Illegal Alien Convicted of Chandra Levy's 2001 Murder to be Released

Other than Monica Lewinsky, Chandra Levy is the most famous DC intern in History. But she's famous for a bad reason: Having an affair with a Congressman, Gary Condit, then being murdered while jogging in a DC park in 2001.

On Thursday, July 28, the illegal alien convicted of her murder, Ingmar Guandique, was cleared of all charges by the prosecutor's office. He will soon be deported to El Salvador.

Guandique's 2005 conviction was based on the testimony of his cellmate, another illegal alien named Morales. Morales bragged to a woman recently that he had made up Guandique's cellmate confession, in order to obtain better treatment and an early release on a robbery he had committed.

The woman taped Morales' bragging, turned the tape over to Levy's mother, and Guandique was released.

During her final semester of her masters degree program at UC Berkeley, Levy moved to, D.C., where she took a paid internship with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. That internship began in October of 2000, when she was selected to work at the bureau's headquarters in its division of public affairs.

Levy's internship was terminated a month before her disappearance when it was learned her academic eligibility had expired. She was set to return to California in May 2001 for graduation.

When she disappeared while jogging in DC's Rock Creek Park in 2001 (her skeleton was later found); the case instantly became notorious.

The publicity surrounding the Levy case was largely a result of her ties to former Rep. Gary Condit, a Democrat from California. Coverage of Levy's death fell off months later, when the nation's attention pivoted after the 9/11 attack on New York City.

In an early interview with police, Condit, who was 53 and married in 2001, reportedly admitted having an affair with the young woman. He has never acknowledged the affair publicly, and has never been charged with anything.

Once the affair was revealed, the police and the media focused heavily on his involvement with Levy.

"All of a sudden, Gary Condit became the only one they would consider," a source close to the investigation told People Magazine at the time. "We became fixated on him."

Condit's rural California district voted him out in 2003, and he became a Baskin and Robbins ice cream franchisee. The seemingly solved mystery is now open again.

Did a California congressman murder his intern? He has been investigated and interviewed by police repeatedly, but obviously they don't have enough evidence to charge Condit, or they would have. He was having an affair with the 24 year old, which is not in itself a crime or evidence of anything.

We may never know.