A Rhode Island man who faked his own death, fled the United States and lived as a fugitive in Scotland before being arrested and extradited has been convicted of rape, the first of two sexual assault cases he is facing.
A jury in Salt Lake City on Wednesday found Nicholas Rossi, 38, guilty of the 2008 sexual assault of a former girlfriend who was trying to break up with him. He is also awaiting trial on rape charges in connection with another 2008 incident in Utah County, Utah.
In a statement, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill praised the survivor of the 2008 incident “for her willingness to come forward, years after this attack took place. We appreciate her patience as we worked to bring the defendant back to Salt Lake County so that this trial could take place and she could get justice.”
The prosecutor in Salt Lake County charged Mr. Rossi with rape in 2022. At the time, Mr. Rossi was living under an assumed name in Scotland, after having faked his death in the United States under a different alias.
The authorities in Utah had searched for Mr. Rossi ever since investigators first began sifting through backlogs of rape kits in 2018 in Utah County and named him as a suspect in a sexual assault a decade earlier. His DNA was found to match evidence retrieved from the victim in that assault, the Utah County Attorney’s Office said at the time.
Mr. Rossi had already been convicted in 2008 of sexual imposition and public indecency, which required him to register as a sex offender.
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The post Man Who Faked His Death and Fled to Scotland Is Convicted of Rape appeared first on New York Times.
