Associated Press
OAKLAND — A spent shotgun shell fired from the gun used to kill journalist Chauncey Bailey in 2007 and matching one left at the scene of his killing was found in the bedroom of former Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV the next day, a prosecutor said Monday.
Deputy District Attorney Melissa Krum made the revelation to jurors about an hour into her opening statement in the triple murder trial of Bey IV and co-defendant Antoine Mackey.
Krum said buckshots from the spent shell was fired into Bailey’s head by his confessed killer, Devaughndre Broussard. The shell matched the brand and shot load found next to Bailey’s body, Krum said.
The shell was found on the floor of Bey IV’s bedroom on the second floor of the former bakery when police raided it the day after Bailey was killed, she said.
Krum’s opening statement was expected to carry over to Tuesday morning.
Bey IV and Mackey, a bakery member, are facing murder charges in connection with the Aug. 2, 2007, shooting death of Bailey, a Bay Area journalist, and two other men in unrelated shootings. Bailey, 57, was killed on 14th Street not far from Lake Merritt on his way to work at the Oakland Post.
Prosecutors allege Bey IV ordered the killing to stop Bailey from writing a story about financial and internal strife at the bakery, and that Mackey helped carry the slaying out.
Bey IV and Mackey, both 25, have pleaded not guilty to the charges and face maximum life sentences without parole if convicted.
Bey IV, the former leader of Your Black Muslim Bakery, Broussard, now 24, is expected to testify in the case as part of a plea deal. Broussard has pleaded guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter in the case and will receive a 25-year sentence in exchange for his testimony.
Bailey was working on a story about the bakery, which had a long and controversial history in Oakland, thanks largely to its founder, Bey IV’s father, Yusuf Bey. The elder Bey fathered more than 40 children with a dozen women or more and at the time of his 2003 death was facing charges based on DNA evidence that he raped and impregnated girls as young as 13.
Bey IV, then 19, took over the organization in fall 2005 following the murder of his older brother Antar. A year after his brother’s death, Bey IV filed for bankruptcy. The day after Bailey died, a bankruptcy judge ordered the bakery liquidated to pay more than $700,000 in debt.
Bailey was trying to write about Bey IV and the business. But his story never ran.
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