Rape suspect accused of faking death, fleeing U.S. will stand trial

A man accused of faking his own death and fleeing the U.S. to avoid rape charges will stand trial, a judge in Utah ruled Thursday.

District Judge Barry Lawrence ruled during Nicholas Rossi's preliminary hearing that prosecutors had presented enough evidence to warrant a jury trial, CBS affiliate KUTV reported . Rossi was scheduled back in court for an arraignment and bail hearing on Oct. 17, the station reported.

Prosecutors say Rossi, 37, raped a 26-year-old former girlfriend after an argument in Salt Lake County in 2008. In a separate case, he is accused of raping a 21-year-old woman in Orem, Utah, that same year and was not identified as a suspect for about a decade due to a backlog of DNA test kits at the Utah State Crime Lab.

His attorneys at the Salt Lake Legal Defender Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press on Thursday evening.

Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian , has used several aliases and has said he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight who had never set foot on American soil and was being framed.

The American fugitive grew up in foster homes in Rhode Island and had returned to the state before allegedly faking his death and fleeing the country. An obituary published online claimed Rossi died on Feb. 29, 2020, of late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Authorities and his former foster family doubted his death.

Rossi was arrested in Scotland in 2021 after being recognized at a Glasgow hospital during treatment for COVID-19. He lost an extradition appeal in the country in December.

Utah County court documents show that Rossi is also accused of sexual assault, harassment and possible kidnapping in Rhode Island, Ohio and Massachusetts, KTVX-TV reported.

Since his arrest in Scotland, he's done a series of bizarre TV interviews, insisting he's an innocent Irishman. In a viral interview done by Scottish network STV News in 2023, he called the suggestion that he was an American wanted on rape charges, "a vicious lie."

In another interview with "Dateline," Rossi sat next to his wife and insisted he was a victim of mistaken identity.

"We were once a normal family, but thanks to the media our lives have been interrupted," he said, gasping into an oxygen mask. "And we'd like privacy and I would like to go back to being a normal husband, but I can't because I can't breathe, I can't walk."