UTAH — Nicholas Rossi, 38, died on Thursday night in a Utah prison from complications of an existing medical condition after choosing to discontinue medical treatment, according to the Utah Department of Corrections. Rossi was serving a sentence of at least 10 years in Utah following convictions in two sexual assault cases in 2025. The department notified Rossi's victims and his family of his death.

Rossi, who was also known as Nicholas Alahverdian, was extradited to Utah from Scotland in 2024. Utah authorities had previously identified him in 2018 through a decade-old DNA rape kit. In 2020, an online obituary claimed Rossi had died on Feb. 29 of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Following the 2020 report of his death, police in Rhode Island, Rossi's former lawyer, and a former foster family expressed doubts about whether he was actually dead. Rossi was arrested in Scotland in 2021 while receiving treatment for COVID-19. Hospital staff recognized him by distinctive tattoos, including a Brown University crest on his shoulder, despite the fact that he never attended the university.

Investigators identified at least a dozen aliases Rossi used to evade capture. He claimed he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight and that he was being framed. During court appearances, Rossi routinely appeared in a wheelchair and used oxygen. The death concludes a multi-year legal process involving his extradition and conviction for crimes committed several years earlier, which included identification through DNA evidence obtained in 2018.