A screenshot taken from court video shows Nicholas Alahverdian appearing in a Utah District Court on Aug. 22, 2024, on one of two rape charges he faces there.

A Rhode Island conman accused of faking his death and fleeing the United States to avoid rape and sexual assault allegations has been convicted of felony rape in the first of two criminal cases against him in Utah, prosecutors said.

A jury in Salt Lake County found Nicholas Alahverdian, 38, guilty of the first-degree rape of a 26-year-old Salt Lake County woman in 2008, according to the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office. The jury reached the guilty verdict on Wednesday, Aug. 13, following a three-day trial.

“We are grateful to the survivor in this case for her willingness to come forward, years after this attack took place," Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said in a statement. "We appreciate her patience as we worked to bring the defendant back to Salt Lake County so that this trial could take place and she could get justice. It took courage and bravery to take the stand and confront her attacker to hold him accountable."

Alahverdian's conviction stems from charges that he raped his then-girlfriend, a woman whom he had met online, according to prosecutors. Shortly after the two began dating, prosecutors said Alahverdian told the woman they should get married and they purchased wedding rings.

But Alahverdian soon became verbally and emotionally abusive, prosecutors said. An argument at a shopping mall turned violent, and when the couple returned to Alahverdian's apartment, he refused to let her leave and then raped her, according to prosecutors.

The charge is punishable by five years to life in the Utah State Correctional Facility, according to the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 20.

Alahverdian, who was charged under his former surname Rossi, also faces additional rape charges involving a different woman in Utah in 2008. He has yet to go to trial on those charges.

Nicholas Alahverdian extradited to U.S. in 2024

Alahverdian has been held without bail in a Utah county jail since January 2024, when authorities extradited him from Scotland. He had spent three years in Scotland pretending to be "Arthur Knight," a former Irish orphan and victim of misidentification, in an outlandish pretense that played out before international media and an extradition court.

A Scottish judge, who had tolerated Alahverdian’s charade during hearings on his identity, cleared the way for Alahverdian's return to the United States − concluding that he “is as dishonest and deceitful as he is evasive and manipulative.”

Alahverdian finally gave up his hoax in November 2024 while asking a Utah District Court judge for bail. During the hearing, he alleged that his years of deception and name changes were part of an effort to protect himself from “death threats” and not because he was evading authorities.

Prosecutors argued that Alahverdian, who uses oxygen and a wheelchair, remained a flight risk despite his physical condition. The judge denied bail, noting that Alahverdian’s English wife was still providing him money “that could assist him in potential flight."

Why did Nicholas Alahverdian fake his own death?

Alahverdian, who grew up in foster care and later became a critic of Rhode Island's child welfare system, has alleged that he received death threats from unnamed state politicians for his advocacy work for children in state care a decade earlier. In 2017, he took a one-way fight to Ireland to escape those alleged threats and to pursue public relations work before he eventually made his way to Scotland.

Prosecutors said Alahverdian tried to fake his own death and fled the United States to avoid being located. By 2019, Alahverdian was attempting to get his name removed from a registered sex offenders list, which requires offenders to keep police informed on their current address.

During that time, the FBI also began investigating Alahverdian for credit card fraud after his former foster father told authorities that Alahverdian had spent $200,000 on cards taken out using his foster father's name and financial records.

In January 2020, Alahverdian started to spread the word to Rhode Island media outlets that he had late-stage non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The following month, a woman who described herself as Alahverdian’s wife and a foundation under his name notified reporters that he had died.

Then in September 2020, Utah County authorities issued an arrest warrant for Nicholas Rossi, which is the last name of his stepfather. Investigators later tracked him to Scotland after searching his iCloud account and bank records, and he was arrested at a hospital in December 2021 after waking up from a coma caused by COVID.

Alahverdian, who has used several different aliases, has appealed in recent weeks to the judge in his Salt Lake County case that he now be charged under his birth name, Alahverdian. The judge has denied the request.

What is Alahverdian accused of in Utah?

Alahverdian was previously convicted of groping a woman at an Ohio community college in 2008, according to authorities. He then attempted to sue the woman for libel and had his appeal request tossed when his key piece of supposedly new evidence was ruled a fake blog post.

Investigators said DNA from that case connected Alahverdian to the rape of a 21-year-old woman in Orem, Utah, in September 2008.

The trial this week, which began on Aug. 11, stems from allegations that he raped his former girlfriend in November 2008. No DNA evidence tied him to that incident, investigators have said, but she came forward after recognizing Alahverdian during his international extradition case.

As in the Orem case, authorities say Alahverdian met the Salt Lake City woman online. They dated briefly before the relationship quickly sped up and they bought wedding rings.

But after a violent argument at a shopping mall − Alahverdian threatened to call the police and report that she had hit him if she didn’t let him back in her car − the two returned to his apartment, where he raped her, police said.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Man accused of faking his death to evade charges found guilty of rape in Utah

Reporting by Antonia Noori Farzan, Tom Mooney and Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY NETWORK / The Providence Journal

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect