Rewrite this content and keep HTML tags as is: 
NEED TO KNOW
- Nicholas Rossi appeared in a Salt Lake City court, where he was sentenced to five years to life in prison for one of two rape convictions on Monday, Oct. 20
- Rossi was accused of fleeing the United States after committing two separate rapes and faking his own death to evade the charges; he will be sentenced for the second guilty verdict in November
- The man maintained his innocence, accusing the women of “lying” while in court
A Rhode Island man who faked his own death and fled to Scotland to avoid rape charges has been sentenced to at least five years in prison for one of two rape convictions.
Nicholas Rossi, 38, was sentenced in court for one of two convictions of the 2008 rapes of two women in northern Utah on Monday, Oct. 20. He was convicted separately in August and September and will receive his second sentence in November, the BBC and the Associated Press reported.
Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, received an “indeterminate sentencing” of at least five years up to life. This means that the years of the sentencing aren’t a fixed number, and the state’s Board of Pardons and Parole will determine Rossi’s release date, per AP.
Rossi was sentenced after being found guilty of first-degree felony rape of a former girlfriend in Utah in 2008 on Aug. 13. District Judge Barry Lawrence told Rossi before he was sentenced that he was a “serial abuser of women” and someone who seriously posed “a flight risk,” per the BBC.
Rossi maintained his innocence in court on Monday, saying, “I am not guilty of this. These women are lying.”
He was immediately sent to the Utah State Correctional Facility after his sentencing on Monday, per AP.
Pawtucket Police Department
According to a statement from the Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill, Rossi and his former girlfriend, identified only as M.B. in the Orem case, dated between November and December of 2008 after meeting online, PEOPLE previously reported.
Rossi told the woman they should get married, and the pair visited a jewelry store to buy wedding rings that December. They ended up getting into an argument later at Rossi’s apartment in Orem, during which time he “threw M.B. on the bed and raped her,” Gill said in the statement.
Rossi is also accused of raping another former girlfriend at his apartment in September 2008. The alleged assault took place when she came to get money he allegedly stole from her, CBS News reported.
Rossi fled to Britain or Ireland in 2017. He then used one of his many aliases to move to Scotland, The New York Times reported. He was identified a year later as the suspect in the second 2008 rape case by authorities reviewing old rape kits, according to the outlet.
Press Association via AP Images
While still in Scotland in 2020, Rossi faked his own death months after being charged in the second case. An online obituary claimed that he had died on Feb. 29, 2020, of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
In 2021, Rossi was arrested at a Glasgow hospital, where he was being treated for COVID-19, after being recognized, per AP.
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.
PEOPLE has reached out to the Salt Lake City Justice Court for comment.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.
Source: people.com
