Left to right: Antoine Mackey, Yusuf Bey IV, Devaughndre Broussard (Carrie Ching/CIR)

Left to right: Antoine Mackey, Yusuf Bey IV, Devaughndre Broussard (Carrie Ching/CIR)

By Thomas Peele, The Chauncey Bailey Project

OAKLAND — Journalist Chauncey Bailey’s confessed killer told jurors Monday that he agreed to turn against his friends and cooperate with authorities because he felt hurt and abandoned after the way they treated him following his arrest for the shooting.

“They broke the contract we had,” Devaughndre Broussard said in his third day of testimony in the journalist’s murder trial.

Broussard said bakery member Antoine Mackey — one of two men now on trial for murder in connection with Bailey’s killing — never contacted him while he waited in jail after he confessed to shooting the Oakland Post editor in August 2007.

“He never said, ‘Tell him, what’s up,'” Broussard said.

“Did you feel abandoned?” prosecutor Melissa Krum asked.

“Yes,” Broussard answered. “The bond was strong, like, ‘You my dude.'”

Broussard said he also grew angry with Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV, who Broussard said ordered the killing to stop Bailey from writing a story about the failing bakery.

“You brought all this (expletive) on us,” Broussard said he began to think about Bey IV.

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KTVU-TV: Witness describes death of journalist
Bay Area News Group: Chauncey Bailey murder trial Special Report
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Bey IV is being tried alongside Mackey for Bailey’s death and the unrelated shooting deaths of two other men in July 2007. Broussard, 23, has confessed to shooting Bailey and another man, and said Bey IV ordered both hits. Mackey is accused of helping in those two deaths, and with killing a third man, also allegedly at Bey IV’s order.

The defendants, both 25, have pleaded not guilty. They face life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.

Broussard, who will receive a 25-year sentence in exchange for his testimony, told Krum he agreed to help prosecutors partly because he wanted the deal, and partly because of his anger at Mackey and Bey IV.

Earlier Monday, Broussard testified in graphic detail about how he shot Bailey on Aug. 2, 2007.

Broussard, who was 19 at the time of the killing, said he shot Bailey from an “arm’s length” away in the shoulder and then, after the 57-year-old journalist fell to ground, in the stomach.

He said he started to run, but then quickly returned to stand over the body to fire again with a 12-gauge shotgun loaded with buckshot.

“Where did you aim?” Krum asked.

“At his face,” Broussard replied.

Broussard said Bey IV ordered him to shoot Bailey and “make sure he dead. He wasn’t supposed to live.”

Bey IV and Mackey, who Broussard said was his getaway driver after the shooting, sat at the defense table staring at the witness.

Broussard said he, Bey IV, Mackey and another man, Richard Lewis, went to an IHOP restaurant in Emeryville after the killing and Bey IV asked “what the inside of (Bailey’s) head look like.”

Broussard told jurors he didn’t remember how he answered.

During another talk after Bailey’s death, Bey IV told Mackey and Broussard that he loved them for what they had done, Broussard testified, and promised to reward them by introducing them to an unnamed associate who would create false, high credit scores for them.

The testimony was painful for Bailey’s family.

Bailey’s brother, Errol Cooley, said Broussard described the killing “like he was shooting at a dog. It was devastating. It was very hard because he’s sitting up there describing what happened.”

Still, Cooley said, he thinks Broussard “was a pawn” in his brother’s death and that the family strongly supports attempts “to get the main person” prosecutors say is responsible for the death — Bey IV.

Broussard’s testimony continues all day Monday, when he may face cross examination from defense attorneys. Attorneys for Bey IV and Mackey have said they will aggressively attack Broussard’s credibility, saying he’s a liar who has changed his story numerous times.

The morning’s testimony was delayed by about an hour because of problems transporting Broussard from North County Jail, where he has been held in isolation since days after the killing.

As morning testimony ended, Broussard described how he first denied the shooting to Oakland detectives and how he learned that Bey IV was in another interrogation room, telling detectives that Broussard was the trigger man.

When testimony resumes, he is expected to describe what happened during seven minutes that detectives left him alone with Bey IV, a conversation that was not recorded.

Broussard told grand jurors two years ago that Bey IV told him to take sole blame for killing Bailey in order to protect the bakery and that he was being “tested by God” to determine his strength as a Black Muslim.

In his grand jury testimony, Broussard said Bey IV promised him money if he would admit the killing as a solo crime, that he would get him a lawyer and that he would likely only serve a year in two in jail before being freed.

Chauncey Bailey Project reports are also being featured at:
–Center for Investigative Reporting
–Maynard Institute
–New America Media
–San Francisco Bay Guardian