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.
"This is something that’s been long overdue — 17 years the survivor had to wait," Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said. “I’m really proud of our survivor, having the courage to come forward when she heard about it. This is something that she had to carry with herself in silence, and for survivors like her, this is a very important day."
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.
“This is like a Hollywood script," Gill said. "This person engages in this violent sexual assault here, takes off, changes his identity, fakes his death, and ends up on the other side of the pond.”
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.
'I am not Nicholas Rossi': Man claims he isn't suspect accused of rape in Utah:
Utah authorities began searching for Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, when he was identified in 2018 through a decade-old DNA rape kit. He was among thousands of rape suspects identified and later charged when Utah made a push to clear its rape kit backlog.
Months after he was charged in that case, an online obituary claimed Rossi died on Feb. 29, 2020, 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 treatment for COVID-19. 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 2024 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 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 Rossi 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.
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 wanted 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 2008.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
