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Sophia Negroponte, the adopted daughter of John Negroponte, who served as the Director of National Intelligence under former President George W. Bush, has been handed a 35-year prison sentence. This sentence was delivered after she was found guilty of fatally stabbing a friend during a heated, alcohol-fueled dispute at an Airbnb in Maryland six years ago.
The verdict was issued by Judge Terrence McGann of the Montgomery County Circuit Court. The jury found Negroponte, now 33, guilty of second-degree murder in the death of 24-year-old Yousuf Rasmussen. This followed a retrial prompted by the overturning of her initial conviction from 2023.
“The 35-year sentence reflects the same punishment given after the first trial in 2023,” stated Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy, according to The Associated Press. “This outcome is both appropriate and just, considering the gravity of the crime and the consistent decisions reached by two separate juries who thoroughly examined the evidence.”
Negroponte was accused of killing her former high school classmate Yousuf Rasmussen in February 2020. The incident led to her initial conviction and sentence, which an appeals court later annulled in January 2024, necessitating a new trial in circuit court.
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.
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.
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.
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