(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)Ingmar Guandique, who was found guilty of murdering Chandra Levy in Rock Creek Park in 2001 last November, was sentenced to 60 years in prison moments ago at D.C. Superior Court.
During this morning’s sentencing hearing, Levy’s mother, Susan, reportedly said she hoped Guandique would “rot in hell” during an emotional exchange with Guandique, who is also currently serving a jail sentence in California for a crime unrelated to the Levy killing.
Guandique’s attorneys had recently filed a motion for a new trial on the basis that the prosecution’s closing statement had unfairly caused the jury to unfairly speculate about the crime. The trial was hardly a open-and-shut affair — the defense tried to capitalize on sloppy handling of evidence in the several years between the discovery of Levy’s remains in 2001 and the charging of Guandique in 2009. There was also a lack of eyewitness testimony, and the prosecution’s case leaned heavily on the account of Guandique’s former cellmate.
When the verdict was handed down, it was widely predicted that Guandique would face a life sentence.
MORE: Check out Sarah Larimer’s reporting on that emotional exchange we mentioned above:
Levy’s mother, Susan, told convicted killer Ingmar Guandique today that he should “rot in hell” and begged the judge to give him a life sentence without parole. She ended her statement by pointing at Guandique, who had asked for a new trial, and saying, “finally, fuck you. That is it.”
“Did you really take her? Look me in the eye and tell me. … I will never forgive you.I will allow a higher power do that,” she said in the midst of her statement, in which she also thanked the judge, lawyers and jury.
Heavy stuff. Guandique will serve, at a minimum, 51 years of his 60-year sentence.
