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Fugitive ‘rapist’ Nicholas Rossi confuses Utah judge by affecting British accent and insisting he’s Englishman called Arthur Knight in bizarre first court appearance since extradition from Scotland

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Fugitive ‘rapist’ Nicholas Rossi confuses Utah judge by affecting British accent and insisting he’s Englishman called Arthur Knight in bizarre first court appearance since extradition from Scotland


Rape suspect Nicholas Rossi stirred up confusion during his first court appearance since being extradited to the US to face assault charges.

Rossi, whose real name is Nicholas Alahverdian, fled after being named as a suspect in a 2008 case. He allegedly faked his own death before he was arrested in Glasgow.

The 36-year-old appeared at a virtual hearing Tuesday, his first since being extradited earlier this month.

He spoke in a British accent throughout the hearing and sported an oxygen mask that made it difficult to understand what he was saying.

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Nicholas Rossi, whose real name is Nicholas Alahverdian, made his first court appearance since his extradition to the United States earlier this month

The 36-year-old, pictured in a mugshot from a 2010 arrest, fled to Scotland after being identified as a suspect in a 2008 rape case

The 36-year-old, pictured in a mugshot from a 2010 arrest, fled to Scotland after being identified as a suspect in a 2008 rape case

During Tuesday's hearing, Rossi wore an oxygen mask and spoke in a British accent, as he has done at previous court appearances overseas

During Tuesday’s hearing, Rossi wore an oxygen mask and spoke in a British accent, as he has done at previous court appearances overseas

When Judge Kimberly Hornak asked if he was Rossi, he gave a garbled response. ‘I think I’m going to have to have the jail restate what he said,’ Hornak said.

Rossi identified himself as Arthur Knight Brown, the name under which he lived after fleeing the country.

Hornak was then informed that Rossi had not given his real name or birthdate and had been extradited to Utah.

‘Objection, m’lady!’ Rossi said. ‘That is complete hearsay and I would ask that your ladyship and prosecution show cause for why I am.’

As Rossi continued talking, Hornak arranged a detention hearing for January 26 and ordered the 36-year-old not to have any contact with the alleged victim.

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‘Mr. Knight, we’re finished,’ the judge said. Rossi is charged with sexually assaulting a 21-year-old woman in Orem, Utah, nearly 16 years ago.

He was identified as a suspect about a decade later due to a backlog of DNA test kits at the Utah State Crime Lab.

The 36-year-old identified himself as Arthur Knight Brown, the name under which he is accused of living after fleeing the U.S.

The 36-year-old identified himself as Arthur Knight Brown, the name under which he is accused of living after fleeing the U.S.

He faces charges related to the sexual assault of a woman in Orem, Utah, nearly 16 years ago. Rossi faces another felony rape charge in Salt Lake County and multiple other complaints

He faces charges related to the sexual assault of a woman in Orem, Utah, nearly 16 years ago. Rossi faces another felony rape charge in Salt Lake County and multiple other complaints

The fugitive has insisted for years that he is actually an Irish orphan and was framed by authorities who took his fingerprints while he lay in a coma

The fugitive has insisted for years that he is actually an Irish orphan and was framed by authorities who took his fingerprints while he lay in a coma

In 2019, Rossi claimed he had been diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and is accused of faking his death a year later (pictured in 2008 in Utah)

In 2019, Rossi claimed he had been diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and is accused of faking his death a year later (pictured in 2008 in Utah)

The 36-year-old was booked into the Davis County Jail on January 5.

Rossi, who has used at least 10 aliases, faces another felony rape charge in Salt Lake County, where prosecutors allege he assaulted an ex-girlfriend following an argument.

He faces multiple other complaints in Rhode Island and Ohio for alleged domestic violence, sexual abuse and fraud.

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For years, the fugitive has insisted that he is actually an Irish orphan and was framed by authorities who took his fingerprints while he lay in a coma.

He also claimed that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in late 2019.

An online obituary appeared the following year saying his ashes had been scattered at sea.

Under the moniker Arthur Brown, Rossi is believed to have met his wife Miranda Knight in Bristol in 2019 and married her in early 2020, assuming her surname.

The couple moved to Glasgow shortly afterwards but in 2021, Rossi became so ill with Covid that was admitted to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.

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Rossi, pictured in July 2022, was admitted to a Glasgow hospital in 2021 after falling ill with Covid

Rossi, pictured in July 2022, was admitted to a Glasgow hospital in 2021 after falling ill with Covid

After he was identified by medical staff and authorities, the 36-year-old was arrested that year. In September, Scottish ministers signed an order giving permission for him to be extradited

After he was identified by medical staff and authorities, the 36-year-old was arrested that year. In September, Scottish ministers signed an order giving permission for him to be extradited

But this proved to be his undoing, as medical staff and authorities deduced his real identity after comparing his tattoos with pictures from an Interpol Red Notice.

He was arrested in December of that year, and in September 2023, Scottish ministers signed an order giving permission for Rossi to be extradited.

Speaking to Dailymail.com last year, Rossi’s stepfather David described the 36-year-old as ‘the devil’s spawn.’

He said his estranged stepson was an ‘evil’ child who punched his mother and grandmother. Rossi ‘just got worse with every day,’ David said.

‘He’ll do anything to hide from the law,’ he added. ‘The wheelchair, the mask….There’s nothing wrong with him.’

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22-year-old arrested in Utah in connection to Las Vegas double-homicide

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22-year-old arrested in Utah in connection to Las Vegas double-homicide


LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Officials have identified a 22-year-old man as the suspect in a Las Vegas homicide case that killed two people in a Southern Highlands neighborhood.

Detectives say 22-year-old Ziaire Ham was the suspect in the case. According to officials, Ham was located on Tuesday, March 3, by the Ogden City Police Department and the Utah Highway Patrol.

Ham was taken into custody and booked into the Weber County Jail. Las Vegas authorities said he will be charged with open murder with the use of a deadly weapon and will be extradited back to the valley.

MORE ON FOX5: LVMPD corrections officer arrested on multiple felony charges

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The shooting occurred Monday night at the 11000 block of Victoria Medici Street, near Starr Ave and Dean Martin Drive.

According to police, officers were conducting a vehicle stop in the area when they heard gunfire. After searching nearby neighborhoods they found a car with bullet impacts with a woman and a toddler inside suffering from gunshot wounds.

The pair were transported to hospital where they later died. The Clark County Coroner’s Office identified them as Danaijha Robinson, 20, and 1-year-old Nhalani Hiner.



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Utah nonprofit creates events, experiences for disadvantaged children

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Utah nonprofit creates events, experiences for disadvantaged children


A simple moment watching a child laugh changed everything for Ivan Gonzalez.

Eight years ago, Gonzalez was working at the Ronald McDonald House when he had an idea to throw a birthday carnival for the kids staying there.

“Let’s do a carnival, birthday carnival for the kids,” he said.

MORE | Pay It Forward

What happened during that event stuck with him.

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“There I was watching this kid play whack-a-mole, just having a blast, laughing,” Gonzalez said. “And then I see his mom kind of with happy tears because he’s enjoying himself.”

That moment led to something bigger.

Gonzalez realized the experience shouldn’t stop with just one event or just one group of kids.

“I said, wait, we can do this not just for kids in the hospital,” he said with excitement.

So he started a nonprofit called Best Seat in the House, which creates events and experiences for children who often face difficult circumstances.

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“We provide events and experiences for disadvantaged kids,” Gonzalez said.

The organization serves children battling cancer and other medical conditions, refugee children, kids living in poverty, those in foster care and children with special needs.

“These kids grow up too fast,” Gonzalez said.

For Gonzalez, the mission is deeply personal.

“I grew up very poor,” he said.

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He remembers the people who stepped in for his family when they needed it most.

“The local church, we weren’t even a part of it,” he described. “My parents couldn’t afford Christmas gifts and I still remember the gifts they gave me. They didn’t even know me.”

Today, he hopes to create that same feeling for other children through his nonprofit.

“Kids live in poverty and they don’t know where the next meal is coming from, let alone going to a play or to a game,” Gonzalez said.

But for Gonzalez, the reward isn’t the events themselves, it’s the joy they create.

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“You can give me a billion dollars, all the money in the world,” he says as tears roll down his face. “I won’t trade these opportunitieskids just enjoying life.”

Because of his work giving back, KUTV and Mountain America Credit Union surprised Gonzalez with a Pay it Forward gift to help him continue creating those moments for kids across Utah.

For more information on supporting Best Seat in the House, click here.

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‘Don’t release him ever. Please.’ Family of slain Utah teen calls for justice at parole hearing

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‘Don’t release him ever. Please.’ Family of slain Utah teen calls for justice at parole hearing


SALT LAKE CITY — Francisco Daniel Aguilar says he’s sorry for shooting and killing his girlfriend, 16-year-old Jacqueline “Jacky” Nunez-Millan, a Piute High School sophomore, in 2023.

But just as he did when he was sentenced, he didn’t have much of an explanation on Tuesday as to why he shot her not once, but twice.

“It just kinda happened. I was mad. And I stepped out (of my truck) and started shooting,” he said. “When I saw her fall, I just kind of panicked, I just went and shot her again.”

But Jacky’s friends and family members say even before she was killed, Aguilar already had a history of violence, and they now want justice to be served.

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“You don’t accidentally take a gun, you don’t accidentally grab a knife … you don’t accidentally shoot someone, those are all choices,” a tearful Rosa Nunez, Jacky’s sister, said at Tuesday’s hearing. “Keep him where he needs to be.

“Don’t release him ever. Please.”

On Jan. 7, 2023, Aguilar, who was 17 at the time, got into a fight with his girlfriend, Jacky, shot her twice and left her body near a dirt road outside of Circleville, Piute County. He was convicted as an adult of aggravated murder and sentenced to a term of 25 years to up to life in prison.

Because of Aguilar’s age at the time of the offense, board member Greg Johnson explained Tuesday that the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole is required to hold a hearing much earlier than the 25-year mark, mainly to check on Aguilar and “see how things are going.” Aguilar, now 20, is currently being held in a juvenile secure care facility and will be transferred to the Utah State Prison when he turns 25 or earlier if he has discipline violations and is kicked out of the youth facility.

According to Aguilar’s sentencing guidelines, he will likely remain in custody until at least the year 2051.

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During Tuesday’s hearing, Aguilar told the board that he was feeling “stressed out” during his senior year of high school. He said he and Jacky would often have little arguments. But their bigger fight happened when he failed to get her a “promise ring” around Christmastime, he said.

On the night of the killing, the two were arguing about the promise ring and other items, Aguilar recalled. At one point, he grabbed a knife and then a gun because, he said, he wanted to “irritate” and “scare” Jacky. According to evidence presented in the preliminary hearing, Aguilar and his girlfriend had been “trying to make each other angry” when Aguilar took ammunition and a 9mm gun from his father’s room and then drove to the Black Hill area in his truck with Jacky.

Jacky’s friend, McKall Taylor, went looking for her that night and found her. But after Aguilar shot Jacky in the leg, he began shooting at Taylor, who had no choice but to run to her car to get away. Her car was hit multiple times by bullets. Aguilar then shot Jacky a second time as she lay on the ground and Taylor drove away.

On Tuesday, Taylor’s mother, Lori Taylor, read a statement to the board on her daughter’s behalf.

“My innocence and freedom was taken from me,” she said.

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McKall Taylor says the “horrifying events of that night will forever play in my head,” and the sounds of Jacky screaming and the gunshots as well as the sight of Jacky falling to the ground, will never go away.

“Francisco is a murderer who has zero remorse,” her letter states.

Likewise, Rosa Nunez told the board that for her and her family, “nothing in our world has felt safe since” that night as they all “continue to relive this horrific moment.”

After shooting Jacky and driving off, Aguilar says he called his father and “told him I was sorry for not being better, for not making good choices, I told him that I loved him. I was just planning on probably shooting myself, too.”

His father told him that although what he did wasn’t right, “he’d rather see me behind bars than in a casket,” and then told his son to “be a man about it. … This is where you have to change.”

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Aguilar was arrested after his tires were spiked by police.

“An apology won’t fix what I did. I’ll never be able to fix what I did. But I want to say I’m sorry,” he said Tuesday. “I don’t even know how to fix what I did. I’m hoping I’m on the right track now.”

Johnson noted that Aguilar has done well during his short time being incarcerated. But that doesn’t change the fact “the crime was horrific,” he said.

The full five-member board will now take a vote. The board could decide to schedule another parole hearing for sometime in the future or could order that Aguilar serve his entire life sentence. But even if that were to happen, Johnson says Aguilar could petition every so often for a redetermination hearing.

The board’s decision is expected in several weeks.

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The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.



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