Updated at 6:09 p.m. ET
The man convicted of killing Washington intern Chandra Levy in 2001 will get another day in court after prosecutors agreed not to oppose a new trial for Ingmar Guandique.
Vincent Cohen, the acting U.S. attorney, and Leslie Ann Gerardo, the assistant U.S. attorney, asked the Superior Court of the D.C. Criminal Division for a status hearing to be scheduled in two weeks, "by which time the government will have completed an assessment of the time needed to prepare for a retrial in this case."
They asked that Guandique be detained pending the status hearing.
Guandique's attorneys had said his one-time cellmate, Armando Morales, had given misleading testimony in the 2010 trial.
In a statement, the U.S. Attorney's Office said: "We remain firm in our conviction that the jury's verdict was correct and are preparing for a new trial to ensure that Guandique is held accountable."
Guandique was found guilty in November 2010 of Levy's 2001 murder and sentenced to 60 years in prison. The illegal immigrant from El Salvador had been serving time for other attacks on women in Washington's Rock Creek Park. He was charged with Levy's murder in 2009.
The case drew headlines across the nation because of 23-year-old Levy's affair with then-Congressman Gary Condit, a California Democrat. Police questioned Condit multiple times in connection with her disappearance. Levy's body was found in Rock Creek Park in 2002.
Condit subsequently lost the Democratic primary and left Congress in 2003.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. 9(MDAxNzg0MDExMDEyMTYyMjc1MDE3NGVmMw004))
