An eight-person jury in Salt Lake County found Nicholas Rossi guilty of a 2008 rape after a three-day trial in which his accuser and her parents took the stand.
Rossi, 38, declined to testify on his own behalf. He will be sentenced on October 20 and is set to stand trial in September on another rape charge in Utah County.
The woman was living with her parents and recovering from a traumatic brain injury when she responded to a personal ad Rossi posted on Craigslist. They began dating and were engaged within about two weeks.
She testified Rossi asked her to pay for dates and car repairs, lend him $1,000 so he wouldn’t be evicted, and take on debt to buy their engagement rings.
He grew hostile soon after their engagement and raped her in his bedroom one night after she drove him home, she said.
Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Brandon Simmons told jurors Wednesday that the woman did not consent.
“This is not romantic, this is not her mistaking things.”
The woman said her parents’ dismissive comments convinced her not to go to the police.
She came forward a decade later after seeing him in the news and learning he was accused of another rape from the same year.
Rossi’s lawyers said the woman built up years of resentment after he made her foot the bill for everything in their month-long relationship.
They argued she accused him of rape to get back at him years later when he was getting media attention, and sought to undermine her credibility with jurors.
Rossi’s accuser in the Utah County case, who testified at this week’s trial, is also a former girlfriend.
She went to police at the time of that alleged rape.
He is accused of attacking her at his apartment in Orem in September 2008 after she came over to collect money she said he stole from her to buy a computer.
When police initially interviewed Rossi, he claimed she raped him and threatened to have him killed.
Rossi grew up in foster homes in Rhode Island and returned there before allegedly faking his death.
He was previously wanted in the state for failing to register as a sex offender.
The FBI says he faces fraud charges in Ohio, where he was convicted of sex-related charges in 2008.
