Chauncey Bailey Case Reaches Plea Deal

A man charged with the August 2007 murder of journalist Chauncey Bailey in Oakland has agreed to a possible plea deal, his defense attorney said.
   
Devaughndre Broussard agreed to plead guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter in connection with the Bailey killing and the death of  Odell Roberson Jr. on July 8, 2007, defense attorney LeRue Grim said.

Additionally, Grim said Broussard has agreed to testify before a grand jury that Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV had ordered the  killing of Bailey and had been behind the killing of Roberson as well as the  July 12, 2007, killing of a third man, Michael Wills.

Grim said Broussard would also agree to testify that Antoine Mackey, another man associated with the bakery, drove the vehicle in the  killing of Bailey and that Mackey was connected to the killing of Wills.

Grim said he had discussed the deal with the district attorney's office for the last couple of weeks and "we signed the papers this morning."  He said his client would receive a 25-year prison sentence.

Investigators said around the time of the Bailey killing that they believed the death was connected to the killings of Roberson and Wills.

A hearing was set in February for a May 18 trial date for Broussard on charges that he murdered Bailey.

Bailey, 57, was shot three times and killed early the morning of Aug. 2, 2007, as he was walking from his home near Lake Merritt to his job as  editor of the Oakland Post at 405 14th St., near City Hall.

The shooting on 14th Street near Alice Street, less than a block away from a McDonald's restaurant where Bailey, 57, had stopped to have  breakfast, shocked the Oakland community and journalists around the world.

There were questions about whether Broussard acted alone or was even directly involved at all because he later recanted his confession and  said the only reason he confessed in the first place is that Your Black  Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV, 22, ordered him to do so.

Bey, who has not been charged in connection with Bailey's death, is being held by authorities in connection with several other cases.