A Rhode Island man who faked his death to avoid rape charges has been sentenced to serve at least five years in prison despite insisting that he’s innocent.
Nicholas Rossi was sentenced for one of two convictions surrounding the 2008 rapes of two women in northern Utah during a court hearing on Monday, October 20.
Rossi was sentenced after he was convicted of the two charges, separately, in August and September, according to the BBC and the Associated Press. Rossi, 38, will receive his second sentence during a hearing in November.
Rossi received an “indeterminate sentencing” of at least five years up to life, per the outlets. The Associated Press reported that the decision means he hasn’t been sentenced to a fixed number of years, and it is up to the state’s Board of Pardons and Parole to determine when he will be released.
Who Was Eliminated From ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Week 6? See Everyone Sent Home So Far
He was previously found guilty of first-degree felony rape of a former girlfriend in Utah on August 13. Before the sentencing, District Judge Barry Lawrence told Rossi he was a “serial abuser of women” and that he posed “a flight risk,” according to the BBC.
Rossi – whose real name is Nicholas Alahverdian – has maintained his innocence in court, and he said during the October 20 hearing, “I am not guilty of this. These women are lying.”
After his sentencing was announced, Rossi was immediately sent to the Utah State Correctional Facility.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill previously said that Rossi and his former girlfriend, who was identified as M.B. in the case, dated between November and December of 2008 after they met online, per People.
Gill explained Rossi suggested they get married, and they visited a jewelry store to buy wedding rings in December 2008. The couple later got into an argument at Rossi’s apartment in Orem, Utah, in which he “threw M.B. on the bed and raped her.”
The second rape Rossi has been accused of occurred with a former girlfriend at his apartment in September 2008. CBS News reported that the alleged assault took place when she visited his apartment to get money he had stolen from her.
NBA Rookie Kam Jones Arrested for Allegedly Speeding, Sparking Police Chase
In 2017, Rossi fled to Britain or Ireland and used one of his many aliases to move to Scotland, according to The New York Times. Authortities identified him one year later as the suspect in the second rape case after they reviewed old rape kits, per the outlet.
Rossi later faked his own death while in Scotland in 2020, which was just months after he was charged in the second case. An online obituary was released, claiming he died on February 29, 2020, of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
However, it was discovered that Rossi was actually alive and he was arrested at a Glasgow hospital in 2021 when he was receiving treatment for COVID-19, according to the Associated Press.
