Kaboni Savage

Kaboni Savage, described by a federal prosecutor as the leader of "perhaps the most violent drug gang ever seen in the city of Philadelphia," was charged in a sweeping racketeering indictment yesterday that listed 12 murders, including a North Philadelphia firebombing in which six people, four of them children, were killed.

Savage, a onetime professional boxer serving a 30-year sentence for drug trafficking, could be sentenced to death if convicted of the most serious charges. His court-appointed attorney, Christopher Warren, said yesterday that his client denied the allegations, which have been swirling around him since his trial in 2005. Three top associates also named in the 26-count indictment face possible death sentences if convicted.

The indictment alleges that Savage, from prison, ordered two of those associates, Lamont Lewis and Robert Merritt, to firebomb the home of Marcella Coleman in the 3200 block of North Sixth Street in October 2004. Early on Oct. 9, 2004, authorities allege, Lewis and Merritt carried out the attack. The fire killed Marcella Coleman, 54; her niece Tameka Nash, 34; Nash's daughter, Khadijah, 10; Eugene Coleman's 15-month-old son, Damir Jenkins; Marcella Coleman's grandson, Tajh Porchea, 12; and a family friend, Sean Rodriguez, 15.

U.S. Attorney Laurie Magid, detailing the charges in the case yesterday, quoted from secretly recorded conversations in which Savage allegedly threatened to kill relatives of those who might testify against him and joked about the firebombing. In all, the indictment alleges that 12 murders were carried out as part of the Kaboni Savage Organization's drug trafficking operation. The victims allegedly included rival drug dealers, potential cooperating witnesses, and the family members of witnesses.