SALT LAKE CITY — Months after being convicted on rape charges, ex-fugitive Nicholas Rossi is set to be sentenced in a Salt Lake City courtroom on Monday.
The sentence, which is scheduled for 2 p.m., will bring an end to 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.
