Among those indicted today in the Gilmor Homes drug conspiracy was Romesh Mustafa Vance, 20, who along with his brother was one of four high-risk students whose journey to attend the Baraka School in Kenya on scholarship was captured in the acclaimed documentary, “The Boys of Baraka.”
When the filmmakers caught up with the boys in 2006, they learned that Vance (seen at right, with his brother Richard Keyser) was cutting school, living with friends, and spending too much time on the streets. He "faces the Herculean task of rejecting the offerings of the street and making a productive life for himself," they said in an update on the PBS web site.
Vance was already being held on first-degree murder charges after being picked up on a warrant on June 13 in connection with a kidnapping and murder from April 2009; the federal indictments adds heroin and crack cocaine conspiracy charges to his pending legal woes.
Vance's murder charges are connected to the April 20, 2009 kidnapping and murder of Quonta Waddell, 24, who was hogtied and carried away screaming in front of his mother, according to court records. His kidnappers took $40,000 and attempted to extort more money before he was shot multiple times, records show.
Police initially charged 32-year-old Sherman Anderson in the crime, but prosecutors dropped those charges after a DNA hit on a piece of evidence linked another man to the crime. Since then, at least five men have been charged in the crime.'
[Thanks to Tim Johnson for the tip]