According to the Associated Press, a man who was charged with committing suicide and leaving the country to evade accusations of sexual assault and fraud was found guilty of rape in Utah on Wednesday.
After three days of testimony, a Salt Lake County jury convicted Nicholas Alahverdian, who Utah officials have identified and charged as Nicholas Rossi. Discussions started on Wednesday.
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According to the Salt Lake Tribune, he will be sentenced in October.
In September, Alahverdian will stand trial for a second rape in neighboring Utah County.
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Two years after Alahverdian’s death from non-Hodgkin lymphoma was announced in an online obituary in 2022 Under the alias Arthur Knight, Alahverdian was taken into custody in Scotland.
Claiming to be an Irish orphan who had turned into a businessman, he denied being Alahverdian while speaking in a British accent and using a wheelchair.
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Alahverdian confessed his true identity under oath last year, according to the prosecution in the Salt Lake County case in his opening statement. After a brief engagement and romance, he accused Alahverdian of raping a 24-year-old woman in 2008.
The victim said during the trial that after she purchased their rings and gave him a loan for rent, Alahverdian soon turned cruel and domineering. She testified that they fought after she told him their relationship was ended and took off the ring, and that he then attacked her.
MacKenzie Potter, Alahverdian’s defense attorney, said that not all the parts are in the accusations, likening them to an old puzzle from the thrift store.
According to Potter, the victim’s account has evolved over time and cannot be independently confirmed.
Alahverdian, who grew up in the foster child system of Rhode Island and went on to become a vocal aide in the state legislature, had been charged with or found guilty of prior assault and sex offense charges involving women he had dated.
A woman he was married to at the time told authorities in a 2010 Massachusetts case that after an altercation over a crying infant, he had restrained her, grabbed her by the neck, hit her in the face, and wouldn’t let her leave the house.
Alahverdian was given a probationary sentence after entering a no contest plea to a misdemeanor charge of domestic abuse.
Alahverdian was accused of sexually assaulting a lady in Ohio in 2008 while she was walking to class at a nearby community college after they met on MySpace. He rejected the accusation and was accused of sexual imposition, a minor offense that involves having sex against someone’s will, and public obscenity.
Alahverdian was fined and has to register as a sex offender following a trial.
In the second Utah case, which also dates back to 2008, the woman claimed that she and her partner had begun dating after meeting on MySpace. She informed police that she ended the relationship because he got more violent and took out a loan without repaying her, according to an affidavit supporting an arrest warrant.
According to the affidavit, she claimed that on September 13 of that year, she visited his house after he promised to reimburse her. Instead, the affidavit claims that he raped her.
Authorities claim that although a sexual assault kit was finished the following day, Alahverdian was not named as a suspect until ten years later due to a backlog in testing. In the instance, Alahverdian entered a not guilty plea.
