Written by Hannah Schoenbaum
Salt Lake City (AP) As a Utah jury trial got underway Monday, a man accused of staging his death and escaping to the UK to evade rape charges was confronted by an alleged victim.
Related Articles
-
Uvalde school district releases records for 2022 classroom shooting, after legal fight over access
-
Man fired 180 shots, breaking 150 windows, in CDC attack
-
Shooter kills 3 in a Target parking lot in Austin, Texas, before being captured, police say
-
AOL is finally shutting down its dial-up internet service
-
Explosion at US Steel plant in Pennsylvania leaves 1 dead, 1 missing, 10 injured
The man, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, is accused of sexually abusing two women in Utah in 2008 and is known in the United States as Nicholas Rossi. He entered a not guilty plea to the accusations. The cases are being tried independently by prosecutors; Salt Lake County will host the first trial.
A year after being identified at a Glasgow hospital while undergoing treatment for COVID-19, Rossi, 38, was arrested in Scotland in 2021. After asserting that he was an Irish orphan called Arthur Knight who had never been in the United States and was being set up, he lost an extradition appeal.
At least a dozen aliases that Rossi used to avoid detection over the years have been uncovered by prosecutors.
Rossi used an oxygen tank, wore a suit and tie, and arrived in court in a wheelchair. He’s a little bit bigger and a little bit older, but he looks pretty much the same, the woman who recognized him from the witness stand said.
By noting that different people may refer to Rossi by different names, District Judge Barry Lawrence assisted the jury in understanding some of the case’s complexities. Both the prosecution and the defense acknowledged that Rossi’s presence in Utah in 2008 and his interaction with the accused victim during that year are real.
Prosecutors portrayed a clever man who used a young woman who was weak by using his charm. When she resisted his attempts to manipulate her, he sexually assaulted her, according to Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Brandon Simmons.
The woman, whose identity the judge requested not be made public, talked about her turbulent connection with Rossi, which started in November 2008 when she was convalescing from a catastrophic brain injury. After she replied to Rossi’s personal Craigslist ad, the two started dating and were engaged in roughly two weeks.
In order to prevent Rossi from being evicted from his flat, the lady explained that she was requested to pay for their dates, cover his rent, and incur debt in order to purchase their engagement rings.
She claimed that because I was a little more cautious in those days, it was more difficult for me to advocate for myself.
After their engagement, the relationship rapidly deteriorated, she testified, with Rossi becoming domineering and verbally abusive. Rossi beat her car and used his body to stop her from leaving the parking garage during their altercation. When she did let him in and drive him home, she stated that she had no intention of dating him again.
She testified that although she had consented to speak with him in his home, he had pushed her onto his bed, restrained her, and had her have intercourse with him. The woman spoke of being petrified by terror and lying motionless.
She claims she was persuaded not to call the police at the time by her parents’ dismissive remarks. Nevertheless, she dropped the case after attempting to take Rossi to small claims court over the engagement rings.
Rossi’s attorneys attempted to persuade the jury that the alleged victim had years of animosity toward him after Rossi forced her to pay for everything during their month-long relationship and accused him of rape in order to exact revenge after seeing him in the media ten years later.
In September, Rossi will also go on trial in Utah County for a second rape case.
Prior to reportedly staging his death, Rossi had returned to Rhode Island, where he had been raised in foster homes. According to an internet obituary, he passed away on February 29, 2020, from late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Rossi’s death was questioned by state police, his former attorney, and a former foster family. A year later, Scottish hospital employees informed authorities after identifying his tattoos from an Interpol notification. In January 2024, he was extradited to Utah.
One of Rossi’s lawyers, MacKenzie Potter, compared this case to an old puzzle she found at the charity store. It’s thirteen years old, and some of the parts are missing or from another puzzle. Additionally, you won’t have a whole picture once you start going through everything.
The prosecution resisted, claiming that Rossi’s lawyers battled to have some evidence thrown out, which is why any pieces of the puzzle are missing.
