SALT LAKE CITY — A fugitive known as Nicholas Rossi, who is accused of faking his death and fleeing the country, has been convicted.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
An eight-person jury in Salt Lake County, Utah, found Rossi guilty of a 2008 rape after a three-day trial, the Associated Press reported.
He will be sentenced on Oct. 20 and is set to stand trial in September on another rape charge in Utah County.
Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, was convicted of sexually assaulting a Sinclair Community College student in 2008.
TRENDING STORIES:
- ‘Smash it;’ Destructive invasive pest spotted in Miami Valley
- At least 1 dead after shooting in Dayton
- 2 dead, 5 injured in head-on crash in Ohio, OSHP says
The American fugitive grew up in foster homes in Rhode Island and had returned to the state before allegedly faking his death and fleeing the country.
An obituary published online claimed Rossi died Feb. 29, 2020, of late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma. But state police and his former foster family questioned whether he was dead.
Rossi was arrested in Scotland the following year after he was recognized at a Glasgow hospital while receiving treatment for COVID-19.
He insisted he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight who had never traveled to the U.S.
After a lengthy court battle, an Edinburgh judge ruled in that the extradition could move forward.
He called Rossi “as dishonest and deceitful as he is evasive and manipulative.”
Rossi lost an appeal and was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service.
[SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
©2025 Cox Media Group
