federal jury returned guilty verdicts against Sabine Parish man for threatening employees of Sabine Medical Center

SHREVEPORT, La. -- A federal jury has returned guilty verdicts against a Sabine Parish man for threatening employees of Sabine Medical Center and the Veterans Administration. Aaron Wade Knight, 31, of Noble, was convicted on two counts. U.S. District Judge Elizabeth E. Foote presided over the trial. The two counts stem from incidents that happened June 1 when Knight threatened the hospital employees in Many and at the VA in Shreveport and Alexandria. The first incident occurred in the morning hours of June 1 when Knight, who was living in Virginia at the time, called the VA hot line in Alexandria and spoke to a nurse who was working the call center. Knight told the nurse he was upset about a bill he had received for a hospital visit a few weeks earlier at the SMC. As the conversation continued, Knight became more agitated and said, "What do I need to do, do I need to blow up this place to get some help?" Out of concern about the threatening comments Knight made to her, the nurse contacted a patient advocate with the VA in Shreveport who had worked with Knight before. The patient advocate then contacted Knight. During the phone call, Knight became angry and began to shout and made the following threatening statement to her, "Do I need to go up there and shoot these motherf***rs in the f***ing face." Knight faces up to five years in prison for each count, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentencing has been set for June 26 at 1:15 p.m. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Many Police Department and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys J. Aaron Crawford and Andrew Weber.