She was supposed to serve 35 years for fatally stabbing her longtime friend in 2020, but the Maryland appeals court tossed out Sophia Negroponte’s conviction and ordered a new trial for the daughter of a former diplomat.
Three judges with the Appellate Court of Maryland said the trial court made a mistake in letting the jury hear “contested portions of the video interrogation” and in allowing a prosecution’s expert to weigh in on Negroponte’s credibility.
The judges agreed that statements made by officers when they questioned Negroponte on the events that occurred on Feb. 13, 2020, which were allowed to be heard during the trial, put a shadow on her credibility.
“We hold the circuit court erred in admitting the challenged statements,” the appellate judges’ opinion said.
These statements included the words and phrases “odd,” “It doesn’t make sense,” “I find it hard to believe that you don’t remember” and “makes it look like you’re not being completely honest.”
Negroponte’s defense argued that while the interrogation was a “valid investigative tactic, the commentary was unnecessary, improper, and unduly prejudicial.”
The appeals court said that the issue is what effect hearing the officers’ statement will have on the jury. The appeals court judges cited precedents that these kinds of assertions are “not relevant and bear a high risk of prejudice.”
Another issue the appeals court sided with in Negroponte’s case involved the testimony of one of the prosecution’s experts — a forensic psychiatrist who said that Negroponte’s version of events was unreliable.
The expert testified that because Negroponte was on trial for murder, “you have to take what she says with a grain of salt because she has an incentive to embellish or diminish the amount of the alcohol she used because she’s in that situation.”
Previous experts for the defense had testified on Negroponte’s and 24-year-old Yousuf Rasmussen’s blood alcohol levels, both of which they said was higher than 0.08.
Negroponte took the stand in her own defense during her trial, and her attorneys sought to show she was too intoxicated to intend to kill Rasmussen.
Prosecutors, however, showed hours of video footage showing how she continued to function after the slaying.
The appeals court’s opinion released Tuesday said the prosecution’s expert testimony was inadmissible because Negroponte’s credibility was at the “core of this case.”
Negroponte is the daughter of John Negroponte, the first director of national intelligence and a former United Nations ambassador during the George W. Bush administration.
Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Terrence McGann, who sentenced her last March, called her a “struggling, anger-filled alcoholic” who lacked empathy after the killing.
Negroponte told the judge during her sentencing that she was “ashamed” and “truly sorry.”
Negroponte and Rasmussen were longtime friends, with Negroponte even describing Rasmussen as her best friend in interviews with police. On the night she killed Rasmussen, the two had been drinking margaritas at an apartment in Rockville, along with another friend.
WTOP’s Jack Moore contributed to this report.
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