Trial delayed for suspects in kidnapping, torture

Joshua Bey (Oakland Police Department)

Joshua Bey (Oakland Police Department)

By Paul T. Rosynsky, Chauncey Bailey Project

OAKLAND — Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV and two fellow members of the bakery will have to wait until April to see if prosecutors have enough evidence against them to warrant a jury trial.

The group’s preliminary trial on charges of kidnapping and torture was delayed Friday because one of the defense attorneys broke his shoulder during a fall. The preliminary hearing was set to resume Friday after a weeklong break.

When the case resumes April 3, one of the defendants, bakery member Joshua Bey, 19, is expected to continue his testimony in the case. In a surprise move Feb. 1, Joshua Bey pleaded guilty to one county of kidnapping and a three-year jail term in exchange for his testimony against the other defendants, his brothers Yusuf Bey IV, 22, and Yusuf Bey V, 21, and two other men, Tamon Halfin, 21, and Richard Lewis, 23.

The group is facing kidnapping and torture charges stemming from a May 17 incident in which prosecutors said they kidnapped and beat women in an attempt to steal money from them.

In Joshua Bey’s first day of testimony last week, he told the court that Bey IV, chief executive officer of the now-defunct bakery, ordered him to collect money from the women and said all three other defendants were at the scene of the crime.

Contact Paul Rosynsky at prosynsky@bayareanewsgroup.com or 510-208-6455.