Your Black Muslim Bakery before its collapse (Bob Larson)

Your Black Muslim Bakery before its collapse (Bob Larson)

By Josh Richman, The Chauncey Bailey Project

The bakery: Liquidated in bankruptcy court, Your Black Muslim Bakery no longer exists.

The building: The bakery compound in the 5800 block of San Pablo Avenue was sold off by the bankruptcy court to help settle the bakery’s debts. The buyer was Vital Life Services, a nonprofit group serving people with HIV/AIDS, which made extensive renovations to the building and moved into it in September 2008; Vital Life Services closed its doors late this spring due to economic pressures, and the building now stands empty again.

Yusuf Bey: Having used fiery racial rhetoric to build Your Black Muslim Bakery into a community institution respected by many but actually resting on underpinnings of fraud and violence, the charismatic founder died of cancer in 2003 while facing multiple counts of rape for having fathered children by underage girls.

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Waajid Aljawwaad: A trusted confidante hand-picked by Yusuf Bey to succeed him at the helm of the bakery business, Aljawwaad disappeared in February 2004; his remains were found in a shallow grave in the Oakland hills five months later, and his killing remains unsolved.

Antar Bey: One of Yusuf Bey’s biological sons, the man many in the family called “Captain” seized control of the bakery business as soon as Waajid Aljawwaad disappeared in February 2004, but he was slain in an attempted carjacking in October 2005 in North Oakland. His killer, Alfonza Phillips, was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole; Yusuf Bey IV and bakery members Antoine Mackey and Devaughndre Broussard now stand accused of murdering Phillips’ uncle, Odell Roberson Jr., in July 2007.

Yusef Bey IV: Supremely self-confident scion of the Bey family who took the bakery’s reins after his brother, Antar, was slain, Yusuf Bey IV’s leadership of a liquor-store vandalism rampage in 2005 was the start of an alleged two-year, Bay Area-wide crime spree. Now 23, he awaits trial for the kidnap and torture of two women in May 2007, and also for ordering the 2007 killings of Michael Wills, Odell Roberson and journalist Chauncey Bailey.

Devaughndre Broussard: A hardscrabble childhood and rocky family history brought Broussard to Your Black Muslim Bakery, where Bey IV allegedly put him to work not only as a handyman but as a gunman as well. Having provided grand jury testimony leading to Bey IV’s and Antoine Mackey’s indictment in three slayings, Broussard, now 21, stands accused of murder in the killings of Odell Roberson in July 2007 and journalist Chauncey Bailey in August 2007; his deal with prosecutors allowed him to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter in both killings, and if he provides testimony as promised, he will receive a 25-year prison sentence.

Antoine Mackey: Having racked up a long, violent criminal history in San Francisco, where police say he was frighteningly ruthless in his efforts to gain gang respect, Mackey fled the Bay Area soon after police raided the bakery in 2007 but returned in 2008 and soon ended up arrested in a burglary case. Now 23, he stands indicted on three counts of murder with special circumstances, accused of killing Wills on Bey IV’s order; helping Broussard lure Roberson to a dark spot and handing Broussard the weapon used in the killing; and helping Broussard stalk Bailey and then driving the getaway vehicle after the shooting.

Esperanza Johnson: Also known as Nora Bey and Noor Jehan Bey, the mother of three of Yusuf Bey’s children left a trail of questionable real-estate transactions throughout the East Bay before representing a North Oakland woman who unsuccessfully tried to buy the bakery compound out of bankruptcy liquidation in late 2007. Now 54, Johnson had her license revoked by the California Department of Real Estate effective June 29 due to accusations of misrepresentation, fraud and employment violations filed against her last year.

Daulet Bey: The mother of eight of bakery founder Yusuf Bey’s children including Antar and Bey IV, Daulet Bey was CEO of the bakery-spawned parent company of a health nonprofit that won and then defaulted on a $1.1 million loan from Oakland and the federal government. Years later, before filing the bakery’s bankruptcy papers, her son transferred three bakery properties worth $2.28 million to her; a bankruptcy court trustee sued to recover them, arguing the transfers were an illegal attempt to “hinder, delay and defraud creditors,” and a settlement allowed Daulet to keep one property and get a cut of the proceeds from the sale — still pending — of the larger two. Now 51, Daulet Bey reportedly bakes goods for Your Community Café on Oakland’s Martin Luther King Jr. Way, where former Your Black Muslim Bakery associate Jamall Robinson is the CEO.

Joshua Bey: Long before Devaughndre Broussard agreed to testify against members of the Bey family, a son of Yusuf Bey was first to break the silence. Joshua Bey — son of one of the three “Jane Does” who said the bakery founder had raped and fathered children by them while they were still minors — in February 2008 struck a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty to kidnapping in exchange for a three-year prison term and his testimony against four other bakery members, including Bey IV, accused of kidnapping and torturing two women in May 2007.

Yusuf Bey V: More than a year after Joshua Bey struck his deal, Yusuf Bey V — son of another of the Jane Does — pleaded guilty to kidnapping in exchange for a 10-year prison term and his testimony against Richard Lewis, a bakery associate charged in the May 2007 kidnapping/torture case; Bey IV and Tamon Halfin will be tried separately in that case.

The police: Derwin Longmire, the lead Oakland Police detective assigned to investigate Chauncey Bailey’s killing, had a history of supporting Your Black Muslim Bakery and interceding in other criminal cases on Yusuf Bey IV’s behalf; his handling of the case has led to his being placed on paid administrative leave, and a senior officer with knowledge of the situation says the department is moving to fire him. Lt. Ersie Joyner, who supervised Longmire’s investigation of Bailey’s killing, and Deputy Chief Jeffrey Loman, who was then a captain and Joyner’s boss, face discipline for not properly supervising the Bailey case. And former Chief Wayne Tucker resigned in January, hours before City Council members were scheduled to announce plans for a no-confidence vote in him, citing numerous investigations into the department. “We made mistakes on that case,” Tucker said of Bailey’s slaying, noting homicide detectives “rely too much on interrogations” as a substitute for other investigative techniques “to a fault.”

Reach Josh Richman at jrichman@bayareanewsgroup.com

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Special investigation
Day One:
–Two years later: The Chauncey Bailey slaying
–The Chauncey Bailey slaying: Key players
–From Texas to Oakland, the elder Bey’s path to the bakery
–Yusuf Bey built business empire with questionable tactics
–Welfare money-maker for senior Bey
–Bey’s security firms important financial arm of his businesses
–Yusuf Bey IV grew up in prominent yet troubled bakery
–Bailey suspects, associates left behind $6 million trail of bad loans
–Security business at Marriott earns praise
Day Two:
–The Oakland Post pushes forward despite loss of its prolific editor
–Chauncey Bailey’s family still in pain two years after killing
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