PROVO, Utah (Scripps News Salt Lake City) — Nicholas Rossi was found guilty Wednesday in the 2008 rape of a woman in Orem, the second time in recent months that the ex-fugitive has been convicted by a jury.
In this image made from pool video footage, Nicholas Rossi accused of faking his death and fleeing to Europe to avoid rape charges, appears at a jury trial in Salt Lake City, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (Firecrest Films via AP, Pool)
Rossi was found guilty in August of raping a woman he had met online, also in 2008, before he fled the country in an attempt to avoid prosecution.
In the latest case, which began on Wednesday, Rossi’s ex-girlfriend claimed she ended a relationship with him over his aggressive behavior and failure to pay her the money he had borrowed.
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Rossi had the woman come to his house in September 2008 under the pretense of repaying her the money, but instead raped her.
Although the rape occurred in 2008, a backlog in testing did not identify Rossi as the suspect until years later, and he wasn’t charged until 2020.
While denying he was the man authorities were looking for, Rossi fled to the United Kingdom and lived under the name Arthur Knight before being extradited from Scotland back to the United States.
This story was originally written by Jeff Tavss for Scripps News Salt Lake City, an E.W. Scripps Company.
