Murder Defendant Denies Confession, Says Girlfriend Is Killer

>>News Alerts: Subscribe to a free email newsletter: BETHESDA • ROCKVILLE • SILVER SPRING

A Georgetown University medical student on trial for allegedly stabbing his best friend to death in a Silver Spring apartment after a night of celebratory drinking disputes the confession he made at the crime scene and says his girlfriend was the attacker.

Rahul Gupta and Mark Waugh — buddies for years who once attended high school honors class together — seemingly had it made: Gupta was studying to become a doctor; Waugh was at Georgetown University Law Center.

Over an October weekend in 2013, they met to celebrate Gupta’s 24th birthday. Early the next morning, police found them both covered in blood in a high-rise apartment in Silver Spring.

Along with friends, the pair had been out celebrating and ended up back at the apartment to continue drinking, Gupta’s girlfriend, Taylor Gould, told The Washington Post.

Police who responded to a 911 call found a bloody, chaotic scene, with Gould confused and Gupta apparently dazed. Waugh, pronounced dead at the scene soon afterward, had stab wounds including a punctured lung and severed jugular vein, along with “defense-type injuries” about his body, according to the Post.

“My girl was cheating with my buddy. I walked in on them cheating and I killed my buddy,” he told detectives at the apartment, according to The Washington Post’s report of opening trial statements.

Gupta, 25, of McLean, is on trial in Montgomery County for stabbing to death Waugh, 23, of Great Falls.

As the trial began last week, however, one of Gupta’s attorneys painted Gould as the lethal attacker. The defendant’s admission when police were called was Gupta’s attempt to protect his then-girlfriend, lawyers argued.

“This was an act of violent, crazy rage,” Jennifer Page, told jurors, reports The Washington Post. “You bet she was capable.”

But during testimony last week, Gould, who earned a biomedical engineering degree from George Washington University, said after consuming at least six drinks, she was too drunk on the night Waugh died to remember what happened. She denied harming Waugh.

“I had no reason to hurt anyone,” she told the jury.

According to testimony, Gupta called 911 and Gould met police at the door. Both of them had blood on them.

Victor Del Pino, a Rockville defense attorney, told the Post that the defense strategy to portray Gould as the culprit is unusual. And the defense doesn’t have to prove that she killed Waugh, merely raise the possibility of doubt with jurors.

More: Former Langley High School Honors Student Stabbed to Death; Friend Charged

Waugh excelled in his studies — at Langley High School, where he was an honor student, at James Madison University, where he graduated magna cum laude in 2012, and at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he was a first-year law student. Debate coaches around the country had named him one of the best in the United States, Patch earlier reported.

Waugh’s mother, Nancy, told the Gazette in Montgomery County that her son and Gupta had been “best friends” since high school.

PHOTO: Murder victim Mark Waugh of McLean, VA, left, and his accused attacker, Rahul Gupta, who is on trial in Montgomery County.