John Negroponte’s adopted daughter, Sophia Negroponte, has been handed a 35-year prison sentence for fatally stabbing a friend during a drunken altercation at a Maryland Airbnb six years ago. John Negroponte served as the Director of National Intelligence under former President George W. Bush.
The sentencing took place on Friday, presided over by Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Terrence McGann. This followed Sophia Negroponte’s November conviction for second-degree murder in the death of 24-year-old Yousuf Rasmussen. The case was revisited after her initial 2023 conviction was overturned.
Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy commented on the sentencing, highlighting that it matched the original 2023 sentence. “This outcome is fitting and just, considering the gravity of the crime and the consistent verdicts from two separate juries who meticulously reviewed the evidence,” he stated, according to The Associated Press.
Sophia Negroponte, who was convicted of second-degree murder for the February 2020 stabbing of her former high school classmate Yousuf Rasmussen, received a 35-year prison term for the crime on Friday. (Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office)
Her initial conviction in 2023 also resulted in a 35-year sentence; however, a Maryland appeals court nullified this in January 2024, necessitating a retrial in circuit court.
The retrial was mandated by the appeals court after it determined that the jury had been improperly exposed to disputed elements of a police interrogation and testimony that questioned Negroponte’s integrity.
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.
Related Article
