A Montgomery County jury found 25-year-old Rahul Gupta guilty after about four and a half hours of deliberations, the Washington Post reported. Gupta had started GW’s graduate program in biomedical engineering in fall 2013.

Gupta, who also earned his undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering from GW, told police officers in the early morning of Oct. 13, 2013 that he had killed his friend, Georgetown law student Mark Waugh, because he thought his girlfriend and Waugh had been involved romantically behind his back.

The Post reported that defense lawyers argued that Gupta’s girlfriend at the time, Taylor Gould, had actually killed Waugh. They said Gupta tried to save Waugh and at first confessed to killing his friend to protect Gould, who also earned a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from GW.

The three had been celebrating Gupta’s 24th birthday the night of the stabbing. Waugh, who was 23 when he died, and Gupta had known each other since high school. Waugh graduated from James Madison University and was in his first year of law school at Georgetown.

The three had gone out drinking for Gupta’s birthday before returning to the apartment where Gupta and Gould lived. Gould claimed in court that she drank so much alcohol that she blacked out. She said she woke up to find Gupta kneeling over Waugh and yelling at her to call 911. Officers arrived at about 3:30 a.m.

Waugh had been stabbed six times and slashed five times with a butcher knife, the Post reported.