Former intelligence director’s daughter sentenced for fatally stabbing friend while drunk

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (TCD) — The 30-year-old daughter of a former U.S. intelligence director was sentenced to 35 years in prison for the 2020 slaying of her friend following an argument.

The Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office announced Sophia Negroponte’s sentencing Friday, March 31. She was convicted in January of second-degree murder for fatally stabbing 24-year-old Yousuf Rasmussen.

On Feb. 13, 2020, at 11:16 p.m., Rockville City Police responded to the 400 block of West Montgomery Avenue regarding a stabbing and found Rasmussen inside with a fatal wound. Investigators learned Rasmussen and Negroponte got into an argument at the residence, and she stabbed him. Rasmussen was pronounced dead at the scene.

Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said in a press conference following her conviction that Negroponte consumed a “substantial amount of alcohol” before the stabbing. She and Rasmussen went to high school together and remained friends.

Rasmussen, Negroponte, and another friend were inside an Airbnb on West Montgomery Avenue when Negroponte and Rasmussen argued, and Rasmussen left. He realized he forgot his cellphone, however, and when he returned, she stabbed him.

McCarthy said Negroponte “severed [Rasmussen’s] jugular.”

During her trial, Negroponte’s attorney argued she shouldn’t be convicted of murder because she was so drunk, according to CBS Baltimore.

He said, “Alcohol pervades this case from the start; it pervades her life, and it is absolutely at the heart of what happened there that night. And it’s one of the major reasons that this is absolutely not a murder.”

John Negroponte, her father, reportedly said after the trial, “Neither the prosecutors nor perhaps the jury took into sufficient consideration the complexities and mitigating circumstances of the case — Sophia’s past trauma and other factors that led to a very troubled existence. She’s had severe alcohol use disorder.”

John Negroponte served as the first director of National Intelligence and was sworn in April 21, 2005. Prior to that, he was the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq and U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations.