A lawyer for a man convicted of killing Washington intern Chandra Levy said former California Congressman Gary Condit, who was romantically linked to Levy, misled the jury when he testified during the man's trial.
Ingmar Guandique's attorney Eugene Ohm made the allegation during a court hearing ahead of Guandique's scheduled March re-trial. Notes of an interview authorities did with Condit after Levy's disappearance show Condit, a Democrat who served in Congress from 1989 to 2003, misled the jury when he testified in 2010, Ohm said. He did not elaborate.
Condit testified during Guandique's trial he had nothing to do with Levy's disappearance but evaded questions about whether he had an intimate relationship with her. His lawyer, Abbe Lowell, did not immediately return a message requesting comment.
The 24-year-old Levy went missing from her Washington apartment in 2001, and her disappearance became a sensation after she was romantically linked with Condit, who was ultimately ruled out as a suspect. Her remains were found in Washington's Rock Creek Park in 2002. Prosecutors argued that her death fit a pattern of attacks Guandique committed on female joggers. A jury convicted him, and he was sentenced to 60 years in prison, though he has maintained he is innocent.
At Friday's hearing, prosecutors also announced they intend to call a key witness from the first trial, Guandique's one-time cellmate Armando Morales, during the upcoming trial. Morales was a star witness at the first trial because he testified that Guandique had confided in him that he was responsible for Levy's death. Defense lawyers have argued, however, that Morales gave false or misleading testimony during the trial and that prosecutors knew or should have known the testimony was problematic and investigated further. Last year, prosecutors dropped their opposition to a new trial.
Lawyers are scheduled to return to court Jan. 20.
