Former intelligence official John Negroponte’s adopted daughter, Sophia Negroponte, was sentenced to 35 years after a retrial found her guilty of the fatal stabbing of 24-year-old Yousuf Rasmussen at an Airbnb in Rockville, Maryland, following two separate juries reaching the same verdict.

On Friday, Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Terrence McGann imposed a 35-year prison term after a retrial in November ended with a conviction for second-degree murder. Sophia Negroponte, now 33, received the same sentence she was handed after her first conviction in 2023.

The case has moved through multiple stages of the justice system: an initial conviction, an appeals court decision that ordered a new trial, and then a second jury that reached the same conclusion. The procedure was different the second time, but the outcome did not change.

The killing occurred on February 13, 2020, when authorities answered a 911 call at an Airbnb in Rockville at approximately 11:16 p.m. Responders described a violent scene inside the rental property that left a young man dead and the defendant covered in blood.

Sophia Negroponte was found on top of the victim and was taken into custody at the scene. Yousuf Rasmussen was pronounced dead there; he was 24 years old at the time. Negroponte was 27 during the incident.

Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy outlined the sequence of events leading to the killing, saying the pair had been drinking with another person and argued twice that night. According to McCarthy, Negroponte then “stabbed him multiple times, one a death blow that severed his jugular.”

Charging documents say Negroponte told investigators she did not remember attacking the man, but she did recall arguing over a “silly issue” and later removing a knife from his neck. Her words to him as he lay dying, according to those documents, were simply: “I’m sorry.”

Her first trial in 2023 resulted in a second-degree murder conviction and a 35-year sentence, but an appeals court in January 2024 identified a procedural error that required a new trial. The appellate court found jurors had heard contested portions of an interrogation and testimony that affected the defendant’s credibility.

“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.”

Those remarks from McCarthy came after sentencing and underscored the county prosecutor’s view that the result was consistent and warranted. The retrial corrected the procedural problem the appeals court flagged, and then the evidence was presented again to a new jury.

John Negroponte is a longtime public servant who served as President George W. Bush’s first Director of National Intelligence, a post created after the 9/11 attacks in 2005. His résumé also includes roles as deputy secretary of state and ambassadorships to Honduras, Mexico, the Philippines, the United Nations, and Iraq.

Sophia was one of five Honduran children adopted by John Negroponte and his wife during the 1980s while he was posted in Central America. A family known for public service now faces a tragic criminal case that has played out in open court.

Six years elapsed between the night of the killing and the final sentence that will keep the convicted woman behind bars. The appeals process identified and fixed a legal misstep, and the judicial system ultimately produced the same verdict from two juries.

Some critics point to high-profile cases as evidence that status and connections can influence outcomes, but this case produced identical sentences across two trials and two judges approving the same penalty. The appellate ruling changed the process, not the factual findings rendered by jurors.

Yousuf Rasmussen was 24 years old. He went back for his cellphone. He never left that house alive.