NICE HAIRCUT
Black Muslim Bakery leader indicted in journalist's slaying
April 30, 2009
keepingitreal.typepad.com
(04-29) 17:48 PDT OAKLAND --
More than a year and a half after Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey was gunned down while walking to work, an Alameda County grand jury indicted the leader of the now-defunct Your Black Muslim Bakery on Wednesday on charges that he ordered the journalist killed.The indictment accuses Yusuf Bey IV, 23, of murder for allegedly telling two followers to kill the 57-year-old Bailey on Aug. 2, 2007. The grand jury that returned the indictment heard two days of testimony last week from the alleged gunman, Devaughndre Broussard, 21, who until Wednesday was the only person charged in Bailey's death. Broussard, a former handyman at the bakery, told prosecutors in March that Bey wanted Bailey dead because he believed the journalist was working on a story about Your Black Muslim Bakery's internal problems. He said Bey also blamed Bailey for the 2003 death of his father, Yusuf Bey, who founded the black self-empowerment group in 1968 and led it until dying of cancer.
In addition to Bailey's slaying, the indictment accuses Bey of murder for allegedly ordering the killings of two men in July 2007, 36-year-old Michael Wills and Odell Roberson Jr., 31. He is also accused in a December 2006 incident in which someone shot into an unoccupied car in Oakland. The charges carry the special circumstance of multiple murder, meaning that Bey, if convicted, could be sentenced to death. Prosecutors have not said whether they will pursue the death penalty. Another bakery figure, Antoine Mackey, 23, was also indicted on murder charges in the shootings of Bailey, Roberson and Wills. He and Bey are scheduled to appear in Alameda County Superior Court on May 6.
Both are already in custody, Bey on unrelated kidnapping and torture charges, and Mackey for a burglary conviction. Earlier Wednesday, Bey was ordered to stand trial on six counts stemming from the kidnapping case. CONTINUE READING
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