Daughter of former national intelligence director convicted of murder

“Yousuf, breathe!” she begged, her voice going softer. “I’m so sorry.”

The video, recorded on a physique digital camera worn by an officer in Rockville, Md., captured the cries of Sophia Negroponte, the daughter of former U.S. director of nationwide intelligence John Negroponte. Her trial within the killing of Yousuf Rasmussen, 24, concluded Tuesday when jurors discovered her responsible of second-degree homicide — punishable by as much as 40 years in jail.

The trial, attended daily by her father, 83, seated in the identical spot within the second row of the gallery, hinged on whether or not the girl purposely tried to kill her pal by stabbing him within the neck with a kitchen knife, or if he ended up by accident lower throughout a drunken battle.

Whereas jurors didn’t discover Negroponte responsible of probably the most severe cost she confronted — first-degree, premeditated homicide — they decided she acted with a “wicked coronary heart” when she wielded a knife close to Rasmussen’s throat and, in keeping with regulation directions they got, “acted with excessive disregard of the life-endangering penalties.” Additionally they decided that she meant “to inflict such severe bodily hurt” to Rasmussen “that loss of life could be the seemingly outcome.”

Negroponte, now 29, sat together with her head down as the decision was introduced. Montgomery County Circuit Courtroom Decide Terrence J. McGann ordered her bond revoked and she or he was taken to jail. She will likely be sentenced at a listening to on March 31. She must serve not less than half her sentence to be eligible for parole.

In revoking Negroponte’s bond after the decision, McGann famous that Rasmussen was “taken from this earth, at a really younger age together with his entire life forward of him, in such a horrific method.”

“Her hand was on that knife when it was plunged into his face, and lower throughout his throat, and plunged into his neck, the place the blood got here down and he collapsed nearly instantly,” Assistant State’s Lawyer Donna Fenton mentioned in closing arguments.

She informed jurors that Negroponte’s fast anguish over what occurred, legally talking, wasn’t vital.

“Remorse afterwards doesn’t change her confirmed intent on the time the homicide was dedicated,” she mentioned.

Rasmussen’s household mentioned in a press release: “Yousuf was a form and delicate soul, a loving one that introduced our household and his many mates nice pleasure in his 24 years of life. We are going to carry him with us without end.”

David Moyse, one among Negroponte’s attorneys, had urged jurors to think about how a lot alcohol his consumer had consumed that night time — and the way she was so intoxicated that she couldn’t kind particular intent.

“Alcohol pervades this case from the beginning; it pervades her life,” he mentioned, including, “and it’s completely on the coronary heart of what occurred there that night time. And it’s one of many main causes that that is completely not a homicide.”

“This was an accident,” Moyse mentioned. “This was not meant to occur. This was not intentional.”

The night time of Feb. 13, 2020, police acquired a 911 name a couple of unhealthy reducing inside a small rental unit on the rear of a bigger home alongside West Montgomery Avenue in Rockville. Responding officers met the caller outdoors the house they usually had been directed to the unit, which was getting used as an Airbnb. Negroponte was staying there.

They discovered Rasmussen mortally wounded, and Negroponte was taken into custody.

Jury choice within the case started in early December. The trial lasted three weeks, with a break through the holidays, and with greater than 240 reveals launched by each side.

Prosecutors referred to as about 14 witnesses, together with a pal of Negroponte’s who was there when the incident occurred. Protection attorneys referred to as roughly 9 witnesses, together with Negroponte. Jurors started deliberating Friday morning and continued for a lot of the day Tuesday.

In an change firstly of her cross-examination of Negroponte, Fenton sought to suss out if Negroponte didn’t keep in mind what occurred, remembered stabbing Rasmussen by chance, or remembered one thing extra incriminating.

“Let’s simply get one factor clear proper from the very starting: You acknowledge you stabbed Yousuf Rasmussen, isn’t that right?”

“When have I acknowledged that?” Negroponte responded.

“I’m asking proper now, as you sit earlier than this jury, are you saying that you just stabbed Yousuf Rasmussen, sure or no?”

After extra backwards and forwards, Fenton requested, “Did you do it, or do you not keep in mind?”

“I didn’t do it … I’m telling that I didn’t hurt Mr. Rasmussen, Yousuf Rasmussen.”

John Negroponte was appointed in 2005 because the nation’s first director of nationwide intelligence by President George W. Bush. He additionally served as an envoy to Honduras, Mexico, the Philippines, Iraq and the United Nations.

The longtime diplomat’s profession had nothing to do with Rasmussen’s loss of life, however the lives of the Negropontes got here up a number of instances through the trial — specifically how they adopted Sophia from an orphanage in Honduras after serving there. Her mom, Diana Negroponte, testified within the trial.

“We’re very disenchanted, however the jury clearly made its resolution,” John Negroponte mentioned after the decision.

He mentioned the Negropontes will talk about a attainable enchantment with their attorneys, indicating they’d most likely observe that path.

“Neither the prosecutors nor maybe the jury took into adequate consideration the complexities and mitigating circumstances of the case — Sophia’s previous trauma and different elements that led to a really troubled existence. She’s had extreme alcohol use dysfunction,” John Negroponte mentioned.

The defendant, who had been staying together with her mother and father through the trial, has been sober for practically three years, John Negroponte mentioned. He mentioned their attorneys will search a simply sentence.

“We love and look after this younger girl very, very a lot,” he mentioned. “We don’t need to see her life wasted in jail.”