A Rhode Island man who appeared to fake his death and flee the United States to avoid rape charges was sentenced to prison Monday on one of two rape convictions in Utah.

Nicholas Rossi , 38, was sentenced to five years in prison by District Judge Barry Lawrence in Salt Lake City, CBS affiliate KUTV reported .

The sentence is the first of two scheduled for Rossi after he was convicted separately in August and September of raping two women in northern Utah in 2008. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 4 for the second conviction, also for five years to life in prison.

In August, jurors found Rossi guilty of rape after a three-day trial in which his accuser and her parents each took the stand. Rossi did not testify on his own behalf.

It took more than a decade from the

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