Oakland journalist Chauncey Bailey’s killer released from prison ...Middle East

OAKLAND — The hitman who shot-gunned Oakland newspaper editor Chauncey Bailey to death nearly 18 years ago in one of the most horrific attacks on a journalist in American history has been released from state prison.

Bailey’s sister, Lorelei Waqia, said she was notified this week by the California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation that Devaughndre Monique Broussard has been paroled. He is living in Southern California.

“We hope he has reformed and becomes an asset to the community,” Waqia wrote in a text.

The CDCR did not immediately respond to a request for information on Broussard’s release. The prosecutor in the case, former Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Melissa Krum, declined to comment.

Broussard, then 19, killed Bailey on Aug. 2, 2007. He eventually admitted that he did so on orders from Yusuf Bey IV, the leader of Oakland’s now defunct Your Black Muslim Bakery, to stop a story Bailey was writing about the bakery. He also admitted killing another man, Odell Roberson, in revenge for Roberson’s nephew killing Bey IV’s brother in 2005.

As part of a plea deal, in which Broussard eventually testified against Bey IV and another man who helped him carry out the hit, Antoine Mackey, Alameda County prosecutors agreed to seek a rare fixed sentence of 25 years in state prison, which a judge approved. State law allows correction officials to shave time from sentences for good behavior, and records show Broussard also worked as an inmate firefighter which can lead to additional reductions in sentences.

Counting time in county jail prior to being sentenced in 2011, he was incarcerated for about 17 and a half years.

Bey IV had learned Bailey was working on a story about the bakery’s decline and recent bankruptcy filing, and he told Broussard, and Mackey, to “take him out before he writes that story,” court records show.

Ambushing Bailey as he walked to the newsroom of the weekly Oakland Post which he had recently joined, Broussard fired three shots at point-blank range from a pistol-grip, .12-gauge shotgun, leaving Bailey dead on the edge of a parking lot at 14th and Alice streets.

In exchange for the hit, Broussard would later testify, Bey IV promised to teach him how to commit financial crimes by using fake IDs and forged documents to acquire real estate, mortgages and automobiles. Broussard, who grew up poor in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood, where he sometimes helped his mother and grandmother sell drugs from their home, agreed.

Broussard was arrested on Aug. 3, 2007, when police raided the bakery compound at 5836 San Pablo Ave. and he was seen throwing the gun used to kill Bailey out a window. That operation – spurred by other crimes police suspected Bey IV’s followers committed – had been scheduled for two days earlier. But police delayed it because two SWAT team leaders were on vacation.

Broussard at first denied killing Bailey, who before joining the Post was a Detroit News, then Oakland Tribune reporter. But after detectives left him and Bey IV alone in an interrogation room – without recording or listening in on the conversation – Broussard confessed.

He would later claim that Bey IV told him if he admitted that he carried out the murder on his own, he would be paid and a lawyer would be provided for him who would win his case. But Bey IV was charged in an unrelated kidnapping and torture case, and no one from what was left of the bakery aided Broussard’s defense.

In February 2008, Broussard was interviewed by the CBS news show 60 Minutes. He told Anderson Cooper he didn’t kill Bailey but knew who did. “I’m going to give all that info up when I go to trial,” he said.

But for more than a year there was little movement in the case. During that time a journalistic collaborative, The Chauncey Bailey Project whose motto was “You can’t kill a story by killing a journalist,” dug into the murder. It reported on a secretly recorded police video of Bey IV mocking Bailey being shot and saying that he had the murder weapon “the night before” police raided the bakery but gave it back to Broussard for protection.

The project later reported that police had overlooked other evidence in the case, such as cell phone records that showed Bey IV exchanging numerous calls with Mackey and Broussard around the time of the murder.

In the spring of 2009, Broussard agreed to the plea deal with prosecutors and testified before a grand jury. Bey IV and Mackey were indicted for Bailey’s murder. Based on Broussard’s testimony, they were also indicted in the separate murder of a restaurant worker, Michael Wills, who Mackey killed with an AK-47 on July 12, 2007, near the North Oakland bakery. They were also both charged in Roberson’s murder, which Broussard told grand jurors Mackey helped him carried out.

When the case finally went to trial in early 2011, Broussard was Krum’s star witness. He struggled through his testimony as defense lawyers for Bey IV and Mackey grilled him aggressively. But after months of high courtroom drama, Bey IV was convicted of ordering Bailey, Roberson and Wills killed.

Mackey was convicted in the killings of Bailey and Wills. The jury deadlocked on charges that he participated in Roberson’s killing.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Thomas Reardon sentenced both to life in state prison without the possibility of parole. Both have lost multiple appeals. In October, Bey IV filed a 32-page self-written appeal claiming that scriptures in both the Bible and Holy Quran, along with “Sacred geometry” combined with astronomy, astrology, and the frequent appearance of the number 13 throughout holy texts, his trial and incarceration, prove his innocence. He asked for a “new and fair trial.” The judge denied the request.

Last fall, Broussard suddenly became fodder in the presidential campaign when Donald Trump claimed Bailey’s killing was an example of then-Vice President Kamala Harris being soft on crime during her time as San Francisco district attorney in the mid 2000s. It centered on Broussard’s beating and robbery of a man on a San Francisco Muni train in 2005.

Trump alleged that Harris went light on Broussard by agreeing to a plea agreement that resulted in Broussard being placed on probation, the first year of which he served in county jail. Rather than being free to kill Bailey two years later, Trump claimed Broussard should have been in prison. But legal experts called that claim overblown for a first-time offender and said the case – which Harris played no role in – was handled properly.

Broussard also sought parole last year but was denied largely because he had been caught with a cell phone at a fire camp in the High Sierra, records show. He also did not have a complete plan prepared on how he would re-enter society. Still, parole board members noted he was making progress toward release and had completed several college classes.

Broussard also expressed remorse for the murders of Bailey and Roberson, a transcript of the proceeding shows, and he spoke to relatives of the victims who attended the hearing remotely.

“I apologize to my victim’s family members,” he said according to the transcript. He said he struggled to articulate his remorse. “What words is enough. What words make sense?” he said.

“I hurt you in ways that nobody should be hurt. Chauncey Bailey was targeted and killed just because of him simply just doing this job.”

Bay Area News Group reporter Nate Gartrell contributed to this story. 

Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Oakland journalist Chauncey Bailey’s killer released from prison )

Also on site :

• Brynn Whitfield Announces Exit From 'RHONY' After Two Seasons
• Pop Princess Covers Classic ‘70s Rock Hit: ‘This Is So Good’
• Greta Thunberg among activists on Gaza aid boat that was intercepted by Israeli forces