US man arrested in Scotland and convicted of Utah rape gets at least 5 years in prison

By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM and MEAD GRUVER SALT LAKE CITY AP A Utah judge on Monday sentenced a man who appeared to fake his death and flee the United States to avoid arrest on rape charges to anywhere from five years to life in prison Related Articles What to know about the Amazon Web Services outage US Australia sign rare earth deal Disney and Hulu cancellations rose after ABC briefly pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live Official defends use of tear gas in Chicago Zelenskyy says Trump meeting positive Nicholas Rossi is a serial abuser of women and the very definition of a flight menace District Judge Barry Lawrence reported before handing down the sentence It was Rossi s first of two sentencings after separate convictions in August and September of raping two women in northern Utah in He is scheduled to be sentenced in November in the second situation Utah allows prison sentences to be given as a range rather than a set period of time A parole board will determine if and when Rossi is disclosed Five years to life is the entire range of accomplishable prison time under Utah law for rape a first-degree felony Jurors unveiled Rossi guilty of rape in August after a three-day trial in which his accuser and her parents each took the stand Rossi left a trail of fear pain and destruction behind him the victim in the incident recounted the court shortly before Rossi was sentenced The Associated Press does not typically identify rape casualties 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 stated Rossi uses rape to control women and posed a jeopardy to group safety argued Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Brandon Simmons a prosecutor in the circumstance before Rossi s sentencing Rossi did not testify on his own behalf at his trial Given a chance to speak before being sentenced Monday he maintained his innocence I am not guilty of this These women are lying Rossi noted in a soft raspy voice Utah officers began searching for Rossi whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian when he was identified in through a decade-old DNA rape kit He was among thousands of rape accused identified and later charged when Utah made a push to clear its rape kit backlog Months after he was charged in that circumstance an online obituary claimed Rossi died on Feb of 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 restoration for COVID- Hospital staff recognized his distinctive tattoos including the crest of Brown University inked on his shoulder although he never attended from an Interpol notice He was extradited to Utah in January after a protracted court battle At the time Rossi insisted 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 In his first trial Rossi s society defender denied the rape claim and urged jurors not to read too much into his move overseas Even so the jury convicted Rossi of the rape charge for which he was sentenced Monday The victim in the occurrence had been living with her parents and recovering from a traumatic brain injury in when she responded to a personal ad Rossi posted on Craigslist They began dating and were engaged within a couple weeks She testified that Rossi required her to pay for dates and car repairs lend him so he wouldn t be evicted 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 reported She went to police years later after hearing that Rossi was accused of raping another woman in Utah around the same time The victim in that scenario went to police soon after Rossi attacked her at his apartment in Orem The woman had gone there to collect money she reported he stole from her to buy a computer Rossi was convicted in that event in September and sentencing is set for Nov 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 sought 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 Gruver disclosed from Ft Collins Colorado