Man who appeared to fake his death and flee to the U.K. faces sentencing for Utah rape

SALT LAKE CITY — A Rhode Island man who appeared to fake his death and flee the United States to avoid rape charges is scheduled to be sentenced Monday on one of two rape convictions in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — A Rhode Island man who appeared to fake his death and flee the United States to avoid rape charges is scheduled to be sentenced Monday on one of two rape convictions in Utah.

Nicholas Rossi, 38, faces between five years and life in prison when sentenced Monday by District Judge Barry Lawrence in Salt Lake City.

The sentence is the first of two scheduled for Rossi after he was convicted separately in August and September of raping two women in northern Utah in 2008. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 4 for the second conviction, also for five years to life in prison.

In August, jurors found Rossi guilty of rape after a three-day trial in which his accuser and her parents each took the stand. Rossi did not testify on his own behalf.

It took more than a decade from the time of the rapes to his convictions. Utah authorities began searching for Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, when he was identified in 2018 through a decade-old DNA rape kit tied to the other case. He was among thousands of rape suspects identified and later charged when Utah made a push to clear its rape kit backlog.