A Rhode Island man who staged his own death to evade rape charges has been convicted in Utah for sexually assaulting a former girlfriend, marking the first of two trials he faces in the state.
Nicholas Rossi, 38, was found guilty Wednesday by a Salt Lake County jury for a 2008 rape, following a three-day trial that included emotional testimony from his accuser and her parents. Hours before the verdict, Rossi declined to take the stand in his defense. He is scheduled for sentencing on October 20 and will face another rape trial in Utah County this September.
In 2020, an obituary surfaced online claiming Rossi had died from late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma. However, police in Rhode Island, his former lawyer, and a foster family raised doubts about the death. The truth unraveled in 2021 when hospital staff in Glasgow, Scotland, recognized his distinctive tattoos from an Interpol alert while treating him for COVID-19.
Rossi was taken into custody and later extradited to Utah in January 2024 after losing an appeal in which he insisted he was an Irish orphan named “Arthur Knight” and the victim of a setup.
