SALT LAKE CITY (Scripps News Salt Lake City) — Once one of most wanted fugitives in the world, Nicholas Rossi returned to a Salt Lake City courtroom Thursday for a preliminary hearing in his rape trial.
During the brief hearing, only a sexual assault investigator with the Utah Department of Public Safety took the stand where details of the case were discussed.
The judge later set an arraignment and bail hearing for Oct. 17.
Nicholas Rossi appears at a preliminary hearing on Aug. 22, 2024, in Salt Lake City. (Salt Lake Tribune, POOL)
Previous appearances by Rossi in Utah courtrooms had become newsworthy in their own right, with a judge even issuing a reasonable force order earlier this year to make sure he actually appeared.
Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, was extradited from Scotland in January, years after he allegedly faked his own death and fled to Europe. Rossi left the U.S. after being identified as a suspect in a 2008 rape case in Orem.
During multiple court appearances in Utah this year, Rossi has used a British accent that goes in and out during conversations, and has claimed his name is actually Arthur Knight and that he is not the man authorities were searching for.
Rossi did the same thing Thursday, correcting the judge and insisting he be called Arthur Knight.
When prosecutors tried to ask the lead detective Rossi’s birth name, the question was quickly shut down by the defense and never answered.
Before being brought back to the U.S., Rossi has claimed that he’s really an Irish orphan and that he’d been framed by authorities who took his fingerprints while he was in a coma so they could connect him to Rossi.
In a virtual hearing in January, court officials were unable to understand Rossi as he insisted on speaking while wearing an oxygen mask.
“Objection, m’lady!” Rossi replied. “That is complete hearsay and I would ask that your ladyship and prosecution show cause for why I am…” before being cut off by the judge.
Before being brought back to the U.S., Rossi has claimed that he’s really an Irish orphan and that he’d been framed by authorities who took his fingerprints while he was in a coma so they could connect him to Rossi.
Nicholas Rossi appears at a preliminary hearing on Aug. 22, 2024, in Salt Lake City. (Salt Lake Tribune, POOL)
State investigators claim multiple sexual assaults occurred sixteen years ago. Thursday’s preliminary hearing was over the alleged rape in Salt Lake City.
The details of the case were briefly covered in court.
“Approximately when did [the victim] tell you that Nicholas Rossi assaulted her?” asked the prosecutor.
“That was in December 2008,” said former lead investigator Detective Derek Coats.
“There is no DNA in the Salt Lake County case to your understanding, correct?” asked the defense.
“Correct,” answered Coats.
Rossi’s preliminary hearing for the alleged rape in Utah County (also in 2008) is next Tuesday.
This story was originally published by Emily Tencer at Scripps News Salt Lake City, an E.W. Scripps Company.
