## Facts

- After a May 12, 2008 gunfight in St. Croix, Shadrock Frett was hospitalized for his wounds.
- On May 21, 2008, Frett was shot and killed in his hospital room.
- Amifa S. Knight, a hospital admissions clerk with access to patient records, accessed Frett’s electronic medical records on May 20, 2008.
- Around that time, Knight had phone contacts with Halik Milligan, brother of Amon Thomas (Frett’s adversary in the May 12 gunfight).
- In a law-enforcement interview, Knight admitted she accessed Frett’s records to provide Milligan with Frett’s hospital room number.
- At a later federal suppression hearing, Knight testified under oath that she accessed the records only to provide the room number to unspecified “visitors,” not to Milligan.
- Knight was acquitted on earlier charges of making false statements (18 U.S.C. § 1001), then tried under a superseding indictment charging perjury (18 U.S.C. § 1623) and conspiracy to commit murder.
- At trial, the court admitted evidence about the May 12 gunfight and the May 21 hospital murder; the jury acquitted Knight of murder conspiracy but convicted her on three perjury counts.
- Post-verdict, Knight filed a Rule 29 motion for judgment of acquittal that the district court denied as untimely; she received a 36-month sentence including a Guidelines enhancement for perjury “in respect to” the murder.

## Issues

1. Whether admitting evidence of the May 12 gunfight and May 21 hospital murder in the perjury trial violated Federal Rules of Evidence 401–403 as irrelevant or unfairly prejudicial.
2. Whether the district court erred by denying Knight’s post-verdict Rule 29 motion as untimely and refusing to reach the merits.
3. Whether the district court properly applied the Sentencing Guidelines enhancement for perjury committed “in respect to” a criminal offense, based on the nexus between Knight’s perjury and the murder investigation.

## Decision

- The Third Circuit affirmed Knight’s perjury convictions and 36-month sentence.
- The court held the shootings evidence was relevant to explain context, relationships, and motive, and its probative value was not substantially outweighed by unfair prejudice under Rule 403.
- The court upheld denial of the Rule 29 motion because it was filed outside the Rule 29(c) deadline and Knight failed to show excusable neglect.
- The court affirmed the perjury enhancement because Knight’s false suppression-hearing testimony concerned facts directly tied to the investigation of Frett’s murder and was given with awareness that the proceeding related to that offense.

## Legal Principles

- Evidence of violent or highly prejudicial underlying events may be admitted in a perjury trial when it provides necessary context for the alleged false testimony and its significance; exclusion under Rule 403 requires that unfair prejudice substantially outweigh probative value.
- A district court has discretion to enforce Rule 29(c) filing deadlines; absent a showing of excusable neglect, an untimely post-verdict motion for judgment of acquittal may be denied without reaching the merits.
- The Guidelines enhancement for perjury committed “in respect to” a criminal offense applies when the perjury has a direct connection to an investigation or proceeding concerning that offense, including when the false testimony could mislead or obstruct the inquiry and the defendant is aware of the offense under investigation.

## Conclusion

The Third Circuit held that contextual evidence about the underlying shootings was admissible in Knight’s perjury trial, that her late Rule 29 motion was properly rejected, and that her sentence was correctly enhanced because her false testimony related directly to the investigation of the hospital-room murder.


United States v. Knight, 700 F.3d 59 (3d Cir. 2012)