A Utah man thought he was home free when he faked his death and fled to Scotland. But the long arm of the law eventually caught up to him.
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Now, he’s been jailed on charges of sexual assault. 38-year-old Nicholas Rossi will face at least five years in prison. He was sentenced for sexually assaulting two women in Utah in 2008.
The courts will sentence him a second time in November since he’s been convicted of two separate crimes. Right now, the court gave Rossi an indeterminate term in prison, meaning he could still potentially land a life sentence in prison.
In 2018, authorities identified him as the perpetrator in the crimes. Fast forward two years later, and Rossi published a fake obituary. It claimed he died from non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Instead, the Utah man caught a flight to Bristol and then later to Scotland.
Utah Man Flees
Ultimately, authorities arrested him at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow. Despite trying to pretend to be an Irish orphan, a DNA test confirmed him as the wanted man.
 Rossi faced his victims in court. Here is what one woman had to say about her attacker.
“This is not a plea for vengeance. This is a plea for safety and accountability, for recognition of the damage that will never fully heal,” she said.Â
The Utah man proclaimed his innocence all the way through the sentencing. He said, “I am not guilty of this. These women are lying.”
However, this apparently didn’t sway the courts much. So after a lengthy time spent on the run, the Utah man finally landed behind bars.
It’s some comfort to his victims. According to police, Rossi met one of the women from a Craigslist ad. The two began dating and rapidly got engaged in just a few weeks. During this time, he asked her to cover the bill.Â
Later, the woman testified that he sexually assaulted her one evening after driving her home. It remains to be seen how long Rossi will ultimately spend in prison. But sounds like traveling is off the menu moving forward.