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CRIMINAL JUSTICE | FALL 2024
trial tactics
against Kaboni in a state-court murder trial.
Merritt, who was not a full-fledged KSO mem-
ber, sold drugs for the KSO and participated
in the firebombing of the home that killed six
people, including four children. Merritt often
sold the drugs with his older cousin, Lewis, who
was a KSO member and the shooter of the rival
drug dealer.
The Firebombing
The firebombing took place in October 2004.
During the months preceding the firebombing,
Kaboni expressed to Kidada in numerous phone
calls his concern that KSO member Eugene
Coleman was cooperating with the police. Ka-
boni telephoned Lewis, who expressed his fealty
to Kaboni. Lewis gave the phone to Kidada so
that she could speak with her brother and, when
they finished their conversation, Kidada told
Lewis that Kaboni had ordered him to “firebomb
the Colemans’ house,” instructed Lewis to do
the firebombing around 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. when
“everybody is in the house,” and promised Lewis
$5,000 for the work.
Lewis got cousin Merritt to assist him, and the
two prepared for the firebombing. They went
to a local gas station, bought two gas cans, filled
them with gasoline, and put them in the trunk
of the car before heading to Merritt’s house in
West Philadelphia to pick up a gun. Before they
got to the house, a Philadelphia highway patrol
officer pulled them over for speeding. The of-
ficer was called to another scene, so he allowed
them to leave and mailed Lewis the speeding
ticket.
Lewis and Merritt got the gun from Merritt’s
house, returned to North Philadelphia, and
parked around the corner from the Coleman
house, where they removed the cans from the
The Questions
When can an act be deemed to be part of a
conspiracy? And how strong must the evidence
be that the act was connected to the conspira-
cy? When is evidence admissible as intrinsic to
the crimes charged, and when it is admissible
pursuant to Fed. R. Evid. 404(b)? How does Fed.
R. Evid. 403 affect a ruling? These questions are
all relevant to United States v. Savage, 85 F.4th
102 (3d Cir. 2023).
The Conspiratorial Organization
The case involved the Kaboni Savage Organiza-
tion (KSO), a violent drug-trafficking ring based
in North Philadelphia. The ringleader of the
gang was Kaboni Savage, who was convicted
and sentenced to death in a separate proceed-
ing. See United States v. Savage, 970 F.3d 217
(3d Cir. 2020). The KSO sold powder cocaine,
crack cocaine, and liquid phencyclidine in North
Philadelphia from 1997 through 2010. The gang
committed murders, retaliated against witnesses
who cooperated with the government, and, on
one occasion, firebombed the family home of a
former KSO member who had become a govern-
ment witness. Kaboni Savage was convicted of
ordering the firebombing.
The three defendants before the court in
its 2023 opinion were Kidada Savage, Steven
Northington, and Robert Merritt, all part of
the KSO gang. Kidada was Kaboni’s sister and,
while he was incarcerated, she coordinated
KSO activities and issued orders to other KSO
members on Kaboni’s behalf. The other two
defendants carried out the orders. Northington,
a drug dealer and enforcer for the KSO, caused
and aided one murder and committed another.
More specifically, Northington controlled a drug
block in North Philadelphia and drove Lamont
Lewis, a nonparty, to the drug block, where he
identified a rival dealer whom Lewis shot for
encroaching on the block. Northington also
participated in the murder of a witness the day
before the witness was scheduled to testify
BY STEPHEN A. SALTZBURG
Conspiracy Evidence: Plausible Connections
STEPHEN A. SALTZBURG is the Wallace and
Beverley Woodbury University Professor at The
George Washington University Law School and is
a former chair of the Criminal Justice Section.
Published in Criminal Justice, Volume 38, Number 1, Spring 2023. © 2023 by
the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved.
This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in
any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database orretrieval system
without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.
