ROCKVILLE, Md. — A Montgomery County judge has handed down a 35-year prison sentence to the daughter of a former top U.S. intelligence official for fatally stabbing a friend during an intoxicated dispute at a Maryland residence.
Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Terrence McGann imposed the sentence Friday on 33-year-old Sophia Negroponte. In November, a jury convicted her of second-degree murder in the killing of 24-year-old Yousuf Rasmussen. This marked her second trial for the same offense after her original 2023 conviction was thrown out on appeal.
Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said the punishment was fitting for the crime. “The 35-year sentence mirrors the sentence imposed following the first trial in 2023. 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,” McCarthy stated.
An appeals court had reversed the initial guilty verdict in 2024, determining that jurors should not have heard disputed segments of Negroponte’s police questioning and testimony from a prosecution witness who challenged her truthfulness.
The Washington, D.C. resident was among five Honduran children who had been abandoned or orphaned before being adopted by John Negroponte and his spouse during his tenure as U.S. ambassador to the Central American nation in the 1980s, The Washington Post reported.
John Negroponte was tapped by former President George W. Bush in 2005 to become the country’s inaugural intelligence director. His diplomatic career also included serving as deputy secretary of state and holding ambassador posts in Mexico, the Philippines, at the United Nations, and in Iraq.
