A Waterville woman pleaded guilty to a federal charge that she paid another person to buy a gun for her from a Fairfield dealer, according to prosecutors and court records.

Appearing in U.S. District Court in Bangor on Wednesday, Nikeshia Knight, 25, pleaded guilty to one count of complicity with another person in making false statements during the purchase of a firearm, she said in a statement. the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Maine. release.

Knight faces a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, followed by up to three years of supervised release. She will be sentenced by a federal judge, following a review by the United States Probation Office.

Knight’s court-appointed attorney, Daniel Dubé, who has a law firm in Lewiston, said in an email Thursday that federal firearms crimes are serious, but that Knight’s actions were “tThe lower end of the severity spectrum.”

“EM. Knight took full responsibility for his conduct, unequivocally,” Dubé said of the guilty plea. “…We have an excellent federal bank here in Maine. I have every confidence that the Court will impose a sentence that is fair to Mrs. Knight and for society.”

“Despite any setbacks, Ms. Knight is an admirably strong person, especially at her age. Twenty-five,”Dubé said in the email.

The investigation into Knight’s crime began after an arrest in July 2022 in Salem, Massachusetts, prosecutors wrote in court documents.

Investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives discovered that a person, identified as “Individual 1” in court records, purchased the gun at A&G Shooting Supply in Fairfield, prosecutors said. The dealer provided documentation for that person’s purchase of the firearm in June, along with documentation for another firearm the person purchased that month.

Investigators determined that Knight was involved in the purchase of the other firearm, a 7.62X39 Century Cugir Micro Draco pistol, and interviewed Knight in June 2023.

“During these recorded interviews, which were Mirandized, the defendant admitted that she caused Individual 1 to purchase a firearm for her,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew McCormack wrote in a summary of the prosecution’s evidence. “The defendant said she could not purchase the firearm herself because she was ‘in the middle of a case’ and would not have successfully passed a background check.”

Knight provided the buyer with an undisclosed amount of money and fentanyl, prosecutors said. The use of a proxy buyer is often called a “sham purchase.”

Phone records and text messages further confirmed that Knight directed the purchase, according to prosecutors’ court documents.

Knight, who was indicted on June 12, was arrested by federal authorities on Sept. 26, court records show.

At his initial court appearance and arraignment on the day of his arrest, Knight was in state custody, according to court records. Knight agreed to be detained once released from state custody.

As of Thursday morning, a sentencing hearing was not scheduled.

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