The daughter of the first U.S. director of national intelligence will spend more than three decades in prison after a Maryland judge sentenced her for stabbing her longtime best friend to death during a drunken argument inside an Airbnb.

Sophia Negroponte, 33, was sentenced Friday to 35 years in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder for the 2020 killing of 24-year-old Yousuf Rasmussen.

Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Terrence McGann handed down the sentence following a retrial that once again found Negroponte guilty of the fatal stabbing.

The case has been unusual for its long and winding path through the courts.

Negroponte was first convicted of the same crime in January 2023 and sentenced to 35 years two months later. But that conviction was overturned in January 2024 after an appellate court found that jurors had improperly heard testimony that questioned the defendant’s credibility.

Prosecutors retried the case last fall without the disputed statements. The second jury reached the same conclusion as the first, again convicting Negroponte of second-degree murder.

“The 35-year sentence mirrors the sentence imposed following the first trial in 2023,” Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said after the verdict, according to the Associated Press.

“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,” he added.

The killing took place in February 2020 in Rockville, Maryland, a suburb just north of Washington, D.C.

According to prosecutors, Negroponte and Rasmussen had been longtime friends who attended the same high school and remained close into adulthood.

On the night of the fatal incident, the pair had gathered at a carriage house Airbnb along with another friend. The group had been drinking heavily when tensions began to rise between Negroponte and Rasmussen.

Prosecutors said the two argued verbally at least twice during the evening.

At one point, Rasmussen attempted to leave the residence but realized he had left his cellphone behind. When he returned to retrieve it, prosecutors say the confrontation escalated into deadly violence.

“Ms. Negroponte and the victim had verbally argued on two occasions during the evening,” McCarthy explained during earlier proceedings.

“[Rasmussen] decided that he was gonna leave, went to leave, then realized that he’d left his cellphone in the house and came back in. At that point, Ms. Negroponte had armed herself with a knife and stabbed him multiple times, one being a death blow that severed his jugular.”

Jurors in the case saw police body camera footage that captured a witness describing the chaotic moments that led up to the stabbing.

The witness told officers that several friends had been drinking together when an altercation broke out.

“Anger and a little bit of punches — I’m like trying to calm it down — and then all of a sudden she grabs a knife from the drawer,” the witness said while reenacting the motion of the stabbing.

The witness said Negroponte struck Rasmussen in the neck during the struggle.

Rasmussen died from the injuries.

Although Negroponte had initially faced a more serious charge of first-degree premeditated murder during the earlier trial, the jury ultimately rejected that allegation and convicted her of second-degree murder instead.

The appeals court later overturned that conviction after ruling that certain statements presented to the jury — including remarks by detectives and testimony from a forensic psychiatrist about the defendant’s credibility — should not have been allowed.

Even without those statements, however, the second jury still found Negroponte guilty.

Following the original verdict, Rasmussen’s family released a statement remembering the young man whose life was cut short.

“Yousuf was a kind and gentle soul, a loving person who brought our family and his many friends great joy in his 24 years of life,” the family said.

“We will carry him with us forever.”

Sophia Negroponte is the daughter of John Negroponte, the former U.S. diplomat who became the first director of national intelligence after the position was created following the September 11 attacks.

She was one of five children adopted by John and Diana Negroponte during the 1980s when he served as the U.S. ambassador to Honduras.