By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
In what comes as a big surprise, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington on Thursday announced it was dropping murder charges against Ingmar Guandique, the man who was convicted in the 2001 killing of Washington intern Chandra Levy, the Washington Post reports.
Guandique had been convicted in the murder in 2010, but a judge granted a retrial.
The Washington Post reports that the latest twist in the case centered on a key witness, Armando Morales, who testified against Guandique in the first trial.
Morales, a convicted murderer, confessed to a neighbor after he was released from prison, that he lied in 2010 when he testified in trial that his cellmate, Guandique, had confessed to killing Levy.
The Levy case got national attention when it was learned that she was dating then-Congressman Gary Condit, who was initially a person of interest in the case.
Before his conviction in the Levy case, Guandique had already been serving time for attacking two joggers in Rock Creek Park in northwest Washington where Levy’s body was discovered in 2002.
