WASHINGTON — The man convicted of killing former federal intern Chandra Levy was sentenced to 60 years in prison Friday in D.C. Superior Court, putting an end to one of Washington’s most sensational murder cases.
Ingmar Guandique, 29, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, was convicted in November of two counts of first-degree felony murder, one related to Levy’s kidnapping and the other related to trying to rob her.
On Friday, before Judge Gerald Fisher sentenced him, Guandique stood up, paused, wiped his eyes and addressed the Levy family.
“I am sorry for what happened to your daughter,” he said. “But I had nothing to do with it. I am innocent.”
Levy’s mother also spoke. Standing close to Guandique and reading from statements she, her husband and her adult son had submitted to the court, Susan Levy said: “Because of you, young man, you have caused us to live a Holocaust again. You have sentenced our entire family to days of sadness, tears and heartache. You are a hideous creature.”
Fisher called the 2001 killing a “truly horrible crime” and called Guandique a “dangerous person.”
“Dangerous to women, in particular,” the judge said, “and will be a danger for some time. He’s a sexual predator.”
Guandique has always said he had nothing to do with Levy’s death.
In a one- page letter written to a Washington Post reporter and dated Jan. 22, Guandique said he was innocent. The letter, handwritten in Spanish, said the evidence presented by the government and authorities “was false.”
Prosecutors had asked Fisher to sentence Guandique to life in prison without parole.
