Nicholas Rossi Dies in Utah Prison at Age 38

Nicholas Rossi died Thursday night after prison staff took him to a hospital in Utah. He was 38. Richard Piatt, a spokesperson for the Utah Department of Corrections, said Rossi died from complications of an existing medical condition after choosing to discontinue medical treatment.

Piatt said victims and family members were notified but declined to release details of the medical condition. Rossi was serving at least 10 years in prison following convictions in two sexual assault cases that went to trial in Utah in 2025. He had been extradited from Scotland in 2024.

Authorities identified Rossi in 2018 through a decade-old DNA rape kit. He was arrested in Scotland in 2021 while receiving treatment for COVID-19. Hospital staff recognized distinctive tattoos, including one of the Brown University crest.

Rossi had used at least a dozen aliases, including Nicholas Alahverdian. An online obituary published in 2020 claimed he died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma on Feb. 29 of that year. Police in Rhode Island and others questioned the claim.

Rossi insisted during proceedings that he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight who was being framed. Two women in Utah accused him of sexual assault. At a sentencing hearing last October he said, “I am not guilty of this.

During court appearances Rossi appeared in a wheelchair and used oxygen.