salt lake city — SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Rhode Island man Who appeared to fake his death and escape A U.S. judge is scheduled to be sentenced to avoid rape charges Monday in one of two rape convictions in Utah.
Nicholas Rossi, 38, faces between five years and life in prison when he is sentenced Monday by District Judge Barry Lawrence in Salt Lake City.
The sentence is the first of two sentences scheduled for Rossi after he was convicted separately in August and September of raping two women in northern Utah in 2008. He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 4 for the second conviction, which also ranges from five years to life in prison.
In August, jurors found Rossi Guilty of rape After a Three-day trial Where both the accused and her parents stood. Rossi did not testify on his own behalf.
It took more than a decade from the time of the rape to his conviction. Utah authorities began searching for Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas Al Ahverdian, when he was identified in 2018 through a decade-old DNA rape kit linked to the other case. He was among thousands of rape suspects who were identified and later charged when the state of Utah pushed for it. Clearing the rape kit backlog.
Months after he was charged in the case, an online obituary claimed that Rossi died on February 29, 2020, of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. But police in his home state of Rhode Island, along with his former attorney and former foster family, cast doubt on whether he was dead.
It was Arrested in Scotland The following year while receiving treatment for Covid-19. Hospital staff recognized his distinctive tattoos — including the Brown University logo emblazoned on his shoulder, even though he never attended — from the Interpol notice.
He was extradited to Utah in January 2024 after a lengthy court battle. At the time, Rossi insisted that it was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight who had been framed. Investigators say they have identified at least ten aliases Rossi used over the years to avoid capture.
In his first trial in Utah, Rossi’s public defender denied the rape allegation and urged jurors not to read too much into his move abroad.
The victim was living with her parents and recovering from a traumatic brain injury in 2008 when she responded to a personal ad that Rossi posted on Craigslist. They started dating and were engaged within two weeks.
She testified that Rossi asked her to pay for dates and car repairs, loan him $1,000 so he wouldn’t be fired, and go into debt to buy their engagement rings. She said he became aggressive shortly after they became engaged and raped her in his bedroom one night after she gave him a ride home.
She went to the police years later after hearing that Rossi was accused of raping another woman in Utah around the same time.
The victim in this case went to police shortly after she attacked Rossi at his apartment in Orem. The woman had gone there to collect money she said he had stolen from her to buy a computer.
Rossi grew up in foster homes in Rhode Island and returned there before he appeared to fake his death and flee the country. He was previously wanted in the state for failing to register as a sex offender. The FBI says he also faces fraud charges in Ohio, where he was convicted of sex-related charges in 2008.
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Grover reported from Ft. Collins, Colorado.