Ex-grad student sentenced to life in prison for killing best friend

A 25-year-old man who was pursuing a biomedical engineering graduate degree at George Washington University is now sentenced to life in prison for killing his best friend.

In October 2013, Rahul Gupta and Mark Waugh were out with Gupta's girlfriend celebrating Gupta's birthday and drinking heavily.

Prosecutors say Gupta became jealous about his girlfriend talking with another man and Waugh accompanied the couple back to their Silver Spring apartment to help smooth things over.

Instead, the night ended with a 911 call. Gupta's girlfriend, Taylor Gould, told the dispatcher, "I just need someone here. There's blood everywhere."

When police arrived, Gupta was covered in blood. Waugh had been stabbed and slashed 11 times with a butcher's knife. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Gupta confessed to police saying he had caught his girlfriend cheating with Waugh and killed him. He later changed that story, blaming the murder on Gould.

However, that is not what he told his father in a recorded jailhouse phone call.

Gupta said, "Mark and I got into a fight and he tried to get a knife, and then I got the knife."

Prosecutors say the claim by Gupta that Waugh and Gould were cheating has been recanted. They say Waugh was there to ensure her safety and he actually sent out several text messages to friends and his brother talking about the awkwardness of the situation in the apartment that night.

At his sentencing hearing, Gupta spoke highly of his friend, but never apologized to the Waugh family.

The two had attended school together at Langley High School in McLean, Virginia.

Waugh was a Georgetown University Law student.

His father, Bill Waugh, spoke to reporters following the hearing, saying, "His (Mark's) murder was a sin, not just on the family but the community as a whole -- so much promise, so much opportunity, so much loss."