SALT LAKE CITY — Nicholas Rossi was found guilty late Wednesday of the 2008 rape of a woman he had met online, before fleeing the country in an attempt to avoid prosecution.
The jury returned its unanimous verdict after deliberating for hours once Rossi's defense team quickly wrapped up its case on the third day of the trial.
Rossi, who will be sentenced on Oct. 20, refused to testify on his own behalf inside the Salt Lake City courtroom.
Claiming his name is actually Arthur Knight, Rossi was found guilty of raping the then 25-year-old woman in 2008.
"We are grateful to the survivor in this case for her willingness to come forward, years after this attack took place," said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill. "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."
On the opening day of the trial, the victim described meeting Rossi as she was recovering from a brain injury, and that it was a whirlwind relationship with their first date coming on her birthday.
"He was very charming and seemed very interested in school and politics and music, and he was just very nice to me," she told the jury.
But the woman described always being asked to come up with money for dates, to fix a tire, and even $1,000 to help Rossi avoid being evicted from his apartment.
On Wednesday, the proceedings began with the defense team calling retired Orem police officer Yolanda Stewart to the stand, and followed that up with the victim's father, who shared how his daughter had suffered a brain injury in a 2008 scooter accident.
He said he thought the relationship between his daughter and Rossi was moving "too fast," adding that the two were engaged, but his daughter financed her own engagement ring and was financially responsible for it.
The father said he and his daughter often got into arguments about her "life choices," and that the two are currently estranged, although it has nothing to do with Rossi.
During her testimony on Monday, the victim claimed to have told her parents during an argument about having been raped, adding that her father replied that she deserved it. While on the stand, the woman's father said that if his daughter had told him that she had been raped, he didn't hear it.
Immediately after the father's testimony, the defense wrapped up its case.
