Murder conviction of former national intelligence director’s daughter tossed due to ‘high risk of prejudice’ from interrogation video

Sophia Negroponte mugshot (Montomery County Police]

Sophia Negroponte, daughter of John Negroponte, was sentenced to 35 years in prison for murder on March 31, 2023; a Maryland appeals court ordered a new trial on Jan. 23, 2024. (Montgomery County Police)

The daughter of John Negroponte, the first U.S. Director of National Intelligence and former diplomat who allegedly enabled human rights violations in Honduras and Nicaragua in the 1980s, had her murder conviction tossed out by a Maryland appellate court earlier this week.

In January 2023, Sophia Negroponte, 30, was found guilty by a Montgomery County jury on one charge of murder in the second degree for the stabbing slaying of her friend, Yousuf Rasmussen, 24. In March 2023, she was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

On Tuesday, a three-judge panel on Maryland’s second-highest court rubbished her conviction by finding that the trial court erred by allowed the jury to hear various opinions about the killer’s credibility.

“We conclude that the trial court erred in allowing the jury to hear the contested portions of the video interrogation in which the police opined on appellant’s credibility and by allowing the State’s expert to opine on appellant’s credibility,” the court ruled.

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