Man accused of faking his death to avoid rape charges is found guilty of
sexual assault in Utah
[August 14, 2025]
By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Rhode Island man accused of faking his death and
fleeing the United States to evade rape charges was found guilty
Wednesday of sexually assaulting a former girlfriend in his first of two
Utah trials.
A jury in Salt Lake County found Nicholas Rossi guilty of a 2008 rape
after a three-day trial in which his accuser and her parents took the
stand. The verdict came hours after Rossi, 38, declined to testify on
his own behalf. He will be sentenced in the case on Oct. 20 and is set
to stand trial in September for another rape charge in Utah County.
First-degree felony rape carries a punishment in Utah of five years to
life in prison, said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill.
“We are grateful to the survivor in this case for her willingness to
come forward, years after this attack took place,” Gill said in a
statement Wednesday night. “We appreciate her patience as we worked to
bring the defendant back to Salt Lake County so that this trial could
take place and she could get justice. It took courage and bravery to
take the stand and confront her attacker to hold him accountable.”
Utah authorities began searching for Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas
Alahverdian, when he was identified through a decade-old DNA rape kit in
2018. He was among thousands of rape suspects identified and later
charged when the state made a push to clear its rape kit backlog.
Months after he was charged in Utah County, an online obituary claimed
Rossi had died on Feb. 29, 2020, of late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma. But
police in his home state of Rhode Island, along with his former lawyer
and a former foster family, cast doubt on whether he was dead. He was
arrested in Scotland the following year while receiving treatment for
COVID-19 after hospital staff in Glasgow recognized his distinctive
tattoos from an Interpol notice.
Rossi was extradited to Utah in January 2024 while insisting he was an
Irish orphan named Arthur Knight who was being framed. Investigators say
they identified at least a dozen aliases Rossi used over the years to
evade capture.
He appeared in court this week in a wheelchair, wearing a suit and tie
and using an oxygen tank.
Throughout the trial, prosecutors painted a picture of an intelligent
man who used his charm to take advantage of a vulnerable young woman.
She was living with her parents and recovering from a traumatic brain
injury when she responded to a personal ad Rossi posted on Craigslist.
They began dating and were engaged within about two weeks.
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In this image made from pool video footage, Nicholas Rossi accused
of faking his death and fleeing to Europe to avoid rape charges,
appears at a jury trial in Salt Lake City, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (Firecrest
Films via AP, Pool)
On Monday, the woman described being asked to pay for their dates,
cover Rossi's car repairs, lend him $1,000 so he wouldn’t be evicted
from his apartment and take on debt to buy their engagement rings.
He grew hostile soon after their engagement and raped her in his
bedroom one night after she drove him home, she testified.
The woman said dismissive comments from her parents convinced her
not to go to the police at the time. She came forward a decade later
after she saw him in the news and learned he was accused of another
rape from the same year.
Rossi's lawyers sought to convince the jury that his accuser built
up years of resentment after he made her foot the bill for
everything in their monthlong relationship. They argued she accused
him of rape to get back at him years later when he was getting media
attention.
Attorneys for Rossi did not immediately respond to emails seeking
comment after the verdict Wednesday night.
Rossi's accuser in the Utah County case did, however, go to the
police at the time. She took the stand Tuesday to testify about her
own experiences with Rossi — though he will not stand trial for that
rape charge until next month.
Rossi is accused of attacking the second woman, another former
girlfriend, at his apartment in Orem in September 2008 after she
came over to collect money she said he stole from her to buy a
computer. When police initially interviewed Rossi, he claimed she
had raped him and threatened to have him killed.
Rossi grew up in foster homes in Rhode Island and had returned there
before allegedly faking his death. He was previously wanted in the
state for failing to register as a sex offender. The FBI has said he
also faces fraud charges in Ohio, where he was convicted of
sex-related charges in 2008.
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