Rhode Island Man Found Guilty of 2008 Rape in Utah Trial

Salt Lake City (US), Aug 14 (AP) - A man from Rhode Island, who allegedly faked his own death to escape rape charges in the United States, was found guilty on Wednesday of sexually assaulting a former girlfriend during his first trial in Utah.

A jury in Salt Lake County convicted Nicholas Rossi of a 2008 rape following a three-day trial where his accuser and her parents provided testimony. The verdict was delivered hours after Rossi, 38, chose not to testify in his defense. He is scheduled for sentencing in this case on October 20 and is set to face a second trial in September for another rape charge in Utah County.

An online obituary had falsely announced Rossi's death on February 29, 2020, citing late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma as the cause. However, authorities in Rhode Island, along with his former lawyer and a past foster family, expressed skepticism regarding the legitimacy of the obituary.

He was apprehended in Scotland the subsequent year while receiving treatment for COVID-19 when hospital staff in Glasgow identified his unique tattoos from an Interpol notice. He was extradited to Utah in January 2024 after losing an appeal against extradition, during which he insisted he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight and claimed he was being framed. (AP)

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