Drug kingpin's girlfriend defends him on witness stand

KABONI SAVAGE, the convicted drug dealer facing the death penalty if also convicted of committing or ordering 12 murders, on Monday was portrayed by his attorneys and girlfriend as a good-natured man - even while threatening the girlfriend.

It was the first day of the defense team's presentation of its case to the jury after federal prosecutors rested last week, capping 2 1/2 months of testimony.

"We got a bond for life. I'd kill you before I let you go," Savage, 38, who is serving 30 years in federal prison for drug conspiracy, reportedly told Crystal Copeland during a phone call recorded by authorities.

"He was basically just playing," Copeland, the girlfriend and mother of one of Savage's three children, said while being questioned by defense attorney William Purpura.

Later, while cross-examining Copeland, Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Mellin asked whether Savage ever threatened to kill her.

Copeland, a School District of Philadelphia teacher with an education master's degree from Cheyney University, said he had threatened her life - but not really.

"In our common language, that we both use, it is not a threat," she explained.

Has he stalked you? Mellin pressed, after the jury heard a 2006 phone call during which Savage - from a federal prison in Atlanta - was heard threatening to put a "spy" on Copeland after accusing her of going to parties.

"Actually, he was kidding. . . . It was a playful call," responded Copeland.

There is nothing playful about the crimes the former Philadelphia drug kingpin is charged with - which include 12 murders, according to federal prosecutors. Behind bars almost continuously since 2003, Savage is incapable of killing anyone, his attorneys have argued.

Among his alleged victims were five relatives and a family friend of Eugene Coleman, a former drug associate of Savage's who was the federal government's star witness in the defendant's 2005 drug trial.

In a failed attempt to stop Coleman from testifying, prosecutors argued, the jailed Savage ordered henchmen to firebomb the home of Coleman's mother.

The Oct. 9, 2004, early-morning blaze at the home on 6th Street near Allegheny Avenue killed Coleman's mother, an infant son and four other people.

Co-defendants Steven Northington and Robert Merritt also face the death penalty if convicted. Merritt is accused of carrying out the firebombing with Lamont Lewis, who pleaded guilty and testified for the prosecution.

Northington - who may testify Tuesday - is accused of murdering two drug rivals for Savage.

Savage's sister, Kidada Savage, faces a life sentence if convicted of allegedly helping to plan the firebombing

Maggie Ortiz, a neighbor of the arson victims, told the jury Monday that seconds before hearing an explosion and six gunshots, she heard a man and woman arguing in front of the doomed rowhouse.

" 'What the f--- are you doing? Think about what you're doing. . . . People live there. You're crazy,' " the woman said in Spanish in the predawn darkness, testified Ortiz, who did not see faces.

In English, the man cursed and shouted to be left alone.

"A matter of seconds - boom!" Ortiz said. "I never witnessed nothing like that."