Nicholas Rossi, who fled US, gets first of two sentences after being convicted of raping two women in Utah in 2008
A judge has sentenced a Rhode Island man who appeared to fake his death and flee the United States to avoid arrest of at least five years in prison for rape.
The sentence handed down Monday for Nicholas Rossi, 38, was the first of two he faces after being convicted separately in August and September of raping two women in northern Utah in 2008. He is scheduled to be sentenced in November for the second conviction.
District judge Barry Lawrence sentenced Rossi to no less than five years and up to life at the Utah state correctional facility to begin immediately. He noted that Utah has “indeterminate sentencing”, meaning the sentence is given in a range of years rather than a fixed number, and the state’s board of pardons and parole determines the actual release date.
Jurors found Rossi guilty of rape in August after a three-day trial in which his accuser and her parents each took the stand.
