be tempted to remind jurors that police were suspicious of Condit for so long, said attorney George Jackson, a Chicago-based lawyer with the Polsinelli Shughart law firm and a former federal prosecutor.
Jackson said the defense will have to tread lightly because jurors will be put off if they sense attorneys are trying to make an innocent man into a scapegoat. And the government will surely be ready to counter suggestions that Condit was involved. But because Condit is so closely linked to the case in the public’s eye, the defense has some leeway to approach the issue with subtlety.
The sad thing is, when and if Guandique is found guilty, it’s not going to change the fact that a young woman in the prime of her life was violently murdered … and the focus will always be instead on who she was sleeping with.
Your thoughts?
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The murder of Miss Levy was very sensational at the time and I hope that the conviction of her murderer will finally bring her some justice. The fact that she was sleeping with Gary Condit should not lessen her worth as a murder victim. Gary Condit tried so hard to distance himself from the case 10 years ago and it now brings to light what a sleazeball he really is by trying to capitalize on her death by writing a book. He has now sunk to a new low; so far down into the gutter that he couldn’t be pulled out. I hope that he gets the same headlines that he got before and maybe he’ll sink back to where he came from.
Um, you do realize that Condit didn’t do it right? So he banged her, for that his career was ruined had he was hounded for a decade?. He is a victim too, even if Guandique is convicted he will still be seen as a murderer. So if he wants to make a few bucks by writing a book, I say good on him. Maybe he can regain some of what he lost.
Writing a book about a girl you had an affair with who was subsequently murdered is sleazy. I hope nobody buys the book. Maybe that will encourage publishers to turn down sleazy manuscripts.
But what does “worth as a murder victim” even mean? I’m confused.
Being murdered doesn’t give you any more or less worth than not being murdered. Of course she’s a victim. But that doesn’t mean that actions she took before she was murdered can no longer be judged.
I think not being murdered is worth a crapload more than being murdered.
Yes, I realize Condit didn’t do it. His career wasn’t ruined mainly because he ‘banged’ her as you eloquently put it. That happens all the time. His problem is that he denied, denied and denied that he had anything to do with her. Those first denials is what bit him in the butt. If he came clean in the beginning he might have saved his political career. It seemed that he was covering up so much in the beginning that it looked suspicious. Being accused of having an affair is nothing compared to being accused of murder. As for “worth as a murder victim” I meant that the press was more concerned about her affair than her actual murder. It should have been the other way around. The affair was sleazy on both sides but the girl was murdered. Compassion is in order.
NOT RELATED but the site seems to be working for me again, if this is true for everyone congratulations.
I didn’t want to make an announcement, but yes, things look OK on this end … LOL And I’m glad that everything appears to be working on that end, too. Please let me know if there seems to have been any breakdown in anything. :)