Nearly ten years after Chandra Levy went missing from a D.C. area park in May 2001, her accused killer is finally getting his day in court.  Levy, a California intern who was preparing to return home after spending time as an intern with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, had been jogging in those final days spent on the east coast.  Before her remains were found a year later, a politician suffered a hard fall from grace and two families were nearly destroyed.

Representative Gary Condit finally admitted to having an affair with Levy months following her disappearance.  That admission cost him his sterling political career and nearly cost him to lose his family.  He was initially interviewed as a potential person of interest, however, he was eliminated.  It is expected that he will be called to testify in some capacity, though it’s not clear what his role might be.

Ingmar Guandique, now 29 and who was in this country illegally from El Salvador, has been charged with murder, kidnapping, attempted sexual assault and several other counts.  He is already in prison, where he’s been almost entirely since Levy went missing.  He’d been arrested and convicted on other unrelated charges before her body was even found.

For now, potential jurors are busy completing more than ten pages of questionnaires as both the defense and prosecution seek to assemble each of their own versions of a dream jury.  Jury consultants have been called in to help cull the 114 potential jurors.  Already, however, accusations are being made between the two sides regarding “crucial” information that has yet to be turned over by the defense.  That information is believed to be fingerprints from the crime scene as well as other potential suspects the defense had not been made aware of.



Jury selection will likely continue through the end of the week and its possible opening statements could begin as early as October, 24, 2010.  Already, however, this case is sparking more controversy on the illegal immigrant debate, as well as mistakes many say law enforcement made from the very beginning.  Levy’s parents have said recently they don’t believe this case will give them “any sense of peace when thinking about our daughter”, even if it results in a conviction.