Prosecution acknowledges mistakes as Chandra Levy murder trial begins

The investigation into the slaying of Washington intern Chandra Levy was bungled because police initially suspected the wrong person — Rep. Gary Condit — prosecutors said Monday as the trial opened for the man accused of killing her.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Amanda Haines blamed the mistakes in part on the “secrets of a man named Gary Condit,” whose purported affair with Levy came to light after she vanished on May 1, 2001. The media frenzy distracted police from finding the real killer, Haines said.

“He was having an affair with Chandra Levy, but it has nothing to do with the murder of Chandra Levy,” Haines told jurors in a packed courtroom.

The defense also highlighted errors in the police investigation that led eventually to Ingmar Guandique, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador whom police focused on while he was serving 10 years in prison for attacking women in Rock Creek Park, where Levy’s body was found 13 months after she vanished.

“Ingmar Guandique is not guilty, and nothing that happens in this trial will prove that he is,” defense attorney Maria Hawilo said. “From the beginning, the police failed and fumbled in this investigation.”

The prosecution alleges that Guandique talked about Levy’s slaying to fellow inmates and that a photo of her was found in his cell. Those inmates have a reason to lie, Hawilo said.

Guandique, 29, is charged with attempted sexual assault, kidnapping and murder.

Levy, who grew up in Modesto and moved to Washington to intern at the Federal Bureau of Prisons, was 24. Her disappearance sparked allegations of an affair with Condit, who at the time represented a San Joaquin Valley congressional district. Condit is expected to testify at the trial.

The prosecution is expected to make Guandique’s prior encounters with women in Rock Creek Park a central theme in the case. They have no witnesses to Levy’s death and no forensic evidence that would connect Guandique to Levy.

One of the women Guandique accosted, Halle Shilling, was one of the lead prosecution witnesses. Guandique attacked Shilling at knifepoint two weeks after Levy disappeared.

“I felt an incredible thud as he jumped onto my back,” Shilling said. “I screamed as loud as I knew how to scream.”

Through tears, Shilling described “fighting” and “wrestling” with Guandique along a remote trail where she knew her screams would not be heard. Her resistance prompted him to bite her hand and flee.

“I felt as afraid and as alone as I have ever felt in my entire life,” Shilling said.

Jurors also heard from a woman who said she had an unusual encounter with a man in the park about the time of Levy’s disappearance.

“It looked like he was trying to sneak up on me,” said Amber Fitzgerald, a Southern Californian who moved to Washington in 1998.

Fitzgerald was not attacked, and she did not identify Guandique as the man she encountered.

kim.geiger@latimes.com