Former US intel director’s daughter convicted of murder in fatal stabbing retrial

ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) — The daughter of former U.S. intelligence director John Negroponte was convicted Thursday for a second time in the fatal stabbing of a friend after a drunken argument at a Maryland home, prosecutors announced.

Sophia Negroponte, 32, of Washington, D.C., was found guilty of second-degree murder in the 2020 death of 24-year-old Yousuf Rasmussen, according to the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office. She faces up to 35 years in prison at sentencing, which is scheduled for Feb. 19.

Negroponte was convicted of second-degree murder in the case in 2023 and sentenced to 35 years in prison, but the conviction was overturned last year. An appeals court sent the case back to Montgomery County Circuit Court because the jury had been allowed to hear contested portions of a police interrogation of Sophia Negroponte and testimony from a prosecution witness questioning her credibility, news outlets reported.

Sophia Negroponte was one of five abandoned or orphaned Honduran children adopted by John Negroponte and his wife after he was appointed as U.S. ambassador to the Central American country in the 1980s, according to The Washington Post.

Former President George W. Bush appointed John Negroponte as the nation’s first intelligence director in 2005. He later served as deputy secretary of state. He also served as ambassador to Mexico, the Philippines, the United Nations and Iraq.