Journalism of Courage
A US court on Monday sentenced Nicholas Rossi, a man who faked his own death and fled to the UK to evade arrest, to a prison term ranging from five years to life for raping his ex-girlfriend in 2008.
Utah’s District Judge Barry Lawrence described Rossi, 38, as “a serial abuser of women” and “the very definition of a flight risk” before delivering the sentence. It was the first of two prison terms Rossi faces after being convicted in separate rape cases from 2008. His second sentencing is scheduled for November.
Under Utah law, rape, a first-degree felony, carries an indeterminate sentence, with a parole board deciding if and when Rossi may be released.
The August conviction came after a three-day trial during which the survivor, along with her parents, testified against Rossi. She told the court that Rossi had left a “trail of fear, pain and destruction” in his wake. “This is not a plea for vengeance,” she said. “This is a plea for safety and accountability, for recognition of the damage that will never fully heal.”
Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Brandon Simmons urged the court to keep Rossi behind bars, citing his danger to the community. Rossi’s lawyers, however, asked for leniency, seeking parole instead of prison.
Appearing frail in a wheelchair and connected to an oxygen tank, Rossi maintained his innocence before sentencing. “I am not guilty of this. These women are lying,” he said.
Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, was identified in 2018 after DNA from a decade-old rape kit matched his profile. Months after being charged, an obituary surfaced online claiming he had died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma on February 29, 2020. However, suspicions grew among law enforcement and those who knew him.
In December 2021, Rossi was arrested in Scotland while being treated for COVID-19 after hospital staff recognised his tattoos, including a Brown University crest on his shoulder, from an Interpol alert. He was extradited to Utah in January 2024 after a lengthy legal battle, during which he claimed to be an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight and insisted he was being framed.
Investigators say Rossi used more than a dozen aliases to evade capture. His conviction in the August trial stemmed from a 2008 assault on a woman he had met through a Craigslist ad. The two began dating and got engaged within weeks, but the victim testified that Rossi became manipulative and financially exploitative before raping her one night after an argument.
She reported the assault years later after learning that Rossi had been accused of raping another woman around the same time. That second victim told police Rossi attacked her at his Orem apartment when she went to retrieve money he owed her. Rossi was convicted in that case in September and is due to be sentenced on November 4.
Before faking his death and fleeing abroad, Rossi had lived in Rhode Island foster homes and was already wanted there for failing to register as a sex offender. The FBI also says he faces fraud-related charges in Ohio, where he was previously convicted of sex crimes in 2008.
