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Rhode Island Man, Nicholas Rossi, Sentenced to at Least Five Years for Rape After Faking Death and Fleeing Country
SALT LAKE CITY, UT – Nicholas Rossi, the Rhode Island man who once orchestrated an elaborate scheme to fake his own death and flee the U.S. to avoid arrest, has been handed a minimum five-year prison sentence for rape. The 38-year-old received his sentence on Monday, marking the first of two convictions he faces for raping two women in northern Utah in 2008. His second sentencing is scheduled for November.
District Judge Barry Lawrence ordered Rossi to serve no less than five years and potentially life at the Utah State Correctional Facility, effective immediately. Judge Lawrence clarified that Utah operates under “indeterminate sentencing,” meaning sentences are given as a range of years, with the state’s Board of Pardons and Parole determining the actual release date.
Rossi was found guilty of rape in August after a three-day trial where the accuser and her parents provided powerful testimony. Before Rossi’s sentencing, the victim addressed the court, stating that Rossi left a “trail of fear, pain and destruction” in his wake.
“This is not a plea for vengeance. This is a plea for safety and accountability, for recognition of the damage that will never fully heal,” she asserted.
Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Brandon Simmons, a prosecutor in the case, argued that Rossi “uses rape to control women” and poses a significant threat to community safety.
Despite the gravity of the charges, Rossi chose not to testify during his trial. However, when offered the chance to speak before his sentencing on Monday, Rossi quietly maintained his innocence in a hoarse tone, stating, “I am not guilty of this. These women are lying.”
More than a decade passed between the sexual assaults and Rossi’s eventual convictions. Utah law enforcement began their pursuit of Rossi, whose birth name is Nicholas Alahverdian, in 2018. He was identified through DNA evidence from a decade-old rape kit, part of a statewide initiative to process a backlog of sexual assault kits that led to the identification and charging of thousands of suspects.
Several months after charges were filed, an internet obituary falsely claimed Rossi had died on February 29, 2020, from non-Hodgkin lymphoma. However, authorities in his native Rhode Island, along with his former attorney and a past foster family, expressed doubts about his supposed demise.
His elaborate evasion came to an end the following year when he was apprehended in Scotland. While receiving treatment for COVID-19, medical personnel identified his distinctive tattoos – including the emblem of Brown University, despite him never having attended the institution – thanks to an Interpol alert.
After a protracted legal battle during which Rossi claimed he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight and was being framed, he was extradited back to Utah in January 2024. Law enforcement officials have indicated that Rossi employed at least twelve false identities over the years to evade arrest.
During his initial Utah trial, Rossi’s public defender challenged the rape accusation and cautioned jurors against over-interpreting his flight overseas. Nevertheless, the jury found him guilty of the rape charge for which he was sentenced on Monday.
The victim testified that in 2008, while recovering from a traumatic brain injury and living with her parents, she responded to a personal ad Rossi posted on Craigslist. Their relationship quickly escalated, and they became engaged within weeks.
She claimed Rossi pressured her to cover date expenses, car repairs, lend him $1,000 to prevent eviction, and even accrue debt to buy their engagement rings. She recounted that he became aggressive shortly after their engagement, raping her in his bedroom one night after she had driven him home.
She reported the incident years later upon learning that Rossi was accused of raping another woman in Utah around the same timeframe.
The victim in the second case reported to police shortly after Rossi assaulted her at his Orem apartment. She had visited to retrieve money she claimed he had stolen from her to purchase a computer. Rossi was found guilty in this case in September, with sentencing scheduled for November 4.
Rossi was raised in foster homes in Rhode Island and returned there before his staged death and flight from the country. He was previously sought in Rhode Island for failing to register as a sex offender. The FBI also states he faces fraud charges in Ohio, where he was convicted of sex-related charges in 2008.