A man accused of faking his own death and fleeing the US to avoid rape charges will face trial, as ruled by a judge in Utah. The decision came after a preliminary hearing where District Judge Barry Lawrence determined that there was sufficient evidence for a jury trial to proceed.
The accused, identified as Nicholas Rossi, allegedly committed rape against two women in separate incidents in Utah back in 2008. One incident involved a 26-year-old former girlfriend in Salt Lake County, while the other was a 21-year-old woman in Orem. Due to a backlog of DNA test kits at the Utah State Crime Lab, Rossi was not identified as a suspect until a decade later.
Rossi, also known as Nicholas Alahverdian, claimed to be an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight and denied setting foot on American soil. He had a troubled upbringing in foster homes in Rhode Island and later allegedly faked his death to escape legal consequences.
Despite an obituary circulating online stating Rossi had passed away from non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2020, authorities and his former foster family remained skeptical. His arrest in Scotland in 2021, where he was receiving treatment for COVID-19, led to the denial of his extradition appeal in December.
Additional charges of sexual assault, harassment, and potential kidnapping have been brought against Rossi in Rhode Island, Ohio, and Massachusetts, as per Utah County court documents.
The defense team representing Rossi, from the Salt Lake Legal Defender Association, did not provide immediate comments following the judge's ruling.
