Man accused of faking death and fleeing U.S. to avoid rape charges will stand trial, Utah judge rules

SALT LAKE CITY – A man accused of faking his own death and fleeing the U.S. to avoid rape charges will stand trial, a judge in Utah ruled Thursday.

District Judge Barry Lawrence ruled during Nicholas Rossi’s preliminary hearing that prosecutors had presented enough evidence to warrant a jury trial, KTVX-TV reported.

Prosecutors say Rossi, 37, raped a 26-year-old former girlfriend after an argument in Salt Lake County in 2008. In a separate case, he is accused of raping a 21-year-old woman in Orem, Utah, that same year and was not identified as a suspect for about a decade due to a backlog of DNA test kits at the Utah State Crime Lab.

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