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The adopted daughter of former President George W. Bush’s Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of a friend after a drunken argument inside a Maryland Airbnb six years ago.
Sophia Negroponte, 33, was sentenced on Friday by Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Terrence McGann after being found guilty at trial in November of second-degree murder for the death of 24-year-old Yousuf Rasmussen. It was a retrial after a 2023 conviction on the same charge was overturned.
“The 35-year sentence mirrors the sentence imposed following the first trial in 2023,” Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said, per The Associated Press. “This is an appropriate and just outcome in light of the seriousness of this crime and the consistent findings of two separate juries who carefully evaluated the evidence.”
Sophia Negroponte, left, was convicted of second-degree murder in the stabbing of former high school classmate, Yousuf Rasmussen, right, in February 2020. On Friday, Negroponte was sentenced to 35 years in prison for the killing. (Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office )
Negroponte was first convicted of second-degree murder in 2023 and received the same 35-year sentence, but in January 2024, a Maryland appeals court threw out the conviction, calling for a new trial in circuit court.
The appeals court ordered a new trial after ruling jurors improperly heard contested portions of a police interrogation and testimony questioning Negroponte’s credibility.
Sophia Negroponte was one of five Honduran children who were abandoned or orphaned that John Negroponte and his wife, Diana, adopted after Negroponte was appointed U.S. ambassador to the Central American country in the 1980s, according to The Washington Post.
Sophia Negroponte and Rasmussen attended the same Washington high school and had been drinking, along with another person, on the night Rasmussen was killed, McCarthy said previously. They argued twice that night, and Rasmussen left the home.
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Ambassador John Negroponte, vice chairman of McLarty Associates, speaks onstage during the 2022 Concordia Lexington Summit at the Lexington Marriott City Center on April 8, 2022, in Lexington, Kentucky. (John Negroponte )
When Rasmussen returned to get his cellphone, Negroponte “stabbed him multiple times, one being a death blow that severed his jugular,” McCarthy said.
A 911 call prompted county and city officers and fire rescue personnel in Rockville, Maryland, to respond to an Airbnb property on Feb. 13, 2020, at approximately 11:16 p.m. Negroponte, then 27, was found inside the home covered in blood and lying on top of Rasmussen, yelling, “I’m sorry,” according to charging documents obtained by Fox News Digital.
Rasmussen was pronounced dead at the scene and Negroponte was brought into custody, where she allegedly told investigators that she did not remember attacking the man but recalled arguing over a “silly issue” and later removing a knife from his neck.
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Negroponte with former President George W. Bush in February 2005 in Washington, D.C. (Charles Ommanney/Getty Images)
President George W. Bush appointed John Negroponte as the nation’s first intelligence director in 2005 following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He later served as deputy Secretary of State. He also previously served as ambassador to Honduras, Mexico, the Philippines, the United Nations and Iraq.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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