SALT LAKE CITY — Months after being convicted on rape charges, ex-fugitive Nicholas Rossi was sentenced to 5 years to life in prison inside a Salt Lake City courtroom on Monday.
During his sentencing hearing, Rossi wore light blue jail clothing and listened silently as multiple woman who have accused him of rape spoke to the judge.
When given the chance to speak, Rossi claimed to be innocent and said that the women who accused of him of rape were "lying."
Judge Barry Lawrence spoke before issuing the sentence, saying there are various "mitigating and aggravating circumstances" to take into consideration. He said one mitigating factor was Rossi's "troubling" childhood, which his defense attorneys cited during the hearing, saying he experienced trauma as a child that may have contributed to his behavior later in life.
The judge then listed multiple aggravating factors. He said Rossi "inflicted substantial psychological injury and physical injury to the victim." He pointed out that Rossi has been convicted of rape in Utah County (but not yet sentenced), and has been accused and convicted of crimes in other states.
"Another aggravating factor is he is the very definition of a flight risk. He fled the country to avoid investigation, he took on an alias, and even in response to this case, refused to admit who he was," Lawrence said. "Despite this duplicitous conduct, he asked the court to trust him on probation. That doesn't really fit."
"I conclude that the only appropriate sentence in this case is to send you to prison," the judge said.
WATCH: Judge Lawrence's full remarks
Rossi's defense attorney requested that he receive credit for the time he's spent in jail up to this point, which was 1,197 days. Lawrence, however, said he will not issue any decision on that issue, and said he'll leave it up to the board of pardons and parole.
“While justice may have been slow, the defendant was convicted and now sentenced to prison, consistent with the harm he caused to our survivor. She can rest assured he did not escape punishment,” Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said in a statement after the sentencing. “We thank our prosecutors, Brandon Simmons and Clint Heiner, as well as our victim advocate Cami Heng, for their years of dedication to this case and helping deliver justice for the survivor in this case. We appreciate the work of both our local, national, and international partners that worked together to ensure the defendant could be held accountable for his actions."
The sentence brings to an end only one chapter of a lengthy saga in which Rossi fled the country to avoid prosecution for the 2008 rape, while also making unsubstantiated claims that he was a different person entirely.
Rossi was found guilty by a jury on the third day of his August trial.
During 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," the victim told the jury.
However, the woman described Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, as always asking her to come up with money for their dates, as well as needing monetary assistance to fix a tire and $1,000 to help him avoid being evicted from his apartment.
Rossi refused to testify on his own behalf during the trial.
Leading up to his arrest, Rossi claimed his name was Arthur Knight and insisted that law enforcement officials had the wrong person and that he had never been to Utah. After being identified as a suspect in the rape, Rossi fled to Europe before being arrested while recovering from COVID-19 inside a hospital in Scotland.
'I am not Nicholas Rossi': Man claims he isn't suspect accused of rape in Utah:
After lengthy court battles, Rossi was extradicted to the U.S. in January 2024.
In a separate case last month, Rossi was found guilty for the 2008 of another woman that he had met online. The woman claimed she ended a relationship with Rossie over his aggressive behavior and failure to pay her money he had borrowed. Rossi had the woman come to his house in September 2008 under the pretense of repaying her the money, but instead raped her.